Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Massive outbreak of Northern Walkingsticks (Diapheromera femorata) at Cowan’s Gap State Park this weekend. Tons of mating pairs. Probably one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen. 040
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 05/09/2026A sign of the end of summer. Dog-day cicadas being increasingly easy to find on the ground. They’re finishing up their grand chorus before the eventual silence of winter settles in. 020
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 25/08/2026First scan of the semester looks promising. Sometimes fish look like fish!! Gzhelian of the Appalachian Basin. 181
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Rule #1: don’t overtighten your lugs, or you’ll end up like me! 000
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Windy 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. 020
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Fieldwork 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) 110
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 15/07/2026The 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. 110
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 24/06/2026So 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. 010
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 24/06/2026Between 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. 110
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 24/06/2026An 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. 150
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 13/06/2026Dr. 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) 173
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 13/06/2026Happy #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). 2214
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 22/05/2026For #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 ;) 120
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 06/05/2026Very eastern North American pull of animals this evening. The great horned owl chick’s name is Baby Man. 050
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 03/05/2026Beautiful day in the neighborhood. Thanks Pittsburgh for showing up to support us runners 🫶 050
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 02/05/2026different 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!) 1110
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 24/04/2026Happy #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! 2327
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 24/04/2026Happy #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! 2141
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 22/04/2026Insect 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. 110
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 10/04/2026For #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. 2164
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 08/04/2026Cat shots from the past two days. God I love this creature 050
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 01/04/2026While 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. 0219
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 29/03/2026Gorgeous, colored up male Etheostoma caeruleum from the Huron River today. Picture credit: James Andrews. 0143
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 28/03/2026I 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. 1130
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 06/03/2026Taking 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 1423
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 30/01/2026Another day, another jaw Gzhelian, Appalachian Basin(nr Pittsburgh) 303-298 Ma 281
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Big week for me this week. Posting cat pictures to get me, and maybe you , too, through your Monday. 070
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 25/01/2026A brief break in the doom. The moment my cat, Bergamot, understood where the laser came from 2183
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 14/01/2026Away 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.. 050
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 29/12/2025Great 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. 38415
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 25/12/2025This Christmas, remember that Jesus was a refugee and unhoused. Artist credit: Kelly Latimore 000
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 20/12/2025What an incredible opportunity it was to drive the HEX beamline at NSLS II (Brookhaven National Labs) with @friedmanlab.bsky.social , @james-v-andrews.bsky.social , and others. We gathered a TON of great 🐟 data; I am hopeful that what we gathered will lead to more fishy discoveries. 1141
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 15/12/2025They’ve been getting archosaurs (even if it was just an accident) since the Mesozoic. Source pub: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... 06920
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 13/12/2025For #fossilfriday I want to post a fossil fish jaw that actually looks like a fossil fish jaw. Gzhelian, Appalachian Basin. 2136
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 12/12/2025Bathysaurus, an aulopiform. How the mighty have fallen. 1193
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 08/12/2025Acipenser ❌ Neophanerorhynchus ✅ United by the presence of SNOUT 120
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 05/12/2025Wow! Fossil Friday is already upon us! Guess what! I have another fish fossil! Who would have guessed it! Dentary, Actinopterygii indet Chanute Shale, Pennsylvanian, KS, USA 172
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 22/11/2025If you can tell me what this is I will maybe give you 1 billion dollars #fossifriday. 131
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 17/11/2025Humbled and honored to be able to present my work at this year’s iteration of SVP, and to be provided funds by the society to support my travel. Great views from the plane back yesterday, including the St. Clair Delta. Back in the states now, ready to scan more fish ! 020
Zach @reallyoldfish.bsky.social · 09/11/2025A bit of a pleasant surprise to wake up to actual snow this morning. Hopefully it stays this way this winter! 010