Oh to be a Naturalist in such a beautiful world

Hello there! I'm a 20y/o geology student, and I both want to share my learning process and cool things i find!

[i-draws-dinosaurs]

Hey so an insane new dinosaur got announced??

This is Haolong dongi, a new species of iguanodontian ornithopod found covered in what is basically,,, hedgehog quills??

The fossil is a stunningly preserved skeleton from China that includes evidence of hard armour scales on the tail (like in the much smaller Kulindadromeus), and a coat of spines along its neck and back! The name appropriately means "spiky dragon".

Not only is a spiny iguanodont wild on its own (this individual is over 2 metres long and is a juvenile, other ornithopods with quill-like structures are much smaller), these spines also appear to be an entirely new skin structure? They're apparently not feathers or scales, but a secret third thing.

The publication is available to read here!

[headspace-hotel]

today my best friend and i went exploring a creek that i thought would have a lot of salamanders and stuff but we only found one (1) crawdad and a single salamander in the leaves, and there were no fish which was weird for a creek of that size. We thought that there must be something wrong like pollution from pesticides. The creek seemed to be surrounded by woods as far as we walked but we don't know what is farther upstream

could be a matter of timing/seasonality but something seemed off especially with there being no fish at all, we have had several days of warmth and the spring peepers are calling

saw some amazing moss though, the thick and lush layers of moss coating the trees and logs were like nothing I'd seen before

the plushness and density of the moss on the trees was such that it left a handprint when I pressed my hand into it

[headspace-hotel]

The fascinating thing was that many of the trees coated with moss are American sycamore trees (Platanus occidentalis), which do not normally form thick moss layers because the bark sheds off so frequently

The sycamore trees along this creek were pretty huge though. Maybe they are older than the sycamore trees i usually see?

The bark of many tree species changes dramatically after the tree reaches 100 years of age or so.

[davidstanleytravel]

The limestone strata on Bear Island (Bjørnøya), Svalbard, Norway, has been dramatically folded in places.

[littleorangemushrooms]

About 26 hours in the life of a fruiting Stemonitis chocolate tube slime mold, the weirdest of weird little folks.

[amnhnyc]

Happy Trilobite Tuesday! Some trilobite fossils provide extra insight about life in the Paleozoic seas. An example? This 430-million-year-old Arctinurus from the Rochester Shale of New York! Its 5-in- (12.7-cm-) long body is covered in small brachiopod shells that have hitched a ride upon the trilobite's carapace.

[freshphotons]

“Many freeze-thaw cycles over several days caused ice to form and recede, leaving ridges that resemble contour lines.” -Mary Anne White

[camblorite]

Metamorphic petrology field trip to Minas Gerais countryside

Some pictures of the metamorphic petrology field to the region of Ponte Nova in the Minas Gerais countryside. We described lots of rocks theses days. We had to describe some really weathered rocks since here in Brazil weathered rocks are more common than fresh rocks and we'll probably work with rocks in that condition. But it was very fun at the end!

[i-draws-dinosaurs]

Hey so an insane new dinosaur got announced??

This is Haolong dongi, a new species of iguanodontian ornithopod found covered in what is basically,,, hedgehog quills??

The fossil is a stunningly preserved skeleton from China that includes evidence of hard armour scales on the tail (like in the much smaller Kulindadromeus), and a coat of spines along its neck and back! The name appropriately means "spiky dragon".

Not only is a spiny iguanodont wild on its own (this individual is over 2 metres long and is a juvenile, other ornithopods with quill-like structures are much smaller), these spines also appear to be an entirely new skin structure? They're apparently not feathers or scales, but a secret third thing.

The publication is available to read here!

[cuteitem-deactivated20220720]

Yeah I'm thinking that its dope asf that the river turns rocks smooth

[geologyin-blog]

Naturally iridescent hematite specimen from Graves Mountain, Georgia.

Photo: natalis_gems

Anatoly Bitny-Shlahto

[stavrosskundromichalis]

A desperate Allosaurus fragillis trying to figure out how to take down a full-grown Supersaurus vivianae without dying in the process. Late Jurassic Colorado

[itzsergito90]

@simple-coruscans

[bobnichollsart]

My 25 years of palaeoart chronology…

A small selection of ceratopsians, from DINOSAUR BEHAVIOUR (2023), by Prof Michael Benton (published by Princeton University Press): Styrachosaurus, Pachyrhinosaurus, Diabloceratops, Regaliceratops, Kosmoceratops, Titanoceratops.

[itzsergito90]

@simple-coruscans

[chameleocoonj]

look at my spoons #my spoons

[stavrosskundromichalis]

A small Eocursor parvus hiding under some ferns in Early Jurassic South Africa. From my new book (När dinosaurierna tog över, Idus förlag).

[bobnichollsart]

My 25 years of palaeoart chronology…

A mountain of sauropod flesh, from DINOSAUR BEHAVIOUR (2023), by Prof Michael Benton (published by Princeton University Press). Brachiosaurus, Bruhathkayosaurus, Supersaurus, Argentinosaurus, Maraapunisaurus, and Mamenchisaurus.

[fuckyeahchinesegarden]

rivers and valleys in china

[randomalistic]

Big chomping mouthful of fucking soils

[beepboop-cornstarch]

geologists checking if its silt or clay.