Tessera
Folgen

PalaeoPoems

@palaeopoems.bsky.social

We track down palaeontology poems (modern and long-lost) & share them with short bios of the authors, natural history context, & artwork. palaeopoems.webflow.io

73 Posts927 Follower176 Folgt
Brigid Christison@brigidomorpha.bsky.social · 7mo ago

No one should have to compromise their safety for their career, and vice versa. @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social needs to add an online option.

Mira Thompson@wensthomp.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Today, for the safety of all SVP members, I request with this open letter that the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social provides an online option for this year's annual meeting. Myself and many others no longer feel it is safe to travel to and within the USA. Please share the letter everywhere you can!

Letter to the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology advocating that their annual meeting have an online option in addition to the in person meeting in Cleveland. Unfortunately, alt text cannot have all of the letter text but the reasoning involves threatof violence to at risk groups in the US as well as issues related to contracting dangerous diseases and other safety threats.
Benji Paysnoe@benj-art-min.bsky.social · 7mo ago

A succinct and important message to the 2026 SVP Meeting this year! The United States has created dangerous environments for the LGBTQIA+ community, foreign travel, and Science in general. Not everyone has a safety net - Let's work to ensure that everyone has a safe way to continue participating!

Mira Thompson@wensthomp.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Today, for the safety of all SVP members, I request with this open letter that the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social provides an online option for this year's annual meeting. Myself and many others no longer feel it is safe to travel to and within the USA. Please share the letter everywhere you can!

Letter to the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology advocating that their annual meeting have an online option in addition to the in person meeting in Cleveland. Unfortunately, alt text cannot have all of the letter text but the reasoning involves threatof violence to at risk groups in the US as well as issues related to contracting dangerous diseases and other safety threats.
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Mira is one of the founders of PalaeoPoems. We presented at @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social years ago in Toronto and it gave us a real platform to talk about the project. An online option will give that chance to even more early career researchers!

Mira Thompson@wensthomp.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Today, for the safety of all SVP members, I request with this open letter that the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social provides an online option for this year's annual meeting. Myself and many others no longer feel it is safe to travel to and within the USA. Please share the letter everywhere you can!

Letter to the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology advocating that their annual meeting have an online option in addition to the in person meeting in Cleveland. Unfortunately, alt text cannot have all of the letter text but the reasoning involves threatof violence to at risk groups in the US as well as issues related to contracting dangerous diseases and other safety threats.
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 3y ago

For #FossilFriday, savor William Conybeare’s poem inspired by a hyena fossil den in Yorkshire, UK! This site, known as Kirkdale Cave, contains fossils of many Pleistocene mammals and hyenas. Art by James Mckay! 🧪

A painting of a pack of hyenas in a cave gnawing on mammal bones.
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 3y ago

For Thanksgiving break, catch up on your Palaeo Poems with “Ode to a Trilobite” by Timothy Conrad. Trilobites were ocean-loving arthropods that lived during the Paleozoic, 541-251 mya. Thrilling art by John Meszaros! 🧪 #FossilFriday

Black and white digital illustration with grey watercolour style shading. in the centre is a classically posed (dorsal) trilobite,it is very large and bug like. In each corner of the image is another trilobite curled into a ball, all different species shown from different angles. alongside the edges of the illustration are medieval style sea monsters and waves that you might expect to see on an old map. they are not shaded so they do not draw the eye like the trilobites.
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 3y ago

For #FossilFriday, embrace the cold weather with John Blackie’s Palaeo Poem “Frozen Mammoths”! This ballad was inspired by the Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), an extinct relative of elephants. Woolly wonderful art by Ida Kalsta! 🧪

A digital piece made to emulate a linocut. This piece is entirely black and white. About 2/3 of the way up, the background is white, and the bottom 2/3 have a black background, with a sharp line between them. The black portion is below the ice, and the white portion is exposed to the air. Between the two sections is a dead and frozen mammoth, floating in a way so it is almost standing bipedally. Its trunk and tusks are above the ice, but the rest of the head and body are sunk below. Its rear right foot is skeletonized. The effect is eerie, since the mammoth looks like it could still be alive and struggling until you pan down and see that foot. The bottom right of the piece has Ida Kalsta's watermark. Bild
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 3y ago

Last SVP we prompted palaeontologists to write poetry inspired by things they learned at the conference! In honour of 2023SVP and Fossil Friday, here are two of our favourites. By Emily Bamforth & Anon. 🧪 #SciArt

SVP A place for folks who love T. rex who talk of fossils and fancy teeth A place for the prof, the student, the geek Who love to learn & love to seek Emily BamforthSVP While cool fossils and finds make me pensive I can't help but be apprehensive Of a group so excessive And awful access, with their conferences awfully expensive!
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 3y ago

This Wednesday, our PalaeoPoems volunteer Lucia Snyderman is presenting her undergraduate thesis research on the extinction of the Great Auk in the Colbert Poster Session at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference! #SVP2023

Lucia presenting her Great Auk research at the Conservation Paleobiology Network conference last February.
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 3y ago

For #FossilFriday, we have a new blog post and PalaeoPoem to share about a fraudulent fossil! “The Piltdown Story” poem by Nancy Morris is inspired by a skull falsely believed to be the link between humans and apes. Fantastic art by October Seagrave @Zooophagous! 🧪 Science 🐡#SciArt

