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Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 23h

…the tar which used to boil in it to the heat, like resin in a fagot of moss-fir, was as strange a mixture as ever yet bubbled in witches’ caldron—blood of pterodactyle and grease of ichthyosaur…

—Hugh Miller, MY SCHOOLS & SCHOOLMASTERS (1854) – also on @gutenberg.org
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gutenberg.org/ebooks/30737

Immediately beyond the granitic gneiss of the hill there is a subaqueous deposit of the Lias formation, never yet explored by geologist, because never yet laid bare by the ebb; though every heavier storm from the sea tells of its existence, by tossing ashore fragments of its dark bituminous shale. I soon ascertained that the shale is so largely charged with inflammable matter as to burn with a strong flame, as if steeped in tar or oil, and that I could repeat with it the common experiment of producing gas by means of a tobacco-pipe luted with clay. And, having read in Shakspere of a fuel termed "sea-coal," and unaware at the time that the poet merely meant coal brought to London by sea, I inferred that the inflammable shale cast up from the depths of the Firth by the waves could not be other than the veritable "sea-coal" which figured in the reminiscences of Dame Quickly; and so, assisted by Finlay, who shared in the interest which I felt in the substance, as at once classical and an original discovery, I used to collect it in large quantities and convert it into smoky and troubled fires, that ever filled our cavern with a horrible stench, and scented all the shore. Though unaware of the fact at the time, it owed its inflammability, not to vegetable, but to animal substance; the tar which used to boil in it to the heat, like resin in a fagot of moss-fir, was as strange a mixture as ever yet bubbled in witches' caldron—blood of pterodactyle and grease of ichthyosaur—eye of belemnite and hood of nautilus; and we learned to delight in its very smell, all oppressive as that was, as something wild, strange, and inexplicable. Once or twice I seemed on the eve of a discovery: in splitting the masses, I occasionally saw what appeared to be fragments of shells embedded in its substance; and at least once I laid open a mysterious-looking scroll or volute, existing on the dark surface as a cream-coloured film; but though these organisms raised a temporary wonder …

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 1d

Happy #FossilFriday, brought to you this week from the #Ediacaran Johnson Discovery Surface in Discovery UNESCO Global geopark. This lovely #Bradgatia like #Fractofusus shows the wonderful fractal-like branching of the #Rangeomorpha for your enjoyment. @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social

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Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Dr Jack J Matthews @jackjamesmatthews.bsky.social · 4d

📅 5 years ago we had an online conference about geoheritage, and a few of us thought "wouldn't it be good if there was a special day for geodiversity".

🇺🇳 So we worked together to create it.

🏞 And now the world talks about geodiversity on Oct 6th.

😊 Happy #GeodiversityDay

UNESCO International Geodiversity Day @geodiversityday.bsky.social · 5d

🥳 Happy Geodiversity Day!

⭐ As we celebrate with the theme 'One Earth, Many Stories', read this message from the new UNESCO Chair in Geodiversity and Geoconservation:

🌐 www.geodiversityday.org/post/unesco-...

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 5d

this is a fabulous story :-)

Tom Sharpe @tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 5d

#MolluscMonday: James Sowerby's illustration of Ammonites bucklandi from the Lias of the Bath district, in vol.2 of Mineral Conchology (1818), the description brightened by the tale of William Buckland being proclaimed an 'Ammon Knight' by his friends for his mode of carrying a large specimen.

Illustration from Sowerby's Mineral Conchology of the large ammonite he named after William Buckland. It shows a large spiral shell with its inner whorls missing.

Extract from Sowerby's published description: 'Found in the Blue Lias of Bath and the neighbourhood, measuring from a foot to 21 inches or more in diameter, and rather remarkable for having frequently lost the inner whorls; which circumstance, by a sort of friendly pun, has given rise to the name given it, in honour of a meritorious and enlightened Geologist, the Rev. W. Buckland, who having found a large specimen, was induced by his ardour to carry it himself, although of considerable weight, and being on horseback it was not the less inconvenient; but the inner whorls being gone so as to allow his head and shoulder to pass through, he placed it as a French horn is sometimes carried, above one shoulder and under the other, and thus rode with his friendly companions, who amused him by dubbing him an Ammon Knight; and thus the specimen was secured, by diverting the tedious toil otherwise hardly to be borne. May his zeal for information always be rewarded: may his abilities continue to meet that attention they have hitherto so deservedly gained: may his horn be exalted with honour.'

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 8d

some seafloor necromass. At the type locality in @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social #unesco #geopark
the Lydonia are surrounded by and even over growing #Fractofusus andersoni. I couldn’t get a more fluffy #beggiatoa -like matground to look right so i went with something sparser.

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 8d

Happy #FossilFriday ! When we were in the late stages of publishing the new #Ediacaran #Lydonia jiggamintia i was in very early phases of learning digital painting (I have been sculpting for a while now). and realized i wanted to try to depict a matground covered seafloor starting to reclaim #sciart

$depiction of #ediacaran microbe covered seafloor reclaiming (pink) fractofusus necromass being simultaneously overgrown by a papillate yellow sponge relative #Lydonia jiggamintia$

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Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Allen Collins @agcollins.bsky.social · 8d

Very proud of my former student and longtime collaborator and friend Cheryl Lewis Ames. www.tohoku.ac.jp/romance/en/0...

