I think it’s marine mammal neck vertebrae.

Hand with a purple sleeve holding a gray rock with black bones in it.

Another view of the fossil

Winner winner chicken dinner! Fossil Point is such a cool site and I’m so lucky to have a fossil site like this effectively in my back yard!

Wow!!! 😳

a woman in a pink top says yes yes yes in front of a microphone ALT: a woman in a pink top says yes yes yes in front of a microphone

I would be team chonky walrus so fast!

That’s a glorious portrait!

Dr. Win's student made an amazing find - a possible Pontolis anklebone!

The original namer of Pontolis was a Smithsonian scientist by the name of True, who had one of my favorite science portraits. Love the bowler. Mustache is also appropriate for someone who named a walrus.

I haven’t dug into the literature yet, can’t say I’m typically optimistic about finding postcrania figured… the skull from the same site is a bit rough… the locality specifics are also rough, but I suspect it came out of the Coos Conglomerate given condition.

She’s got such a good eye, she found two partial BIG baleen whale vertebrae fragments last term, lots of very complete scallops, some dentalium tusk shells.

Digital illustration of a singing male Townsend's Warbler perched high at the very tip of a conifer. He is colored in bold yellow, black, and white, with his beak open in song, and stands out bright and colorful against the cool blue sky and the jagged slopes of the Rocky Mountains in the background.

I think we could all use some pleasant things in our lives right now. Check out the ongoing new season of @songbirding.com featuring birds of the Canadian Rockies! I illustrated this season's cover art with a singing male Townsend's Warbler. 🎨🪶 #SciArt #BirdArt

Black bone in hand

Hand holding black bibs over gray surface with metal ruler next to it

Another view of bone

Roman Uchatel’s paleoart showing the size of Pontolis compared to a man and an extant walrus

Ahhh!!!! One of my students just found a giant pinniped ankle bone in a tide pool and I’m pretty sure it Pontolis, a giant Miocene walrus!!!!

Field snapshots: a very brief trip to coastal Oregon n mid February I was invited by my colleague Dr. Win McLaughlin to give a talk at Southwestern Oregon Community College (SWOCC) which has a ...

New blog post: some field photos from my recent trip to coastal Oregon! Thanks to @paleowin.bsky.social for flying me up and showing me around. Hadn't visited some of these fossil sites in a very long time. coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2026/04/fiel...

This should be on by default but it's not. So turn it on.

And if you feel your not getting enough "engagement" here, and you're not using alt text, know that -many- folks, myself included, will not share images with out it.

*sound not sounds. I am tired. Also dyslexic.

Win in riding helmet and blue top with horse in pen behind

View from horseback of a classic PNW trail

Horseback view with trees and ferns

Horse backlit in pen

Just finished my first endurance ride of the year! My horse ended up low on electrolytes, but vet gave me a plan for next time to fix it. Just happy he’s sounds, happy, and we had a blast riding with spectacular views of Mt. Ranier!

I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't had any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since typical grants are for three years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.

Horse snoot close up

Blurry horse nose

Blur not even recognizable as horse

Win and blurry horse

Why do most of my pictures of my horse Sausage look like this?

A viral dog rescue from 2016 is now immortalized with a statue in Kazakhstan. When a dog fell into the Sayran reservoir, bystanders formed a human chain to pull him to safety. The statue is a reminder of the value of unity, solidarity and collective action. 14/10 for all

Rocky and brushy area, ocean, distant sitting figure in ocean

Closer view of cool rock structure, beach, ocean, sitting figure

Sitting figure looks up

Happy looking marine biology student sitting in water with different types of seaweeds on each leg

Signs your students have passion for what they are doing exhibit A:
I was like what is Stephanie doing sitting in the ocean (in waders)???
Steph: sorting seaweed by brown vs. green algae!

Definitely needed in version two!

😂🤣😂

I’ve made chocolate no-bake coprolite cookies before too!

Thank you! Who doesn’t like a nice whale fall?

Haha! I’ve made Paleozoic reef cupcakes, subduction zone cake, banded iron formation cake, trilo-bite cookies, Coprolite no-bake cookies… I enjoy making silly geology/paleontology treats for my student’s finals.

I love stroopwafels and they at least sorta helped the taffy be a bit more manageabke! I’m pretending they’re the decomp area around the skeleton 😅

Thank you! It was as fun. Obviously not a requirement, but I enjoy making nerdy baked good to bring in for finals.

In the late 1800s a very large meteorite was seen over Bandon Oregon, but never found… (although wild scam that came out of someone claiming to find it). As a result I get more “meteorites” brought in here than any of my past jobs!

Thank you! I have a lot of fun making themed goodies for finals. I made early Paleozoic reef cupcakes for my last historical geology class final 😅

I’m cackling. In the depths of grading final exams I needed this 😂

I’m thankful I now know this exists 😂

Taphonomy in action! I think I need to figure out how to make tiny bone worms for the next one.