Tom Sharpe
@tomsharperocks.bsky.social
Geologist, writes on the history of geology and palaeontology, especially in the late 18th–early 19th C, and on the history of geology in Antarctica. Patron Lyme Regis Museum. Author of THE FOSSIL WOMAN A LIFE OF MARY ANNING (Dovecote Press 2020).
As today is #MolluscMonday and the 173rd anniversary of the death of Sussex palaeontologist Gideon Mantell, here's the Cretaceous ammonite Mantelliceras mantelli described (as Ammonites mantelli) by James Sowerby in his Mineral Conchology in 1814 from a specimen from Lewes sent to him by Mantell.
November 10, 2025 at 12:09 PM
As today is #MolluscMonday and the 173rd anniversary of the death of Sussex palaeontologist Gideon Mantell, here's the Cretaceous ammonite Mantelliceras mantelli described (as Ammonites mantelli) by James Sowerby in his Mineral Conchology in 1814 from a specimen from Lewes sent to him by Mantell.
9 November 1812: local newspaper reports the discovery of a fossil 'crocodile' 17 feet long at Lyme Regis. This was the recovery by Mary Anning of parts of the post-cranial skeleton related to a fossil skull found by her brother a year before. It was described and figured by Everard Home in 1814.
November 9, 2025 at 5:55 AM
9 November 1812: local newspaper reports the discovery of a fossil 'crocodile' 17 feet long at Lyme Regis. This was the recovery by Mary Anning of parts of the post-cranial skeleton related to a fossil skull found by her brother a year before. It was described and figured by Everard Home in 1814.
Another reason for visiting Berwick-upon-Tweed was to see the Photography in Berwick 1840-1980 exhibition at the Granary Gallery. It included this brilliant postcard with the caption ‘When you see the High Street, Berwick-on-Tweed like this - sign the pledge!’
November 8, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Another reason for visiting Berwick-upon-Tweed was to see the Photography in Berwick 1840-1980 exhibition at the Granary Gallery. It included this brilliant postcard with the caption ‘When you see the High Street, Berwick-on-Tweed like this - sign the pledge!’
Set off today on a cross-border raid on (the bookshops of) the English outpost of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Always impressed by the town walls, fortifications and old bridge making extensive use of local Carboniferous sandstones.
November 8, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Set off today on a cross-border raid on (the bookshops of) the English outpost of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Always impressed by the town walls, fortifications and old bridge making extensive use of local Carboniferous sandstones.
#PostboxSaturday: A George V wall box with encroaching ivy, Haddington, East Lothian.
November 8, 2025 at 9:32 AM
#PostboxSaturday: A George V wall box with encroaching ivy, Haddington, East Lothian.
#FossilFriday: As it's his 338th birthday today, here's William Stukeley's 1719 illustration of a slab of Lias limestone from Fulbeck in Lincolnshire with the bones of 'a Crocodile or Porpoise' (a plesiosaur, in fact), 100 years before Mary Anning's discoveries. Specimen now @nhm-london.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 10:26 AM
#FossilFriday: As it's his 338th birthday today, here's William Stukeley's 1719 illustration of a slab of Lias limestone from Fulbeck in Lincolnshire with the bones of 'a Crocodile or Porpoise' (a plesiosaur, in fact), 100 years before Mary Anning's discoveries. Specimen now @nhm-london.bsky.social
Transmutation of silver [birch] into gold.
November 7, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Transmutation of silver [birch] into gold.
East Lothian golden dawn this morning.
November 7, 2025 at 7:58 AM
East Lothian golden dawn this morning.
Having said I don't do bird photos, here's a couple more, from a trip south ten years ago: the South Georgia Pintail and South Georgia Pippit on Prion Island.
November 3, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Having said I don't do bird photos, here's a couple more, from a trip south ten years ago: the South Georgia Pintail and South Georgia Pippit on Prion Island.
I don't usually do bird photos either, but I also found this of a tufted puffin somewhere in the Sea of Okhotsk.
November 3, 2025 at 11:20 AM
I don't usually do bird photos either, but I also found this of a tufted puffin somewhere in the Sea of Okhotsk.
I don't usually do #MineralMonday, but sorting through some photos taken back in 2014 on a visit to the island arc volcanoes of the Kuril Islands north of Japan, I came across these spiky native sulphur crystals precipitated around a fumarole vent.
November 3, 2025 at 11:03 AM
I don't usually do #MineralMonday, but sorting through some photos taken back in 2014 on a visit to the island arc volcanoes of the Kuril Islands north of Japan, I came across these spiky native sulphur crystals precipitated around a fumarole vent.
#MolluscMonday: a small part of the 'Ammonite Pavement' in the Lower Jurassic Blue Lias Formation at Lyme Regis. Pound coin for scale (if you can spot it).
November 3, 2025 at 6:57 AM
#MolluscMonday: a small part of the 'Ammonite Pavement' in the Lower Jurassic Blue Lias Formation at Lyme Regis. Pound coin for scale (if you can spot it).
