iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Richard Fallon

University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 5h

Our members at Nottingham University commence strike action today over threats to hundreds of jobs and course closures. Please show them solidarity as they head onto picket lines this morning.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 3h

Consider joining the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine's 'Hidden Hands in Colonial Natural Histories' working group. We have a great line-up of speakers for this year already. Note that creating an account is required, but well worth it: www.chstm.org/group/hidden...

chstm.org

Hidden Hands in Colonial Natural Histories | Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine

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Joschua Knüppe @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social · 16h

For people not aware: Lemuria is a spec evo project of the #paleostream community. It follows the evolution of organisms living on the fictional continent of Lemuria (fusion of Madagascar and India) from the Cretaceous to the Pleistocene. We are now in the Pleistocene.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

'“What I’m focused on is not only how we can deliver that curiosity-based research but how we can get the benefits of it in the economy by attracting more private sector investment to sit alongside that as well,” McDonald said.' Creative industries anyone? Heritage anyone?

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Prehistoric Museum @prehistoricmuseum.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

It's Throwback Thursday! On September 1, 1979, our museum held a statue dedication for local artist Gary Prazen’s bronze sculpture “Survival”. The statue displays an Allosaurus eating a “gamptosaurus” in a battle of mortal combat. #throwbackthursday #allosaurus #camptosaurus #paleoart

Image of the 1979 dedication of Gary Prazen's "Survival" bronze sculpture, in its original location. Allosaurus eating "gamptosaurus".

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My battle with the other academic Richard Fallon sees me combine my research on literary-cultural history of palaeontology with a role as 'CEO of the Technology Supply Chain, which assists manufacturing and technology companies with growth and innovation'. It's tough double-act but I make it work.

Google AI overview: Multiple notable individuals share the name Richard Fallon, most prominently an eminent American legal scholar and a British academic/business leader.Richard H. Fallon Jr. (1952–2025)Who: An influential American legal scholar and the Joseph Story Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.Background: Earned degrees from Yale University and Oxford (as a Rhodes Scholar) and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell.Work: Taught and wrote extensively on constitutional law, legal theory, and federal courts at Harvard from 1982 until his death in July 2025.Dr. Richard Fallon (UK Academic and Technologist)Who: A British researcher, CEO, and business consultant.Roles: Serves as a Research Associate in Natural History Humanities at the University of Cambridge and CEO of the Technology Supply Chain, which assists manufacturing and technology companies with growth and innovation.Background: Holds a PhD in English from the University of Leicester, focusing on the popularisation of palaeontology and literature-science interactions.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Whoah -- all J. A. Shepherd's ink sketches for the dinosaur-filled Alice in Wonderland pastiche Wonders in Monsterland seem to have been up for sale. Amazing the things that float around at auction. Much of the caption is a paraphrase of what I say in my first book (www.biblio.com/book/wonders...).

A Collection of 52 original ink drawings from Cuming's 'Wonders in Monsterland. The first children's book to popularize dinosaurs and prehistoric life. Original drawings for the book. Most with pencil and wash shading, all but one signed or initialed, captions and directions on verso in artists hand, a few stained or spotted, most chipped at edges, some with small loss to corners

With a copy of Wonders in Monster land, first edition, plates and illustrations, original pictorial cloth 1901.

Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871) are among the most enduring works in the English language. In the decades following their publication, writers on both sides of the Atlantic produced no fewer than two hundred imitations, revisions, and parodies of Carroll's fantasies for children. Around the turn of the twentieth century, when mounted and articulated dinosaur skeletons first started to populate museum galleries and shift copy, the word lumbered into the vernacular. Early popular writings that paid attention to dinosaurs for dinosaurs' sake include John W. Dawson's The Story of the Earth and Man (1873), Henry N. Hutchinson's Extinct Monsters (1892) and Frederic A. Lucas's Animals of the Past (1901). This however is the first children's book to popularize the theme. The story involves two siblings, Walter and Jenny, who wander into the prehistoric past, moving backward through time from the age of mammals to the age of the dinosaurs.William James Affleck Shepherd (1866-1946) was an English illustrator and cartoonist, primarily known for his anthropomorphic animal drawings. He rarely used his first forename and consequently most of his works are simply signed J.A.S.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"Why do you call me Cinderella? My name is...Nessie!" What a twist. From Dylan Dog, Orrore Nero.

A graphic novel: a woman transforms into the Loch Ness Monster

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Not having quite dared the doorstop Poe biography yet, I'm reading Algernon Blackwood's short, digestible radio broadcasts. 'I devour everything in the field, but the authentic touch is rare. The brain doesn't write "gooseflesh" tales. The frightened heart does'. — 'Gooseflesh', 31 January 1948.

