Richard Fallon
@richardfallon.bsky.social
Scholar of Earth's history in literature and culture. Research Associate in Natural History Humanities at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge (rlf43@cam.ac.uk). Author of "Contesting Earth's History" and "Reimagining Dinosaurs".
Pinned
Richard Fallon
@richardfallon.bsky.social
· Sep 15
In a few weeks, I'll be starting a new role as Research Associate in Natural History Humanities at Cambridge, based at the @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social. As part of @camglamresearch.bsky.social, my project will be about 'Re-Excavating the Cambridge School of Geology, 1850–1914'.
Reposted by Richard Fallon
A curious thing I share about #okapi is their long history with the U.S., esp. New York: @amnh.org, Bronx Zoo, @wcs.org. Deals w Belgian Congo, Lang's Congo trip, Gilman's philanthropy, #Warhol & Anne Eisner Putnam's art, & Madison Square Gdns where Mr G, the only circus okapi, died. Book out today
November 11, 2025 at 9:10 AM
A final handful of leaves on the Ginkgo biloba in Queen's Park, Chesterfield. Planted in the early 1980s.
November 9, 2025 at 12:58 PM
A final handful of leaves on the Ginkgo biloba in Queen's Park, Chesterfield. Planted in the early 1980s.
Reposted by Richard Fallon
My students have set up a petition to persuade the University of Nottingham not to close our Plant Biology BSc course
c.org/VPhzVVrHPS
Please consider signing
c.org/VPhzVVrHPS
Please consider signing
November 8, 2025 at 12:46 PM
My students have set up a petition to persuade the University of Nottingham not to close our Plant Biology BSc course
c.org/VPhzVVrHPS
Please consider signing
c.org/VPhzVVrHPS
Please consider signing
Reposted by Richard Fallon
For those of you attending the 85th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology that have never been to #Birmingham before, here is a short introduction from the one and only #TellySavalas. 🍭
#SVP2025 #2025SVP
youtu.be/EoHVO1eSMFc?...
🦴 🐟 🦈 🐸 🐍 🦎 🐊 🦕 🦖 🦆 🦜 🐀 🦣 🐋 🐾
#SVP2025 #2025SVP
youtu.be/EoHVO1eSMFc?...
🦴 🐟 🦈 🐸 🐍 🦎 🐊 🦕 🦖 🦆 🦜 🐀 🦣 🐋 🐾
Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham
YouTube video by seacaptainjoe
youtu.be
October 26, 2025 at 5:37 PM
For those of you attending the 85th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology that have never been to #Birmingham before, here is a short introduction from the one and only #TellySavalas. 🍭
#SVP2025 #2025SVP
youtu.be/EoHVO1eSMFc?...
🦴 🐟 🦈 🐸 🐍 🦎 🐊 🦕 🦖 🦆 🦜 🐀 🦣 🐋 🐾
#SVP2025 #2025SVP
youtu.be/EoHVO1eSMFc?...
🦴 🐟 🦈 🐸 🐍 🦎 🐊 🦕 🦖 🦆 🦜 🐀 🦣 🐋 🐾
You can find my piece on the Hollow Earth in this month's @historytoday.com, alongside Kublai Khan, the National Smoke Abatement Society, and the Battle of Baku.
November 8, 2025 at 9:34 AM
You can find my piece on the Hollow Earth in this month's @historytoday.com, alongside Kublai Khan, the National Smoke Abatement Society, and the Battle of Baku.
The dedication of this Pelican book — which has been described by some as 'eminently readable' — may be of interest to fans of Breaking Bad.
November 7, 2025 at 12:49 PM
The dedication of this Pelican book — which has been described by some as 'eminently readable' — may be of interest to fans of Breaking Bad.
Reposted by Richard Fallon
For our first talk today, Alex Deans from @uofglasgow.bsky.social tells us about Thomas Pennants rather disappointed reaction to Caithness in 1769 - an "immense morass", though at least with "a few rows of tolerable trees" (!)
We're looking forward to our conference at the Natural History Museum (@nhm-london.bsky.social) on Friday - read our press release to find out more!
