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ksepkalab.bsky.social
Paleontologist specializing in birds (especially penguins) and dabbling in choristoderes + sauropods. Curator at the Bruce Museum. All opinions are my own.
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Coming to the Bruce March 6th! On Thin Ice: Alaska’s Warming Wilderness.

submitted 4 hours ago • 0 comments

MUSEUM TRIVIA is back! I am thrilled to be co-hosting with Stepanie Rice. $10 entry gets you a beer and a slice of pizza - can't beat that deal. We kick off 6pm this Thursday 2/27 at the Bruce Museum! brucemuseum.org/whats-on/tal...

submitted 7 hours ago • 0 comments

They should call me Piltdown Dan based on how much I love reading about this guy.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Three of our display specimens of sulphur, one of the few native element minerals found in nature. Hard to pick a favorite!

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

A baby Stegomus to brighten your day. Model by Sean Murtha, on display (look for it in the Triassic diorama) at the Bruce Museum.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Stibnite sea urchins! Another fun one in the Robert R Wiener Mineral Gallery at the Bruce Museum

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

PS - Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

submitted 10 days ago • 17 comments

Heading up to join the show. On Thin Ice: Alaska’s Warming Wilderness opens on March 6 at the Bruce Museum!

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Trivia is back on the menu! Come for 30 questions of Art, Science, Star Wars, Music and more with hosts Stephanie Rice and your favorite penguin paleontologist (me). Ten bucks gets you in the competition plus a beer and a slice of pizza - can’t beat that price.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Always makes me smile to see these guys on my way into the office.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Why waste you time with Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ethereum? Real silver coinage with extinct penguins is the way to go.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

One of the thousands of forms of calcite. This one reminds me of 1950s era bathroom tiles. One view with 200 other spectacular specimens in the Robert R Wiener Mineral Gallery at the Bruce Museum.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Our Alaska exhibition opens at the Bruce Museum on March 6. But the kids have already started their own show in the yard.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

My kids toaster alarm clock is much cooler than setting the alarm on your phone

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

The public doesn't know it, but there is an unwritten rule that every natural history museum is required to have at least one very goofy looking taxidermied beaver.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

My whole life I have fought a battle against the misconception that emperor penguins are 4.5 feet tall and this is a great illustration of that.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Tomorrow we are partnering with Greenwich Hospital for Kids Health Discovery Day! Free admission 1pm-4pm for guests under 18. Come learn about medicine and science from real doctors from Greenwich and Yale New Haven Children’s hospitals in our science galleries! brucemuseum.org/whats-on/kid...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

The ants are coming. You cannot stop them. Arriving at the Bruce Museum in November…

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Just 5 more days to see the art that became the stamps. Conservation Through the Arts: Celebrating the Federal Duck Stamp is on view till February 9th at the Bruce Museum.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

'Dino Birds' airs on @pbs.org in N. America tomorrow (9pm, 5th Feb.). Follow research from our lab and colleagues around the world revealing the origin of birds. Hope you enjoy it! www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vi... @stevebrusatte.bsky.social @gnavalon.bsky.social @ksepkalab.bsky.social

submitted 20 days ago • 4 comments

One of my (several dozen) favorite calcite specimens. Calcite has over 2000 crystallographic forms and this one reminds me of sea anemones. In my favorite meditation spot, the Robert R Wiener Mineral Galley at the Bruce Museum.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Our first Science exhibition on reopening the New Bruce was Penguins, Past and Present. Wish it could be up forever. Already plotting to bring these guys back some day. The people demand pensions!

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

The Ice Cream Parlor at the Mountain American Museum of Ancient Life goes hard!

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

The good old days

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

The Natural History Museum of Utah’s ceratopsian wall is one of my favorite paleontology displays.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Just arrive in Salt Lake City for DinoFest! This years theme is Underwater Worlds and I will be speaking about fossil penguins on Sunday afternoon. Looking forward to a great weekend! nhmu.utah.edu/programs/din...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

Only 20 days left to see the art that became the stamps. Conservation Through the Arts: Celebrating the Federal Duck Stamp is on view though February 9th at the Bruce Museum. Here are Joeseph Hautman’s Tundra Swans, featured on the 2023-2024 stamp.

submitted 31 days ago • 1 comment

Someone needs to do an exhibition that is just a massive wall of beautifully prepared oreodonts….

submitted 31 days ago • 1 comment

A little behind the scenes of what we are cooking up for late 2025 at the Bruce Museum.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

I am thrilled to announce that Bruce Museum Trivia is back. I’ll be co-hosting with our talented Stephanie Rice - and when you enter for $10 you get a beer and a slice of pizza, so it’s basically free! brucemuseum.org/whats-on/tal...

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Here's another cool penguin for #PenguinAwarenessDay. Spheniscus megaramphus lived between 6 and 10 million years ago, making it one of the oldest “crown” penguins (species closely related to living species). It is related to modern banded penguins, which thrive in warmer areas.

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

Posting extinct penguins for #PenguinAwarenessDay Petradyptes stonehousei was a big penguin, weighing in at about 110lbs. The genus name combines the Greek “petra” for rock and “dyptes” for diver, a play on this diving bird being preserved in a boulder.

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

Happy Penguin Awareness Day to those who celebrate

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

This looks like an incredible volume - amazing cover art too.

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

Only 25 days left to see the original art behind the Federal Duck Stamp at the Bruce Museum! This is one of my (many) favorites, David Maass's iconic oil painting of Wood Ducks for the 1974-1975 stamp. Bruce Museum, Gift of Richie Prager, 2021.15.31

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

Blast from the penguin past.

submitted 42 days ago • 0 comments

A little hint of whats coming up in March at the Bruce Museum.

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

This reference format is essentially perfect: Ksepka, D.T., L. Grande and G. Mayr. 2019. Oldest finch-beaked birds reveal parallel ecological radiations in the earliest evolution of passerines. Current Biology 29: 657-663.

submitted 47 days ago • 1 comment

A little quartz on galena to go with the snow on the ground today. On view in the Robert R. Wiener Mineral Gallery at the Bruce Museum.

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

The Bruce Museum is closed Monday because that’s the day the giant insects come to life and run wild for a few hours. We usually get them back in their dioramas by midnight.

submitted 49 days ago • 0 comments