Dave Rodland
@daverodland.bsky.social
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.
#FossilFriday isn't done yet! 🧪⚒️🦪 In today's installment, we have interior decor from a lovely little diner I had lunch in over 10 years ago, along the southern Oregon coast. Look, I have very specific professional interests. Some of them are boring.
November 21, 2025 at 10:23 PM
#FossilFriday isn't done yet! 🧪⚒️🦪 In today's installment, we have interior decor from a lovely little diner I had lunch in over 10 years ago, along the southern Oregon coast. Look, I have very specific professional interests. Some of them are boring.
You know, I'm not good about #TrilobiteTuesday. They weren't a strength of the collection, unless you count a stupid number of Silica shale phacopids that probably aren't Phacops rana as labeled, but ... I am not a trilobite guy.
These are a couple of olenellids, famous as tectonic shear indicators
These are a couple of olenellids, famous as tectonic shear indicators
November 19, 2025 at 2:10 AM
You know, I'm not good about #TrilobiteTuesday. They weren't a strength of the collection, unless you count a stupid number of Silica shale phacopids that probably aren't Phacops rana as labeled, but ... I am not a trilobite guy.
These are a couple of olenellids, famous as tectonic shear indicators
These are a couple of olenellids, famous as tectonic shear indicators
While these extinct cousins of living squids and other coleoids usually kept things tightly wound, the heteromorphic ones cut loose and explored some non-Raupian morphospace, changing the expansion parameter mid-growth. This might represent a non-feeding egg-brooding stage, but it isn't certain.
November 17, 2025 at 11:52 PM
While these extinct cousins of living squids and other coleoids usually kept things tightly wound, the heteromorphic ones cut loose and explored some non-Raupian morphospace, changing the expansion parameter mid-growth. This might represent a non-feeding egg-brooding stage, but it isn't certain.
#MolluskMonday has fallen upon us like a 10km diameter carbonaceous chondrite. Boom! 🧪⚒️🦑
Today, your reminder that you don't need to keep everything neat and tidy. You can loosen up a little and unwind like a heteromorphic ammonite!
Today, your reminder that you don't need to keep everything neat and tidy. You can loosen up a little and unwind like a heteromorphic ammonite!
November 17, 2025 at 11:52 PM
#MolluskMonday has fallen upon us like a 10km diameter carbonaceous chondrite. Boom! 🧪⚒️🦑
Today, your reminder that you don't need to keep everything neat and tidy. You can loosen up a little and unwind like a heteromorphic ammonite!
Today, your reminder that you don't need to keep everything neat and tidy. You can loosen up a little and unwind like a heteromorphic ammonite!
Last saved meme is your moral philosophy.
November 17, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Last saved meme is your moral philosophy.
Sharing is caring?
Claudia looks cute, but she bites at random, and swings casually at anyone who doesn't maintain eye contact while passing by. Should not have named her after a cranky adorable vampire. Names have power.
Claudia looks cute, but she bites at random, and swings casually at anyone who doesn't maintain eye contact while passing by. Should not have named her after a cranky adorable vampire. Names have power.
November 16, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Sharing is caring?
Claudia looks cute, but she bites at random, and swings casually at anyone who doesn't maintain eye contact while passing by. Should not have named her after a cranky adorable vampire. Names have power.
Claudia looks cute, but she bites at random, and swings casually at anyone who doesn't maintain eye contact while passing by. Should not have named her after a cranky adorable vampire. Names have power.
Quote with your art with horns, apparently?
November 15, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Quote with your art with horns, apparently?
We live near the northern edge of the range for black vultures, an unusually social variety of carrion bird. There were a lot of 'em circling my old campus today. A LOT.
The ancient Greeks would have been able to augur something from this, but I suspect the meaning isn't subtle.
The ancient Greeks would have been able to augur something from this, but I suspect the meaning isn't subtle.
November 15, 2025 at 10:11 PM
We live near the northern edge of the range for black vultures, an unusually social variety of carrion bird. There were a lot of 'em circling my old campus today. A LOT.
The ancient Greeks would have been able to augur something from this, but I suspect the meaning isn't subtle.
The ancient Greeks would have been able to augur something from this, but I suspect the meaning isn't subtle.
It took me longer to realize that the handle of my geologic timescale mug was color coded and scaled appropriately to match the relative duration of eras!
November 15, 2025 at 2:29 PM
It took me longer to realize that the handle of my geologic timescale mug was color coded and scaled appropriately to match the relative duration of eras!
I was today years old when I realized that the nautiloids on my Cincinnatian seaway coffee mug were encrusted with epibionts!
