Dave Rudkin
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art-h-ropod.bsky.social
Dave Rudkin
@art-h-ropod.bsky.social
1.4K followers 750 following 510 posts
Retired palaeontologist and museum curator, admirer of arthropods, and all 'round nature nerd. Fiercely Canadian. Staunchly antifascist. 🇨🇦
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Reposted by Dave Rudkin
daveyfwright.bsky.social
One of the greatest stories every told (by the fossil record)

Very cool new paper reveals insight into how starfish & their kin evolved from their bilateral ancestors to the 5-fold symmetry we see today 🧪
A new Cambrian stem-group echinoderm reveals the evolution of the anteroposterior axis
Woodgate et al. describe a new bilaterally symmetrical echinoderm, Atlascystis acantha, from the Cambrian of Morocco. Comparisons of plate growth with other echinoderms reveal that Atlascystis possess...
www.cell.com
June 26, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
peterefenton.bsky.social
August 6th! It's coming up fast!
June 25, 2025 at 7:14 PM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
Really looking forward to the next in the series ... "The Burnt"!
peterefenton.bsky.social Peter E. Fenton @peterefenton.bsky.social · Jun 25
Happy Publiversary to HOODOO HOUSE, which came out one year ago today. This mystery has captured a strong following with readers who love the twisted mystery, the evolving relationship between Declan Hunt & Charlie Watts ... and a young character named Henry Quill who nearly steals the book.
June 25, 2025 at 6:01 PM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
I've been avoiding bsky because of ... you know, too much angst & shit. But it's #TrilobiteTuesday, so if you're feeling #disarticulated, you're not alone. Scale puzzle of #Isotelusrex (72 cm long!) I cut from ethafoam showing how the calcified dorsal #exoskeleton separated into 12 bits on #death.
A large puzzle in the shape of the giant (72 cm in length) trilobite, Isotelus rex, cut from white 1/2" sheet ethafoam. The left image shows all the individual sclerites of the dorsal exoskeleton in juxtaposition, as in life. The ventral hypostome is not included in this version. The right image shows separation between the free cheeks (librigenae) and the cranidium, and between the tail shield (pygidium) and thorax. In the left image, all the dorsal sclerites, including the 8 thoracic pleurae, are slightly separated, but remain in alignment. This configuration represents a more or less intact carcass, after decay of the arthrodial membranes. On the right, the exoskeletal elements are skewed, as might be seen in a carcass with minor post mortem disturbance. Moult remains -- in which the living trilobite actively shed the old exoskeleton -- typically show inversion and/or rotation of certain elements, often displaced some distance from each other.
June 24, 2025 at 2:44 PM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
Nothing about pycnogonids ("sea spiders") surprises me!
geologyjohnson.bsky.social Geology Johnson @geologyjohnson.bsky.social · Jun 24
I'm sorry excuse me what!?
katycroffbell.bsky.social Dr. Katy Croff Bell @katycroffbell.bsky.social · Jun 20
Feast on some recent deep sea news & discoveries, like a sea spider covered in methane-fueled bacteria.
🌊🦑🌏🧪

@nicoledubilier.bsky.social
www.cnn.com/2025/06/17/s...
June 24, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
flyingtrilobite.com
SciArt Feed 🐡 Admin Reminder:

The SciArt Feed now has 3,500+ subscribers, and 1.5k+ approved contributors.

I will yeet any artist off of that approved list for being transphobic or hateful.

It remains a safe space for artists to share 2SLGBTQI+ themed science art.

Carry on.
June 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
Excellent!!
fossildetective.bsky.social James Lamsdell, PhD @fossildetective.bsky.social · Jun 18
Another new horseshoe crab, this time the first known Silurian species, filling a 63 million year gap in the horseshoe crab fossil record.

