Photograph of a view up a concrete staircase with black metal cannisters, at the top of which is a huge agglomeration of fossil ammonites

A museum display of two mounted Plateosaurus (bipedal long-knecked dinosaurs), with more fossil bones at their feet. In the background are two paintings of the animals in life

A side in view of a big Liopleurodon skeleton in a museum- a skeleton of a marine reptile, with lomg jaws with sharp teeth and big flippers

A face on view of a Gorgonopsid skeleton, with open jaws showing its big teeth

In Tübingen this week, and encountered some fossil agglomerations, and long-necked and toothy beasts, in the university palaeontology collections

A transformative moment in museum history. Seriously, so much about how museums relate to their audiences changed after this. 🐏

Visiting these guys again? What am I, some sort of consultant on their restoration? Oh, right.

Yep, the marriages among Victorian scientific families is another big thing!

J.R. Seeley was an important advocate for British imperialism, and H.G. Seeley had his own colonial connections (excavating fossils in South Africa) so will need to look into this more...

A photographic portrait in profile of a Victorian man with light hair, beard, and waxed moustache

A photographic portrait in profile of a Victorian man with light hair and no beard. He is wearing a frockcoat

A connection I hadn't realized before - palaeontologist Harry Govier Seeley (1839-1909), best known for his work on pterosaurs and dinosaurs, was the cousin of the imperial historian John Robert Seeley (1834-1895), author of 'The Expansion of England'

Also struck by the resemblance!

Yes, arguing against peer reviewers is fine. Also, if the reviewers are giving conflicting advice, ask the editor what you should do (sorting things like that out is part of their job!)

I hope you stay hungry for dinosaur drama.

Mourning for dinosaurs, 65 million years too late | CNN Dino-heads on TikTok are chopping up animated footage of the prehistoric beasts (mostly taken from the recent Netflix docuseries “The Dinosaurs”) and lamenting their loss. It’s part of a long history ...

For some Monday morning reading, a report on current emotional investment in dinosaurs - with contributions from me, @vickycoules.bsky.social and @stevebrusatte.bsky.social : edition.cnn.com/2026/04/05/s...

Another issue is that the grammar and wording is also pretty antiquated. So even if you do quote a large chunk and modernize the spelling, it's still going to be a bit tricky for a reader unfamiliar with 16C language to work out

Yeah - I'd personally go with directly quoting a few brief phrases like that in the original spelling, and paraphrasing or summarizing the rest, as it is good to build up a sense that this is from a distinct historical period

Cambridge University Library, University Museum of Zoology and the University of Cambridge - Collections Connections Communities

Fully funded PhD studentship: ‘Recording nature and writing the self: time, entomology and the archive in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’. Closes 3 May.

With Ruth Abbott, Staffan Müller-Wille, Ed Turner & me. @theul.bsky.social @zoologymuseum.bsky.social

www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...

The New Dinosaurs: an alternative evolution Published in Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology (Ahead of Print, 2026)

My long review of the 2025 edition of Dougal Dixon's The New Dinosaurs has just been published in Historical Biology. What is the 'use' of Speculative Zoology and how does this book connect to the history of dinosaur research? www.tandfonline.com/eprint/YTPSK... #SpecZoo #SpecBio

Stark painting of a still life containing fossils and books, including Charles Lyell's Elements of Geology.

"Fossils (February)" by the English surrealist Tristram Hillier. This 1955 painting was commissioned by Shell for the Shell Book of Nature, Fossils, Insects and Reptiles. From Ark UK: Government Art Collection. You Can Be Sure Of Shell... #FossilFriday

Webinar: Pursuing a research degree in the history of STM A webinar to orient prospective students on pursuing an MA and PhD in the history of STM, and how to apply to the Hans Rausing Scholarship.

📣Interested in pursuing a postgraduate degree in the history of STM? Wishing to apply to our Hans Rausing Scholarship? Then this webinar is for you!

Pursuing a research degree in the history of STM
Thursday 12 March
17.00-18.00 (GMT)

Register via Eventbrite ⬇️

#histsci #histtech #histmed #histstm

The Face What’s in a face? The face is the only part of the body where all the senses come together and, over the course of human history, has come to represent who we are as individuals. We unlock our phones...

Congratulations to @fayboundalberti.bsky.social for the publication of “The Face: A cultural history” today!

You can now get it from your preferred bookshop in the UK!
tinyurl.com/the-face-fba

@kingshistory.bsky.social @kingsartshums.bsky.social @ctb-kcl.bsky.social

#histmed #histtech #body

Terrible Lizards: S12E02 Writing with Dinosaurs  This is available to watch on youtube here: Support the podcast (keep it advert free) and get exclusive content: We have talked plenty about dinosaurs in pop culture, including in movies, but ...

New episode of #TerribleLizards is out with @richardfallon.bsky.social talking about Crichton, Conan Doyle, and #dinosaurs in literature. terriblelizards.libsyn.com/tls12e02-1

Lithographs of Hawkins's sketches of Ichthyosaur anatomy, with handwritten attotations.

A very special #FossilFriday. Thanks to @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social, one of the c19th's greatest works of palaeontological literature is now properly digitised: Thomas Hawkins's beautiful, epic, semi-unhinged Memoirs of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri (nhm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44...)

PhD Studentships at King's College London At jobs.ac.uk, you can apply for a PhD Studentships. Explore our diverse range of PhD opportunities today.

Two more PhD scholarships at @kingshistory.bsky.social: focussing on different aspects of Nigerian history, and working with my excellent colleague @bixhiribarren.bsky.social :

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQM397/p...

Ah, sounds intriguing! Possibly some kind of Entelodont? (they're quite popular to depict in the early- and mid-20th century)

I was indeed curious about that! Can't see the feet very well but I'm guessing it's supposed to be some kind of early Equid...?

I'm especially liking the polyhedral dice at the front

Presenting the background and my general thoughts about a new developing project next week....

No worries! The project itself is going on for another two years, so there will be more stuff happening on these lines in due course

New book out by my colleague on the development of the idea of intelligence - had a preview, and it's very good!

Very glad to see they have survived!

Other possible supervisors listed here: www.kingschostm.com/people

We have people working on history of tech, disability history, history of collections, internationalism and science, early modern science, biosciences, and many other things!

Applications are still open for these doctoral scholarships in history of science at KCL (which can cover a preparatory History MA & international fees)

I'm always happy to receive enquiries from people interested in working on history of palaentology, geology, anthropology, natural history & so on

We submitted a manuscript ,dealing with impacts of war and colonialism on geodiversity of #Ukraine. I am not at liberty to discuss unpublished research - but I want to highlight some published sources and amplify Ukrainian voices, and impact of war on #fossils in UA @nataliajagielska.bsky.social

Excellent owls! Many thanks