On a beige background apes with human-like traits are drawn, one of which is holding up the supposed skull of “Piltdown Man” outlined in orange
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 3y ago

Are you a tea or coffee drinker? Well, I can guarantee you’ll want a sip of some ginkgo fossil tea when you read the PalaeoPoem “Ginkgo Fossil Tea” by Susannah Lydon and Robin Lamboll. Tea-licious art by Madison Foran. 🧪 🐡

A clear teapot pours tea into a teacup with a ginkgo pattern on it. The image is dynamic, the teapot and teacup are at angles facing each other. A wave of brown tea splashes out of the teacup, forming the shape of several dinosaurs made out of tea. The background is an earthy green with rolling brown hills. The whole piece has a tea-stained look to it.
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 3y ago

Do you like to stargaze (for fossils)?! For #FossilFriday, you can read a PalaeoPoem by Samantha Jones about tiny star-like fossils called nannofossils! Nannofossils are fossilized skeletons of aquatic planktonic organisms. Plank-tastic art by Bejamin Chandler! 🧪 Science 🐡#SciArt

A mixed media watercolour depicting shelled organisms under a microscope. Just barely visible in the background are concentric circles. On closer inspection, it's a star map, and stars and constellations like Ursa Minor and Lyra are labelled in capital letters. This background just barely peeks through the watercolour, which is mainly dark purple on the outer edge and yellow towards the centre, with splotches of magenta and dark blue mixing with both shades. Haphazardly arranged across the piece are different shelled organisms, or foraminifera, as if they were scattered like stars as well.
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 3y ago

Megatherium, “great beast”, was a gigantic ground sloth that lived 5 million to 2000 years ago. Joseph von Scheffel's poem claims the sloth’s laziness led to its extinction…however, many other animal groups evolved similar adaptations. Sloth-tastic art by Zélie! 🧪 Science 🐡#SciArt #FossilFriday

In the bottom right corner, in black and white, is a cartoon of a little man writing a poem by candlelight. The rest of the illustration is a watercolour of his daydream, marked by little thought bubbles coming from the man's head. The daydream shows colourful landscape, with reddish brown geology, a volcano in the background, and clear, blue, skies. In the front and centre is a giant ground sloth standing as tall as a banana tree, using his long tongue to get a branch. Also visible are some Pleistocene deer, a sleepy capybara, and a horned gopher peeking from its den.
OrigamiPete@origamipete.bsky.social · 3y ago

@origamipete.bsky.social another #InverteFest origami post from little old me. This time a very very early attempt at a scorpion of my own. The final product has suffered from me not really knowing what I was doing quite yet. 🤭 This sentiment persists with me but the goalposts keep shifting. ☺️

An origami model of a scorpion folded from blue paper to echo the way their exoskeletons glow under black light (UV). The model is visibly crumply in places due to my lack of experience and patience, as this model also dates to the late 2000s. One interesting thing about this project is that it is still (to my knowledge) the one and only origami scorpion which uses diagonal symmetry as the foundation for the structure of the folds. All other origami scorpions I'm aware of either use what's called 'book symmetry' in origami terms, OR (and these are very very recent creations of the past few years) are structurally asymmetrical. More on that in a future InverteFest post some time later this week. Asymmetry is not something I wouldn't have dared to attempt without seeing others doing it successfully first, but more on that later. :)
PalaeoPoems@palaeopoems.bsky.social · 3y ago

"There once was an ichthyosaurus Who lived when the earth was all porous But he fainted with shame When he first heard his name And departed a long time before us" Why does this 1887 poem by Isabel Bellows reference pseudoscience? Read about it on our blog and enjoy the art by Lawrence Banks!🐡🧪

A pencil illustration of a closeup of an Ichthyosaurus. It's a little chubby, with some realistic marine animal neck rolls. Its sclerotic ring is visible through the skin, and its body is patterned with wavy stripes. Great attention has been paid to the skull anatomy and the way the face is reconstructed around it.
zupa grochowa@grochowa.bsky.social · 3y ago

the entire capital city of Canada’s northernmost province (Northwest Territories) is being evacuated due to threat of wildfire, while the premier of the province just to the south (Alberta) is arguing for extending fossil fuel use

Yellowknife to begin evacuation tonight as wildfires approach Minister orders everyone out of Yellowknife, Dettah, Ndilǫ and the Ingraham trail by noon FridayTweet from Danielle smith: Even Europe rejects the idea countries can be carbon neutral by 2035. They just don’t think it’s possible… Alberta shares this opinion, including that 2050 is more realistic to ensure reliable and affordable electricity. So why is Minister Steven Guilbeault pushing ahead with his reckless agenda? Comment below 👇
Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️@napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 3y ago

I asked an Indigenous colleague in Hawai'i where people can donate to and these were his suggestions (1/2): Hawaiʻi People's Fund: https://hawaiipeoplesfund.networkforgood.com/projects/200566-maui-aloha-the-people-s-response-fund ʻĀina Momona: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/kokuamaui

Maui Aloha: The Peopleʻs Response

Support our frontline grassroots heroes mobilizing to mālama ʻohana affected by the wildfires on Maui Hawaiʻi People’s Fund stands in solidarity and full support with those individuals and organ...

hawaiipeoplesfund.networkforgood.com