This specimen was actually found by Sam Ciurca 50 years ago - another example of the importance of museum collections! ⚒️🧪

doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
An image of the fossil horseshoe crab under different lightings. The fossil is rounded but the most clearly visible part is the long tail. A phylogeny showing the position of Ciurcalimulus between Lunataspis and all other horseshoe crabs.
June 19, 2025 at 1:36 AM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
This is absolutely amazing!! The MPE has some fabulous stuff .... hope we see more soon.
daveyfwright.bsky.social Dr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · Jun 18
Having a great time visiting the Musée de paléontologie et de l'évolution. The Neuville Formation (Ordovician) contains one the most spectacularly preserved echinoderm Lagerstätte I've ever seen. Very excited to be working on this! Here's a beautiful Ectenocrinus w/ rhombiferan blastozoans attached
Lightly pyritized disparid crinoid with long, slender arms and rambles. Multiple small specimens of complete rhombiferan blastozoans are attached to the base of the crinoid stem with their steles wrapping around the column
June 18, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
whysharksmatter.bsky.social
My latest for American Scientist Magazine helps give scientists the tools to fight back against politicized charges that our research is silly or pointless- tools that will work whether you’re asked “why are we funding this” from your asshole uncle at Thanksgiving or an asshole US Senator.
🧪🌎
“Why Are We Funding This?”
Long-standing myths about “silly science” have contributed to the reckless slashing of government-supported research.
www.americanscientist.org
June 17, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
ewylana.bsky.social
Thank you so much for 4.9k ! Lets do a small #artshare to celebrate !
Introduce yourself and drop below some of your favorite art !
An artwork showing a strange aquatic humanoid creature, with blue skin in a chitonous armor having fun riding an armored anomalocaris in similar colors. But below her a giant creature is swimming, and the head of the monster is going in her direction...
June 17, 2025 at 5:25 AM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
Awesome!!
dpulera.bsky.social Dino Pulerà @dpulera.bsky.social · Jun 17
Today is World Crocodile Day! Bringing attention and awareness about these amazing reptiles and their relatives alligators, caiman, gharials. This skull of an American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) was created for my book, The Dissection of Vertebrates
#sciart, #WorldCrocodileDay #anatomy
June 17, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
cambrianlife.bsky.social
Another 🚨Paper alert🚨 Everything you ever wanted to know about colony development in graptolithine pterobranchs 🪸 Still much to uncover, but this sums up what we know so far. Enjoy, it is open access 😜
doi.org/10.1111/ede....
June 17, 2025 at 2:35 PM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
Enrolled Isotelus latus w dorsal pygidium broken away revealing classic isoteline "forked" #hypostome (ventral "mouth plate") disarticulated from cephalic doublure. Beautiful preservation of fingerprint-like #terrace ridges! #Ordovician (~450 MYA), Lindsay Fm, Colborne, #Ontario 🇨🇦 #TrilobiteTuesday
A black & white photo of an enrolled isoteline trilobite. The specimen is viewed from beneath, with the cephalon facing downward -- only a narrow band of the ventral cephalic doublure is exposed at the top of the image, with the median connective suture just visible. The dorsal pygidial shield is broken away, leaving an impression of the ventral doublure as a broad arcuate band with curving parallel terrace ridges. Overlapping thoracic pleurae can be seen on either side of the specimen. Underneath the missing pygidium, the hypostome -- detached from the cephalic doublure -- is revealed from the ventral side. It is of classic isoteline form, with a deep posterior embayment giving a broadly "forked" appearance. Anastomosing terrace ridges are well displayed, running more or less parallel to the lateral margins. The scale bar at the bottom of the image is 20 mm in length.
June 17, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
echinoblog.bsky.social
OH NEAT Methane eating sea spiders #pycnogonida #seaspiderSaturday How often do you see THOSE in the news? www.sfgate.com/la/article/m...
Methane-eating sea spiders discovered off Southern California coast
Over 1,300 different sea spiders are found deep underwater in the ocean.
www.sfgate.com
June 16, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
tweetisaurus.bsky.social
So @fossilrob.bsky.social & I have a new podcast: The Fossil Files. Each week, we discuss a recently published paper on fossils. It's kind of like journal club, but with only mine and Rob's opinions. You can listen on our website or on Spotify: fossils.libsyn.com or open.spotify.com/show/2jWWagt...
The Fossil Files
In “The Fossil Files”, a pair of palaeontologists delve into the latest discoveries from the world of palaeontology and seek to bring fossils to back to life. Each episode, Susie and Rob will discuss ...
fossils.libsyn.com
June 16, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
nhmbryozoa.bsky.social
Nice small display on fossil folklore at the Dorchester Museum stand, Lyme Regis Fossil Festival.
June 15, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
nhmbryozoa.bsky.social
#MolluscMonday Non-marine bivalves pack a spectacular stone panel in a 16th century fireplace at Hardwick Hall (NT), Derbyshire. This ‘cockleshell marble’ is associated with the Tupton coal seam of Late Carboniferous age.
June 16, 2025 at 5:23 AM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
On #MolluscMonday: a #fossil #shellbed of the iconic Late #Triassic (~210 MYA) #bivalve, Monotis (Pacimonotis) subcircularis, Pardonet Fm, NE #BritishColumbia 🇨🇦. This subgenus has an extensive circum-Pacific distribution in rocks of similar age.
Large, light grey, semicircular shells of a distinctive pterioid bivalve mollusc are strewn over the surface of a darker grey limestone slab. The thin valves carry well-developed radiating ribs, with sets of finer ribs between more prominent ones. Faint concentric growth lines are also visible. Some valves are more or less complete, while others are fragmentary; there is considerable overlap of individual shells.
June 16, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
flyingtrilobite.com
If you enjoy my work and would like to send a few bucks my way, I have a Ko-fi:

