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palaeopoems.bsky.social
PalaeoPoems
@palaeopoems.bsky.social
920 followers 180 following 72 posts
We track down palaeontology poems (modern and long-lost) & share them with short bios of the authors, natural history context, & artwork. palaeopoems.webflow.io
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palaeopoems.bsky.social
There was nothing AUKward about our volunteer @aukwardlucia.bsky.social's thesis defence today! Congratulations Lucia, you're the t-auk of the town!
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Art from Audubon's Birds of North America plate 341.
January 26, 2024 at 10:56 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
William Buckland found the site, first believing the remains to be washed there by the biblical flood but then finding evidence of hyena feeding and coprolites. Illustration by Conybeare.
An illustration of the hyena cave by William Conybeare. His friend William Buckland enters the cave holding only a candle, and is astonished by four large hyenas and a floor littered with bones.
January 13, 2024 at 1:37 AM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, savor William Conybeare’s poem inspired by a hyena fossil den in Yorkshire, UK! This site, known as Kirkdale Cave, contains fossils of many Pleistocene mammals and hyenas. Art by James Mckay! 🧪
A painting of a pack of hyenas in a cave gnawing on mammal bones.
January 13, 2024 at 1:33 AM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
Happy New Year and #FossilFriday! Contemplate the years before (and deep time) with John Joly’s Palaeo Poem “Oldhamia Antiqua”! 🧪Magnificent art @brigidomorpha.bsky.social
Screenshot of our blog main page. A hexagonal tile with a worm-like motif reads "1886" and underneath it says 'Oldhamia Antiqua’ by John Joly.
January 5, 2024 at 3:34 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
Looking for a Christmas poem that inspires hope and joy? Look no further than our blog! "'Twas the Eve of the Cretaceous" by Leo J. Hickey talks about the birth of a very special plant: the Angiosperm.
Listen to it here: www.palaeopoems.com/palaeopoems/...
Screenshot of our blog main page. A hexagonal tile with a fern motif reads "2011" and underneath it says 'Twas the Eve of the Cretaceous by Leo J Hickey.
December 22, 2023 at 4:38 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
For Thanksgiving break, catch up on your Palaeo Poems with “Ode to a Trilobite” by Timothy Conrad. Trilobites were ocean-loving arthropods that lived during the Paleozoic, 541-251 mya. Thrilling art by John Meszaros! 🧪 #FossilFriday
Black and white digital illustration with grey watercolour style shading. in the centre is a classically posed (dorsal) trilobite,it is very large and bug like. In each corner of the image is another trilobite curled into a ball, all different species shown from different angles. alongside the edges of the illustration are medieval style sea monsters and waves that you might expect to see on an old map. they are not shaded so they do not draw the eye like the trilobites.
November 17, 2023 at 5:26 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, embrace the cold weather with John Blackie’s Palaeo Poem “Frozen Mammoths”! This ballad was inspired by the Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), an extinct relative of elephants. Woolly wonderful art by Ida Kalsta! 🧪
A digital piece made to emulate a linocut. This piece is entirely black and white. About 2/3 of the way up, the background is white, and the bottom 2/3 have a black background, with a sharp line between them. The black portion is below the ice, and the white portion is exposed to the air. Between the two sections is a dead and frozen mammoth, floating in a way so it is almost standing bipedally. Its trunk and tusks are above the ice, but the rest of the head and body are sunk below. Its rear right foot is skeletonized. The effect is eerie, since the mammoth looks like it could still be alive and struggling until you pan down and see that foot. The bottom right of the piece has Ida Kalsta's watermark.
November 10, 2023 at 5:32 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, enjoy a fishy PalaeoPoem “Fossil Fish & Fossil Fish Addressed” by Scottish geologist and poet Robert Dick. Fin-tastic guest art by Athena! 🐠🐟🧪
A photo of a beach scene. On grey sand lies various debris, there is dead seaweed toward the back of the image, bits of driftwood and rocks lying around, and a large white scallop shell. Lots of other little shells and polished rocks lie around as well, and a bit of coral. Scattered all over the scene are bits of jewelery, all earrings, made of slices of blue geodes and shark teeth. The effect of the image is that all of these items and debris washed ashore and are now visible.
November 3, 2023 at 8:57 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
This frightful #FossilFriday, we want you to imagine the sinister side of prehistoric creatures. In his poem "Song of the Pterodactylus," John Mill shares cutting-edge Victorian ideas for how the pterodactyl may have lived. Artwork by @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social. 🧪
An eerie digital painting of an evening scene, featuring a crescent mood and prehistoric plants in the background. In the foreground, the star of the portrait is a pterodactlyl that may at first glance look like it is standing on a grassy hill. Looking more closely it is actually standing on the back or neck of a long-necked sauropod dinosaur with little spines poking up along the ridge of its back. The pterodactyl is holding a tiny mammal by the tail, and has one glowing yellow eye. Another pterodactyl approaches by air.
October 27, 2023 at 7:56 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
Last SVP we prompted palaeontologists to write poetry inspired by things they learned at the conference! In honour of 2023SVP and Fossil Friday, here are two of our favourites. By Emily Bamforth & Anon. 🧪 #SciArt
SVP A place for folks who love T. rex who talk of fossils and fancy teeth A place for the prof, the student, the geek Who love to learn & love to seek Emily Bamforth SVP While cool fossils and finds make me pensive I can't help but be apprehensive Of a group so excessive And awful access, with their conferences awfully expensive!
October 20, 2023 at 3:14 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
This Wednesday, our PalaeoPoems volunteer Lucia Snyderman is presenting her undergraduate thesis research on the extinction of the Great Auk in the Colbert Poster Session at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference! #SVP2023
Lucia presenting her Great Auk research at the Conservation Paleobiology Network conference last February.
