Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
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ichnologist.bsky.social
Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
@ichnologist.bsky.social
7.3K followers 780 following 2.4K posts
Traces & trace fossils. Wrote 'Life Sculpted' (2023), 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014), 'The Evolution Underground' (2017), & more. Hubby, Trekkie, reading, cooking, craft-beer imbibing, childless cat dude. 🧪🐾🦖🦕🪨⚒️🌍📚✍️ 🖖 https://ajmartinauthor.com
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ichnologist.bsky.social
Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · Aug 21
Hello Bluesky science appreciators! I'm a geologist, paleontologist, & (most importantly) an ichnologist, which means I study modern traces (tracks, burrows, etc.) & trace fossils. I teach undergrad students in environmental sciences, write books about ichnology, & do lots of public outreach. 🧪🪨⚒️🐾🦕🦖
Alligator tracks on a beach, showing the direction of movement by a large alligator from the lower part of the beach and up to its dunes, with a prominent sinuous tail drag in its middle and front-rear track pairs on either side. I am squatting to the left of the tracks, wearing a hat, sunglasses, shirt, shorts, and sandals. Tracks were on Sapelo Island, Georgia (USA). Cover of my latest book LIFE SCULPTED (2023, U. of Chicago Press), with black background and cut section of a grayish tree trunk as its central image, in which the trunk has many borings made by insects and fungi. The book title and subtitle at the top of the cover says, "LIFE SCULPTED: Tales of the Animals, Plants, and Fungi that Drill, Break, and Scrape to Shape the Earth," and my author name (Anthony J. Martin) is in the lower right corner. Sauropod dinosaur tracks evident as semi-circular depressions in a slanted sandstone surface, with me wearing a broad-brimmed hat while sitting next to the tracks on that surface and facing downslope. Tracks were in a Jurassic formation in southern Portugal. Rear view of a camera crew (two people) filming me in the atrium of Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, GA (USA), with me sitting and partial views of dinosaur skeletons in the background, which are replicas of Argentinosaurus (left) and Gigantosaurus (right), dinosaurs that lived in what is now Argentina about 100 million years ago.
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
theceruleanfcker.bsky.social
ehe.
ichnologist.bsky.social Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 3d
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
November 16, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
climateages.bsky.social
We thought coelacanths barely changed for 380 million years…

Until new research revealed they actually evolved, driven by what they least expected!
🧪 #SciComm

buff.ly/THflbyo
The Fish that Defied Evolution for 400 Million Years
Coelacanths were believed extinct for 66 million years until a shocking discovery in 1938. New research reveals this "living fossil" actually evolved, but followed a surprising pattern that changed…
youtube.com
November 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
tetzoo.bsky.social
Mainstream palaeoart often seems lily-white in terms of the diversity of its contributors. But pieces of palaeoart that rank among the -MOST SEEN- works in the entire field were examples of black craftsmanship. This week came news on the passing of Garfield G. Minott (1966-2025)... cont
Garfield Minott at microphone, holding sauropod model. Photo from Simcoe Muskoka Family Connections Black History Month event. Carcharodontosaurus head model by Minott, as used in technical paper by Kent Stevens. Minott Carcharodontosaurus head model from Paul Sereno lab website.
November 15, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
ferrisjabr.bsky.social
Every now and then I remember that sponges are ANIMALS — that these seeming hybrids of plant and rock; these sessile, porous, tissue-and-organ-less barrels, tubes, and blobs are just as much an animal as a falcon, wolf, or shark — and marvel once more at the wonderful weirdness of life on Earth.
Sponge biodiversity and morphotypes at the lip the wall site in 60 feet of water. Included are the yellow tube sponge, Aplysina fistularis, the pink vase sponge, Niphates digitalis, the red encrusting sponge, Spiratrella coccinea, and the gray rope sponge, Callyspongia sp. Caribbean Sea, Cayman Islands. Date 23 May 2007 Source NOAA Photo Library: reef3859 Xestospongia testudinaria is a species of barrel sponge in the family Petrosiidae Nederlands: Vaassponzen (xestospongia testudinaria) Date 2 May 2007 (original upload date) Source Transferred from nl.wikipedia to Commons. Author Albert Kok at Dutch Wikipedia This series of photographs represents the biodiversity found off the coast of Roscanvel, in the Fiistère, including several species of encrusting sponges, whose colours vary from whitish to orange. Date 2 December 2020 (upload date) Source Diverses éponges encroûtantes Author Olivier Dugornay The freshwater sponge, Spongilla lacustris, in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River in Washington State, USA. 15 August 2008 Author: Kirt L. Onthank
November 14, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
bjking.bsky.social
Maybe the explosion of diversity among dogs didn't really start in the Victorian era! "Now, a new analysis of canine skulls spanning the last 50,000 years suggests that even early dogs came in an array of shapes and sizes." #dogs #bioarchaeology #archaeology #anthropology
The Dogs of 8,000 B.C. Were Amazingly Diverse
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
newscientist.com
RNA from an exceptionally well preserved woolly mammoth gives us a window on gene activity in an animal that died nearly 40,000 years ago
Oldest ever RNA sample recovered from woolly mammoth
RNA from an exceptionally well preserved woolly mammoth gives us a window on gene activity in an animal that died nearly 40,000 years ago
www.newscientist.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
adzebill.bsky.social
Really nice piece by @kategevans.bsky.social on moa footprint discoveries and preservation. www.nzgeo.com/mailster/547...
The track makers
Moa once walked all over Aotearoa, pressing heavy feet into mud and sand. Eons later, finding just one of these footprints intact is a small miracle—a fossil that speaks to a movement, a moment in tim...
www.nzgeo.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
kim-hu.com
RIP (rest in puke)
ichnologist.bsky.social Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 3d
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
November 14, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
jacopobertolotti.com
A candidate for the IgNobel prize?
ichnologist.bsky.social Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 3d
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
November 14, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
ubadiah.bsky.social
ENTER THE SPLASH ZONE
ichnologist.bsky.social Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 3d
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
November 14, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
autisticbook.bsky.social
And now for something completely different
ichnologist.bsky.social Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 3d
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
November 14, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
meertext.bsky.social
#FossilFriday - wie Palaäontologen im Regurgitat (Kotze) eines Dinos eine neue Art eines kreidezeitlichen Pterosauriers entdeckten