ko-fi.com/flyingtrilob...
Support FlyingTrilobite
Support FlyingTrilobite
ko-fi.com
June 15, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
flyingtrilobite.com
Sharing with the #SciArt Feed:
(And yes the SciArt Feed can be "political"—science and art both reflect political facets of society.)
emmalerae.bsky.social Emma LeRae @emmalerae.bsky.social · Jun 14
Be safe out there today.

No kings!
Artwork depicting a Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus battling with the T. rex being gored by the two long horns of the Triceratops. The image composed of oranges and blues with the blood being bright red. Underneath the image is the text "Death to the Tyrants".
June 14, 2025 at 7:41 PM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
Another archival entry for #Strataday: Coastal monoliths in the Middle #Ordovician (~460 MYA) Mingan Fm, #Mingan #Archipelago #National #Park #Reserve, #Quebec 🇨🇦. Differential erosion of Mingan Fm #limestones has sculpted these striking features. Scanned slide from a 1998 #GAC-MAC field excursion.
An offshore view, taken from a small boat in choppy seas, of deeply eroded coastal monoliths (or sea stacks) composed of distinctly layered Middle Ordovician carbonate rocks. The overall tone of the image is grey-blue, from the rough waters in the foreground, to the shoreline rock exposures in mid-right view, to the uniformly overcast skies in the background. Above the barren wave-swept shoreline, a forest of wind-blown spruce trees encroaches from the right.
June 14, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
daveyfwright.bsky.social
The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is hiring a Collections Manager in Invertebrate Zoology. Come work with us!
Collection Manager, Recent Invertebrates
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
ou.taleo.net
June 13, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Dave Rudkin
romtoronto.bsky.social
File this under, if he wanted to, he would (grow some iridescent feathers to impress you). 💅

Until then, appreciate the gorgeous iridescence of these "little flying jewels" from our ornithology collection with Oliver Haddrath (Collections Technician).
June 13, 2025 at 7:40 PM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
Current events call for a "don't let the bastards grind you down" kind of post. These #Ordovician #bryozoans, #brachiopods & #gastropods entered the #fossilrecord ~450 MYA only to be scoured by a Pleistocene glacier. Be like these #fossils - endure! Verulam Fm, Ramara Tp, #Ontario 🇨🇦 #FossilFriday
A small, irregularly shaped slab of limestone is being held by hand in the raking sunlight. The flat surface, stained pale orange by iron minerals, shows a series of straight parallel grooves or scratches -- these are glacial striations cut by the passage of abrasive rock fragments and mineral grains embedded in the sole of the glacier. Numerous fossil fragments are seen on the slab surface. Some of these have been ground through at various angles and show as complete or partial cross sections. Other fragments (lower left and far right) have escaped glacial sectioning and still stand in relief. Close up of the glacially polished slab surface showing several medium- and high-spired gastropods in section, as well as the outlines of rhynchonellid brachiopods. More of the same surface with sections through trepostome bryozoans and a planispiral gastropod.
June 13, 2025 at 8:04 PM