Lee Raye
@leafyhistory.bsky.social
Associate Lecturer, Research Officer, studies medieval/early modern wild animals & plants.
Author: #AtlasofEarlyModernWildlife
Secretly a fox? 🦊 Slow worm friend. 🧚🏻🐉 they/them. 🍞🌹
(No access to DMs, email me)
Author: #AtlasofEarlyModernWildlife
Secretly a fox? 🦊 Slow worm friend. 🧚🏻🐉 they/them. 🍞🌹
(No access to DMs, email me)
Pinned
Lee Raye
@leafyhistory.bsky.social
· Dec 18
Out now in the @sochistnathist.bsky.social journal, my article on the BERRY-POMEROY MANUSCRIPT!
This is a natural history text from the year 1599 which lists 278 species of animals and plants living in Elizabethan Devon!
There are some very surprising records here...
🐺🐻🪶🐀🐾🎣🍎🍐📗
(Thread 🧵...)
This is a natural history text from the year 1599 which lists 278 species of animals and plants living in Elizabethan Devon!
There are some very surprising records here...
🐺🐻🪶🐀🐾🎣🍎🍐📗
(Thread 🧵...)
Here is where I've found DOLPHINS recorded in Britain 250-500 years ago. 🐬💙
Some surprises here - there are populations recorded around East Anglia and far up the Bristol Channel, where dolphins are rarer today! 🙀
#AtlasOfEarlyModernWildlife #OceansPast
Some surprises here - there are populations recorded around East Anglia and far up the Bristol Channel, where dolphins are rarer today! 🙀
#AtlasOfEarlyModernWildlife #OceansPast
November 11, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Here is where I've found DOLPHINS recorded in Britain 250-500 years ago. 🐬💙
Some surprises here - there are populations recorded around East Anglia and far up the Bristol Channel, where dolphins are rarer today! 🙀
#AtlasOfEarlyModernWildlife #OceansPast
Some surprises here - there are populations recorded around East Anglia and far up the Bristol Channel, where dolphins are rarer today! 🙀
#AtlasOfEarlyModernWildlife #OceansPast
Reposted by Lee Raye
A rather angry sea gryphon chases a cheeky dolphin across a 2nd century #Roman mosaic
Found at #Cirencester in 1849, the entirety of this decorated floor (featuring hunting dogs) can now be seen in the excellent @coriniummuseum.bsky.social
📷 Aug 2022
Don't play with your food this #MosaicMonday !
Found at #Cirencester in 1849, the entirety of this decorated floor (featuring hunting dogs) can now be seen in the excellent @coriniummuseum.bsky.social
📷 Aug 2022
Don't play with your food this #MosaicMonday !
November 10, 2025 at 7:24 AM
A rather angry sea gryphon chases a cheeky dolphin across a 2nd century #Roman mosaic
Found at #Cirencester in 1849, the entirety of this decorated floor (featuring hunting dogs) can now be seen in the excellent @coriniummuseum.bsky.social
📷 Aug 2022
Don't play with your food this #MosaicMonday !
Found at #Cirencester in 1849, the entirety of this decorated floor (featuring hunting dogs) can now be seen in the excellent @coriniummuseum.bsky.social
📷 Aug 2022
Don't play with your food this #MosaicMonday !
Reposted by Lee Raye
A new study has unexpectedly discovered that a common parasite of modern oysters actually started infecting bivalves hundreds of millions of years before the dinosaurs went extinct.
phys.org/news/2025-11...
#fossils #paleontology
phys.org/news/2025-11...
#fossils #paleontology
November 8, 2025 at 7:28 AM
A new study has unexpectedly discovered that a common parasite of modern oysters actually started infecting bivalves hundreds of millions of years before the dinosaurs went extinct.
phys.org/news/2025-11...
#fossils #paleontology
phys.org/news/2025-11...
#fossils #paleontology
Reposted by Lee Raye
We have 🐟 herring pre print!
Our new study reveals that ancient gene flow between Pacific and Atlantic herring played a key role in helping Atlantic herring adapt to the brackish waters of the Baltic Sea.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Our new study reveals that ancient gene flow between Pacific and Atlantic herring played a key role in helping Atlantic herring adapt to the brackish waters of the Baltic Sea.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 9:13 PM
We have 🐟 herring pre print!
