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palaeojules.bsky.social
Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
@palaeojules.bsky.social
7.1K followers 1.4K following 900 posts
British Palaeobotanist, palaeobotanical illustrator and consultant, currently researching Mesozoic plants.
🌿Commissions and consulting open!🌿
BSc, MRes, PGR Student at OU
(she/her)🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈
patreon.com/JulianneKiely
https://palaeoflora.blogspot.com/
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palaeojules.bsky.social
Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿 @palaeojules.bsky.social · Dec 29
Art vs Artist!
2024 has been a great art year for me, but has been incredibly important for other reasons too! I started HRT, got my name changed, worked as a fulltime artist for the first time, had art published in multiple papers and I've probably been happier than ever before! #ArtvsArtist2024
a square image broken up into 9 squares divided by thin black lines. From top left to bottom right. a watercolour pencil drawing of two red confuciusornis feathers in amongst the leaves and branches of a ginkgo tree. A cockroack with dark spots on its back crawling across some moss. The fiddlehead of a fern, with glosssy shiny pinnules enclosing the centre. A sinosauropteryx holding the transfem flag, with a trans coloured striped tail. A photo of me, smiling slightly and looking upwards while leaning my chin on my hand, which is in a fluffy fingerless mitten. A small bird mid-flapping, its wings outsretched up. A conical yellw tree with some close ups of the branches and its cone. the light dragon from tears of the kingdom flying up through a sunset sky. clusters of long serrated leaves growing from several curved stems.
palaeojules.bsky.social
So, an unexpected development, but I'm gonna be giving a talk tomorrow at SVP in Birmingham!!!!! I'll be speaking about palaeobotany in palaeoart, so hopefully it goes well despite being slightly rushed😅.

Anyway, if you're gonna be around for #SVP tomorrow, come say Hi!!! #paleoart #palaeobotany
A PowerPoint title slide with the words The Problem with Plants, Why restoring extinct plants is difficult for palaeoartists.
November 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
I haven't posted much in a while because, probably unsurprisingly, my PhD has kept me busy! But I was just using this drawing of Wielandiella angustifolia from last year, and I realised that I've never shared a close-up showing all the details of the leaves! So anyway, enjoy! #paleobotany #paleoart
A close up of the canopy of a plant with several thin stems ending on clusters of long serrated interlocking leaves.
November 10, 2025 at 3:44 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
So, after teasing us with the press release for the last few hours, the new 'Nanotyrannus is valid, like pretty convincingly this time' paper is Finally online!!!
#paleontology #tyrannosaurus #taxonomy

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
T. rex debate settled: contested fossils are smaller rival species, not juveniles
New evidence answers the question about whether some fossils are Tyrannosaurus rex juveniles or a different species, with implications for decades of published science.
www.nature.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
thepalass.bsky.social
Ten simple rules to follow when cleaning occurrence data in palaeobiology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @lewisajones.bsky.social @es-ucl.bsky.social @paleodb.bsky.social #FossilFriday
Graphic summary of the proposed ten rules and steps to follow when cleaning occurrence data for palaeobiological analysis. The rules are grouped within their respective theme: project setup (Rules 1–3; blue); data exploration and cleaning (Rules 4–8; red); and reporting and archiving (Rules 9 and 10; green).
October 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
Oh wow, I just found out that Alderblattina simmsi got published a year ago! This still might be one of my best pieces of artwork; certainly one of the ones I'm most proud of. It went on to win an award, and it's one of the best environmental pieces I've done! #fossilfriday #paleoart #paleobotany
A drawing of a cockroach crawing over moss
October 24, 2025 at 3:44 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
Reposting an oldie for #FossilFriday!
This is Kalligramma brachyrhyncha, a medium-sized kalligrammatid ( #Mesozoic lacewings) from the Middle #Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China. It is known to have had eyespots on its wings and may have acted as a pollinator for #bennettitaleans. #paleoart
A brown butterfly or moth-like insect with an eyes pot on its wing sitting on a yellow flower like cone.
October 24, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
arctomet.bsky.social
Y.-T. Zhong et al. (2025)

High-precision geochronology of the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation: Temporal constraints on the late phase of the Jehol Biota

Earth and Planetary Science Letters 671: 119688

doi.org/10.1016/j.ep...

