Dennis Hansen
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dennish.bsky.social
Dennis Hansen
@dennish.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.1K following 1.8K posts
Concept- & content developer new Natural History Museum UniZurich; Island biologist w. fetish for giant tortoises (Aldabrans!) & rewilding 🐢
Fond of Gessner (x2) & Scheuchzer; lover of old books, older fossils, history of science & music of metal
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dennish.bsky.social
If not today, when? 🤓
A dark beer in a glass, the can next to it reads 'Konrad's Stout'
March 26, 2025 at 5:23 PM
dennish.bsky.social
Happy 509th, Conrad G!
A glass of beer - cheers!
March 26, 2025 at 4:38 PM
dennish.bsky.social
Lunchtime on Aldabra Atoll - where sharing the shade with gorgeous giants makes any day feel like #TortoiseTuesday 💚🐢🌿 #FieldworkArchive
An Aldabra giant tortoise seeking as much shade as possible behind the trunk of a tree that is almost entirely engulfed by a strangler fig. Some aerial roots from the strangler fig on the branches above the tortoise hang down and frame the tortoise like a curtain.
March 25, 2025 at 8:42 AM
dennish.bsky.social
I love this painting of a fish fossil (Palaeoniscum?) from Johs. Gessner's collection 🖤
Viewed straight on, the fish is hard to see, but viewed from the side/with light, it springs to life - just like in real fossils of this type (ZBZ NFF4; gouache, mid-1700s) #SciHist #SciArt #EarlyModern
A pair of matching pieces of dark shale, with the positive- and negative-side imprints of a herring-sized fossil fish faintly visible. The same shale slates seen from a low side-view angle - now the silvery scales and outline of the fish is clearly visible.
March 22, 2025 at 7:33 AM
dennish.bsky.social
Perfect arrival timing for @nhmbryozoa.bsky.social's new book this #FossilFriday! 🤗
A book on fossils with a cross-sectioned ammonite on the cover. It stands on a table with a fossil ammonite standing partly in front of it.
March 21, 2025 at 9:03 AM
dennish.bsky.social
...or just different, non-touristy styles back then; here's a close-up of a part of a painting from early-mid 1700s
www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collectio...
A river boat in Venice, with three people and goods
March 16, 2025 at 11:18 AM
dennish.bsky.social
The latest epic tale by @restingdinoface.bsky.social - When the Earth was Green - arrived in the museum dungeon today! 💚
Standing on a chunk of Rhynie chert & some other planty-nerdy dungeon dwellers in the foreground, it was warmly welcomed by Toni, our resident emotional support sauropod. 🧪🦕🌿🌲🌴🌱🌷🌳
A book standing on a chunk of grey rock (containing fossils of some of the first land plants!). A plushy sauropod dinosaur stands next to it (looking ready to read!) - with three seeds and two plant fossils in the foreground.
March 12, 2025 at 8:39 AM
dennish.bsky.social
Might be some lurking around on e-manuscripta.ch? I don't know for sure; sorry!
But at least they have several texts from the right period, see screenshot.
March 7, 2025 at 7:25 PM
dennish.bsky.social
Enjoy this classic, broken megalodon tooth from Scheuchzer's collection for this #FossilFriday - & prints of it from his books Piscium queruleae (1708; centre) & Physica sacra (1731; right). Both prints include a line to show/reconstruct the shape the whole tooth would have had. #SciArt #EarlyModern
A fossil shark tooth to the left, and two different copperplate prints of it to the right.
March 7, 2025 at 2:02 PM
dennish.bsky.social
I'm giving a talk tomorrow 18h about fossils and our long history of finding them fascinating. It'll be in my best/worst German; be warned...
It's part of the month-long visit of our museum to the Wasserkirche, where it all began in 1634💚
Oh, and it's inside a boat. 🤘
wasserkirche.ch/-5/kalender~...
An old church hall, with the front end of a large wooden boat placed in the far end of the hall. It has a doorway with a ramp leading up to it on one side. #SciHist #Paleo #Palaeo
March 5, 2025 at 4:46 PM
dennish.bsky.social
How was a stressful last week made better, you ask? By receiving one of @himmapaan.bsky.social's spell-binding works in the mail - Natee, you are a star ⭐💚
A drawing and part of a letter; the drawing is a sepia pencil work, depicting a delightfully chunky deer with a sly smile on its face.
February 24, 2025 at 6:05 PM
dennish.bsky.social
A bit of impromptu 'fieldwork' on our dear Plateosaurus today - Ben Pabst & @jordanbestwick1.bsky.social enjoying the Monday quiet in our museum 💚🦕
A man sitting on the stony matrix surrounding a dinosaur skeleton, about to measure bones, another standing outside the glassy wall, ready to take notes
February 24, 2025 at 5:47 PM
dennish.bsky.social
A meme from almost three years ago - still sadly much too relevant on this day, marking 3 years of bloodshed.
Way forward?
1) Fuck Putin & Russia, fuck Trump and his fascist lackeys.
2) Europe, get your shit together.
3) Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦🤘
A man labelled 'Western leaders' standing at a crossroad with two options ahead: Help Ukraine defeat Russia or arrange fake negotiations that sacrifice Ukraine.
February 24, 2025 at 8:29 AM
dennish.bsky.social
*looking at the tiny amount of text I added to a poster after a whole day*
Meme of a monkey puppet looking sideways in a weird way
February 21, 2025 at 7:06 PM
dennish.bsky.social
Earlier this week, I already selected the 'Rostra suo Pica Brasilica' - beak of the Brazilian magpie = a toucan's beak. And lo & behold! - Martina, our curator of the zoological collection, found just such a thing to use as a stand-in for this long-lost specimen! 🤗
A section of a page from the book, with handwritten entries for each object. Two hands holding the long beak of a toucan, held inside a plastic bag.
February 15, 2025 at 8:48 AM
dennish.bsky.social
This weekend's project: Digging through the 700ish pages of Scheuchzer's catalogue of the holdings of the Zurich Kunstkammer's holdings in the Wasserkirche in the late 1600s/early 1700s to find fitting objects for a display there next month. #EarlyModern #SciHist
The museum catalogue for the Wasserkirche Kunstkammer - an old, thick tome of a book, bound in vellum. It is now held in the archives of the Zentralbibliothek in Zurich. The first page of contents of the catalogue, with lists of the various types of objects in an ordered system.
February 15, 2025 at 8:48 AM
dennish.bsky.social
What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than by (re-)posting this silverpoint drawing of a bivalve cast by Anna Waser this #FossilFriday 💚 #EarlyModern
A grey-tone drawing of a heart-shaped fossil. It has 'Anna Wasera f.' (meaning, 'Anna Waser drew this') written below. This was added by Anna Waser's cousin, Johann Jakob Scheuchzer in the late 1600s or early 1700s after she drew it.
February 14, 2025 at 6:37 AM
dennish.bsky.social
Come join this Thursday at 18:00 in the museum if you want to know (almost) everything about how our award-winning forest mural grew into being in a most splendid collaboration with Brian Engh!
Warning: 'Twill be in German (-ish, given the time of day...!)
#SciArt #Paleo #Palaeo 🌱🌿🌲🦕🦖
February 11, 2025 at 12:55 PM
dennish.bsky.social
A #TortoiseTuesday timeline cleanse - enjoy this pair of algae-munching giants on Aldabra Atoll 💚🐢🌿 #FieldworkArchive
Two giant tortoises in a pond filled with green algal scum. Long threads of green hang from their mouths down to the water like green spaghetti.
February 11, 2025 at 8:12 AM
dennish.bsky.social
A beautiful Dimetrodon limbatus from Knuthenborg's Museum of Evolution for #FossilFriday - one of their fossils from the Jack Loftin collection in Texas.
The stocky skull of the animal, with its sharp teeth and long canines The wall-mounted, partly complete skeleton of the animal in the pose it was found. The long, thin bones of its back sail almost forming a solid bony landscape because of the backwards-curved spine.
February 7, 2025 at 8:42 AM
dennish.bsky.social
Another star of the museum is the recently described Lokiceratops, nicknamed 'Frederik' - what a beautiful weirdo! #Palaeo
The skull of Lokiceratops, showing the horned frill from the side. The skull seen from the front, very narrow, and with adorably asymmetrical horns. The skull seen 2/3 from behind, with another large dinosaur seen in the background.
February 5, 2025 at 12:36 PM
dennish.bsky.social
Had the great fortune to meet 'Adam' the Torosaurus up close at the Museum of Evolution in Knuthenborg, together with @lauraminifera.bsky.social. The skull is 3m long! (largest known ceratopsian skull, I think?). #Palaeo
The original skull on display in a separate 'enclosure. Apart from the two long horns, everything else is pretty much original bone. The rest of the skeleton (with a skull cast), mounted in a rearing position, standing on its hind legs. Laura and yours truly posing in front of the rearing dinosaur, frozen in fear of the impending death by stomping.
February 5, 2025 at 12:18 PM
dennish.bsky.social
I think it's more likely a monkfish than a minnow - just ate the head of one tonight 😁
Roasted head of a large fish with a broad mouth, filled with sharp teeth
January 31, 2025 at 7:55 PM
dennish.bsky.social
I'm proud to say that our museum will be part of this for the month of March, where we go back to our (very deep) roots - the first (Natural History) Museum of Zurich was opened here in 1634. More on this soon! #EarlyModern
A copper-plate print of the Kunstkammer museum in the Wasserkirche in Zurich, showing what it looked like in the late 1600s.
January 29, 2025 at 9:37 AM
dennish.bsky.social
Tomorrow, a new ship will be launched in Zurich - or at least the front part of one. The next 8 months, project 'Arche 2.0' will provide a pretty cool space in the Wasserkirche for events of all kinds.
The view from the seating inside the large wooden structure resembling the front 1/3 of a large ship being built in the church. The view from halfway up the church of the wooden boat being constructed. A few days later, standing in front of the almost-finished wooden boat, with an entry ramp visible on the starboard side of the vessel.
January 29, 2025 at 9:37 AM