Probably supposed to be microconchids, but I suppose they could include tiny edrioasteroids. 🦑🪸🦂🪼⭐️
Probably supposed to be microconchids, but I suppose they could include tiny edrioasteroids. 🦑🪸🦂🪼⭐️
November 15, 2025 at 2:29 PM
I was today years old when I realized that the nautiloids on my Cincinnatian seaway coffee mug were encrusted with epibionts!
Probably supposed to be microconchids, but I suppose they could include tiny edrioasteroids. 🦑🪸🦂🪼⭐️
Probably supposed to be microconchids, but I suppose they could include tiny edrioasteroids. 🦑🪸🦂🪼⭐️
A former student found a perfect but tiny (legally collectible, palm size) specimen in the spillway at Caesar Creek about ten years back. I was utterly gobsmacked.
Another one found this one on his family farm. Collected and prepared it, left it to the department, ended up at the Cincinnati Museum.
Another one found this one on his family farm. Collected and prepared it, left it to the department, ended up at the Cincinnati Museum.
November 15, 2025 at 1:43 AM
A former student found a perfect but tiny (legally collectible, palm size) specimen in the spillway at Caesar Creek about ten years back. I was utterly gobsmacked.
Another one found this one on his family farm. Collected and prepared it, left it to the department, ended up at the Cincinnati Museum.
Another one found this one on his family farm. Collected and prepared it, left it to the department, ended up at the Cincinnati Museum.
I am not going up against all of SVP for #FossilFriday... so, enjoy the somewhat enigmatic (and in this case, woefully undocumented) graptolite bearing shale. ⚒️🧪
Graptolites were biostratigraphically useful colonial fossils of the lower Paleozoic, often found in organic rich mudstones like this.
Graptolites were biostratigraphically useful colonial fossils of the lower Paleozoic, often found in organic rich mudstones like this.
November 14, 2025 at 10:40 PM
I am not going up against all of SVP for #FossilFriday... so, enjoy the somewhat enigmatic (and in this case, woefully undocumented) graptolite bearing shale. ⚒️🧪
Graptolites were biostratigraphically useful colonial fossils of the lower Paleozoic, often found in organic rich mudstones like this.
Graptolites were biostratigraphically useful colonial fossils of the lower Paleozoic, often found in organic rich mudstones like this.
They ended up describing Astraspis desiderata (this dude) and Eriptychius americanus, which vie with Sacabambaspis for oldest bony fish (as long as we recognize the bones are all external armor plates). Made his career, although arguments raged on for decades.
November 14, 2025 at 3:53 AM
They ended up describing Astraspis desiderata (this dude) and Eriptychius americanus, which vie with Sacabambaspis for oldest bony fish (as long as we recognize the bones are all external armor plates). Made his career, although arguments raged on for decades.
🌕🐌 #MolluskMonday 🧪⚒️
We're still snailposting! Moon snails are voracious infaunal predators, with a mantle so large it can completely cover its own conch. (Square/cube laws apply: a shell 1x across can fit a snail 4x bigger, as long as it exudes 9x more snot!)
I might be exaggerating? Or not?
We're still snailposting! Moon snails are voracious infaunal predators, with a mantle so large it can completely cover its own conch. (Square/cube laws apply: a shell 1x across can fit a snail 4x bigger, as long as it exudes 9x more snot!)
I might be exaggerating? Or not?
November 11, 2025 at 12:46 AM
🌕🐌 #MolluskMonday 🧪⚒️
We're still snailposting! Moon snails are voracious infaunal predators, with a mantle so large it can completely cover its own conch. (Square/cube laws apply: a shell 1x across can fit a snail 4x bigger, as long as it exudes 9x more snot!)
I might be exaggerating? Or not?
We're still snailposting! Moon snails are voracious infaunal predators, with a mantle so large it can completely cover its own conch. (Square/cube laws apply: a shell 1x across can fit a snail 4x bigger, as long as it exudes 9x more snot!)
I might be exaggerating? Or not?
Apparently all the cool kids are snailposting. 🐚🐌
I am not one of the cool kids, but I do maintain an unusually large collection of invertebrate photos.
I am not one of the cool kids, but I do maintain an unusually large collection of invertebrate photos.
November 9, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Apparently all the cool kids are snailposting. 🐚🐌
I am not one of the cool kids, but I do maintain an unusually large collection of invertebrate photos.
I am not one of the cool kids, but I do maintain an unusually large collection of invertebrate photos.
Bockenheimer Warte is looking good! Used to be you had to hit ground level before the fossils came out to play.
Plenty of nice specimens in the U-bahn stonework at the Hauptbahnhof too.
Plenty of nice specimens in the U-bahn stonework at the Hauptbahnhof too.
