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dennish.bsky.social
Concept- & content developer new Natural History Museum UniZurich; Island biologist w. fetish for giant tortoises (Aldabrans!) & rewilding 🐢 Fond of Gessner (x2) & Scheuchzer; lover of old books, older fossils, history of science & music of metal
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Published today in Biological Reviews: "New perspectives on body size and shape evolution in dinosaurs" - the biggest paper from my PhD (my favourite chapter, too). doi.org/10.1111/brv.... Here's a thread outlining some of our key findings. (1/10)

One of my "secret projects" I've recently finished is making a copy of the arm of Dakota the dinomummy. Here's the blog update on it with shoutouts to @boydpaleo.bsky.social and @himmapaan.bsky.social and @uglyfossils.bsky.social for their work on the paper/exhibit rmdrc.blogspot.com/2025/04/dako...

Madagascar Journal. Back at camp after a long day tracking Radiated tortoises in the spiny forest, this one found us!

The Lives of Frogs — it's real! #frogs #amphibians #conservation #ecology #naturalhistory #biodiversity Available in all good book shops (and probably some bad) from 20th May 🧪 @princetonupress.bsky.social @uclcber.bsky.social @ucl-pnl.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk

George Catlin (USA, 1796-1872) The Great Ant-Eater, 1854/1869 oil on card mounted on paperboard 46.2 x 61.9 cm (18 3/16 x 24 3/8 in.) National Gallery of Art DC 1965.16.255 www.nga.gov/collection/a... “THE GREAT ANT-EATER, visiting the author’s camp on the Rio Yucayali.” #GiantAnteater #Anteater

Sand grains as big as her head ❤️

Call-out to paleoartists! The virtual 3D exhibition goes into its second round and is looking for paintings, animations, 3D models, poems,… This will be the start of a continuous exhibition of contemporary paleoart. Registration starts on April 1st! More infos below 👇

I'm happy to announce that Mesozoic Art v.II has now gone to press. Looks incredible and thanks to all the artists who contributed, and to @tetzoo.bsky.social and everybody at @chiffchat.bsky.social for their patience, resilience and hard work. Book goes on sale 25th September - don't miss it!

Do you love #fossil plants? Are you searching for a #PhD position? I am recruiting a doctoral student to join my group at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt/M! Deadline on the 11th of May #paleobotany #paleontology #plants #botany www.senckenberg.de/en/career/sc...

A sure sign the world is going to hell in a handbasket: The new Nortt album sounds happy (sarcasm off; it is of course deliciously dark, doomy, and slow 🖤🤘)

Rumors have it that this edition of the book also has a fascinating foreword about disinformation and post-truth populism by a Danish military analyst. (And also that a Danish version of the book will be available very soon.)

Pieter Vogelvormer, the Dutch naturalist who bred the finches that #Darwin later studied in the Galapagos, was born #OnThisDay in 1608. Read about this little-known contributor to the history of #evolution in a very special #ScientistOfTheDay post: www.lindahall.org/about/news/s... #histSTM 🗃️📜

‼️ Early Bird ends today ‼️ So if you are a student or a postdoc, this is the last day to register for free!

I’ve just been informed by my publisher that my book on Athanasius Kircher is now sold out. If you’re still interested in reading it, you can download the open access e-book via Zenodo: doi.org/10.5281/zeno.... Thanks to everyone who has shown interest in the book! #AthanasiusKircher

Digitised museum collections are full of surprises. For example here's Reinier Vinkeles's etching of a harp-playing putto, ploughing farmer, crystal grotto, and pair of fossil Mosasaurus jaws. That's surprising. (@rijksmuseum.bsky.social: id.rijksmuseum.nl/200388929)

"wHy dOn'T wE uSe AI insTEad oF Hooman aRtizts?"

Detail crop from the sunflower painting I posted yesterday, because leaves in paintings never get the attention they deserve. Bonus daddy long legs, because I just love them. #art #painting #floralpainting #leaves #sunflowers #botanicalart #sciart @bsky.art

Swiss physician and naturalist Conrad Gessner was born #OTD in 1516. Considered one of the fathers of modern zoology and botany, he is perhaps best known for his monumental work Historia animalium. In it, he attempted to document every known animal at that time, including a few curve balls. (📸BHL)

Happy 509th, Conrad G!

I'm so used to crinoids as grey things in grey rocks. This is a great reminder that living crinoids are much more than that, and would have been in the deep past too.

Two tulips with dead frog and caterpillar Jacob Marrel, 1639 Fair enough (Rijksmuseum)

Ghosts Behind Glass: Encountering Extinction in Museums coming your way in October 2025. Only $20 in paperback for a full color book with 80 pictures! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Today seems like a good day to repost this…

saying you’ll stand up for attacks on science in the US while honouring the person responsible for the attacks is like handing out bandages to people who are being savaged by your pet dog, while doing nothing to restrain him

Abandoning everything you stood for, just to not make fascist billionaires and anti-science crusaders uncomfortable - well done, @royalsociety.org - it takes talent to be SO utterly pathetic and cowardly. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Paleography pearl. "1672 on May 12, baptized Grietje, illegitimate daughter of the godless deceased Engelbert Jans and the filthy whore Bauwe Edses, adulteress" But nonetheless baptized. 😳

Can’t recommend enough @robfoley.bsky.social’s book of essays on modern higher ed, Notes from Ivory Flats, which you can order here: www.amazon.co.uk/Notes-Ivory-... Find out, for example, what the risk assessment for Darwin’s Beagle would look like today — and what it says about academic life now

Lunchtime on Aldabra Atoll - where sharing the shade with gorgeous giants makes any day feel like #TortoiseTuesday 💚🐢🌿 #FieldworkArchive