ALL vehicles need to pull a trailer from time to time. EVERYONE knows this truth.
(The denizens of Future Bay also learn the nature of Santa Claus).
@johnmoffitt.bsky.social
@flojohorman.bsky.social
#PaleoArt #SciArt #Fossils #Travel #PalaeoArt

Nodosaur scute, roughly almond-shaped, with bubbly texture on the bone surface.

This week’s Fossil Friday is a scute from a nodosaur (the spiky ankylosaurs without tail clubs).

Credit: Donald Sabo. APS 1987.12.

#palaeontology #paleontology #fossilfriday #fossils #nodosaur #dinosaurs #alberta

🧵 (1/3)
What makes South American Ungulates so unique?🦏🍃 #FossilFriday
Check out our new comprehensive combined-evidence #phylogeny of #Toxodontidae!!! #Paleontology #Evolution #Fossils #Argentina #CONICET

doi.org/10.1111/cla....

Teen Finds 6-Inch Megalodon Tooth Millions of Years Old While Diving for Fossils on Florida Coast A Florida teen will have quite the story for his friends to chew on when they all meet back in class after spring break. 16-year-old Aiden Andrews found the 6-inch-long tooth of an ancient shark known as a megalodon while diving near Sarasota. This was the largest shark species in history, and is believed to […] The post Teen Finds 6-Inch Megalodon Tooth Millions of Years Old While Diving for Fossils on Florida Coast appeared first on Good News Network.

Teen Finds 6-Inch Megalodon Tooth Millions of Years Old While Diving for Fossils on Florida Coast: A Florida teen will have quite the story for his friends to chew on when they all meet back in class after spring break.… @goodnewsnetwork.org #Megalodon #Fossils #SharkTooth #FloridaCoast #Discovery

Post Image

Fossil Friday #311: Dung Beetle Balls from the Oligocene #fossils #paleontology #Oligocene #coprolite #Wyoming #WhiteRiver #BruleFormation #DungBeetleBalls #FossilFriday

esconi.org/2026/04/fossil-friday-31...

CAMBRIAN SUBMARINES: OPABINIA REGALIS Meet one of the most wonderfully peculiar animals to ever grace our ancient seas. This five-eyed marvel swam through the Cambrian oceans some 508 million years ago, its soft body drifting above the seafloor of what is now British Columbia—preserved in exquisite detail within the famed Burgess Shale of Yoho National Park. At first glance, _Opabinia regalis_ feels almost mischievous in its design. I think of them as Cambrian submarines. Five stalked eyes sit atop its head like a crown of periscopes, scanning a world teeming with early life. Along its sides, a series of delicate lobes ripple in coordinated waves, propelling it forward with gentle, undulating grace. But it is the feeding apparatus that truly steals the show—a long, flexible proboscis ending in a tiny claw, perfectly suited for plucking soft prey from the seafloor and delivering it to its backward-facing mouth tucked beneath the head. Yes—five eyes. And a claw-tipped trunk. Nature was experimenting, and _Opabinia_ was one of her boldest sketches. When Charles Doolittle Walcott first described this curious creature in 1912, it puzzled generations of paleontologists. At the time, he believed it was an anostracan branchiopod. I don't see the resemblance but I wasn't looking at a fossil mystery with his lived experience of the time. Walcott named the species _Opabinia_ after Opabin Peak in the Canadian Rockies. While his initial classification as a crustacean was later debated and revised by researchers like Harry Whittington in the 1970s—who identified it as a far more enigmatic "weird wonder"—Walcott's 1912 publication remains the initial scientific description of this marvelous fancy of nature. For decades, its place on the tree of life remained uncertain, its anatomy so unlike anything alive today that it seemed almost alien. Thanks to the careful work of Harry Whittington and colleagues—that _Opabinia_ was understood as part of an early branch of arthropod evolution, a relative—albeit a very strange one—of the lineage that would eventually give rise to insects, crustaceans and spiders. Soft-bodied and delicate, _Opabinia_ would never have fossilized under ordinary circumstances. It is only through the extraordinary preservation of the Burgess Shale—where rapid burial in fine mud and low-oxygen conditions halted decay—that we are gifted this glimpse into deep time’s more experimental chapters. In _Opabinia_ , we see evolution not as a straight line, but as a riot of possibilities—forms tried, tested, and sometimes abandoned with countless strange and beautiful designs flickering briefly before fading into the stone. I am truly thrilled that we got a chance to see this one as so many never had the chance to fossilize and we'll never get to know their quirky selves.

CAMBRIAN SUBMARINES: OPABINIA REGALIS

#Burgess #cambrian #charles #creatures #doolittle #eyes #fossils #funny #opabinia #Shale #stalk

Origin | Interest | Match

I've just added nine new/revised #paleoart print options at my store: Spinosaurus with fireflies! Omeisaurus! Psittacosaurus! Tylosaurus! Smilodon! And More!

Check them out at www.markwitton.co.uk/category/all... (and remember that my Patrons can get 20% off all orders!)

#art #dinosaurs #fossils

Isotopic evidence suggests Earth formed entirely from inner solar system material, challenging long-standing theories of distant origins.

