Windy day in the Pioneer Mountains of Montana. Good views and workout (and plants, see the Lewisia pygmaea photo) before my last week of teaching ecosystem science out here. Bonus rip-up clasts in quartzite of the Mesoproterozoic Missoula Group.

Fieldwork in Bears Ears in 2023 was my first experience doing work “out West” and it fundamentally shifted my perspective on both paleontology and society more broadly. It is a beautiful, fragile place that needs to be protected. Not to mention that it is on fire right now, too (100k+ acres)

The 90% reduction of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante NM is a massive loss for science, indigenous communities, and the American public more broadly.

So thank you for taking care of me when I needed it, guiding me back to the right path when I went astray, and teaching me about the world. I’ll never be able to repay all who have given to me, but I’ll do my best to pay it forward.

Between its hills and in the buildings built upon them I learned the basis of biology, geology, and justice. At every turn someone was there to help me out when I was down on my luck. The folks here also haven’t bit their tongue when they’ve seen me falling out of line.

An ode to Pittsburgh: skip if you dislike sappy threads I’ve been around the world and the country but nowhere will compare to sw Pennsylvania. This place, these people, have a spot in my heart that will not soon be replaced.

Dr. Richard Lund spearheaded the work on this deposit and described much of the vertebrate fauna, the ecosystem, and geology. Pictured below is Discoserra pectinodon, an iconic ray-finned fish from the deposit that has been the subject of extensive study and debate (watch this space :p)

Happy #fossilfriday ! Today @hadeelsaad.bsky.social and I began the long-haul process of driving 600 specimens from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Missoula, Montana. These specimens are from the famous Bear Gulch lagerstätte (located in Montana).

For #fossilfriday I have Amphicentrum jurgenai, from the late Carboniferous locality Kinney Brick Quarry. The late Paleozoic was full of deep bodied animals, including platysomids and the enigmatic Platysella. Frustratingly, much of their anatomy remains a mystery, but watch this space ;)

Very eastern North American pull of animals this evening. The great horned owl chick’s name is Baby Man.

Beautiful day in the neighborhood. Thanks Pittsburgh for showing up to support us runners 🫶

different fossil Friday this week. huge congrats to @athenavohs.bsky.social for successfully completing her masters! good luck at CU Boulder!! your passion will carry you far. Athena works on condylarths (enigmatic Paleogene mammals) so I’ve included one here (Anisonchus— read alt text!)

Happy #fossilfriday! @hadeelsaad.bsky.social , Emily Hillan, and I spent the past week in the Appalachian Basin collecting in the Carboniferous. We found a lot of great stuff but the best thing we got was a fossil xiphosuran, Euproops! Very uncommon here. Time to organize it all!

Insect people, WTF is going on over here? Found in Allegheny County PA. Suburb/forest edge. Large one is Lytta aenea. Small one was biting it? But it wasn’t really moving? So confused.

All from today. The world is waking up.

For #fossilfriday I have the holotype of Kalops monophrys, CM 27372. Kalops is a classic “palaeoniscoid” from Bear Gulch , a Mississippian lagerstätte in central Montana. While squished, it’s undeniably a gorgeous fossil.

Cat shots from the past two days. God I love this creature

While bowfin are represented by predatory marine taxa, the weirdest members of the holostean clade here are macrosemiids, a group of stem gar trying to be wrasses. The living clade of holosteans is limited to just nine taxa— without the fossil record, strange forms such as this would be lost.

Gorgeous, colored up male Etheostoma caeruleum from the Huron River today. Picture credit: James Andrews.

I am now a PhD candidate, which means that my cat can continue to be unemployed. Thanks to everyone that made it possible. This has by no means been a solo effort. If you’ve helped me, you know who you are. You’re the best.

How can you ignore it any longer?

Taking some time to reflect on my progress as I inch closer to my qualifying exam. I think it’s been easy for me to connect to my study system when it is *literally* in my backyard. The fish I’m describing comes from the Birmingham Shale, which is close to the surface at my parents house

Do not look away.

posin

Holy WOW I love my cat

Another day, another jaw Gzhelian, Appalachian Basin(nr Pittsburgh) 303-298 Ma

Big week for me this week. Posting cat pictures to get me, and maybe you , too, through your Monday.

A brief break in the doom. The moment my cat, Bergamot, understood where the laser came from

Away from the lab today, so strat time. Got a copy for cheap from the fourth Pennsylvania Geologic Survey, which is both aesthetically pleasing and vital to my work. I also dug into some midcontinent strat for a big project..

Great surprise today at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History today. Unbeknownst to me, a Diplichnites trackway I collected from my backyard when I was 12 and donated when I was 19 is now on display in the new Stories Week Keep gallery. What an honor.