Dino-Koprolithen (versteinerter Kot) ist auch super interessant - habe ich gerade für Natur drüber geschrieben, und auf`m Blog:
scilogs.spektrum.de/meertext/tri...
November 14, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
THIS , This!... is a peak palaeontology (experimental palaeontology at that), I got nothing to add to the field. Sorry guys, I am going home 😆
ichnologist.bsky.social Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 3d
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
November 14, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
ljkrum.bsky.social
Easily my favorite scientific figure ever
ichnologist.bsky.social Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 3d
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
November 14, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
restingdinoface.bsky.social
Need a weekend read? Check out my love letter to ecosystems past, When the Earth Was Green. 🌱
When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance
Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance
bookshop.org
November 14, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
cintylee.bsky.social
Billion year old shallow water stromatolitic carbonates contact metamorphosed. Green layers with diopside and occasional grossular garnet. Sedimentary layers are preserved, including ripples! Franklin Mountains, El Paso, Texas.
November 13, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
msemilyedwards.bsky.social
Girls only dream of one thing: destroying a city so completely that the resulting layer of ash is known as our "Destruction Horizon"
oregonthedm.bsky.social Oregon 🕎🎲 @oregonthedm.bsky.social · 3d
Part 83 of 200 in historically interesting things to inspire your ttrpg dnd

Queen Boudica revenge was so great against Rome she burned Londinium leaving a scorch layer still runs under modern London, named by archaeologists the 'Boudican Destruction Horizon'
Smart folks looking at rocks
November 13, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
thefossilfiles.bsky.social
The fossil files is at #SVP2025 to bring you all the hot gossip. First episode “Nanotyrannus and vertebrate origins” is out today with @jgn-paleo.bsky.social, @stevebrusatte.bsky.social and Yara Haridy
November 13, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
minouette.bsky.social
Happy birthday to geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875) who in his famous ‘Principles of Geology,’ wrote that to avoid some sources of prejudice in understanding #geology would require an Amphibious Being, who could, say, compare processes happening today on land & those happening below 🧵 #histsci 🧪🐡⚒️
My linocut print with text “Lyell’s Amphibious” above and “Being” below of a Victorian anthropomorphic frog-geologist in a gradient of blue at the bottom to brown at the top. The geologist wears a suit with his frog shins and feet bare, waistcoat, bow tie, shirt, jacket and magnifying lens on a ribbon around his neck. His frog limbs and head are green with blue spots. He carries a satchel, pick ax, geological hammer and rock sample and is kneeling down. Behind him is an on- and offshore geological section from Lyell’s book with an onshore volcano at the ocean shore. In the top left corner is a fossil plant in brown and grey. In the top right corner is a fossil ammonite shell in gold and brown.
November 14, 2025 at 12:50 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
Cartoon depicting the black silhouette of a brachiosaur (long-necked dinosaur) vomiting from 14 meters (45 feet) above, and two small theropod dinosaurs fleeing from its impact; the deadly result of the impact velocity is shown in the upper right as a partial theropod skeleton with a splatter pattern around it. The cartoon has the following text: Brachiosaurus projectile vomiting: forces generated and resulting traces "Assuming 50 kg (110 lbs) of regurgitant, impact velocity from 14 m (45 ft) height, and hard-packed sand as impact site," and "Impact velocity = V = V 2gh = 16.6 m/s; kinetic energy before impact = 6,860 J Average impact force = 68,600 N." An original figure by me (Anthony J. Martin) in my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014, Pegasus Books).
November 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
saralilplants.bsky.social
A first for me and @geologyjohnson.bsky.social to see trilobites in the wild. Look at the beautiful preservation 😍

Rocks likely heterolithic limestone with black shake and chert interbeds from late Devonian-early Carboniferous from southern Belgium.

#FossilFriday
A trilobite fossil with clear view of segments amongst a death assemblage of other marine fossils (like crinoids) preserved in limestone. Size about two human fingernails long. A very small trilobite rear end the size of pinkie finger nail. The segments are very well preserved. There is a bryozoan fossil next to it too. Close up of a trilobite fossil with clear view of segments surrounded by other marine fossils. Size about two human finger nails long.
November 14, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
drdanaehret.bsky.social
#svp2025 today is my poster on Hybodont shark egg capsules from New Jersey! Poster number 393. Come say hi!
November 14, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
tkingfisher.com
PALEONTOLOGY IS AWESOME!
November 14, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
adrianaguatame.bsky.social
Love seeing this special issue and reading about the progress and challenges in volcano hazards and mitigation in Colombia, mostly by Colombian scientists, inc. Dr. Martha Calvache. She is not only an authority on Andean volcanoes, but also a huge inspiration to (female) Colombian geologists
🇨🇴🌋👩‍🔬
historyofgeology.bsky.social History of Geology @historyofgeology.bsky.social · 5d
Special issue for the 40th anniversary of the the November 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz volcano that killed an estimated 25,000 people in the town of Armero
www.nature.com/collections/...
November 13, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Anthony (Tony) J. Martin
jlsteenwyk.bsky.social
NEW pub in @science.org 🥳

Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?

For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.

We provide new evidence suggesting that...

🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
November 13, 2025 at 8:34 PM