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Redirecting
doi.org
October 19, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
stephanspiekman.bsky.social
‼️‼️Triassic Life just opened @smnstuttgart.bsky.social‼️‼️

For all #Triassic fans, lovers of strange reptiles and the Dawn of the Modern World, this is an absolute MUST!

It also couldn't be more timely with our recent publication @nature.com of the wonder reptile #Mirasaura, which is now on display!
October 18, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
cambriancam.bsky.social
Welcome back to #fossilfriday

Here is the holotype cast skull of Proceratosaurus bradleyi. It was found in the Middle Jurassic (Late Bathonian) Great Oolite Group (Forest Marble Formation) near Minchinhampton, a town in Gloucestershire, England.
October 17, 2025 at 7:42 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
Continuing my recent trend of #Yanliao beasties, here's an updated, more serious attempt at #Jeholopterus for #FossilFriday!!! The camouflaged colouration is based in #Ginkgo bark, which would have grown in contemporary forests.
#paleoart #paleontology #sciart #pterosaur #Jurassic #paleobotany
A mottled grey and brown fluffy pterosaur seen in overheaad view, with its left twing and leg outstretched as if in flight, and it's right wing and leg tucked up as if at rest. The patterning in its body and wings looks like Ginkgo bark and its incredibly fluffy.
October 17, 2025 at 1:31 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
And here we have the original Dead Darwin, which was just a relatively quick pen sketch! #paleoart #paleontology #pterosaurs #jurassic #sciart #FossilFriday
A pen sketch of a dead Darwinopterus with its wings partially folded and its head and tail curved up and back over its body.
October 10, 2025 at 4:42 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
A very happy #FossilFriday to everyone except this poor Darwinopterus, which has unfortunately succumbed to whatever ailed it. This is actually a redrawing of a Dead Darwinopterus which I drew years ago, only with updated anatomy. #paleoart #paleontology #pterosaurs #jurassic #sciart
A freshly dead darwinopterus corpse with a cream and brown body, and a blue headrest and tail. It's wings are folded partially and it's hard and tail are pulled up back. This position is based on the idea of it falling through the waters of a lake, or settled at the bottom with some of it's buoyancy keeping parts of it afloat.
October 10, 2025 at 4:23 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
Some good news from me; I've just started a PhD on plant evolution at @openuniversity.bsky.social!!! I'll be posting a lot more soon, but for now here're some of photos from my first week! I can't believe I'm finally here!
#phd #paleobotany #paleontology #research #botany #plants #leaves #evolution
Me standing in front of a poster by Dr Emily Swaby, which my artwork of an ancient dragonfly figured. Me smiling with a pathway in the ou campus in the background One of the induction lectures, with a slide showing a mansion with the caption Expectations, and a chappy logo house with he caption Reality My desk!!!! Aaahhhhhhh!!!!!! With a fan and computer screen set up on it
October 8, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
ausarchosaur.bsky.social
A large theropod (probably tyrannosaur) track from Nose Mountain, Alberta shows the fourth digit twisted such that half of the toe was folded underneath the rest.

They ask you how you are and you just have to say that you're fine when you're not really fine. #FossilFriday
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Left-Natural-cast-of-a-large-theropod-track-from-the-Late-Cretaceous_fig27_278667086
October 3, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
aldpaleo.bsky.social
Just a 300 million year old fossil leaf from France to wish everyone a happy #FossilFriday ! 🌿⛏️
#paleobotany
A brownish fossil frond on a white rock
October 3, 2025 at 1:42 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
It's been a busy week, and I have a LOT of photos to post, so I'll be catching up over the weekend. But in the meantime, here's a Palaeobotanical Bouquet, which I drew earlier this week during an icebreaker event!!!!!!
#FossilFriday #paleobotany #plants #paleontology
A black pen drawings of a bouquet of prehistoric plants. There are lots of leaves and stems and it's kind of a mess. On the front of the wrapping of the bouquet is a cross section through sediments with some fossil blocks in it, and in the top right of the wrapping is a pencil, a magnifying glass and a fossil plant.
October 3, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
susieoftraken.bsky.social
A frond of Phlebopteris, a 230 million year old fern from the Late Triassic Chinle Formation, New Mexico/Arizona.