Our new study reveals that ancient gene flow between Pacific and Atlantic herring played a key role in helping Atlantic herring adapt to the brackish waters of the Baltic Sea.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Our new study reveals that ancient gene flow between Pacific and Atlantic herring played a key role in helping Atlantic herring adapt to the brackish waters of the Baltic Sea.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Lee Raye
Lorenzo de Medici’s pet giraffe used to wander 1480s Florence sticking its head in second story windows to be fed by excited neighbors (or eating their ribeye is herbs) and this is a great visual to help imagine it.
PHOTO OF THE DAY. A policeman stops traffic to let a man carrying an inflatable rubber giraffe cross the road on his way to the British Industries Fair in London (1935)
📷 google images
📷 google images
November 7, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Lorenzo de Medici’s pet giraffe used to wander 1480s Florence sticking its head in second story windows to be fed by excited neighbors (or eating their ribeye is herbs) and this is a great visual to help imagine it.
Conference day. Lots of familiar names! 😸
November 7, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Conference day. Lots of familiar names! 😸
Reposted by Lee Raye
It came! It came!!
This is a print of @museum.of.emilyk.art ‘s brilliant "Tzefardea Tzedek" (Frog of Righteousness), a riff on the Jewish reaction to the Portland resistance frog. Emily’s explanation is pasted in the alt text.
Love it ❤️
This is a print of @museum.of.emilyk.art ‘s brilliant "Tzefardea Tzedek" (Frog of Righteousness), a riff on the Jewish reaction to the Portland resistance frog. Emily’s explanation is pasted in the alt text.
Love it ❤️
November 4, 2025 at 9:31 PM
It came! It came!!
This is a print of @museum.of.emilyk.art ‘s brilliant "Tzefardea Tzedek" (Frog of Righteousness), a riff on the Jewish reaction to the Portland resistance frog. Emily’s explanation is pasted in the alt text.
Love it ❤️
This is a print of @museum.of.emilyk.art ‘s brilliant "Tzefardea Tzedek" (Frog of Righteousness), a riff on the Jewish reaction to the Portland resistance frog. Emily’s explanation is pasted in the alt text.
Love it ❤️
Quick the books are waiting! 😸💚📚
October 30, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Quick the books are waiting! 😸💚📚
Reposted by Lee Raye
Excellent resource tracing the arrival of Aboriginal people to Australia around 65,000 years ago, through mega fauna, the ice age & rising seas. It maps their archaeological, art & oral records and stories onto the geographical evolution of Australia, crediting all owners of traditional knowledge.
October 29, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Excellent resource tracing the arrival of Aboriginal people to Australia around 65,000 years ago, through mega fauna, the ice age & rising seas. It maps their archaeological, art & oral records and stories onto the geographical evolution of Australia, crediting all owners of traditional knowledge.
Had a delightful time on the #WaxcapWatch survey earlier this week! 😁🍄
October 28, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Had a delightful time on the #WaxcapWatch survey earlier this week! 😁🍄
Reposted by Lee Raye
🐟 New research into fossils from the Cretaceous Period found 3️⃣ previously unknown fish species, including "the oldest salmonid in the fossil record."
“First Salmon”: 73-Million-Year-Old Fossil Rewrites Fish History
Scientists have discovered the world’s oldest salmon in Arctic Alaska’s Cretaceous fossil. During the Cretaceous Period, dinosaurs ruled the land, but the waterways of the Arctic were home to creature...
scitechdaily.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:15 PM
🐟 New research into fossils from the Cretaceous Period found 3️⃣ previously unknown fish species, including "the oldest salmonid in the fossil record."
Reposted by Lee Raye
This is a really important piece that hugely resonates with me personally. I'm precarious too, and the cognitive dissonance of being invited to keynote because of your research, your profile whilst being chronically uncertain of your survival in the field, is all too familiar #MedievalSky
My blog post with the ADAM network has now been published. It's about precarity, the future of small subjects, and communal approaches to academic work. I hope it will resonate with some. #IchBinHanna #KleineFaecher #SkandiRetten
difficultmedieval.com/2025/10/23/h...
difficultmedieval.com/2025/10/23/h...
