david-nicholson.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

After a bit of a gap thanks to travelling, here is another #FossilFriday. This time, a spider.. And a bit of a unit too! This is Mongolarachne, a ~160 million year old, ~10 cm long animal found in China. We have fossils of both males and females of this species, which is super neat. ⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

submitted 17 hours ago • 1 comment

In response to some recent idiocy: NEW BLOGPOST: No, the Inns of Court are not biased against white barristers thesecretbarrister.com/2025/05/18/n...

submitted 5 days ago • 33 comments

I found this very cool weevil in the forest at @tapirvalley.bsky.social this morning. #bugsky #nature #weevils #costarica 🌿

submitted 8 days ago • 40 comments

#FossilFriday Cluster of shells of the brachiopod Platystrophia regularis from the Late Ordovician (Hirnantian) of Anticosti Island, Canada.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Two blues: www.blipfoto.com/entry/336906... #insects #invertebrates #odonata #damselfly #BandedDemoiselle #CalopteryxSplendens #butterfly #CommonBlue #PolyommatusIcarus #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

"Wrendition" a Wren singing from a coniferous tree branch at Grimbister, #Orkney. #OrkneyBirding #BirdingScotland #UKBirds #UKBirding #Birds #Wildlife #UKWildlife #Nature #Photography #birdsoftheworld #ornithology #wren 🪶

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

A nice Cretaceous find brought in to us from the beach today. Plenty of fossilised worm tubes in this chunk of the greensand but a brilliant little shark's tooth tucked away in there too!

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

First time seeing mating Narrow bordered bee hawkmoths mating & I managed to photograph it! Very chuffed. #moths

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

Pet parrots were taught to do video calls, and it was a hit. The birds not only made friends with each other, and selected who they wanted to call and when, but also picked up new skills from fellow parrots. Good enrichment option for improving captive parrot welfare. 🧪🦜 dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

submitted 11 days ago • 76 comments

Happy #FossilFriday. Here is an amazing fossil published last month: a ~410 million year old fossil mite from the collections of @nhm-london.bsky.social. This tiny animal (that scale bar is 0.05mm) is shown below in a microscope image, a laser microscopy image and reconstruction. ⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

submitted 14 days ago • 2 comments

I'm delighted to have just seen my first Marsh fritillary butterfly of the year,freshly emerged and another chrysalis found.

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

Hello new followers, in addition to birds I spend the warmer months chasing bugs. Here is a fun one for #FlyWeek, a stalk-eyed fly found in the Ecuadorian cloud forest. (Richardia stylops), El Septimo Paraiso Lodge, Ecuador

submitted 17 days ago • 17 comments

Last bluebell image for this year? Probably not... This week's entry for #sharemondays2025 with the best light I've had over the past couple of weeks. #Bluebells #LocalPhotography

submitted 25 days ago • 33 comments

I possibly say this every year but I feel like I’ve never seen so many flowers on the apple trees. The scent is incredible. (Please excuse the neglected pruning.)

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

What excellent hoppy friends!

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

#FossilFriday One of the numerous terracotta tiles in the Natural History Museum decorated with a fossil, in this case a eurypterid. Cast from a mould for Alfred Waterhouse’s original building opened in 1881.

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

The bunny harvestman (Metagryne bicolumnata) looks like a bunny operating a spider-legged mech-suit. Native to the rainforests of Ecuador, they're harmless (no venom glands) & eat rotting vegetation & some small insects. They belong to Order Opiliones. Just a little guy. (📷: Andreas Kay)

submitted 28 days ago • 27 comments

On reflection…

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

It's a bumper year for the tiny, uncommon Adder's tongue #fern in my "lawn". A plant of unimproved grassland.

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

‘When will it fall’ - tree sculpture by Beavers I feel this piece really has captured the essence of what the beaver was trying to achieve… @kneppwilding.bsky.social

submitted 30 days ago • 4 comments

“Where is daddy?” (I’d gone outside for like 30 seconds and was coming right back.)

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

It’s not the primary reason I moved back to Scotland from London but having soft water feels like such a luxury after years of fighting with limescale.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Happy #FossilFriday - check out the beautiful fangs and leg bases of a ~409 million year old trigonotarbid arachnid from a paper by Emma Long and colleagues at the @nhm-london.bsky.social These are 3D reconstructions from laser microscopy data 😍 (schematic shown right) ⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

submitted 35 days ago • 2 comments

The journey back from NW Scotland with our students interrupted by a failed services stop. All that was there was a Costa, WHSmith and the fragments of broken dreams underfoot. Onwards! Since we're just driving today, here is my favourite fungus from the trip 🫡 🧪⚒️

submitted 36 days ago • 2 comments

Very jealous. Have never heard or seen one in real life.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

The BHL global community met in Berlin last week for our #BHLAnnualMeeting and the #BHLDay2025 public symposium. Thank you to the speakers, participants, tour guides, and our wonderful host @mfnberlin.bsky.social (🙏@ehrmn.bsky.social) for making this such a fascinating and inspiring event.

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

Some very exciting pieces found today on the beach! Nice work Liz, James, Isabelle and Erin on finding this awesome chunk full of ichthyosaur ribs and a few other bits of bone too! Must have been revealed by the rough weather overnight.

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

Yesterday and today have been an absolute treat in terms of both rocks and views for the @uom-ees.bsky.social geologists. The former has focussed on trying to understand large scale refolded folds, helped by obersvations small scale strucctures - such as those shown below ⚒️🧪

submitted 38 days ago • 1 comment

A rare and absolutely tiny one for the fossil collecting code today! A big congratulations to Jude on finding this pair of Jurassic beetle wingcases on our fossil hunting walk!

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

Orange tip butterfly, Scottish Borders. #butterfly

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

Green hairstreaks basking in the sun. Tiny , beautiful gems. #butterflies

submitted 43 days ago • 4 comments

Watching swathes of butterflies in this field today. awash with Lady's smock & Dandelions. An absolute joy.

submitted 46 days ago • 3 comments

Can I get away with another Wood Anemone post ? 😬 It looked so wonderful! #Wildflowerhour #Woodlandplants

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

#MolluscMonday Ammonite set into the stone wall of a house in La Roche-Chalais, Dordogne, France. The closest Mesozoic rocks are of Late Cretaceous age but to my untrained eyes this looks Jurassic and is possibly a perisphinctid. Comments welcomed.

submitted 47 days ago • 1 comment

Probably nobody is. Some people are expert in some things but the further we go down this road, the less sure anyone can be of anything. This is the importance of trusted institutions.

submitted 49 days ago • 0 comments

My garden has not one, not two, but THREE BEE FLIES I feel as happy as this one :)

submitted 49 days ago • 6 comments

Morning folks - it’s that time PLEASE vote for the bee-fly. They are majestic marvels. @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social @amentsoc.bsky.social @entcollnet.bsky.social @entsocamerica.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

submitted 50 days ago • 3 comments

Slowly finding the bits I loved about Twitter here. Everyone should follow Earyn.

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments