Richard Fallon
@richardfallon.bsky.social
Research Associate in Natural History Humanities at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge (https://www.esc.cam.ac.uk/staff/dr-richard-fallon). Author of "Contesting Earth's History", "Reimagining Dinosaurs", and more.
Pinned
Richard Fallon
@richardfallon.bsky.social
· Sep 15
In a few weeks, I'll be starting a new role as Research Associate in Natural History Humanities at Cambridge, based at the @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social. As part of @camglamresearch.bsky.social, my project will be about 'Re-Excavating the Cambridge School of Geology, 1850–1914'.
Reposted by Richard Fallon
#FossilFriday
Holotype of the phocid pinniped Pliophoca etrusca, exhibited at the Natural History Museum (University of Pisa).
It comes from the Pliocene of Tuscany, and was likely related to Mediterranean monk seals. It was described by Tavani (1941) and reevaluated by Berta et al. (2015).
Holotype of the phocid pinniped Pliophoca etrusca, exhibited at the Natural History Museum (University of Pisa).
It comes from the Pliocene of Tuscany, and was likely related to Mediterranean monk seals. It was described by Tavani (1941) and reevaluated by Berta et al. (2015).
January 9, 2026 at 1:33 PM
#FossilFriday
Holotype of the phocid pinniped Pliophoca etrusca, exhibited at the Natural History Museum (University of Pisa).
It comes from the Pliocene of Tuscany, and was likely related to Mediterranean monk seals. It was described by Tavani (1941) and reevaluated by Berta et al. (2015).
Holotype of the phocid pinniped Pliophoca etrusca, exhibited at the Natural History Museum (University of Pisa).
It comes from the Pliocene of Tuscany, and was likely related to Mediterranean monk seals. It was described by Tavani (1941) and reevaluated by Berta et al. (2015).
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Call now open for Visiting Fellowships in our Natural History Humanities programme! Building long-term collaborations with early career researchers on Cambridge GLAM collections.
@camunivmuseums.bsky.social @theul.bsky.social @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social
www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...
@camunivmuseums.bsky.social @theul.bsky.social @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social
www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...
Natural History Humanities - Collections Connections Communities
www.ccc.cam.ac.uk
January 9, 2026 at 8:27 AM
Call now open for Visiting Fellowships in our Natural History Humanities programme! Building long-term collaborations with early career researchers on Cambridge GLAM collections.
@camunivmuseums.bsky.social @theul.bsky.social @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social
www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...
@camunivmuseums.bsky.social @theul.bsky.social @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social
www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Last year I published a chapter with @richardfallon.bsky.social comparing Conan Doyle's Lost World with Crichton's Jurassic Park and the parallels between the two.
Yesterday we were awarded 'Doylean Honors' from the Arthur Conan Doyle Society for our scholarship. acdsociety.com/Honors/Honor...
Yesterday we were awarded 'Doylean Honors' from the Arthur Conan Doyle Society for our scholarship. acdsociety.com/Honors/Honor...
Palaeontology in Public
Since the establishment of concepts of deep time in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, palaeontology has been one of the most high-profile sciences. Dinosaurs, mammoths, human ancesto...
uclpress.co.uk
January 9, 2026 at 8:24 AM
Last year I published a chapter with @richardfallon.bsky.social comparing Conan Doyle's Lost World with Crichton's Jurassic Park and the parallels between the two.
Yesterday we were awarded 'Doylean Honors' from the Arthur Conan Doyle Society for our scholarship. acdsociety.com/Honors/Honor...
Yesterday we were awarded 'Doylean Honors' from the Arthur Conan Doyle Society for our scholarship. acdsociety.com/Honors/Honor...
Many thanks to the @acdsociety.bsky.social for recognising @davehone.bsky.social and my chapter on Arthur Conan Doyle and Michael Crichton in "Palaeontology in Public"! For the Open Access volume, ed. by @chrismanias.bsky.social: uclpress.co.uk/book/palaeon...
January 9, 2026 at 7:59 AM
Many thanks to the @acdsociety.bsky.social for recognising @davehone.bsky.social and my chapter on Arthur Conan Doyle and Michael Crichton in "Palaeontology in Public"! For the Open Access volume, ed. by @chrismanias.bsky.social: uclpress.co.uk/book/palaeon...
Reposted by Richard Fallon
An exciting conclusion to my time as Research Fellow on the @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social project! Dr Melissa Dickson & I are co-writing a book ‘A British Literary Contagion: ‘Russian Flu’ and Popular Culture at the Fin de Siècle’ for the @manchesterup.bsky.social @sshmedicine.bsky.social series🦠
January 8, 2026 at 11:06 AM
An exciting conclusion to my time as Research Fellow on the @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social project! Dr Melissa Dickson & I are co-writing a book ‘A British Literary Contagion: ‘Russian Flu’ and Popular Culture at the Fin de Siècle’ for the @manchesterup.bsky.social @sshmedicine.bsky.social series🦠
Amazing. The only previous combination of dinosaurs and early modern verse drama that I know of is T. D. A. Cockerell's Progress: A Drama of Evolution (1916), which I reprinted in my @valancourtbooks.bsky.social anthology Creatures of Another Age.
Do love Dinosaurs AND Drama?
Join us 30 January to celebrate the 25th anniversary of 'Walking with Dinosaurs' with a new theatrical production adapting two episodes of the television series into Shakespearean drama.
oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/william-shakespeares-walking-with-dinosaurs
Join us 30 January to celebrate the 25th anniversary of 'Walking with Dinosaurs' with a new theatrical production adapting two episodes of the television series into Shakespearean drama.
oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/william-shakespeares-walking-with-dinosaurs
January 8, 2026 at 10:05 AM
Amazing. The only previous combination of dinosaurs and early modern verse drama that I know of is T. D. A. Cockerell's Progress: A Drama of Evolution (1916), which I reprinted in my @valancourtbooks.bsky.social anthology Creatures of Another Age.
Possibly the least eventful cover The Lost World has ever been graced with?
January 8, 2026 at 8:52 AM
Possibly the least eventful cover The Lost World has ever been graced with?
Graptolite? Not graptolite. @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social
January 7, 2026 at 12:09 PM
Graptolite? Not graptolite. @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social
Pretty sure the reduction in carriages on my train back is going to lead to a murder soon
January 6, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Pretty sure the reduction in carriages on my train back is going to lead to a murder soon
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Hurray! Congratulations.
@biodivlibrary.bsky.social is essential and will hopefully be saved.
#HistNatHist #NatHist
@biodivlibrary.bsky.social is essential and will hopefully be saved.
#HistNatHist #NatHist
💚 Thanks to our global BHL community, we reached our USD 50,000 #GiveBHLWings goal by 1 Jan 2026! These funds support BHL’s transition, staff, and infrastructure, keeping biodiversity knowledge open worldwide. Special thanks to our recurring donors. More updates soon. 🌍 📖 🧪 #BHLTransition
January 6, 2026 at 6:00 AM
Hurray! Congratulations.
@biodivlibrary.bsky.social is essential and will hopefully be saved.
#HistNatHist #NatHist
@biodivlibrary.bsky.social is essential and will hopefully be saved.
#HistNatHist #NatHist
Astonished to learn that my book Contesting Earth's History is suddenly, perhaps for a brief window, almost affordable. Why? Who knows.
I read little non-fic or academic, @richardfallon.bsky.social book fascinated me when I read a sample, esp as a fan of lost worlds and hollow earth fiction
'They-who-shall-not-be-named' had it down to £29 from £88, which I couldn't pass up
www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...
'They-who-shall-not-be-named' had it down to £29 from £88, which I couldn't pass up
www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...
Contesting Earth's History in Transatlantic Literary Cu…
Discover and share books you love on Goodreads.
www.goodreads.com
January 5, 2026 at 2:43 PM
Astonished to learn that my book Contesting Earth's History is suddenly, perhaps for a brief window, almost affordable. Why? Who knows.
Surprised Philip Larkin agreed to model for this advert.
January 5, 2026 at 11:28 AM
Surprised Philip Larkin agreed to model for this advert.
The thermostat's reading Pleistocene at the @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social.
January 5, 2026 at 8:53 AM
The thermostat's reading Pleistocene at the @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social.
Reposted by Richard Fallon
𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 from all of us at Systematics and Biodiversity ✨ Wishing you all a great 2026✨
Throwback to our most read paper of 2025 by Scott 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭.: Collecting and cataloguing the world: the botanical collections of Hans Sloane (1660–1753) 🌿
Read here: buff.ly/ce37BTZ #Taxonomy #Collections
Throwback to our most read paper of 2025 by Scott 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭.: Collecting and cataloguing the world: the botanical collections of Hans Sloane (1660–1753) 🌿
Read here: buff.ly/ce37BTZ #Taxonomy #Collections
January 5, 2026 at 8:00 AM
𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 from all of us at Systematics and Biodiversity ✨ Wishing you all a great 2026✨
Throwback to our most read paper of 2025 by Scott 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭.: Collecting and cataloguing the world: the botanical collections of Hans Sloane (1660–1753) 🌿
Read here: buff.ly/ce37BTZ #Taxonomy #Collections
Throwback to our most read paper of 2025 by Scott 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭.: Collecting and cataloguing the world: the botanical collections of Hans Sloane (1660–1753) 🌿
Read here: buff.ly/ce37BTZ #Taxonomy #Collections
That Siegfried Sassoon sure could write 'em (when he wanted to).
January 3, 2026 at 8:12 AM
That Siegfried Sassoon sure could write 'em (when he wanted to).
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Happy New Year! Excited to announce that as of January 1, @sarahmpicks.bsky.social and I are the new co-editors-in-chief of the Endeavour history and philosophy of science journal. If ever you had an idea for an article in that realm, now is the time to pitch it to us!
Endeavour | Journal | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Read the latest articles of Endeavour at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature
www.sciencedirect.com
January 1, 2026 at 10:17 PM
Happy New Year! Excited to announce that as of January 1, @sarahmpicks.bsky.social and I are the new co-editors-in-chief of the Endeavour history and philosophy of science journal. If ever you had an idea for an article in that realm, now is the time to pitch it to us!
Here's a weird but charismatic bird. It was produced by James Powell and Sons, Whitefriars, c. 1850 (Stained Glass Museum, Ely). Happy New Year, everyone!
January 1, 2026 at 7:53 AM
Here's a weird but charismatic bird. It was produced by James Powell and Sons, Whitefriars, c. 1850 (Stained Glass Museum, Ely). Happy New Year, everyone!
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Pretty silver on this Silver-studded blue, from Edmund Sandars, ‘A Butterfly book for the pocket’ (1939).
December 30, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Pretty silver on this Silver-studded blue, from Edmund Sandars, ‘A Butterfly book for the pocket’ (1939).
Reposted by Richard Fallon
A weird tale for New Year's Eve.
"Ancient Lights" by Algernon Blackwood.
31 Dec, streamed live at 8pm, and available to catch up any time.
Free to view. Just click here:
youtube.com/live/BsrjjVd...
"Ancient Lights" by Algernon Blackwood.
31 Dec, streamed live at 8pm, and available to catch up any time.
Free to view. Just click here:
youtube.com/live/BsrjjVd...
Ancient Lights by Algernon Blackwood
YouTube video by Nunkie Films
youtube.com
December 30, 2025 at 6:06 PM
A weird tale for New Year's Eve.
"Ancient Lights" by Algernon Blackwood.
31 Dec, streamed live at 8pm, and available to catch up any time.
Free to view. Just click here:
youtube.com/live/BsrjjVd...
"Ancient Lights" by Algernon Blackwood.
31 Dec, streamed live at 8pm, and available to catch up any time.
Free to view. Just click here:
youtube.com/live/BsrjjVd...
The collections at Ely Stained Glass Museum are brilliant. Here's part of a jokey 1930 take on The Prodigal Son, made by Moira Forsyth while she was attending the @royalcollegeofart.bsky.social.
December 31, 2025 at 1:20 PM
The collections at Ely Stained Glass Museum are brilliant. Here's part of a jokey 1930 take on The Prodigal Son, made by Moira Forsyth while she was attending the @royalcollegeofart.bsky.social.
Algernon Blackwood connoisseurs: should I read this?
December 30, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Algernon Blackwood connoisseurs: should I read this?
Paul Delvaux's painting The Awakening of the Forest (1939) was inspired by the subterranean forest in Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth. As far as I know (not much), we don't have a wide-ranging study of Surrealism's relationship with Earth's history (www.artic.edu/artworks/111...)
December 30, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Paul Delvaux's painting The Awakening of the Forest (1939) was inspired by the subterranean forest in Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth. As far as I know (not much), we don't have a wide-ranging study of Surrealism's relationship with Earth's history (www.artic.edu/artworks/111...)
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Paul Delvaux (Belgian, 1897–1994). Loneliness (1956, oil).
December 28, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Paul Delvaux (Belgian, 1897–1994). Loneliness (1956, oil).
This book contains a hell of a lot of murderous Norman peasants. And typos.
December 29, 2025 at 12:42 PM
This book contains a hell of a lot of murderous Norman peasants. And typos.