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Reposted by Lukas Laibl

Dr Richie Howard @arthropoda-curator.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Thrilled to finally share our new paper on giant scorpions from the Early Devonian! Behold Praearcturus gigas! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/S54Y6Y...

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Happy you enjoyed it :) Paleozoic is the coolest era :)

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

The paper was published in a special issue of the journal Bulletin of Geosciences, and is freely available here: www.geology.cz/bulletin/ful...

geology.cz

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Second, Soomaspis labutai lived about 448-445 million years ago, before the Late Ordovician glaciation and mass extinction. In contrast, Soomaspis splendida lived after this event, about 443 million years ago. The genus Soomaspis thus belongs to the rare survivors of this global catastrophe.

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

This discovery has two important implications. First, the genus Soomaspis inhabited wast coastal regions along a large part of Gondwana - it was not South African endemic. Present-day South Africa and Prague were located on opposite ends of this supercontinent.

Soomaspis labutai, about 2 cm long - part (right) and counterpart (left)

Reconstruction of Soomaspis labutai by Jiří Svoboda

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

My friend Radek Labuťa discovered a fossil of another Soomaspis on a spoil heap from metro construction at Pankrác (Prague). This specimen differed from the South African species, so we described it as a new species - Soomaspis labutai, named in his honor.

Radek Labuťa holding new Soomaspis in the metro tunnel

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Soomaspis splendida was small Late Ordovician Naraoid that was described by Fortey and Theron in 1995 from the South African Soom Shale. For a long time, it was considered a South African endemic...until now.

Soomaspis splendida from Fortey and Theron, 1995

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

So you've heard about trilobites, but do you know Naraoids? These trilobite cousins shared similar bodies but differed in details. Most importantly, they lacked hard exoskeleton and had only soft cuticle. That's why they are known only from sites with exceptional preservation, such as Burgess Shale.

Naraoia from the famous Burgess Shale, photographed by JB Caron, deposited in ROM

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Pokud se to nikde nezasekne, tak by to mohlo byt na vánoční trh :)

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Pred tydnem jsem odevzdal...byl to masakr (proto me dlouhe radio silence) :) Tak snad se to bude dat cist :)

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Reposted by Lukas Laibl

Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

• Evolution is a ladder constantly leading to the higher levels of progress! • No, evolution is a tree where all branches are equal! • While actual evolution... 👇 🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio #Macroecology

Evolution of body size and evolutionary rates in different clades.

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

My childhood dream comes true! I finally visited the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs 🦖 (@cpdinosaurs.bsky.social) for the first time after seeing them in my first dinosaur book I got for Christmas back in 1992. I wish they would be available as figure replicas 😅

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Just doing some research on trilobites =(:[[[[} at @nhm-london.bsky.social and here are some cool fossils from NHM collections: Trilobite Xystridura from Cambrian of 🇦🇺 Skull of Permian amphibian Diplocaulus from 🇺🇲 Stegosaurus Sophie from Jurassic of 🇺🇲 ...and a cool bronze replica of Diplodocus 🦕

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Really sad, that my personal scientific hero and a trilobite specialist Richard Fortey has passed away today. Still remember when I first met him in NHM as a student in 2014. He invited me for lunch and signed my copy of his book...

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

My book for kids is finally out 🥳 "A Real Paleontologist's Handbook" 📙 👉 www.bylonebylo.com/prirucka-sku...

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

"Conga line" of a small blind trilobite called Ampyx priscus from the Fezouata Formation of Morocco. These guys apparently used their long genal and frontal spines in a similar way as blind people use their canes. Ampyx individuals in a line are often touching each other with their spines.

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Scanning cool trilobites with soft parts =(:[[[[} and some other fossils at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble.

