#FossilFriday

Will Tattersdill@tattersdill.bsky.social · 5d ago

So here we go then: the result of many years thinking about how dinosaurs make science and the imagination work together. It's written for both literary critics and scientists and my dearest hope is that it will help foster an academy where we talk to each other more

CEO of Anglian Water, England's worst-polluting water company, handed extra £1.3m despite govt ban on bonuses for failing firms. Companies circumvent rules to reward execs for dumping sewage, fleecing customers, neglecting investment. Govt/Ofwat do nothing.

England's most prolific polluters hand water boss extra £1.3m - despite ban on bonuses | LBC

Last year, the government delivered new legislation to prevent underperforming water companies from offering bonus payments to their executives.

lbc.co.uk

Gold octopus ornaments from Bronze Age Mycenae, some 3,500 years ago. Probably sewn onto a funerary garment or shroud. Grave IV, Grave Circle A. National Archaeological Museum, Athens 📷 by me #Archaeology

Bog star is a much better name than Grass of Parnassus.

Friends of Lye Valley@friendlyevalley.bsky.social · last mo.

The very first of our Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia palustris) or "bog star" flowers are just starting to open. 😍 Let's hope this is another bumper year for one of the southern most populations of this plant. #WildflowerHour @bsbibotany.bsky.social @tverc1.bsky.social @judywebb.bsky.social

For #FossilFriday a rare shark’s head in lagoonal sediments from the earliest Aptian of the #IsleofWight. About 30 cms across. A row of teeth can be seen across the lower jaw. On display at #DinosaurIsleMuseum.

In politics, we’re torn between ideals and practicalities, aspirations and realities, the world as we want it, and as we find it But one day a manifesto comes along that reconciles both in every pledge. A rare moment of clarity and hope

An astonishing and shocking analysis in the British Medical Journal. So many deaths just to appease Trump. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

US-UK drug deal could result in 229,000 excess deaths in England, analysis suggests

Analysis reveals extent of impact on NHS of placating Donald Trump over price of British medicine exports

theguardian.com

After years of advising palaeontologists to give up on the 'species recognition' hypothesis for elaborate structures AND of promoting mutual sexual selection in Mesozoic #dinosaurs, @davehone.bsky.social and I are seeing more takeup of what we suggested... www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Just got Broad-banded hopper wasp in the garden, a bembicid sand wasp that predates mostly on bugs. Relatively rare and my sighting is the first iNaturalist record for Southampton! Err, if it's correct. #wasps #hymenopteran

The extent to which fieldwork in palaeontology (& other research areas) is valued has been in long-term decline, with funding challenging despite its fundamental importance. Will the rise of AI change this given that finding, collecting & studying new fossils cannot be done by a computer? I hope so.

A massive mollusc for #FossilFriday Bourgetia is a 160 million year old gastropod from the tropical seas of the Yorkshire Jurassic. The grid on my desk is 50mm. There's a good article about these and other upper Jurassic snails here: fossilsinthills.weebly.com/blogs/the-tw... ⚒️🌍🐚🐌🔬🧪

Down on the coast this #FossilFriday looking through heavily dinoturbated sandstones. Not sure about this but looks a bit like a sauropod pes but well over a metre long! #IsleofWight

This episode is now available on BBC Sounds www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

In Our Time - The Evolution of Trees - BBC Sounds

How trees first arose from small plants and changed the world, and why new trees emerge.

bbc.co.uk

Dr Susannah Lydon@susieoftraken.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Palaeobotany on the radio at 9am! @christophermberry.bsky.social and Jenny McElwain talking about the Evolution of Forests on In Our Time on Radio 4. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand... #Paleobotany

Wollemia is critically endangered in the wild. Here's some of the trees I've grown from seeds, collected from trees that were part of the amazing conservation strategy (work out how to propagate at scale & then sell the trees around the world). #WollemiaWednesday

If you enjoyed or heard about #DinoConUK last year, our 2026 meeting is substantially bigger, with so much more stuff. Tickets are still on sale, get them and arrange accommodation at www.dinocon.co.uk And follow us for news at @dinoconuk.bsky.social. A few of our speakers...

#FossilFriday New ichnogenus of possible tritylodont tracks associated with newly discovered tritylodont bonebeds under study by @andrewtracks.bsky.social from Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. What long toes you have grandpa?

Time for Mouse's #FridaysBitsAndPieces from #StCatherineBatheaston #Somerset. All of the bits and pieces Mouse didn't share during the week: Effigies of children on C17 chancel memorial. The child to the rear is white and differently spaced. Predeceased the parents? Any experts?

Anlass zu sagen, "So ne Ankylosaurierhüfte schneidet einem aber ganz schön in die Pfoten!" hat man ja auch leider viel zu selten. #workskeet

A jumble of Scheenstia fish remains from an Early Cretaceous freshwater environment on the #IsleofWight. An enamel-like coating on the scales preserves them as shiny black diamond shapes. #FossilFriday

Voyager 1 has been travelling now for almost 50 years at a speed of 17,000 metres per second. In November it will reach a point one light day from earth. And it's still talking to us.

@deadder.bsky.social "Exit Strategy"

Privatisation of the NHS NHS spends record £241m outsourcing scan analysis to private firms. Private sector focused on profit, not service. Money buys less. Public purse depleted. NHS capacity not expanded. Why would it train staff? There is no public mandate for privatisation of the NHS.

NHS spends record £241m outsourcing scan analysis to private firms

Radiologists say ‘ballooning’ costs reflect staffing failures, forcing a reliance on lower-quality private scan reports

theguardian.com

Jurassic Oceans is a separately ticketed event: you don’t get free entry as per other parts of the NHM. But if you like Mesozoic marine stuff, you totally should visit. It's open from today and I really recommend it! Info and tickets are here... www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/exhibi... #FossilFriday

Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep | Natural History Museum

Take a thrilling deep dive back in time into ancient waters with this monstrous exhibition.

nhm.ac.uk

Overly honest museum labels #1 "Graptolites which look as if someone has scribbled all over the rock!" Leptograptus capillaris, on display in National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh #FossilFriday 🌍⚒️✏🧪🔬

A reminder that some of the largest Late Triassic predators were croc relatives: here’s the humungous maxilla of a rauisuchian from the Elliot of South Africa, which was originally misidentified as a carnivorous prosauropod #FossilFriday

For #FossilFriday, an ichnological 2-for-1 deal: Eocene (~50+ mya) shorebird tracks with bonus invertebrate trails (Cochlichnus), either made by nematode worms or insect (dipteran) larvae; little "craters" may be gas-bubble escape structures. From the Green River Formation, Utah. 🧪🐦🐾

#FossilFriday: In July 1824, Lord Cole (later Enniskillen) bought this, his first fossil, from Mary Anning. But it was missing the tip of its snout. In 1827 she found the tip, recognised that it belonged to the specimen she had sold to Cole 3 years before, and sent it to him and he stuck it on.

Slides apparently made from fragments of the scapula of Neovenator a large #IsleofWight theropod dinosaur showing the cortex and spongy trabecular bone. #FossilFriday

#FossilFriday The sail-backed herbivorous synapsid Edaphosaurus @ummnh.bsky.social

Finally made it to The Etches Collection on the Isle of Purbeck last week. The huge pliosaur skull was the star of the show for sure; a stunning fossil, beautifully prepped. Also gorgeous fossils of other marine reptiles, pterosaurs, fish and dinosaurs (yay!) #FossilFriday