2 November 1827: Oxford geologist William Buckland tells George Featherstonhaugh that 'Mary Anning is in the Act of extracting a large slab of Pentacrinites for you if she does not break her neck in the Operation'. She was working the Lias Pentacrinites Bed high on the unstable cliffs of Black Ven.
November 2, 2025 at 12:00 PM
2 November 1827: Oxford geologist William Buckland tells George Featherstonhaugh that 'Mary Anning is in the Act of extracting a large slab of Pentacrinites for you if she does not break her neck in the Operation'. She was working the Lias Pentacrinites Bed high on the unstable cliffs of Black Ven.
Japanese maple brightening up a corner of the garden in this morning's sunshine.
November 2, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Japanese maple brightening up a corner of the garden in this morning's sunshine.
And if you're at @geolassoc.bsky.social Festival of Geology this afternoon, do also check out this beautifully illustrated volume about William Smith, his work, his fossils, and his geological maps and sections. Available on the @hoggroup.bsky.social stand (shop early for Christmas!).
November 1, 2025 at 2:23 PM
And if you're at @geolassoc.bsky.social Festival of Geology this afternoon, do also check out this beautifully illustrated volume about William Smith, his work, his fossils, and his geological maps and sections. Available on the @hoggroup.bsky.social stand (shop early for Christmas!).
Although I can't be at today's @geolassoc.bsky.social event, my biography of Mary Anning, 'The Fossil Woman A Life of Mary Anning' which was published by The Dovecote Press five years ago today, will be there, available from the @hoggroup.bsky.social stand.
November 1, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Although I can't be at today's @geolassoc.bsky.social event, my biography of Mary Anning, 'The Fossil Woman A Life of Mary Anning' which was published by The Dovecote Press five years ago today, will be there, available from the @hoggroup.bsky.social stand.
Sadly, I can't make it this year, but if you're in London today, then head along to @geolassoc.bsky.social's Festival of Geology, always a great free event with loads to see & do: talks, activities & lots of exhibits & stands set in the lovely interior of the Geological Society in Burlington House.
November 1, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Sadly, I can't make it this year, but if you're in London today, then head along to @geolassoc.bsky.social's Festival of Geology, always a great free event with loads to see & do: talks, activities & lots of exhibits & stands set in the lovely interior of the Geological Society in Burlington House.
#FossilFriday: the fossil 'crocodile' (ichthyosaur) skull found one autumn day 214 years ago between Lyme Regis and Charmouth in Dorset by Mary Anning's brother, Joseph. Although similar fossils had long been known to occur at Lyme and elsewhere, this was the first to be scientifically described.
October 31, 2025 at 10:14 AM
#FossilFriday: the fossil 'crocodile' (ichthyosaur) skull found one autumn day 214 years ago between Lyme Regis and Charmouth in Dorset by Mary Anning's brother, Joseph. Although similar fossils had long been known to occur at Lyme and elsewhere, this was the first to be scientifically described.
30 October 1846: a newspaper reported that a fund had been set up by the geologists at that year's @britsciassoc.bsky.social meeting in Southampton to raise money for ailing fossil dealer #MaryAnning, 'an old woman' (she was 47), following a fire at her home in Lyme Regis.
October 30, 2025 at 7:31 AM
30 October 1846: a newspaper reported that a fund had been set up by the geologists at that year's @britsciassoc.bsky.social meeting in Southampton to raise money for ailing fossil dealer #MaryAnning, 'an old woman' (she was 47), following a fire at her home in Lyme Regis.
Morning light on Haddington’s Georgian Town House.
October 22, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Morning light on Haddington’s Georgian Town House.
#MolluscMonday: a silicified (beekitised) Pinna with attached oysters, Porthkerry Member, Blue Lias Formation, Lower Jurassic, Nash Point, South Wales.
October 20, 2025 at 8:26 AM
#MolluscMonday: a silicified (beekitised) Pinna with attached oysters, Porthkerry Member, Blue Lias Formation, Lower Jurassic, Nash Point, South Wales.
And looking better now that the sun is up.
October 20, 2025 at 7:49 AM
And looking better now that the sun is up.
Valley fog this morning in the Tyne valley, East Lothian.
October 20, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Valley fog this morning in the Tyne valley, East Lothian.
#StainedGlassSunday: the memorial window to #MaryAnning in St Michael's Church, Lyme Regis, installed in 1850 and now with kitchen units, kettle, microwave and wifi. I get the need for such facilities, but it's a disappointing sight for the visitors who come to Lyme on the trail of Mary Anning.
October 19, 2025 at 10:12 AM
#StainedGlassSunday: the memorial window to #MaryAnning in St Michael's Church, Lyme Regis, installed in 1850 and now with kitchen units, kettle, microwave and wifi. I get the need for such facilities, but it's a disappointing sight for the visitors who come to Lyme on the trail of Mary Anning.
#PostboxSaturday: polebox by village hall in Athelstaneford (locally pronounced ’Elshinford’), East Lothian.
October 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
#PostboxSaturday: polebox by village hall in Athelstaneford (locally pronounced ’Elshinford’), East Lothian.