Hard Times and Trial Approaches: Old Norse-Icelandic Studies Between Precarity and the Future
Dr Rebecca Merkelbach reflects on her keynote speech at the most recent Saga Conference. Held every three years, Saga Con is the most important meeting of Old Norse scholars, bringing together acad…
difficultmedieval.com
October 24, 2025 at 9:05 AM
This is a really important piece that hugely resonates with me personally. I'm precarious too, and the cognitive dissonance of being invited to keynote because of your research, your profile whilst being chronically uncertain of your survival in the field, is all too familiar #MedievalSky
Reposted by Lee Raye
#Bird #Wildlife
Mute swan (Cygnus olor), Cygne tuberculé, Alarc'h roueel.
"An Alarc'h" is a traditional Breton folk song with a patriotic theme. It commemorates the return of the exiled Breton prince Jean de Montfort (known as "The Swan of Montfort") to retake his duchy from the French in 1379.
Mute swan (Cygnus olor), Cygne tuberculé, Alarc'h roueel.
"An Alarc'h" is a traditional Breton folk song with a patriotic theme. It commemorates the return of the exiled Breton prince Jean de Montfort (known as "The Swan of Montfort") to retake his duchy from the French in 1379.
October 25, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Reposted by Lee Raye
The Heron in ancient Egypt. Respected.
1,2. Papyrii of Book of the Dead (Spell 17)
3. Vignette of Spell 83, BM
4. Golden heart amulet with inlaid polycrome glass depiction of Bennu, Annexe of Burial Chamber of Tut’Ankh’Amen, 1323 BCE, Valley ofthe Kings, Thebes ⚱️
Thx as ever Heroneer Hermes1861
1,2. Papyrii of Book of the Dead (Spell 17)
3. Vignette of Spell 83, BM
4. Golden heart amulet with inlaid polycrome glass depiction of Bennu, Annexe of Burial Chamber of Tut’Ankh’Amen, 1323 BCE, Valley ofthe Kings, Thebes ⚱️
Thx as ever Heroneer Hermes1861
October 25, 2025 at 6:27 AM
The Heron in ancient Egypt. Respected.
1,2. Papyrii of Book of the Dead (Spell 17)
3. Vignette of Spell 83, BM
4. Golden heart amulet with inlaid polycrome glass depiction of Bennu, Annexe of Burial Chamber of Tut’Ankh’Amen, 1323 BCE, Valley ofthe Kings, Thebes ⚱️
Thx as ever Heroneer Hermes1861
1,2. Papyrii of Book of the Dead (Spell 17)
3. Vignette of Spell 83, BM
4. Golden heart amulet with inlaid polycrome glass depiction of Bennu, Annexe of Burial Chamber of Tut’Ankh’Amen, 1323 BCE, Valley ofthe Kings, Thebes ⚱️
Thx as ever Heroneer Hermes1861
Reposted by Lee Raye
#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’.
Here is where the European (sea) bass was recorded 250-500 years ago. 🎣Caught for food, interestingly it seems to have only been common in the south. It has expanded its range up the east coast of Britain with the warming temperatures of the last century. Map / #AtlasOfEarlyModernWildlife
October 22, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Here is where the European (sea) bass was recorded 250-500 years ago. 🎣Caught for food, interestingly it seems to have only been common in the south. It has expanded its range up the east coast of Britain with the warming temperatures of the last century. Map / #AtlasOfEarlyModernWildlife
Love this! The poor, maligned frogs here represent heresy made visible, and are associated with Revelations 16:3 where frogs come from the mouths of the Dragon, the Beast and a false prophet. 🐸
But was the image intended as a dig at the Franciscans? 🤭
But was the image intended as a dig at the Franciscans? 🤭
“Hey, how have you been?”
‘Not great, I’ve had a bit of a frog in my throat for the last day or two.’
“Huh, I’ve been feeling a bit low myself, I wonder if that’s what I’ve got too?”
1st quarter of the 14th century, British Library, Royal MS 19 B XV, f. 30v
‘Not great, I’ve had a bit of a frog in my throat for the last day or two.’
“Huh, I’ve been feeling a bit low myself, I wonder if that’s what I’ve got too?”