November 9, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Bockenheimer Warte is looking good! Used to be you had to hit ground level before the fossils came out to play.
Plenty of nice specimens in the U-bahn stonework at the Hauptbahnhof too.
Plenty of nice specimens in the U-bahn stonework at the Hauptbahnhof too.
I guess I'm stuck forever.
Send good Scotch.
Send good Scotch.
November 9, 2025 at 1:27 AM
I guess I'm stuck forever.
Send good Scotch.
Send good Scotch.
Wondered what the cats were watching, startled this dude lying buck nekkid in my back yard. 🦌
Cats are getting more ambitious, I'll tell you what.
Cats are getting more ambitious, I'll tell you what.
November 8, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Wondered what the cats were watching, startled this dude lying buck nekkid in my back yard. 🦌
Cats are getting more ambitious, I'll tell you what.
Cats are getting more ambitious, I'll tell you what.
Further support comes from Ben Dattilo's careful work serial sectioning Rafinesquina, using dozens of slices to show a small, moat-like indentation surrounding the shell. Apparently these guys would gape wide, letting their lophophore hang out in the slipstream. Storms could shingle them tight!
November 7, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Further support comes from Ben Dattilo's careful work serial sectioning Rafinesquina, using dozens of slices to show a small, moat-like indentation surrounding the shell. Apparently these guys would gape wide, letting their lophophore hang out in the slipstream. Storms could shingle them tight!
Both valves curve in the same direction, giving the closed, articulated fossils the semblance of a broad, flat dish. Once thought to live concave side up to elevate the commissure above the seafloor, encrusters seem to prefer the convex side.
November 7, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Both valves curve in the same direction, giving the closed, articulated fossils the semblance of a broad, flat dish. Once thought to live concave side up to elevate the commissure above the seafloor, encrusters seem to prefer the convex side.
What's up, butterflies? Is it #FossilFriday yet? ⚒️🧪
Since there was a nice piece on brachiopod encrustation earlier today, I thought we'd revisit an old classic: the D shaped strophomenid Rafinesquina, a common element of late Ordovician assemblages. Its life orientation is somewhat controversial.
Since there was a nice piece on brachiopod encrustation earlier today, I thought we'd revisit an old classic: the D shaped strophomenid Rafinesquina, a common element of late Ordovician assemblages. Its life orientation is somewhat controversial.
November 7, 2025 at 9:51 PM
What's up, butterflies? Is it #FossilFriday yet? ⚒️🧪
Since there was a nice piece on brachiopod encrustation earlier today, I thought we'd revisit an old classic: the D shaped strophomenid Rafinesquina, a common element of late Ordovician assemblages. Its life orientation is somewhat controversial.
Since there was a nice piece on brachiopod encrustation earlier today, I thought we'd revisit an old classic: the D shaped strophomenid Rafinesquina, a common element of late Ordovician assemblages. Its life orientation is somewhat controversial.
Guess we're doing bonus invertebrates today, since it's #MolluskMonday ⚒️🧪🦑
Of course, the best mollusks attract friends. Here we have a bryozoan-encrusted orthocone cephalopod from the Liberty Fm. Why settle for filter feeding on a hard substrate, when you can settle on a hard mobile substrate?
Of course, the best mollusks attract friends. Here we have a bryozoan-encrusted orthocone cephalopod from the Liberty Fm. Why settle for filter feeding on a hard substrate, when you can settle on a hard mobile substrate?
November 3, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Guess we're doing bonus invertebrates today, since it's #MolluskMonday ⚒️🧪🦑
Of course, the best mollusks attract friends. Here we have a bryozoan-encrusted orthocone cephalopod from the Liberty Fm. Why settle for filter feeding on a hard substrate, when you can settle on a hard mobile substrate?
Of course, the best mollusks attract friends. Here we have a bryozoan-encrusted orthocone cephalopod from the Liberty Fm. Why settle for filter feeding on a hard substrate, when you can settle on a hard mobile substrate?
It's #WorldJellyfishDay, if you get my drift ...
November 3, 2025 at 10:22 PM
It's #WorldJellyfishDay, if you get my drift ...
I hear ya. I don't think I was precisely the target audience for this one, but it's a short list that includes the singer from Bad Religion.
November 3, 2025 at 12:20 AM
I hear ya. I don't think I was precisely the target audience for this one, but it's a short list that includes the singer from Bad Religion.
"Eff this bullshit. I'm out."
Share an angry bird and the curse you think it embodies.
Share an angry bird and the curse you think it embodies.
November 2, 2025 at 1:52 PM
"Eff this bullshit. I'm out."
Share an angry bird and the curse you think it embodies.
Share an angry bird and the curse you think it embodies.