An Ocean of Possibilities - The Romance of Research - TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

There’s no hierarchy in my lab. If you need to learn something, you just find the person who knows how to do it best.” - Cheryl Ames - Professor, WPI-AIMEC & Graduate School of Agricultural Science, T...

www.tohoku.ac.jp

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 9d

Some lovely coverage of our supportive relationship with @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social in this article from Memorial.

it has been a longstanding commitment, established while Dr Jack Matthews was with me at MUN, and with amazingly kind support from Edith Samson

gazette.mun.ca/public-engag...

On the land

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have a special attachment to our home — not just to the vibrant culture found in our communities, but to the ground beneath our feet.

gazette.mun.ca

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 11d

#Ediacaran animals with a punk rock vibe.

what is not to like :-)

www.sciencenews.org/article/eart...

#Lydonia @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social

What may be one of Earth’s earliest animals has a punk rock vibe

Squiggly markings like a punk rock hairdo led researchers to identify the remains as spongelike animals that may have lived around 560 million years ago.

www.sciencenews.org

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Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Natalia Jagielska @nataliajagielska.bsky.social · 14d

And that's how you integrate digital elements into an exhibition. Part of the temporary "China's Dinosaur World" at the Shanghai Natural History Museum, China. Closing this November.

Video source: Shanghai Let's Meet

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 14d

that’s a gorgeous reconstruction

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 15d

Happy #FossilFriday from the #Ediacaran of Inner Meadow in Newfoundland. The meadow is beautiful this time of year and it is great for the clearing work. Here is a newly exposed #Charnia masoni. The first masoni from this site, our faunal list is getting long!

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 15d

Bob Hooper was my friend and predecessor in the role of Director at Bonne Bay Aquarium and Research Station. I am going to miss this lovely human. Anyone who knew Bob might like to watch this. #BonneBay m.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Dk...

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 16d

that is very atmospheric Bob

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 19d

amazing!

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 21d

or gale forss win(d)

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Duncan Mackay @theduncanmackay.bsky.social · 22d

#OTD 19 September 1991, walkers in the high Ötztal alps on the Italian border, found a body melting out of the ice. It turned out to be the remains of a c.5200 year old man preserved with all his kit.
Of course, it was essential to replicate him in Playmobil.
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#PlaymobilÖtzi
#PlaymobilInfestation

Playmobil figure kitted out as prehistoric iceman Ötzi.

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 21d

That seems like a very long time ago Tony!

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Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 22d

For #FossilFriday, one of the oldest known animal trace fossils interpreted from the geologic record (~565 million years old) preserved as a tiny trail on a bedding plane at Mistaken Point, NewFoundland (Canada), investigated during a 2012 visit by our hero, Paleontologist Barbie. 🧪🐾🪨⚒️

Gray and black mottled rock surface with a light-yellow trail crossing it from the middle-left to lower right of the photo; to the right is a prone Paleontologist Barbie doll (African-American version with long black hair) wearing a proper broad-brimmed hat for field work, a pink kerchief around her neck, and a shirt with motifs of animal tracks and dinosaurs on it).

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 22d

we would love to find out!

the analogue we use to reconstruct #Lydonia. The modern encrusting sponge Polymastia (no direct affinity implied) which is yellow with long papillae sitting amidst rhodoliths in the Bonne Bay Aquarium and Research station from my time as Director there.

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 22d

to an aquiferous system analogous to that of sponges. Lydonia is currently known from @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social and @mistakenpoint.bsky.social in rock about 565 million years old. We are not sure what John Lydon will make of being compared to a fossil that grew on rotten animals, but…

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 22d

his style, especially his spiked hair. We have brought these two together in the name Lydonia jiggamintia which we use for an early encrusting sponge that grew over the rotting tissues of rangeomorph #Ediacaran organisms, with an upper surface covered with papillae that were probably the entrance

two #Lydonia jiggamintia on the Johnson Discovery Surface in Discovery UNESCO Global Geopark showing the oval morph and pimply surface

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 22d

happy #FossilFriday! in the 1820’s a captive Beothuk woman Shanawdithit created a word list including jiggamint (spiky gooseberry). She was the last of her people & from what we know a truly amazing person.
In the 1970’s punk icon John Lyndon (Johnny Rotten) inspired a generation with angst and..

painting of the beothuk woman Shanawdithit. The beothuk were rendered culturally extinct by european settlers, what we know of that vanished culture comes from the art and stories of this amazing woman. Painting by Henry Gosse taken from Shanawdithit’s wikipedia page

John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) showing his iconic spiky hair that is compared to the short spiky papillae of Lydonia

My seafloor reconstruction of Lydonia jiggamintia showing a yellowish sponge with short spikes (papillae) overgrowing a dead Rangeomorph (pinkish) #Fractofusus. the seafloor and Fractofusus are covered in whitish microbes and microbial filaments representing the matgrounds typical of #Ediacaran seafloors

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Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

🦕Journal of Systematic Palaeontology🦴 @journalsystpal.bsky.social · 23d

New Paper by Parry et al., reinterpreting the oldest diverse #jellyfish fauna as sessile polypoid dinomischids 🪼

These findings significantly expand the temporal and geographical range of dinomischids, elucidating their morphological and taphonomic variation.

buff.ly/ERV7P3C

#PaleoSky #Fossils

Browse all journals

doi.org

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 24d

haha you can see their point though :-).

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