October 17, 2023 at 9:54 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, we have a new blog post and PalaeoPoem to share about a fraudulent fossil! “The Piltdown Story” poem by Nancy Morris is inspired by a skull falsely believed to be the link between humans and apes. Fantastic art by October Seagrave @Zooophagous! 🧪 Science 🐡#SciArt
On a beige background apes with human-like traits are drawn, one of which is holding up the supposed skull of “Piltdown Man” outlined in orange
October 13, 2023 at 9:34 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
I bet you’ve never heard this love story before: the Nautilus and the Ammonite. Read George Richardson’s PalaeoPoem to get all the shell-uous details! Ink-redible art @jadeinjoggins.bsky.social !
"Beadwork on moosehide. This is a large, medallion-style beadwork of a nautilus in the water. It has a pearly white shell with matte rusty brown stripes, a brown hood over the tentacles and eye. Its centre is a sparkly white eye. Its background is blue ""bead soup,"" beads in no particular order in all shades of blue circling the ammonite concentrically. It is finished in a gold and black tectured border.”
October 6, 2023 at 7:33 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
Are you a tea or coffee drinker? Well, I can guarantee you’ll want a sip of some ginkgo fossil tea when you read the PalaeoPoem “Ginkgo Fossil Tea” by Susannah Lydon and Robin Lamboll. Tea-licious art by Madison Foran. 🧪 🐡
A clear teapot pours tea into a teacup with a ginkgo pattern on it. The image is dynamic, the teapot and teacup are at angles facing each other. A wave of brown tea splashes out of the teacup, forming the shape of several dinosaurs made out of tea. The background is an earthy green with rolling brown hills. The whole piece has a tea-stained look to it.
September 29, 2023 at 3:44 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
Do you like to stargaze (for fossils)?! For #FossilFriday, you can read a PalaeoPoem by Samantha Jones about tiny star-like fossils called nannofossils! Nannofossils are fossilized skeletons of aquatic planktonic organisms. Plank-tastic art by Bejamin Chandler! 🧪 Science 🐡#SciArt
A mixed media watercolour depicting shelled organisms under a microscope. Just barely visible in the background are concentric circles. On closer inspection, it's a star map, and stars and constellations like Ursa Minor and Lyra are labelled in capital letters. This background just barely peeks through the watercolour, which is mainly dark purple on the outer edge and yellow towards the centre, with splotches of magenta and dark blue mixing with both shades. Haphazardly arranged across the piece are different shelled organisms, or foraminifera, as if they were scattered like stars as well.
September 15, 2023 at 9:13 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
Megatherium, “great beast”, was a gigantic ground sloth that lived 5 million to 2000 years ago. Joseph von Scheffel's poem claims the sloth’s laziness led to its extinction…however, many other animal groups evolved similar adaptations. Sloth-tastic art by Zélie! 🧪 Science 🐡#SciArt #FossilFriday
In the bottom right corner, in black and white, is a cartoon of a little man writing a poem by candlelight. The rest of the illustration is a watercolour of his daydream, marked by little thought bubbles coming from the man's head. The daydream shows colourful landscape, with reddish brown geology, a volcano in the background, and clear, blue, skies. In the front and centre is a giant ground sloth standing as tall as a banana tree, using his long tongue to get a branch. Also visible are some Pleistocene deer, a sleepy capybara, and a horned gopher peeking from its den.
September 1, 2023 at 6:25 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
"There once was an ichthyosaurus
Who lived when the earth was all porous
But he fainted with shame
When he first heard his name
And departed a long time before us"
Why does this 1887 poem by Isabel Bellows reference pseudoscience? Read about it on our blog and enjoy the art by Lawrence Banks!🐡🧪
A pencil illustration of a closeup of an Ichthyosaurus. It's a little chubby, with some realistic marine animal neck rolls. Its sclerotic ring is visible through the skin, and its body is patterned with wavy stripes. Great attention has been paid to the skull anatomy and the way the face is reconstructed around it.
August 25, 2023 at 2:51 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
Our latest featured PalaeoPoem is a ‘Trilobital wonder’! Walter Garstang’s poem The Trilobites and After richly explores the evolutionary history of Arthropoda, the group that includes trilobites! Thrilling art by OrigamiPete! 🐡#SciArt
An image of about a dozen origami trilobites of different sizes and shades of light brown. They are the same species, with two antennae and symmetrical folding. They are so well made and detailed! They are oriented towards the rop right corner, and rest on a cool blue background.
August 4, 2023 at 9:50 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, PalaeoPoem “Similar Cases” by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman is about Eohippus, an Eocene horse relative with more digits than modern horses. Aneigh-zing art by Dr. Dani Fraser! Find the poem here: https://www.palaeopoems.com/palaeopoems/similar-cases
A reddish brown horse with white stripes, a white belly, and a white nose stands against a green background. It is highlighted in a yellow halo for artistic effect. This is Eohippus, a small extinct horse with five toes, though the toes are cropped out of the painting.
July 21, 2023 at 10:14 PM
palaeopoems.bsky.social
For FossilFriday, unwind with this PalaeoPoem and learn about the controversial specimen Eozoön Canadense! The debate was centered on the identity of the specimen as either an animal fossil or rock or mineral structure. Artwork by Dr. Jade Atkins!
A photo of a knit neckwarmer in ecru (undyed off-white) with raised grey-blue parallel lines artistically positioned to resemble the folds of the pseudofossil Eozoon. The piece is longer than it is tall, and looks soft but sturdy. It rests on a background of dark columnar basalt, which mostly looks like a mottled smooth background but at the bottom you can see hints that there are more columns sitting near this one.
July 7, 2023 at 3:34 PM