#FossilFriday #FernFriday ⚒🌏🌱🧪🔬🌿
Phlebopteris frond on a grey mudstone, Late Triassic Chinle Formation, New Mexico/Arizona.
October 3, 2025 at 7:50 AM
palaeojules.bsky.social
Happy #BiVisibilityday everyone!!!
#lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia+ #bisexual #bi
A cartoon sinosauropteryx holding a ginkgonstick with a bi flag attached to it. The background is also coloured like the bi flag.
September 24, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
journalsysevo.bsky.social
Let's go #BehindTheScenes and back in time--with #JSE!

Click the📽️🔗⬇️to join a team of #paleobotanists as they travel to the Miocene rainforests of #China and encounter the first known #fossil Parrotia flower.

jse.ac.cn/attached/med...

#evolution #FossilFriday (oops on a Monday!) #PlantScience
Screenshot from a video summary of the JSE paper "Parrotia flower blooming in Miocene rainforest" by Wu et al.
September 22, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
esconi.bsky.social
Mazon Monday #288: Callipteridium neuropteroides

This is Mazon Monday post #288.  What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Callipteridium neuropteroides is one of the rarer seed ferns (Pteridospermatophyta) found in the Mazon Creek fossil deposit. Although,…
Mazon Monday #288: Callipteridium neuropteroides
This is Mazon Monday post #288.  What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Callipteridium neuropteroides is one of the rarer seed ferns (Pteridospermatophyta) found in the Mazon Creek fossil deposit. Although, it is much more common in the Herrin Coal flora, if the Danville locality is truly representative of that deposit. Callipteridium jongmansi is a European species that appears to be identical.
esconiinfo-ehnsm.wpcomstaging.com
September 22, 2025 at 1:00 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
AHHHHH!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!!!! It's so precious.🥰
#paleobotany
dynamoterror.bsky.social Dynamognathus @dynamoterror.bsky.social · Sep 22
Alderblattina simmsi riding a Baeria gracilis leaf through the air, cowboy style, in Toarcian Europe. A quick doodle of a fun concept, heavily based on beautiful illustrated diagrams made by @palaeojules.bsky.social. #paleoart #inverts #sciart #jurassic
September 22, 2025 at 10:42 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
Ooooohhhhhhh!!!! Leafs!!!
susieoftraken.bsky.social Dr Susannah Lydon @susieoftraken.bsky.social · Sep 19
Prepping for the start of this year's teaching this #FossilFriday, starting with a story about Ginkgo leaves which fell in an Autumn 160 million years ago, and how the microscopic details of those fossil leaves can tell us about climate change.

⚒🌏🌱🧪🔬🌲💚
A slab covered in Ginkgoites huttonii leaves, inside a red plastic tray lined with bubble wrap A close-up of one of the Ginkgoites huttonii leaves, about 3cm across
September 19, 2025 at 2:38 PM
palaeojules.bsky.social
Happy #FossilFriday! Here's a little goober I haven't shared here yet: a Tianyulong jumping of a broken branch of Yimaia capituliformis (a relative of ginkgo). This is based on an unpublished specimen which did the rounds online a few years ago. #paleoart #paleobotany #paleontology #dinosaur
a small brown dinosaur with a very fluffy round body and a long skinny tail with a tuft at the end jumping off a broken off ginkgo branch, splinters of wood fly through the air behind it.
September 19, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Julianne Zelda Kiely 🌿Commissions open🌿
theplantjournal.bsky.social
🌱 BRs are well-known plant hormones, but plants also make other steroids like 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞 & 𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐬, whose roles are unknown

Körber et al show they reshape roots in angiosperms, independently of BRs—opening new research paths.

📖 doi.org/10.1111/tpj.70459
September 15, 2025 at 9:07 AM
palaeojules.bsky.social
Oooohhhhh!!!!! I'll definitely be attending these!!!!!
mark-walters.bsky.social Mark Walters @mark-walters.bsky.social · Sep 14
There’s an interesting series of 5 free online paleobotany lectures via the Oxford University Botanic Garden this autumn. You can book all 5 lectures here (scroll down webpage to ‘Get your tickets now’ button) www.obga.ox.ac.uk/event/dr-san... #paleobotany
September 15, 2025 at 11:31 AM