Image credit: Image credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory / NOIRLab / SLAC / AURA / P. Marenfeld

www.sci.news/space/earths...

#fossils #paleontology

Humans are the only species that has chins. A recent study sheds light on how that came to be and why evolution doesn’t always follow the rules.

Image credit: Westend61/GettyImages

www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/epis...

#fossils #paleontology

Prehistoric flower fossil discovered in Indian mine reveals a 52-million-year-old link to Australia | Research Matters An international team of scientists has unearthed a well preserved, 52-million-year-old fossilised flower in a western Indian lignite mine. The discovery reveals an ancient connection between the Indi...

Found in Rajasthan: The Australian flower that lived in India

For a deep dive, check out:
researchmatters.in/news/prehist...

#newspecies #fossils #Gondwana #biodiversity #scicomm #science #sciencecommunication #IndianScience #ScienceinIndia #Australia

New rock art from Arnhem Land reveals previously unknown depictions of Tasmanian tigers and devils, some possibly less than 1,000 years old, challenging assumptions about their mainland disappearance.

Image credit: Craig Banggar.

www.sci.news/archaeology/...

#fossils #paleontology

New fossil deposits show complex animal groups predating the Cambrian https://arstechni.ca #paleontology #ediacaran #evolution #Cambrian #Science #Biology #fossils

#Dinosaurs #Fossils #Paleontologists

#fungusamongus #fungus #mushroom #mushroommonday #localart #copix #copixsketch #fayeandfield #yegart #yegbusiness #tradart #traditionalart #noai #fungusfriday #tradart #yegart #ab #sketch #anthro #archeology #fossils #dinosaurs #rocks

You just instinctively know your work on building the community's replacement time machine is going splendidly when The King insists on seeing it.
@johnmoffitt.bsky.social
@flojohorman.bsky.social
#PaleoArt #SciArt #Fossils #Travel #PalaeoArt

#Science #Paleontology
#Fossils #ScienceEducation

youtube.com/shorts/iGTBe...

The marble is primarily brown with clear snail shapes in it of cream with black outlines and sometimes just the outlines.

Sussex marble. It is a limestone composed of the fossil shells of freshwater snail Viviparus (Paludina). From the Weald clay formation.
#Bexhill #Fossils #Marble

A fragment of a letter written by palaeontologist Mary Anning in which she says she is "sick" of fossils has sold for more than £15,000 at auction.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

#fossils #paleontology

Pliosaur tooth found by a friend who took me into the mountains of Aslfa.
A marine repite.

Even at the top of a mountain, you can find remains of ancient marine life.
Estimated age: ~100–90 million years (Late Cretaceous).

#Fossils #Pliosaur #Paleontology

New research challenges long-standing theories, suggesting Earth formed entirely from local material rather than a mix including outer Solar System sources.

Image credit: NASA

www.iflscience.com/earths-build...

#fossils #paleontology

Living #Fossils

"RD07: 04.06.22" /// Digital Collage /// 2022

A piece from 2022's "Radiant Decay" series /// More at: permiandesigns.com/radiant-decay

#collageart #collageartwork #collageartist #collage #collages #digitalcollage #digitalcollages #naturecollage #art #artwork #ammonite #turtle #bones #boneart #fossil #fossils #sciart #paleontology #skeletonart

Fossilized sound organs reveal that Jurassic insects like ancient crickets produced a range of calls much like those heard on summer nights today.

(Image: marcel / Adobe Stock)

nautil.us/what-the-ins...

#fossils #paleontology

When you need an agricultural trailer to bring fuel to the vessel, be prepared for a VERY LONG journey.
Fear not, Annie the Ammonite will pray for you.
@johnmoffitt.bsky.social
@flojohorman.bsky.social
#PaleoArt #SciArt #Fossils #Travel #PalaeoArt

Ammonite fossil found by a friend in Asfla. The internal chamber lines are clearly visible and well preserved.Typical age for these is around 100–400 million years.

#Fossils #Ammonite #Travel #Paleontology

Ep173: Petrified Forest
www.palaeocast.com/petrified-fo...

Join us in Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park with lead palaeotologist Dr Adam Marsh as we peer through the trees at the diverse vertebrates of the Chinle Formation.

#podcast #paleontology #paleo #fossils #Triassic

Post Image

ESCONI Field Trip to Danville Shale Pile Fossils – Saturday, May 2nd, 2026 #fieldtrip #fossils #paleontology #danville #carboniferous #pennsylvanian

esconi.org/2026/04/esconi-field-tri...

Computer simulations suggest smaller sauropods could rear up on their hind legs with ease, a feeding and defense strategy that became harder as they grew larger.

(Image credit: Guilherme Gehr)

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

#fossils #paleontology

A new study shows the bow and arrow spread rapidly across western North America about 1,400 years ago, largely replacing older hunting weapons.

(Image credit: David Hiser/Environmental Protection Agency)

phys.org/news/2026-03...

#fossils #paleontology

Commonsense has taken a very back seat here in Future Bay.
Meanwhile, a certain shapeshifter has an audience with The King.
@johnmoffitt.bsky.social
@flojohorman.bsky.social
#PaleoArt #SciArt #Fossils #Travel #PalaeoArt