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
In my 'Evolution of the Earth' class today, we'll start the Mesozoic Era by covering the Triassic & Jurassic Periods: plate tectonics, paleogeography, recovery of life following end-Permian extinction, overview of marine & continental ecosystems, & of course the end-Triassic mass extinction. 🧪🪨⚒️🦕🌿🪦
Meme from still image of live-action Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) dancing and smiling at the disco, titled "END-TRIASSIC MASS EXTINCTION" and her saying (at bottom of the image) "DO YOU GUYS EVER THINK ABOUT HOW MASSIVE VOLCANISM, GLOBAL WARMING, OCEAN ACIDIFICATION, BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND, AND HYDROGEN SULFIDE LED TO YET ANOTHER MASS EXTINCTION AT THE END OF THE TRIASSIC PERIOD?"
November 17, 2025 at 5:39 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
ichnologist.bsky.social
In my 'Evolution of the Earth' class today, covering the late Paleozoic (Carboniferous & Permian): marine & continental ecosystems, coal formation, Alleghanian orogeny, Pangea, & (of course) the end-Permian mass extinction. with today's mass-extinction-themed memes.
Photo of little girl smirking (foreground) while fire truck and firefighters attend to a burning house (background), turned into a meme with the fire titled as "End-Permian Mass Extinction" and the smirking girl as "Paleontologists Talking about It." Still image from 'Game of Thrones' with Jon Snow holding his sword as a cavalry charges toward him, turned into a meme by labeling the cavalry as "End-Permian Mass Extinction" and Jon Snow as "Burrowing Synapsids."
November 12, 2025 at 5:48 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Joyce Carol Oates, talking about some guy on social media:
Still from the movie "Aliens" (1986) with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) saying, "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure," a solution met by approval by Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn) and Private Hudson (Bill Paxton).
November 10, 2025 at 11:01 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
In my 'Evolution of the Earth' class today, overview of the Silurian and Devonian Periods: life's recovery after end-Ordovician mass extinction, with coral reefs, armored fishes, land plants, & tetrapods; the Acadian Orogeny; & mass extinctions by end of the Devonian. Today's extinction memes:
Meme with Jason Momoa about to tackle Henry Cavill, with Momoa labeled as "Devonian Land Plants" and Cavill as "Devonian Marine Biota." "Hotdog guy" meme with him labeled as "Plants" and saying, "We're all trying to find the guy who did this!", with "Devonian Extinctions" at the bottom.
November 10, 2025 at 5:48 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
One of my favorite marine snails on the Georgia coast, the knobbed whelk (Busycon carica), a bivalve-killing predator that lives in sandy shallow-marine environments, but is occasionally seen buried (by its burrowing) in intertidal zones. 🧪🌊🐌
Very large and very much alive knobbed whelk, a marine snail with a bright orange lip to its shell framing its extruded fleshy foot, which has its brown oval "trapdoor" operculum attached to it. A person's hand is holding it above a gray sandy beach surface, where it had buried itself during low tide.
November 9, 2025 at 6:31 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Hey paleo-friends: Did I do this right?
Mamdani campaign sticker meme, with blue background and two lines of text with yellow letters highlighted by red, saying (top line) TRACE FOSSILS (bottom line) The REAL FOSSIL RECORD
November 9, 2025 at 6:11 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, limestone steps filled with lovely, well-expressed & abundant invertebrate burrows, rendering fossil art in front of the @philamuseum.bsky.social (near the Rocky statue), seen there in March 2026; size 8 1/2 mens shoe for scale.
Looking down on limestone step surfaces filled with tubular structures that are fossil burrows; my black size 8.5 mens shoe is at the bottom of the photo for scale.
November 7, 2025 at 8:16 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Actual footage of me receiving the authors' copy of the upcoming @thamesandhudson.bsky.social book 'OCEAN: From the Shore to the Abyss,' edited by @ashadevos.bsky.social, with chapters by her, @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social, @helenscales.bsky.social, @drandrewthaler.bsky.social, & me. 🧪🌊🪸🐠🐳🦀🦐
November 6, 2025 at 9:43 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Rode my bike past the main CDC campus today & for the first time saw the memorial shrine to DeKalb County Officer Dave Rose, who was shot & killed by the terrorist who attacked the facility there in August. Heartbreaking, but also deeply moving to see so much appreciation for his sacrifice.