Conference Reveals Welsh Naturalist’s Major Contributions to London’s Natural History Museum
The upcoming ‘Curious Collections’ conference at the Natural History Museum, London (November 7th) will shed new light on one of the oldest collections in the museum’s archives and explore the scienti...
www.uwtsd.ac.uk
November 7, 2025 at 10:45 AM
For our first talk today, Alex Deans from @uofglasgow.bsky.social tells us about Thomas Pennants rather disappointed reaction to Caithness in 1769 - an "immense morass", though at least with "a few rows of tolerable trees" (!)
A powerful bookplate.
November 6, 2025 at 3:55 PM
A powerful bookplate.
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Publication day! The Spinosaur Tales with @markwitton.bsky.social is officially out today! I'll be going a much longer and more detailed thread later on as today is rather manic while I'm hosting 400 school kids to my uni campus, but I wanted to get this early post out.
November 6, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Publication day! The Spinosaur Tales with @markwitton.bsky.social is officially out today! I'll be going a much longer and more detailed thread later on as today is rather manic while I'm hosting 400 school kids to my uni campus, but I wanted to get this early post out.
Stumbled into this unusually literal-minded (and suspiciously Victorian-looking) conception of the geologic column as an ionic column constructed out of fossils. It comes from the tear-out sign-up form for two 1983 London conferences on creationism. The ichthyosaur paddle is a neat touch.
November 5, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Stumbled into this unusually literal-minded (and suspiciously Victorian-looking) conception of the geologic column as an ionic column constructed out of fossils. It comes from the tear-out sign-up form for two 1983 London conferences on creationism. The ichthyosaur paddle is a neat touch.
So you can, just about, stand a small moka pot on two prongs of a gas hob if the four are too widely spaced out. But may God have mercy on your soul.
November 4, 2025 at 7:54 AM
So you can, just about, stand a small moka pot on two prongs of a gas hob if the four are too widely spaced out. But may God have mercy on your soul.
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Shijimini Daichan, an aspirational clam, is a mascot for Otomo Town, Fukuoka Prefecture.
November 2, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Shijimini Daichan, an aspirational clam, is a mascot for Otomo Town, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Does anyone know where the Iguanodon footprints found in the Greensand near Arthur Conan Doyle's house in May 1909, and which ended up on display in his billard room, are today? I suspect they remained with the family, but there are a lot of potential museums they could have ended up in.
October 31, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Does anyone know where the Iguanodon footprints found in the Greensand near Arthur Conan Doyle's house in May 1909, and which ended up on display in his billard room, are today? I suspect they remained with the family, but there are a lot of potential museums they could have ended up in.
They say palaeontology is hard but I just found this well-preserved Compsognathus near my office in central Cambridge.
October 29, 2025 at 3:24 PM
They say palaeontology is hard but I just found this well-preserved Compsognathus near my office in central Cambridge.
Another excellent Fitzwilliam Museum piece: Édouard Vuillard, Woman Reading in the Reeds (1909).
October 29, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Another excellent Fitzwilliam Museum piece: Édouard Vuillard, Woman Reading in the Reeds (1909).
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Retro-Chinese palaeoart
Dsungaripterus weii, from one of the first reports on Chinese pterosaurs, by Yang Zhongjian, aka the "Father of Chinese Vertebrate Paleontology" from 1964. You can find the panel mounting of the associated skeleton in the Beijing Palaeozoological Museum. Art by W. L. Shen.
Dsungaripterus weii, from one of the first reports on Chinese pterosaurs, by Yang Zhongjian, aka the "Father of Chinese Vertebrate Paleontology" from 1964. You can find the panel mounting of the associated skeleton in the Beijing Palaeozoological Museum. Art by W. L. Shen.
October 28, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Retro-Chinese palaeoart
Dsungaripterus weii, from one of the first reports on Chinese pterosaurs, by Yang Zhongjian, aka the "Father of Chinese Vertebrate Paleontology" from 1964. You can find the panel mounting of the associated skeleton in the Beijing Palaeozoological Museum. Art by W. L. Shen.
Dsungaripterus weii, from one of the first reports on Chinese pterosaurs, by Yang Zhongjian, aka the "Father of Chinese Vertebrate Paleontology" from 1964. You can find the panel mounting of the associated skeleton in the Beijing Palaeozoological Museum. Art by W. L. Shen.
