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Harry Bridger

@harrybridger.bsky.social
166 followers 184 following 53 posts

He/him; University of Birmingham; undergraduate of palaeontology and geology; museum assistant; amateur palaeoartist; occasional science writer; enthusiast of past and present life

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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
My next attempt at going digital, here is Leedsichthys problematicus, a giant, filter-feeding bony fish from the Upper Jurassic, seen here doing its best impression of a basking shark.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
My last piece of 2025 was one of my first ever forays into digital art. Drawn on my iPhone, here is the bizarre possible-lamniform shark Aquilolamna milarcae from the Upper Cretaceous of Mexico.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Autumn fieldwork 🍁
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Freshwater sandstones from the Tonbridge Wells Sand Formation exposed in an old quarry near Fairlight, Sussex. #wealdenwednesday
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
I did a Plateosaurus this afternoon. I think I’m increasingly getting to grips with depicting dinosaur anatomy, though admittedly I still find drawing scales this way to be a little tedious.
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Chester Zoo Science @chesterzoosci.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
The first speed talk session covered jellyfish lightning, wild dog visitor effects (with Bayesian stats!), baboon contraception and cassowary calls. A great showcase of the variety of research that goes on in BIAZA Zoos #BIAZARC2025
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Richard Butler @richardjbutler.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Have you seen the Band of Brothers episode of Walking With Dinosaurs yet? Last year it was an absolute pleasure to dig at the site with our University of Birmingham undergraduates - thanks so much to @jlivelypaleo.bsky.social & @prehistoricmuseum.bsky.social for an amazing experience!
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Conspiracy believers tend to overrate their cognitive abilities and think most others agree with them www.psypost.org/conspiracy-b...
psypost.org
Conspiracy believers tend to overrate their cognitive abilities and think most others agree with them
People who believe in conspiracy theories tend to overestimate their own abilities and wrongly assume that others share their views, according to a new study. The findings highlight overconfidence as ...
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
What a wonderful weekend at Lyme Regis Fossil Festival!
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
After a lot of work, I’ve finally finished my shield! I’ll be using it for medieval battle reenactment, though most of the action it’ll see will be during training. It’s an Angevin-style flat-topped kite shield. The design comes from the personal heraldry of Sir John de Radynden (1274-1350).
A flat-topped kite shield featuring six golden martlets on a field of blue.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
It was lovely getting to see the painted dogs again at Chester Zoo with @eleanorpinkney.bsky.social now that they’re back on display in the Heart of Africa area. #wilddogwednesday
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
For #fossilfriday, here’s an older piece I did a couple of years back, a speculative study of the head of Pendraig milnerae, alongside some sketches of it’s described material.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
A little late to #fossilfriday, but this week I finally managed to get up to the Manchester Museum, and what a museum it is! The fossil galleries were, of course, a highlight, but the other areas on living species, Asian cultures and the ‘Wild’ temporary exhibition were all incredible as well.
The case skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex is the centrepiece of the fossil gallery.Taxidermy specimens of several recently-extinct birds, including the Carolina parakeet and ivory-billed woodpecker.The skeleton of a sperm whale is suspended from the ceiling in the 3-story gallery of living species.A life-sized model of Velociraptor mongoliensis, covered in orange feathers.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
Can Colossal get any more shameful? Trying to shed doubt on one of the world’s most well-respected science communicators when he correctly points out that switching a handful of genes doesn’t resurrect an extinct species is, quite frankly, embarrassing.
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Eleanor Pinkney @eleanorpinkney.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Happy Easter - please enjoy this selection of reptile photos from some recent visits to Dudley Zoo (the link with Easter was meant to be that they lay eggs, but it turns out that prehensile tailed skinks are viviparous)
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
I always try and do a spot of fossil hunting in the Hastings Beds (lower Wealden Group) down at Rock-A-Nore, Hastings, whenever I’m back down south. Not much from this trip, and I’m not yet sure exactly what I’ve found, but lovely nonetheless. #fossilfriday
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PaleoJim @paleojim.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Looks like all 6 episodes of Walking With Dinosaurs will air 7- 9 PM Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, June 16-18, on PBS in the US as 2 episodes a night so buckle up for a 3 day dino marathon. Betting our Utah episode is on June 16! issuu.com/nine_magazin... @paleontologizing.bsky.social
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 07/04/2025
Close-up of an outcrop. Nothing particularly notable. Except this outcrop is on another planet.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
For this #fossilfriday, here is a partial humerus of a crocodyliform, collected from the Lulworth Formation of Dorset. It probably belongs to the small-bodied Theriosuchus, first described by Prof. Richard Owen in 1879.
Proximal partial humerus of a small-bodied crocodyliform Theriosuchus.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
For this #fossilfriday, well… my undergraduate dissertation has been submitted! After a year of working on this project, it’s such a relief to see it finished, and hopefully it adds a little something to our understanding of palaeoenvironmental change in southern England.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
A very exciting discovery this is, and surprising to think pterosaurs simply weren’t known from the Portland limestones until now.
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Dr Stephan Lautenschlager @palaeostephan.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
This project has started a long time ago, but in a galaxy not too far away… Happy to share this new study with @taphonomist.bsky.social looking at the functional morphology and biomechanics of the Rancor. Warning! Nerdy sci fi, palaeo & biomechanics thread following! jgeekstudies.org/2025/03/08/i...
jgeekstudies.org
Is a bone a viable weapon when combating a Rancor? Estimating the bite force of an intergalactic mega-predator
Stephan Lautenschlager1,2 & Thomas Clements3 1School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. 2The Lapworth Museum of Geology, Birmingham, UK. 3…
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Some shots from a visit to West Midlands Safari Park yesterday. I’d like to think that, despite my camera getting on a bit, I’m starting to take some better photographs.
Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris (sondaica?) sumatrae)Chinese dhole (Cuon alpinus alpinus) lying down in the sunAfrican lioness (Panthera leo melanochaita) standing on a rockBlackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) herd lying down
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Eleanor Pinkney @eleanorpinkney.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Happy #worldwildlifeday. To quote Sir David Attenborough, “The natural world is the greatest source of excitement, the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest”. I hope today you get to go out and experience the magic of nature and, in return, act to protect it.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
For my own sanity, I feel like I need to watch #prehistoricplanet again.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Many insect microfossils are known from the Purbeck Limestone Group of Dorset - here’s what appears to be the carapace of one of them, collected on my most recent trip to Dorset and soon to be written-up into my dissertation. Happy #fossilfriday!
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
I’ve finally got my own hand axe! (And behind it, a shield that should be getting painted soon)
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Shinji, get in the clock tower!
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Natalia (娜塔莉) @wrycritic.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
It's International Day of Women in Science! A Celebrating with palaeontologists that defined the field, Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska (1925–2015), pioneer of early mammalian evolution, the leader of Polish-Mongolian expeditions that led to discoveries of Deinocheirus, Gallimimus and fighting Velociraptor.
Zofia in field Book by Zofia on early mammals
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Natural History Museum, London @nhm-london.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
📢 We're opening a new permanent gallery! 🌍 Fixing Our Broken Planet combines scientific research, climate advice and practical ideas to find your role in fixing the planet. It’s free to visit from Thursday 3 April – we hope to see you there! 🌱
Text reading “A new gallery is coming...” over a photo of rows of newly planted trees, with fully grown trees in the background.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Today marks the 200th anniversary of the naming of Iguanodon! Happy #iguanodon200 everyone 🎉
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
How is it that I’m already disappointed by a film who’s trailer has scarcely been out 15 minutes? #jurassicworldrebirth
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Eleanor Pinkney @eleanorpinkney.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
I’ve decided that #wilddogwednesday needs to become a thing. I’m kicking things off this week with a video of the pack in the drive through enclosure at West Midlands Safari Park.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
A spot of petrology to accompany my sediment descriptions. Thankfully the thin sections line up very nicely with my field descriptions 😅.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
For #museumselfieday, here’s me at work in the Lapworth Museum of Geology.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
The Digging for Britain episode on the Dewars Farm Quarry tracksite airs at 20:00 tonight on BBC Two, and is already up on BBC iPlayer. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
A humpback whale was spotted breaching just off Hastings today! It goes without saying this isn’t something you see every day, and I’m super disappointed to have missed it - hopefully this won’t be the last time. Original video by Ricky Martin: www.dailymotion.com/video/x9bquik
dailymotion.com
Possible whale sighting near Hastings in East Sussex
Dailymotion video by SussexWorld
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Science News @scinews.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Writing a scientific article: A step-by-step guide for beginners Main sections that an average article should contain; elements that should appear in these sections, and some pointers for making the overall result attractive and acceptable for publication. halfonlab.ccr.buffalo.edu/other_docs/s...
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Very excited to finally talk about the dinosaur footprints at Dewars Farm Quarry! These were laid down on a tropical coast in the Middle Jurassic (~166 Ma) by several sauropods and a large theropod which may have been Megalosaurus bucklandii.
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Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
New #paleoart for some big #dinosaur news! The UK's largest dinosaur tracksite has just been unveiled – tracks made by a Middle Jurassic theropod and multiple sauropods stretch for hundreds of metres across an Oxfordshire quarry. Short thread on the #sciart I made for this remarkable site...
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
The ancient wing itself, Archaeopteryx lithographica. Depicted in fineliner on A5 notebook paper (like most of my work).
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
As a special Christmas present to all you wonderful readers of @devilledtoads.bsky.social, our first ever guest blog is out!
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Definitely too late for #fossilfriday this week, but the picture was taken on a Friday so I say it counts! Pictured below is the Eocene wading bird Messelornis cristata, currently on-display in the @nhm-london.bsky.social and originally from Germany’s famous Messel Pit fossil site.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
I finally got to see Fern at the @nhm-london.bsky.social!
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Went round the Oxford Museum of Natural History on the weekend, and of course I had a great time.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Now this is very exciting paper! New Wealden dinosaurs are always very exciting, but what’s more is that the Ashdown Brickworks quarry, where a bunch of the teeth described in the study come from, is so near where I grew up in Hastings. Such an exciting time to be a fan of Wealden dinosaurs.
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Now it’s December, I can start on this very cool advent calendar by the NHM.
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Devilled Toads @devilledtoads.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
In our newest installment of 'The Zoo Review', we talk about the Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park, a tiny hidden gem of a zoo in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Read it here: sites.google.com/view/deville...
sites.google.com
Devilled Toads - The Zoo Review: Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park
The UK is, for the most part, lacking for good city zoos. London rather famously has the ZSL London Zoo, the oldest scientific zoo in the world, and there are excellent zoos in Edinburgh and Belfast a...
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Harry Bridger @harrybridger.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Snowy trip to Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park.
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Devilled Toads @devilledtoads.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Welcome to Devilled Toads! We are a blog about the natural world, covering everything from conservation to palaeontology, animal biology to our famous zoo reviews. sites.google.com/view/deville...
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