A photograph of a dapper Blackwood with bow tie

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Alison Laurence @dinostalgia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I wrote about those antediluvians in The End of Oak Street for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. Thanks to @sayanniething.bsky.social for letting me get a little weird with the Michigan of it all! Some general spoilers, but only one specific one re: fate of the dog. #FossilFriday tinyurl.com/dinostories

tinyurl.com

We Tell Ourselves Dinosaur Stories in Order to Live | Los Angeles Review of Books

We live within a library of antediluvian narratives, with more accessioned every day.

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Kevin Sievers @diplotomodon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It's #FossilFriday, and indeed the final scheduled Friday that the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia is open to the public, potentially forever. So it's finally time to, once again, talk about Haddy — and bring it all full circle. Strap in, it's a big one.

A heavily retouched photograph (c. 1870?) of the mounted skeleton of Hadrosaurus foulkii inside the Academy's old building at the corner of Broad & Sansom Sts (in fact, the only known photograph of this building's interior). A man stands under the skeleton, identity unknown

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I find it hard to believe that Shell cares about my book, or about the Lost Continent of Mu, but huge if true. Especially the latter, if it means offshore oil drilling is moving in the direction of occult sunken continents.

Google result: 'Shell Global'. Description mentions 'The Lost Continent of Mu James Churchward' and 'Contesting Earth's History'.

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Dr Susannah Lydon @susieoftraken.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A 60 million year old angiosperm leaf impression - Dryophyllum dewalquei - from Overbroek, Belgique. On display in the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels. #FossilFriday 🌏⚒🔬🌱🌳

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

On 19 November, I'll be presenting on Gertrude Elles, Ethel Wood, and the Monograph of British Graptolites (1901–1918) for the Female Networks of Knowledge conference, organised by the WOMNH group at Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. The programme is out now: womnh.hypotheses.org/womnh-confer...

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Steve White @sharkbitesteve.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Unexpected surprise. Marks & Spensers have done a new dinosaur advent calendar featuring my retro artwork done for the Natural History Museum! The design reminds me of the classic Aurora model kits box art. This year, the back features a word search!

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Something huge and possibly eldritch just scurried behind the gas meter.

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Cambridge University Library @theul.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

✒️ "Written & Edited by his Wife" Join us for a research talk by Dr Grace Exley who will explore how women’s hands have shaped our impression of some of the most famous scientists of the nineteenth century. 21 Oct, 5-6.30pm Cambridge University Library Book your FREE ticket loom.ly/KpzUmgM

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

It's arguably not the most important part of his career, but, hypothetically, the polycrisis theorist Edgar Morin could have seen the original King Kong in cinemas in 1933 and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in 2024.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Reading Michael Dylan Foster's The Book of Yōkai and I'm devastated to have missed the 'so-called tsuchinoko boom' of the 1970s. Imagine being there on the ground when all those chubby snake cryptids popped up.

Printed illuustration of a Nozuchi or Tsuchinoko (a wide snake) from the Shinano-Kishōroku (c. 1834): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Doeti_Nozuchi.jpg

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I've just come across this story. Didn't know that, in the 1950s, before it was deemed a weird dinosaur with huge claws, Therizinosaurus was considered a weird turtle with huge claws. From strength to strength.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is how Pound learnt to cut down Eliot's The Waste Land.

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The Palaeontographical Society @palaeontosoc.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Its #MonographMonday! This plate is from Volume 6, Issue 15 (1852), A Monograph of British Tertiary Brachiopoda. This issue is the first part of an enormous series of work published by Thomas Davidson in the Monographs of the Palaeontographical Society over 30 years.

A black and white plate depicting various Terebratula grandis specimens

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Extremely high-level (that is to say extremely Australian) coffee conversation taking place in this cafe.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I said I wanted to read a thick biography of Poe... Now I'll never have time to read anything else ever again.

Giant doorstop: Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by Quinn.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Are there any classic thrillers, gialli, or detective novels in which enthusiasts of avant-garde/Modernist art aren't either laughable charlatans or murderers (and probably also perverts)? In which perhaps they're even depicted as quite mundane?

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Wow. Gideon Mantell would have been so mad at this.

A Google search result for Gideon Mantell brings up a photograph of Richard Owen.

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Nigel Monaghan @nigelmonaghan-nh.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Rev George Graydon was puzzled by Monte Bolca fossils and carried out experiments in Dublin in 1794. He observed fish as they rotted in water to leave skeletons. Graydon collection National Museum of Ireland @nmireland.bsky.social #fossils commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:On...

Fossil fish skeleton on cream coloured limestone

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Higher Education risks irreversible damage, says British Academy president Prof Susan Smith, with humanities and social sciences disciplines disappearing in many cold spots. BA is tracking subject provision & calling for a comprehensive review www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/stateme...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

British Academy President: UK higher education crisis risks irreversible damage

As course closures, shrinking provision and widening regional inequalities threaten the future of UK higher education and research, President of the British Academy, Susan J Smith calls for an immedia...