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Reposted by Lukas Laibl

Kiabugboy @kiabugboy.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Trilobite video's finally done, hope you'll give it a look ☺️ youtu.be/vGcsiJaz9kU?... #sciArt #Trilobite #paleoart #3Danimation #paleontology

youtu.be

Trilobite Soft Tissue

YouTube video by Kiabugboy

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Reposted by Lukas Laibl

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 29/11/2024

For #FossilFriday check out this beautifully preserved fossil millipede! Meet Pleurojulus, a 305 million year old animal from the USA. The fossil preserves details including the head (marked h, in the top image), with chewing mouthparts (marked m). ⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

A fossil millipede in a black and white photograph. The millipede as a whole is shown in panel A, it is curled, and has clear segments in its trunks, under which are legs sticking pointing inwards. Below this are close ups of different bits of the millipede including the legs in hte middle of the body, dorsal ornamentation, the head, and an ocellarium (~eye).

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Happy to announce that our project "The past as a key to the present: A unique ‘reverse actualistic’ approach to synchrotron imaged snapshots of Early Palaeozoic life and death" that we prepared with Valéria Vaškaninová got funding from the Czech Science Foundation 🥳

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Wow, that's pretty cool. Never seen US Eofallotaspis in such a preservation.

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Since I always forget, here is Pricyclopyge for #TrilobiteTuesday in advance. This trilobite has really huge eyes that continue to the lower side of the head. It's distribution and peculiar morphology suggest it was swimming in the twilight zone of Ordovician seas. This one is NH4Cl coated 🤓

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Working hard or hardly working? Currently at the Universität Zürich 🇨🇭 with Gabi Suárez Pérez. We are trying to quantify trilobite metamorphosis =(:[[[[} And we also have very cool origami trilobites as mascots! 😉

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Tomorrow starts the 3rd virtual meeting of IGCP735! ⛰️🐚🦂🦑🦠🔬⛏️🗺️ You can download and read the abstract volume on the conference website cgs.gov.cz/en/projects/...

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Reposted by Lukas Laibl

Kiabugboy @kiabugboy.bsky.social · 02/11/2024

Wow...this background is a lot better than i expected once i added the depth of field and some matte painting It's going to restrict the kind of shots and camera movements i'll be able to do..just have to work with the limitations. #WIP #SciArt #Trilobite #Blender3D #3Danimation #paleoart

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Yeah, I love this gouache too. It is an illustration from this book (translated as "Sandbounded life") written by Josef Augusta and illustrated by Burian. It was a book of short novels in a documentary style about prehistoric life. Something like novel versions of Walking with dinosaurs in 1941.

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Reposted by Lukas Laibl

Farid Saleh | فريد صالح @taphozoan.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Imagine travelling back 470 million years to dive alongside the marine polar animals of that era. Reconstruction by @prehistorica.bsky.social. Work published earlier this year in collaboration with @lukaslaibl.bsky.social: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤿 🦐

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

For me in my childhood it was classic Burian. I remember I had several books that I always took with me when visiting grandparents and then redrawing some of his images... I especially loved the Cambrian, Carboniferous and Jurassic scenery.

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

And here are some other cool fossils from their temporal exhibition Masterpieces - Artworks of Nature...

Trilobite Isotelus maximus from Ordovician of Ohio

Crinoid Uintacrinus socialis from Cretaceous of Colorado

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Got some time to explore palaeontological museum at the University of Zurich. They have a spectacular exhibition of Triassic fossils from Monte St. Giorgio Lagerstätte and are also showing some cool Swiss🇨🇭dinosaurs🦖, such as the new small theropod from Frick - Notatesseraeraptor frickensis.

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Reposted by Lukas Laibl

Anna Kubišta @annakubista.bsky.social · 23/11/2023

A lire, mon entretien avec la paléontologue Lukáš Laibl qui, dans le cadre d'une équipe internationale, a découvert au Maroc une nouvelle espèce d’arthropode vieille de 480 millions d'années ! francais.radio.cz/en-tant-que-...

francais.radio.cz

« En tant que paléontologue, vous réalisez rapidement qu’aucune

Entretien avec le paléontologue Lukáš Laibl qui, avec ses collègues, a découvert au Maroc une nouvelle espèce d'arthropode préhistorique.

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Lukas Laibl @lukaslaibl.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Here are some random trilobabies for #FossilFriday! #paleontology #trilobites #fossils (:} ➡️ (:[} ➡️ (:[[} ➡️ (:[[[} ➡️ (:[[[[}

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