1st quarter of the 14th century, British Library, Royal MS 19 B XV, f. 30v
October 20, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Love this! The poor, maligned frogs here represent heresy made visible, and are associated with Revelations 16:3 where frogs come from the mouths of the Dragon, the Beast and a false prophet. 🐸
But was the image intended as a dig at the Franciscans? 🤭
But was the image intended as a dig at the Franciscans? 🤭
Reposted by Lee Raye
Did you know? Shakespeare’s England had native dog roses and imported damask roses — the latter was prized as the only repeat-flowering rose before the 18th century. 🌹 www.cassidycash.com/ep391
October 14, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Did you know? Shakespeare’s England had native dog roses and imported damask roses — the latter was prized as the only repeat-flowering rose before the 18th century. 🌹 www.cassidycash.com/ep391
For #BlackHistoryMonth, here are some thoughts about a source I've read - 'Letters from a Moor at London to his Friend at Tunis' (1736). This is a kind of guide to England, supposedly (uh-oh! 😅) written by a Black traveler from Tunisia, North Africa. 🇹🇳🧑🏽✈️
archive.org/details/b330...
archive.org/details/b330...
Letters from a Moor at London to his friend at Tunis. Containing an account of his journey through England. With his observations on the laws, customs, religion, and manners of the English nation. Lik...
1 unnumbered leaf, 274 pages ; (12mo)
archive.org
October 13, 2025 at 3:12 PM
For #BlackHistoryMonth, here are some thoughts about a source I've read - 'Letters from a Moor at London to his Friend at Tunis' (1736). This is a kind of guide to England, supposedly (uh-oh! 😅) written by a Black traveler from Tunisia, North Africa. 🇹🇳🧑🏽✈️
archive.org/details/b330...
archive.org/details/b330...
Reposted by Lee Raye
Changes in Swiss pasture species diversity for over a century 🧪
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Century-old papers saved from the bin reveal changes in Europe’s plant life
Plant inventories dating back to 1884 and nearly thrown away enable unique time-lapse study of biodiversity in Swiss meadows
www.theguardian.com
October 10, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Changes in Swiss pasture species diversity for over a century 🧪
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Lee Raye
Day 75/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History
Clara was a famous rhinoceros captured from Assam, taken to Holland, and exhibited across Europe in 1741-58. In India, Director of the Dutch factoy, kept her as a pet in Hooghly for 3 yrs.
This 1747 illustration shows a ship taking her from Hooghly.
Clara was a famous rhinoceros captured from Assam, taken to Holland, and exhibited across Europe in 1741-58. In India, Director of the Dutch factoy, kept her as a pet in Hooghly for 3 yrs.
This 1747 illustration shows a ship taking her from Hooghly.
October 10, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Day 75/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History
Clara was a famous rhinoceros captured from Assam, taken to Holland, and exhibited across Europe in 1741-58. In India, Director of the Dutch factoy, kept her as a pet in Hooghly for 3 yrs.
This 1747 illustration shows a ship taking her from Hooghly.
Clara was a famous rhinoceros captured from Assam, taken to Holland, and exhibited across Europe in 1741-58. In India, Director of the Dutch factoy, kept her as a pet in Hooghly for 3 yrs.
This 1747 illustration shows a ship taking her from Hooghly.
Reposted by Lee Raye
Pine Marten has returned to Exmoor NP after an absence of more than a century:
Pine Marten reintroduced to Exmoor
Pine Marten has returned to Exmoor NP after an absence of more than a century. Nine females and 10 males were released during September 2025 at secret locations owned by the National Trust and Forestry England. The releases mark the return of an animal which was once common locally but lost due to hunting and the decline of its favoured woodland habitat. The Pine Martens were sourced from healthy wild populations in north-west Scotland.
bit.ly
October 10, 2025 at 6:16 AM
Pine Marten has returned to Exmoor NP after an absence of more than a century:
Reposted by Lee Raye
Fossil found on Dorset coast is unique 'sword dragon' species www.bbc.com/news/article...
Fossil found on UK coast is unique 'sword dragon' species
Scientists say the newly discovered species of marine reptile probably met a grisly end.
www.bbc.com
October 10, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Fossil found on Dorset coast is unique 'sword dragon' species www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Lee Raye
DNA and historical sleuthing have traced the extinct bird’s remains to a museum in Ohio. https://scim.ag/4791YqA
Fate of the last female great auk is finally solved
DNA and historical sleuthing have traced the extinct bird’s remains to a museum in Ohio
scim.ag
October 8, 2025 at 10:30 PM
DNA and historical sleuthing have traced the extinct bird’s remains to a museum in Ohio. https://scim.ag/4791YqA