John Meszaros
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dilophosaurusbard.bsky.social
John Meszaros
@dilophosaurusbard.bsky.social
Writer and artist of things prehistoric, aquatic and sometimes mythological. Cranky bio-wizard (he/him/they/them) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
my art: https://johnmeszarosart.com
State Cryptids blog: http://statecryptids.blogspot.com
Every year I create a Christmas card for Kraken Robotics, a submersible company based in Newfoundland. Here’s this year’s design featuring Santa Kraken holding some submersible batteries and riding in a sleigh pulled by firefly squid.
December 8, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by John Meszaros
Results from the #paleostream!
A wish by @vincent-notitalian.bsky.social showing a spec evo version of the Toarcian, Falciscaris and Zavacephale.
December 8, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Reposted by John Meszaros
@hakaimagazine.com did a series on what life is like for these guys (features a Mystacocarid - not in the preview pic! There are 4 articles, check them all out)

Here's how to keep the Hakai team going www.biographic.com/hakai-magazi...

#Crustmas 🧪
December 7, 2024 at 6:37 PM
A holiday mummering drawing.

Mummering is a popular Xmas tradition in Labrador and Newfoundland. Groups of people go door-to-door dressed in masks, rags, and old clothes, asking to be let in.

Once inside, mummers will sing, play music, and tell jokes in exchange for snacks and alcohol.
December 5, 2025 at 12:04 PM
First day of #crustmas with some friends gathered for the holidays.

From left to right: Magnapinna squid, sea pig, pterotrachea sea elephant, giant Pacific octopus, remipede, coelacanth, and tripod on the rug
December 2, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Since Stranger Things is on a lot of people’s minds right now, figured I’d share this little article I wrote a couple years ago about D&D monsters in the show.

www.cbr.com/dnd-monsters...
10 D&D Monsters We Need To See In Stranger Things Season 5
Each season of Stranger Things introduces new and interesting monsters, many of them coming straight from the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual.
www.cbr.com
November 29, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by John Meszaros
The next dragon “mutation” is Whale Fall!
November 27, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Happy Turkey Day, y’all!
November 27, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by John Meszaros
The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT, has a new exhibit: Ants - Tiny Creatures, Big Lives. We went today, and here are some impressions. It’s not a massive exhibit, but well done and certainly worth checking out if you’re in the area. The exhibit runs through May 17.
November 16, 2025 at 10:31 PM
The Predator using their mandibles to delicately eat a whole bag of cheese cubes.
November 16, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Got so busy with work stuff in October that I didn’t have time to do any Halloween-related drawings. So I’m doing them now.

Here’s an Anatomically Implausible Skeleton of the Skeleton Panda Sea Squirt, Clavelina ossipandae, from the waters around Okinawa.
November 16, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by John Meszaros
#Dinovember2025 Day 10: Burgess Shale
Pictured here are Metaspriggina (top) and Pikaia (bottom), they might look like worms but they're actually more closely related to vertebrates! Animals that looked similar to these would eventually give rise to fish and tetrapods!
#paleoart
November 11, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Some astronomy for Native American Heritage month

ARROKOTH
In 2014 NASA’s New Horizons mission photographed an unusual object in the Kuiper Belt. Called a contact binary, the object was formed by two icy planetesimals that collided and stuck together.
November 11, 2025 at 5:53 PM
November 11, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by John Meszaros
Found an old piece of plywood in the basement and used a jigsaw and paint to give it a glow up. #painting #Halloween #birds
October 27, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Just wanted to share this little display I made for my museum’s Halloween festivities. I thought it was kinda cool.
October 24, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by John Meszaros
Who was the first VERIFIABLE LGBTQ resident of the White House? Rose Cleveland, sister of Grover Cleveland and acting first Lady from 1885-1886.
October 7, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Made a creepy paper bag puppet craft for my trolley museum!
October 3, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by John Meszaros
Day 30 - Dream. The final day of #sciartseptember. My long-term dream has always been to create a series of illustrated guides that would help identify the various jellies and jellyfish of the would. Creating illustrations like the ones below to accurately ID species.
September 30, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by John Meszaros
News @ Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken (UMO) in Bayreuth: new ichthyosaur, Eurhinosaurus mistelgauensis, named today after UMO's prime excavation site, the Jurassic clay pit Mistelgau. @olorotitan.bsky.social beautifully reconstructed the to-be fossil on a belemnite battleground typical for the locality.
September 25, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Photos from a program I taught at my library job about Slime and how animals and plants use mucus and mucilage for defense, movement, hunting, filter-feeding and other fun stuff.

We also made slime from school glue, baking soda, and contact lens solution, but I didn’t get any photos of that.
September 26, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Refreshing the stickers on my car
September 23, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by John Meszaros
White people can move the needle if they want. Y'all got Jimmy Kimmel back on the air boycotting, you can throw some of that expendable income to support the vulnerable through mutual aid, you can make some moves against fascism instead of performatively bemoaning what you think doesn't affect you.
September 23, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Happy Labor Daybor!
September 1, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by John Meszaros
Salinella salve - an #invertebrate cryptid, lost to time.
For more details about this strange organism, see:
www.deviantart.com/the-episiarc...
#SciArt 🧪
August 31, 2025 at 2:06 PM