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

Camelops hesternus pencil drawing, based on mounted skeletons. Extinct Pleistocene camelid. I’ve changed my interpretation of how to reconstruct this species over the years. Feet llama-like. But latest ancient genetics points to solid camel lineage

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Overhang Canyon, Black Mountains, Death Valley National Park, California

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

I’ve never seen this before: not an Aurora but a Moonrise glow in the eastern horizon night sky, about 8PM last night. The air was supercharged with moisture from a passing rainstorm and then very clear. Benefit of dark night skies in the MojaveDesert

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

Paleolama mirifica, a small deer-like stout-limbed extinct llama of the North American Pleistocene. Quick sketch, graphite on paper

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

My #paleoart painting of a scene from the Miocene Brule Formation, Badlands South Dakota: Hoplophoneus, a Nimravid sabercat jumps three-toed horses Mesohippus at a waterhole. Oil on canvas. I’m going to be doing more paleoart paintings this year and will chart progress

submitted 23 days ago • 4 comments

Snow from yesterday on Cima Dome Joshua tree forest, Mojave National Preserve, California

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

And so it begins. The survey stakes go up for Greedlink West Transmission Project, a needless giant remote high-voltage line to carry natural gas generation to AI and data centers in Nevada. Intact wild basins like the Amargosa will be carved up. A prairie falcon flew over.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

While at the 50th Annual Symposium pick up your copy of the new book “California Amphibians and Reptiles” from Princeton University Press! Robert Hansen and artist Jackson Shedd will be on hand to share and sign their book and Jackson Shedd is bringing originals and prints of his art of tortoises,

submitted 48 days ago • 1 comment

Deep Springs Valley, actually a closed basin in Inyo County, eastern California

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

I’m studying how sand-obligate desert kangaroo rats dig these burrows in the flat Mojave Desert of Amargosa Valley, Nevada that may be home to endemic scorpions. Unfortunately once again this is site of a badly-sited utilityscale solar project (Rock Valley). Intact landscapes

submitted 55 days ago • 2 comments

Work of Margret Flinch should get more attention and be named along the Knight and Christman as the great paleoartists. Illustrator and sculptor among other things she made life reconstructions to Osborns massive two part monograph series on proboscideans. I’m particularly fond of these ink drawings

submitted 55 days ago • 3 comments

Rainbow in high cirrus ice clouds over the northern Mojave Desert

submitted 57 days ago • 2 comments

Dramatic rain-snow cloud throwing out rainbows swept over the Amargosa Desert in Nevada at sunset today. Fast moving and engulfing the Spring Range

submitted 61 days ago • 2 comments

The Rock Valley Energy Center is a 10,000 acre solar application in Amargosa Valley, Nevada. Endemic arthopods, burrowing owls, kit foxes and sweeping open views. The project would need about 3,000 acre feet of water near Ash Meadows. www.basinandrangewatch2.org/solar-projec...

submitted 89 days ago • 0 comments

Wolves rewild landscapes. And that’s good for wolves and for entire ecosystems, says @centerforbiodiv.bsky.social “California years ago laid out a welcome mat for wolves and we can keep it there if we don’t get led astray by old fears and misconceptions” www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/las...

submitted 88 days ago • 4 comments

This was a passion project for me and Maija and it was an absolute privilidge to be part of it. The mind of the horse science comic is avilable on amazon and is now on Black week Sale!

submitted 90 days ago • 6 comments

The Mojave desert tortoise says: “So I am supposed to sacrifice 100,000 acres of my habitat for renewable energy development and head towards extinction so you humans can hold a Formula 1 race in Las Vegas?” #NotHelpingClimate

submitted 91 days ago • 3 comments

Last weekend, Mojave Desert north of Las Vegas #Nevada. Cold clear skies and cloud shadows over limestone mountain ranges and creosote. #publiclands

submitted 95 days ago • 1 comment

This little cutie is a Golden-crowned kinglet. I photographed him today actively searching for insects in branches and hopping onto the ground. They sometimes winter in the Upper #AmargosaRiver in riparian groves and yard trees #birds #Nevada

submitted 98 days ago • 3 comments

Absolutely amazing: frozen Homotherium scimitar cat cub found in Pleistocene permafrost deposits of Yakutia. I need to study this and revise my reconstructions! #paleoart www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 101 days ago • 0 comments

Sunset colors and shadows on alkali sacaton and desert shrubs at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Nevada

submitted 101 days ago • 3 comments

Oreodonts study. An extinct group of sheep-sized browsing artiodactyls from the Oligocene and Miocene. Graphite on paper #paleoart

submitted 104 days ago • 1 comment

Red three-awn (Aristida longiseta) in an ungrazed property in Mojave National Preserve, CA. High desert grassland

submitted 112 days ago • 0 comments

I just received a copy of my colleague Jeff Miller’s #book 📕 Bay Area Wildlife: An Irreverent Guide. All my favorite animals by an excellent conservationist (with a wry sense of humor!) And I’m on the back cover giving a review. Get yours at @heydaybooks heydaybooks.com

submitted 113 days ago • 0 comments

Cirrus clouds over a canyon in Death Valley National Park

submitted 118 days ago • 1 comment

Chadron Formation of South Dakota early Oligocene, subtropical scene with Brontops and Merycoidodon. Oil on canvas mural for an exhibition that I did for Badlands National Park #paleoart

submitted 121 days ago • 0 comments

Coyote posing in the Mojave Desert, Nevada. Photo catch by Wayne Bundorf

submitted 124 days ago • 0 comments

Cottontop cactus is well named. Fluffy seeds after flowering. Death Valley National Park area CA/NV

submitted 126 days ago • 0 comments

Snowing on the Sheep Range in southern Nevada this morning

submitted 128 days ago • 1 comment

Dirk-tooth cat (Homotherium serum) skeletal study and life study. Graphite on paper. #paleoart

submitted 129 days ago • 1 comment