Shrine to DeKalb County police officer David Rose in front of the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, with a cutout portrait of him, a poster board with hundreds of written wishes, and flowers. Shrine to DeKalb County police officer David Rose in front of the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, with a cutout portrait of him, a poster board with hundreds of written wishes, and flowers.
November 5, 2025 at 9:47 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
In my #ENVSCOMM25-2 class today, we looked at a story on @storycollider.bsky.social to learn how to start a science-centered story. Then introduced the concept that simple ≠ simplistic, opening with this example by @edyong209.bsky.social & using the Up-Goer Five editing tool. splasho.com/upgoer5/ 🧪✍️
Photo of Ed Yong on a stage speaking, with a slide projected onto a screen behind him with contrasting titles. The first title from a scientific article is "Organic matter loading by hippopotami causes subsidy overload resulting in downstream hypoxia and fish kills." The second title is the one Ed Yong used for his reporting on the scientific article in The Atlantic: "Hippos poop so much that sometimes all the fish die."
November 5, 2025 at 2:59 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
I drew speculative dinosaur mating traces for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones,' depicting 2 pairs of tracks made by theropods' dirty dancing & 6 tracks of 2 sauropods (4 rear & 2 front). Also included skid marks & other sedimentary disturbances one would expect from multi-ton bonking. 🧪🦖🦕🐾🫦
Drawing of four 3-toed tracks from a theropod dinosaur, with one pair offset and behind the other, and six tracks from two sauropod dinosaurs, with two pairs of rear-foot tracks and one pair of front-foot tracks. I shouldn't need to draw a picture of how mating dinosaurs produced these patterns, because many other paleo-artists have already done that for us. (Thanks, paleo-artists.)
November 4, 2025 at 5:35 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
First time holding a copy of the Japanese edition of my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' was June '23 & in Salt Lake City UT. A Japanese paleontologist (whose name I regrettably didn't write down) knew I'd be at a conference there & brought his copy for me to sign, & I happily obliged. 🧪🦕🦖🐾📚 #Booksky
Photo of me (oldish white guy with gray goatee, smiling, wearing a red-white floral-pattern shirt) with a paleontologist (youngish Japanese guy, slight smile but happy eyes, glasses, wearing a white shirt) who is holding a copy of the Japanese-language edition of my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones.'
November 4, 2025 at 3:21 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Started my not-teaching day with an author-related task, inquiring about the Japanese-language edition of my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones.' It was published December 2017, but I've never seen any sales figures or royalties for it. So I asked my former literary agency to find out why. 🧪📚✍️ #Booksky
Book cover of Japanese-language edition of 'Dinosaurs Without Bones,' with a photo of three-toed theropod dinosaur tracks on a red sandstone surface (probably in Arizona) and black background' and much hiragana and katakana characters. A Paleontological Society photo scale to the right of the book has 5 millimeter black-and-white squares and icons of a dinosaur skull, trilobite, and compound leaf. Back cover of Japanese-language edition of 'Dinosaurs Without Bones,' with white in the top two-thirds and black in the bottom third, and in English, "Dinosaurs without Bones: Dinosaur lives revealed by their trace fossils" with hiragana and katakana characters below. A Paleontological Society photo scale to the right of the book has 5 millimeter black-and-white squares and icons of a dinosaur skull, trilobite, and compound leaf. Online listing of the Japanese edition of 'Dinosaurs Without Bones,' with a small inset of the cover, a description in Japanese, and information showing it was published December 24, 2017.
November 4, 2025 at 2:50 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
In my 'Evolution of the Earth' class today, we'll finish coverage of the Ordovician Period (487-443 mya), including the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE), paleogeography, Taconic orogeny, & the first mass extinction of the Phanerozoic Era at its end, ushering in the Silurian. 🧪🪨⚒️
Meme showing "mourners" around a freshly dug (and filled) grave, with a kneeling (and smiling) young man posing above it with a "V hand sign; the gravestone is marked "Ordovician Biota" and the man is labeled "Silurian Biota."
November 3, 2025 at 5:27 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Grateful to @amayor.bsky.social for sending me a copy of her new book "Mythopedia," a fascinating A-to-Z explainer of multicultural lore inspired by geology, paleontology & other facets of natural history. A fun & mind-expanding read! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... 🧪📚🪨⚒️🦣🦖
Book on wood desktop titled "Mythopedia: A Brief Compendium of Natural History Lore, Adrienne Mayor"; cover has a blue background and line drawing of a sea serpent filled with orange-brown, as is the main title.
