Western whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris) under an arrow-weed shrub. An active search predator, mostly insectivorous. They often rake leaf litter with their broad hands looking for small insects like termites. Death Valley National Park. #herps #Squamates
Pacific bluefin tuna leaping out of unusually warm Pacific waters with flying fish and gulls. Southern California Channel Islands in the 1890s, based on old sport fishermen descriptions. Oil on cotton rag paper 2006 #HistoricalEcology #oilpainting
Finished the sky on my Miocene Clarendonian-age Coast Range painting. Oil on canvas. Next: the background trees in full color layers. More photos ⬇️ #paleoart
Interesting!
I agree. Visiting Yellowstone put a whole new perspective on hiking and camping.
Good notes on the image, thank you! I was imagining a wild and free grizzly moving out fast on grassy hills
Interesting high level clouds ripping off the southern Sierra Nevada crest from the approaching front and moving out eastward over the Death Valley region this afternoon. #weather
I wish. I can’t see grizzlies doing well in CA. Too many livestock, not enough giant unpopulated landscapes.
“Land of No Fences,” my reconstruction of late Holocene California grizzly in the South Coast Range 300 years ago. Blue oak savanna and nodding needlegrass (Nassella cernua). Oil on cotton rag paper primed with shellac, 1997.
Showy Gilia in the northern Mojave Desert. The bloom is moving upslope now, a fantastic wildflower year. Take care of yourselves during these troubled times
The only Hyaenid to access North America: Chasmaporthetes, the “running hyena.” I chose to reconstruct it like an aardwolf (Proteles) which might be related—long legs sure look similar. Chasma was more carnivorous but not bone-crushing. Dorsal mane raised to appear bigger. Pliocene #paleoart
Morning with desert gold, also known as desert sunflower, below sea level in Death Valley south of Badwater. Amazing how they grow out of rock-studded barren alluvial fans given a couple of good rainstorms. The Mojave Desert is thriving this year
Crepuscular rays after sunset appear to be shadows of tall Sierra Nevada peaks cast far out across the Nevada Desert. Upper Amargosa River
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In almost 30 years of living in and around Death Valley I have never seen the calthaleaf phacelia this dense and abundant, coating the barren rock hills with purple. They are having a banner year in this hyperarid part of the Mojave Desert
New blog on books, information, observing nature, conservation. Link below
I have not figured out how to curate my feed either
Still going strong today!
Study of Bone-crushing dog Borophagus from the Pliocene of North America. Hat tip to paleoartist Jay Matternes whose Cenozoic mammal reconstructions are amazing. I saw his murals in the Smithsonian when I was a kid, influenced me forever. Pencil on paper 📝 🧪 #paleontology
Pelagornis, a giant Tertiary seabird possibly related to ducks. Member of extinct pseudotooth birds, it had bony teeth-projections on jaws. Speculative feeding behavior: dipping for squid as soaring across oceans, or nest predator? This is going into my Pliocene coast painting for a museum #paleoart
This is good. The last time a lake formed in Badwater basin too many people dragged all types of kayaks, canoes, and inner tubes out that they left lasting marks in the delicate salt flat and gouged ruts in the mud. Too munch disturbance.
Death Valley desert gold now!
The diversity of North American Blancan-age Camelids is off the charts: llamas, goat-camels, giraffe-llamas, giant camels. They must have been filling Pliocene niches before the Bovids arrived during the glacials. Pencil size chart; not all may have been contemporaneous #paleoart
A couple of January lesser mohavea wildflowers sneaking in a bloom, Death Valley
Field sketch with ballpoint pen of Deinonychus life restoration model in 2004 at a San Diego Natural History Museum dino exhibit. #paleoart
Ice crystal ring around the waxing crescent Moon over the Mojave (iPhone can’t pick up the crescent)
Not yet, a few beginning below sea level