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Beautifully fossilised Eocene fish from Molte Bolca, near Verona. Photo taken at the @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social #FossilFriday

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Another session of unfurling mystery geological charts at @theul.bsky.social. Here depicted: a panel from a von Zittel wall chart with dinosaur, a fragile painted plesiosaur by George Scharf, and the Rhine Falls by artist unknown — with delightful horse and carriage going across the bridge.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Jenny Uglow's biography of Edward Lear is very good. So much so that I've just re-read it. For those who know him from his nonsense verses, check out this bleak painting of Beachy Head (1862).

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Just came across this picture of the Natura Docet museum in Denekamp on someone's blog (www.dimrost.nl/WordPress/i-...). Looks a bit like a Crystal Palace Palaeotherium out the front.

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VickyCoules @vickycoules.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

..and the minor corrections have been approved to the exam board so it's finally final (even though I was told at the viva I had passed) 🎉 It's been a long and at times challenging journey but thanks to the support of two wonderful supervisors and two demanding but fair examiners, I got there!! 🎊

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Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Just for the sake of accuracy, we actually deal with silverfish through using something called diatomaceous earth. This is made up of tiny bits of very sharp fossils, which in the words of a local pest control professional, "rips the hell out of silverfish and makes them have a miserable day."

An electron micrograph of diatomaceous earth, showing the little bits of fossilised shells.

A photo of a mound of white powder. This is diatomaceous earth which is a natural insecticide.

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A plot twist 220 years in the making. 📖 The Portico Library has been awarded £6.4 million from @heritagefunduk towards Portico Reunited, thanks to National Lottery players...

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Nova Stein /COMMISSIONS OPEN/ @novastein.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Hurricane County Science Centre- an all new analog horror short film is in the works, check out the teaser via the link in the replies! #horror #analoghorror #dinosaur

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Katherine Arnold @arnoldke.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It was a real pleasure to contribute a piece to this fantastically interdisciplinary volume organized by Danielle Sands & Daniel Whistler, in collaboration with colleagues in the Library & Archives at @rbgkew.bsky.social 🌿 #envhist #histsci #plants www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do...

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I like how many different and outwardly promising stages of login you can go through before finding out you actually don't have institutional access to a book or article.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Alerted by @nigelmonaghan-nh.bsky.social to the existence of Damned Nonsense!: K. W. James's biography of the palaeontologist William Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen. Complete with Paperbacks from Hell style typeface, and generally a horror-fantasy cover not typical of Irish naturalist biographies.

Damned Nonsense: Fossil fish float around a country house on a piece of land suspended in the sky.

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Well, it’s Sacking Day (to the tune of Tannenbaum), when we learn via Teams calls which one of the 4 of us left is to go. That will leave 3 (from 12) to teach English Language, Literature and Creative Writing and supervise 25 PhD students. I’m sure management have thought this through carefully.

static.klipy.com

The Simpsons Airhorn

ALT: The Simpsons Airhorn

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Reposted by Richard Fallon

The 2026 VPFA Mary Eliza Root prize is now open! Deadline: 30th September 2026. To see if you are eligible apply, and for more details, please go to: victorianpopularfiction.org/mary-eliza-r...

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Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

With the 2026 Oxford marine reptile meeting coming up soon (Oct 7th and 8th), I've been chasing up published work on #ichthyosaurs relevant to the Appleby Legacy Project, most recently Malawania from Iraq.... tetzoo.com/blog/2021/4/... #fossils #marinereptiles

tetzoo.com

History of the Iraqi Ichthyosaur — Tetrapod Zoology

Let’s talk about Malawania !

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

These kinds of jigsaw puzzles really anticipated AI slop, didn't they? To use a term from literature that avoids having to explain the nature of the connection.

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SaurianCYH @sauriancyh.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

21st century retrosaurs 4. Lokiceratops rangiformis

A Lokiceratops with a large hump extending from behind frill to the back, holding a mouthful of horsetails.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

'I use antlers in all of my decorating' is a good line from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Not going to elaborate.

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Tom Sharpe @tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

And while I’m here at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, here’s Hutton again, flanked by Rabbie Burns and Thomas Telford in the gallery’s Great Hall.

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Someone was having a beanfest with these translations.

baldoria" in English
baldoria {f}
EN
bash beanfeast beano booze-up fling merry-making razzle-dazzle revelry shindig merrymaking revel revelling roistering shindy wassail wingding bender binge carousal debauch booze jollification
fare baldoria {vb}
EN
jollify
fare baldoria [idiom]
EN
make whoopee
fare baldoria {v.i.}
EN
roister
fare baldoria [example]
EN
paint the town red

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Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Hey, look: the cover of my next book has been revealed. Looks like it'll be out next March. Details: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Amazing what you find on Saatchi Art. The extinct giant salamander Andrias scheuchzeri, the famous Homo diluvii testis and star of War with the Newts, now finds its way to contemporary Surrealist art in a 2014 work by Czech painter Rudolf Janák. #FossilFriday? (www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting...).

A eerie lit Surrealist-Expressionist painting in which a bipedal salamander stands by a winding desert roadside.

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