November 3, 2025 at 12:51 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, walking with dinosaurs ~100 million years too late at the Davenport Ranch dinosaur tracksite (1st documented in 1940), near Bandera TX on a @geosociety.bsky.social pre-meeting field trip just 2 weeks ago. Tracks show evidence of herding sauropods & big theropods. 🧪🪨⚒️🦖🦕🐾 #ichnology
October 31, 2025 at 5:44 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
For #Caturday, our 2 blue-point Siamese cats Ossabaw (L) and Durga (R) showing off their toe beans while dreaming of future feather-wand toys & num-num.
Two Siamese cats sleeping on a maroon pillow with a brown wooden headboard behind them.
October 25, 2025 at 7:49 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, a special look at a historic dinosaur trackway at Maya Dude Ranch near Bandera, Texas. Originally interpreted by Roland Bird in 1940 as that of a "swimming sauropod," discovery of more tracks by "Jurassic Judy" (Neuman) confirmed it as a walking (not swimming!) trackway. 🧪🦕🐾
October 24, 2025 at 12:31 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
After a whirlwind (& most excellent) #GSA2025 meeting in San Antonio TX, flew back to Atlanta GA Tuesday night, taught my Wednesday classes, & today attempting triage on a pile of emails. Still, no regrets about attending the meeting & an epic dinosaur-track-oriented pre-meeting field trip. 🧪🪨⚒️🐾🦖🦕
Me sitting in a saddle on a remarkably docile longhorn steer while flashing Theropod Gang signs with both hands (like a Star-Trek Vulcan salute but with hands turned, imitating three digit trait of a non-avian theropod dinosaur). I am wearing light-brown shorts and a gray t-shirt with Ray Troll's artwork, the latter saying "The Data is in the Strata."
October 23, 2025 at 12:17 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Ready for my talk at #GSA2025! It's at 3:15-3:30 p.m. in a session titled 'Coprolite Happens' (so of course I had to participate). My talk is about the big find of small coprolites—termites and mites—in an Early Cretaceous fossil tree from Victoria, Australia, published earlier this year. 🧪🪨🪵💩
Title slide for a talk with the title "SMALL COPROLITES, BIG CONCEPTS: Fossil Termite and Mite Coprolites as Paleoecological and Evolutionary Indicators," with three photos of termite and mites coprolites (fossil feces) in petrified wood, and a list of coauthors listed below these photos.
October 21, 2025 at 6:26 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Hey student members of the @paleosoc.bsky.social attending #GSA2024: stop by their booth & enter a raffle to win a copy of my book ‘LIFE SCULPTED’! I brought 2 copies to double your chances of winning. 🧪📚🪨⚒️
Book standing up with black cover and title of ‘Life Sculpted,’ written by me, on a table and a flyer. LIFE SCULPTED Tales of the Animals, Plants, and Fungi That Drill, Break, and Scrape to Shape the Earth ANTHONY J. MARTIN LIFE SCULPTED BOOK RAFFLE! PS Students! Use the QR code below to enter a FREE raffle for the chance to win 1 of 2 signed copies of the book, Life Sculpted by Tony Martin! Two drawings will be made before the end of the conference!
October 20, 2025 at 10:13 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Paleo-plushies for sale at the Paleontological Research Institute booth at the @geosociety.bsky.social meeting! Long line for these cuddly fossil critters - get them while they last!
Colorful assortment of fossil animals represented as plushy figures at the Paleontological Research Institute booth at the Geological Society of America meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Long line of people waiting to buy paleo-plushies from the Paleontological Research institute at the Geological Society of America meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
October 19, 2025 at 11:26 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Big shoutout to @geosociety.bsky.social for upping the ribbons game at the GSA meeting with an impressive variety of geonerd-themed ribbons available for attaching to our badges. 🧪🪨⚒️🤣
Tony Martin Dept. of Environ. Sciences, Emory University Atlanta, GA GSA Professional Member Attached to the badge are ribbons that say (from top to bottom): GSA Fellow Southeastern Section Member Fossilized and Fabulous Geologist for Scale Trilobite-Sized but Mighty Rock Hoarder Schist Happens All Ore Nothing Reunite Pangea
October 19, 2025 at 2:59 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
And so it begins: this year’s @geosociety.bsky.social meeting in San Antonio TX! I love the smell of science in the morning. It smells like…geology. 🧪🪨⚒️
Me smiling in front of the convention center in San Antonio, Texas, which has a big sign saying “Connects 2025” advertising the Geological Society of America meeting.
October 19, 2025 at 1:11 PM