Tom Sharpe
@tomsharperocks.bsky.social
Geologist, writes on the history of geology and palaeontology, especially in the late 18th–early 19th C, and on the history of geology in Antarctica. Patron Lyme Regis Museum. Author of THE FOSSIL WOMAN A LIFE OF MARY ANNING (Dovecote Press 2020).
Some profound OCR here. From 'Elles (Gertrude L.) and Wood (Ethel M. R.). British Graptolites. Edited by Charles Lapworth' we get 'Exes (Gerrrupe L.) and Woop (Erner M. R.). British Graptolites. Edited by Cuartus Larworm'. Actually, Exes, Woop, and Larworm still sound like Edwardian geologists.
#MolluscMonday: the Lias ammonite Microderoceras birchi, named for Mary Anning's friend Col. Thomas Birch. This specimen @morethanadodo.bsky.social was probably purchased by J.E. Bowman (1785–1841) from Mary Anning when he visited Lyme Regis in August 1841.
Delighted to see on Google maps that the dimples in the red sandstone of Calder Street (Govanhill) Baths in Glasgow are still there. Made by kids back in the mid 1960s grinding their (pre-decimal) pennies and ha'pennies into the stone while waiting to get in. Just testing rock hardness, of course!
And there are cats. Lots of cats.
Tom Sharpe@tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 4d agoWent to the opening last night of a really lovely exhibition @nationalgalleries.bsky.social for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Welsh artist Gwen John (1876–1939). Lots to see - over 200 works, and archival material too, sketches, diaries, letters and photographs. It's on until 4 January.
Went to the opening last night of a really lovely exhibition @nationalgalleries.bsky.social for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Welsh artist Gwen John (1876–1939). Lots to see - over 200 works, and archival material too, sketches, diaries, letters and photographs. It's on until 4 January.
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(PDF) Roger Casement’s Butterflies at the National Museum of Ireland – Natural History, Dublin, Ireland - Colligo
PDF | Roger David Casement's multifaceted legacy transcends his well-documented roles in diplomacy and political activism, revealing significant... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on R...
researchgate.net
This sounds interesting - on Monday on RTE Radio 1 (available online) - the Irish nationalist Roger Casement (1864–1916) had an interest in natural history.
National Museum of Ireland@nmireland.bsky.social · 6d ago📻 Tune in to RTÉ Radio 1's Nature On One: Casement this Bank Holiday Monday (3 Aug) at 12 noon. Dr Aidan O'Hanlon explores Roger Casement's little-known passion for zoology and the remarkable specimens now held by the National Museum of Ireland. 🦋🐍
A brief moment of sunshine between the heavy rain showers in Edinburgh on the eve of the Festival. The head of the castle crag and tail feature.
Very much looking forward to seeing this new Mary Anning exhibition @dorsetmuseum.bsky.social which opens 6 months today, on 30 January 2027. More on it here: www.dorsetmuseum.org/whats-on/mar... where you'll also find a link to contribute to the museum's fundraising campaign for the exhibition.
Traprain Law in East Lothian taking on a rosy glow from tonight’s setting sun.
Well, it's back to work for me tomorrow! I'm up at the Market Hall Museum in Warwick, where one paper plate will become a baby elephant! 😮 If you're around, come and join me for some art alchemy. darrellwakelam.com #edusky #UKEd #artworkshop #art
200 years ago today, Mary Anning felt like giving up selling fossils. Sending a list to a dealer on 27 July 1826, she wrote, 'I belive they will be the last I shall ever offer for sale, as I cannot discover enough to get a maintenance therefor it is my intention to look out for some other pursuit.
It's been a while, but it's always worth posting that the famous tongue-twister 'She sells sea shells' has NOTHING to do with Mary Anning, as was shown by folklorist Stephen Winick. He found the first connection comes from 1977, but it seems to date from a 1975 book. blogs.loc.gov/folklife/201...