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Fossils are cultural objects - and this is not some woke b*llshit that people come up nowadays to spoil the fun in #palaeontology; this classification actually has a long history.
If you're curious how fossils became #culturalproperty under int'l law, check my new paper: doi.org/10.1093/lril...
If you're curious how fossils became #culturalproperty under int'l law, check my new paper: doi.org/10.1093/lril...
A classification unearthed: the history of palaeontological objects as cultural property in international law
Abstract. Fossils are an overlooked yet threatened category of cultural property. This article traces how they became protected by international law under
doi.org
October 28, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Fossils are cultural objects - and this is not some woke b*llshit that people come up nowadays to spoil the fun in #palaeontology; this classification actually has a long history.
If you're curious how fossils became #culturalproperty under int'l law, check my new paper: doi.org/10.1093/lril...
If you're curious how fossils became #culturalproperty under int'l law, check my new paper: doi.org/10.1093/lril...
I've got an article in November's @historytoday.com on the remarkably durable hypothesis that Earth is hollow, from Halley to Symmes to underground feminist utopias to UFOs. You know the drill — to the centre of the Earth (I've probably used that one before).
October 28, 2025 at 8:16 AM
I've got an article in November's @historytoday.com on the remarkably durable hypothesis that Earth is hollow, from Halley to Symmes to underground feminist utopias to UFOs. You know the drill — to the centre of the Earth (I've probably used that one before).
The mistletoe outside Churchill College.
October 27, 2025 at 9:00 AM
The mistletoe outside Churchill College.
Reposted by Richard Fallon
Advance copies of Discovering the Okapi have arrived, meaning I've finally seen the back cover of my JHUP book, with the postcard my gradfather sent my mom when she was 10 years old. Very pleased with what JHUP have produced!
October 26, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Advance copies of Discovering the Okapi have arrived, meaning I've finally seen the back cover of my JHUP book, with the postcard my gradfather sent my mom when she was 10 years old. Very pleased with what JHUP have produced!
Reposted by Richard Fallon
And today I learned that in 1962 the BBC let Jaquetta Hawkes imagine the archaeology of apocalyptic Britain. As a short film 👀10/10 Will weird your day youtu.be/c8yEIe69M4k?...
1962: What Was Britain Like Before the Apocalypse? | Monitor: The Lonely Shore | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
youtu.be
October 26, 2025 at 8:34 AM
And today I learned that in 1962 the BBC let Jaquetta Hawkes imagine the archaeology of apocalyptic Britain. As a short film 👀10/10 Will weird your day youtu.be/c8yEIe69M4k?...
Some things that struck me at the Fitzwilliam Museum: The Tortoise (1940) by Nat Leeb, an enviable 1930s coffee set by Moorcroft Pottery, and unusually tasteful Coronation mug by Ravilious.
October 25, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Some things that struck me at the Fitzwilliam Museum: The Tortoise (1940) by Nat Leeb, an enviable 1930s coffee set by Moorcroft Pottery, and unusually tasteful Coronation mug by Ravilious.
Probably uncontroversial Sherlock-Holmes-related opinion: if you cut between the two plots, rather than recounting the American plot only after the Holmes ones, and if you revealed each plot's big twist around the same time at the climax, The Valley of Fear would make a damn fine film adaptation.
October 25, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Probably uncontroversial Sherlock-Holmes-related opinion: if you cut between the two plots, rather than recounting the American plot only after the Holmes ones, and if you revealed each plot's big twist around the same time at the climax, The Valley of Fear would make a damn fine film adaptation.
Reposted by Richard Fallon
#FossilFriday Not to be outdone by Isaac Newton who is buried beneath a gastropod fossil in Westminster Abbey, the famous geologist Charles Lyell’s gravestone is Carboniferous crinoidal limestone full of columnals of these ‘sea-lilies’.
October 24, 2025 at 6:06 AM
#FossilFriday Not to be outdone by Isaac Newton who is buried beneath a gastropod fossil in Westminster Abbey, the famous geologist Charles Lyell’s gravestone is Carboniferous crinoidal limestone full of columnals of these ‘sea-lilies’.