Dave Rodland
@daverodland.bsky.social
440 followers 180 following 1.4K posts
Geologist to the 3rd degree and (formerly) professional necromancer. Paleoecology, taphonomy, stratigraphy, marine biology ... all things Earth history. Living in the past and talking to dead things since the late Holocene.
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daverodland.bsky.social
Yup. A classic for its time.
daverodland.bsky.social
I liked Sue's old location, but honestly, I would love Sue reanimated and stomping zombies* in the streets of Chicago, so ...

*feel free to substitute the brainless peons of your villain of choice here, I'm just riffing on one of my favorite scenes of urban fantasy.
Sue the T. rex on display in the atrium of the Chicago Field Museum circa 2012. A bald dude in a black leather jacket stands in front of the skeletal mount, grinning and showing two thumbs up.
Reposted by Dave Rodland
drjeffmasters.bsky.social
When will the climate change coastal property bubble pop? A significant acceleration in coastal flooding from a lunar orbit shift (mid-2030s) will significantly stress the market. My 2024 post: "When will climate change turn life in the U.S. upside down?"
yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/08/when...
daverodland.bsky.social
This. Not only this ... we KNOW that's how writing happens.

That's how it's ALWAYS got done.

We all got through university that way ... learning to be able to pull that off was the entire point!

Well, that, and the dance parties in the basement of the German Haus.
alexhanna.bsky.social
As an instructor, I'd rather see your fever dream, No Doze-fueled 4AM essays written at an IHOP rather than anything generated by an LLM.

Hope this helps
monkeyminion.com
I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.
daverodland.bsky.social
Oh, my Russian is rusty, but I love that "kit" is whale, and "kot" is cat. 🐋🐈‍⬛
daverodland.bsky.social
Somewhere out there is a meme I can't relocate, translating various closing clauses. "Best regards," for instance, was a clinical qualification for psychopathy.

Also preferred by 4/5 university administrators, not gonna lie.

Dammit, this is going to come up in that interview tomorrow, isn't it?
daverodland.bsky.social
What if we want to learn about squid in the ocean?

Oh. Right. Sorry. Forgot my manners.

What if we want to learn about *string of creative profanities* squid in the *honestly I didn't know expletives could intermesh that way, but wow, yes, please continue* ocean?

🦑🐙
daverodland.bsky.social
Some days, it's just not your jam.
Heron taking wing over a green pond
daverodland.bsky.social
At least one recent study had recent grads in the Earth Sciences just behind Nursing in the top ten lowest unemployment majors, and earning more than any majors that didn't have "engineering" or "construction" in the title. But advertised jobs certainly seem focused on environmental applications.
daverodland.bsky.social
While there is evidence that some species were the vampires of the deep, drilling holes into crinoids to suck on their vital bodily fluids, others chose a different mode of parasitism, attaching to their anal pyramids instead. They are thought to be obligate coprophages.

Yep, they ate crap.
A black fossil gastropod shell resembling a horn-of-plenty, but wide. This is the dorsal surface, a tapered ovoid form. Label: 
"Platyceras aequilaterale Hall
Mississippian 
Crawfordsville, Indiana"
daverodland.bsky.social
It's been an overwhelming sort of day, butterflies. But it is still #MolluskMonday 🧪⚒️🐚 ...

Honestly, these guys have been cropping up in conversation on and off for months, so I'm overdue. Meet the platyceratids, an extinct clade of Paleozoic gastropods with unsavory dietary preferences. 💩
A black fossil gastropod shell resembling a horn-of-plenty, but wide. Label: 
"Platyceras aequilaterale Hall
Mississippian 
Crawfordsville, Indiana"
daverodland.bsky.social
Twilight Zone twist: heroine suddenly remembers this specific question from the SATs ...
daverodland.bsky.social
(But I was following their dino blog very closely at the time and my sense of humor doesn't always come across properly!)
daverodland.bsky.social
Depends on the airport and airport bookstore. PDX has Powell's and that's always worth a stop.

Can't remember which airport bookstore it was, but I do recall seeing a dinosaur book called "My Beloved Brontosaurus" Can't remember the author's byline, but I probably should've snagged it at the time.
daverodland.bsky.social
What, the Ordovician isn't Cambrian enough for you?

No, you're right, that osteostracan is clearly too derived for the Ordovician. The eurypterid's just hanging with the old folks.
daverodland.bsky.social
If you ever run low on horrible invertebrate anecdotes (which is to say, you get bored of the classics), I can recommend a variety of coprophagous gastropods and barnacles of the genus Sacculina.
daverodland.bsky.social
10/04? 🤦🏻‍♂️❤️
daverodland.bsky.social
I mean, just, generally ... the Induan is A Bad Time To Visit. There were bad places and there were worse places, but none of 'em were what I'd call comfortable year-round.

Especially not anywhere on the Tethys.
daverodland.bsky.social
Eocene? So, 56-34 million years ago, very approx. I'd dig further, but these burgers don't flip themselves!
daverodland.bsky.social
Sure! I'll take mine with four shots espresso, a couple fingers of amaretto, and powdered cinnamon.

I mean, since we're talking nostalgia here.
daverodland.bsky.social
Late Holocene, +/- a thousand years? My dating game is horrible.

Definitely post-Triassic.
daverodland.bsky.social
To be fair, memory is fluid and not to be trusted, particularly mine