Within a couple of days, a ton of rock containing skeleton was excavated and packed, with Mary Anning's help, and sent to Hawkins' home near Glastonbury where it arrived on 1 August. He spent 2 weeks preparing the specimen and had the 600 bone fragments set in plaster, restoring a missing forefin.
Tom Sharpe@tomsharperocks.bsky.social · last wk.26 July 1832, Church Cliffs, Lyme Regis: fossil collector Thomas Hawkins and a team he employed begin the excavation of a large ichthyosaur skeleton. Hawkins had arrived in Lyme just as Mary Anning was extracting its skull, which he immediately purchased. The specimen is now @nhm-london.bsky.social
26 July 1832, Church Cliffs, Lyme Regis: fossil collector Thomas Hawkins and a team he employed begin the excavation of a large ichthyosaur skeleton. Hawkins had arrived in Lyme just as Mary Anning was extracting its skull, which he immediately purchased. The specimen is now @nhm-london.bsky.social
And this is this evening’s light on Traprain Law. The domed shape of the hill is that of the laccolith intrusion. Mostly early Carboniferous sedimentary rocks into which it was intruded forming the lower ground
Tom Sharpe@tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 2w agoLovely light and clouds above Traprain Law in East Lothian this morning, bringing out its lumps and bumps. An early Carboniferous laccolith, with an Iron Age hill fort on top (and site of the Traprain Hoard) and a disused 20th century roadstone quarry disrupting its curved outline on the left.
Lovely light and clouds above Traprain Law in East Lothian this morning, bringing out its lumps and bumps. An early Carboniferous laccolith, with an Iron Age hill fort on top (and site of the Traprain Hoard) and a disused 20th century roadstone quarry disrupting its curved outline on the left.
Best uses for an old shipping buoy, no.1 No other entries required, we have a winner Local artist Nathan Murdoch At @rspb.bsky.social Frampton Marsh, Lincs #photography #BlueSky #artsky #birds
#FossilFriday: The Coade Stone ammonite pavement at the entrance to Lyme Regis Museum in Dorset. A modern version of the artificial stone perfected by Exeter-born Eleanor Coade (1733–1821) at her factory in Lambeth. From 1784 she owned Belmont House in Lyme which she decorated with her products.
22 July 1826: newspapers report that Mary Anning's fossil shop had moved to premises on Broad Street, Lyme Regis' main thoroughfare. it was a small shop of two rooms, probably with a bay shop window on the ground floor, living accommodation upstairs and a thatched roof. She lived there until 1847.
22 July 1775: birth of Wiltshire geologist Etheldred Benett. A contemporary of Mary Anning, and as well-known and respected, she donated fossils to the Geological Society from 1813, sent a measured section of a local quarry in 1815, and published a monograph on Wiltshire fossils in 1831.
The hill(s) I will die on. Arthur's Seat & Salisbury Crags are separate hills. Separate geologically, topographically and on Ordnance Survey maps. Yesterday's fire was on the slopes of Salisbury Crags. Many news sources, the fire service & even Historic Environment Scotland have got this wrong!
#MolluscMonday: the diamond-shaped cross section of a Pinna shell in life position, silicified and infilled with chalcedony. Lower Lias (Early Jurassic), Glamorgan coast, South Wales.
So, as the 2025/26 academic year comes to a close, I get to reflect on all of the marvellous projects I've had the pleasure to devise and deliver to schools across the country. You might recognise some of these, last September, none of this work existed . . . www.darrellwakelam.com #edusky #UKEd
For #FossilFriday, abundant Eocene (~50 mya) shorebird tracks from the Green River Formation, WY; seen last week in the Tellus Museum of Science, Cartersville GA. 🧪🪨⚒️🐾🐦
#FossilFriday Field photograph of a belemnite, partly wrapped in seaweed, eroding out of Lower Jurassic rocks on the Yorkshire coast. A human finger points to this ‘witch’s finger’, one of the multitude of folklore names coined for belemnites.
