iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Also I got to shoot them with lasers at the Synchrotron with the help of my current Monash lab, Alistair Evans and William Parker. That was rad as heck. The scan we produced is openly available on morphosource. Print your own weird old clam if you like! Please email me with any further questions

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

By figuring out the way this small group relates to other extinct animals in the same group, we can understand how the groups were dispersed, and get a more complete picture of early animal evolution as well as a better way to globally correlate different fossil beds.

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

In this case, the fossils are fragments of a larger outer coating, a sort of funnel shaped tube creature (see this illustration from Larsson et al. 2014). These animals (relatives of the larger group that includes brachiopods, molluscs, etc) appear early in the Cambrian and can be found all over!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

SSF's may be small, but they're one of the most important tools we have in deciphering a global time scale for the early Cambrian. During this period, animals like trilobites had not yet evolved or achieved a global distribution. That's where animals like the eccentrothecimorphs come in!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Hey folks! my first ever (and first author) paper is out! 🌊🐚 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... In this paper, we explore the fine details in the internal and external structure of a type of small shelly fossil (SSF) from the Cambrian to determine how they relate to one another.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Sclerite fusion, ultrastructure, micro‐ornament and homology in early Cambrian eccentrothecimorph tommotiids

Tommotiids are an enigmatic but important group of early Cambrian lophotrochozoans, characterized by a complex external skeleton (or scleritome) comprised of fused or cataphract organophosphatic scle...

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Karim Zanaty @extinctfineart.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

For the first session (9am CET) we invited: Adele Pentland - THE australian pterosaur palaeontologist @slyssabits.bsky.social Not only bug enthusiast and palaeontologist but also co-host of @fossilsfiction.co podcast Astrid O‘Connor - highly renowned blender necromancer and palaeontologist Cont.

extinctfineart.com

Online events – Extinct Fine Art

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

((But to be clear, amphicylonidae are (as far as I understand) more basal to caniforma (older than either bears or dogs), but that doesn’t make them more closely related to cats. That was a misremembered tidbit. They are still super cool animals!))

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

New #fossilsandfiction episode featuring the extremely talented Mark Witton! Mark had some fantastic insights into the ways paleo and pop culture intersect, especially for the very famous #TRex in his new book ‘King Tyrant’! 🦖 tinyurl.com/34aerxt4

open.spotify.com

Mark Witton's Palaeoart Journey

Fossils and Fiction · Episode

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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

"AI images don’t succinctly or accurately communicate scientific concepts & could undermine public trust in science... inaccuracies wouldn’t fly if they were created by a person, “but for some reason, having this sheen of fake polish that comes with AI kind of erases all of those standards” 🧪#sciart

nature.com

Illustrators call out journals and news sites for using AI art

Bot-made art undermines research and public trust in science, say illustrators frustrated by inaccurate and outlandish depictions.

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Per my last post, the art from Jack Fletcher from my Pint of Science bug recipe rant- and also, this tremendous longth animal pairing from my Fringe Fest yap about breeding increasingly long Cambrian animals- always makes me smile. #AusPaleo #fanart #fossils #scicomm

A lovely drawing of me presenting my silly Pint of Science talk, via Jack Fletcher (my student 🥺🥺). A lady sketched in blue in a ponytail, field gear and an apron is saying sassy things about the consumption of ancient bug meat.

The wall that faces my recording area for the podcast, featuring: amazing long trilobite and anomalocaris fanart by Jack (from my bit about wanting long prehistoric lobster meat). Also, that one ikea lamp everyone has and some fairy lights. The art is in a wood and glass frame.

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Excellent showcase! I think it can be intimidating for new artists to show their pieces to researchers. Accuracy and anatomy are important elements of paleo art. But we’re people, too! Most people appreciate it when you engage with their work. I personally adore any art of my buggy bois.

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Dr James Rule @palaeo-jrule.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Had a great time presenting at #pintofscience2025 with @slyssabits.bsky.social and @sharkslikejazz.bsky.social. Thanks to all the organisers for giving me the chance to talk about seals 🦭

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Bonus content: this didn’t make it into the presentation, but it is pretty indicative of the content the audience got.

A version of poster art for Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meishi has been modified. The text now reads “cooking in Cambrian” and the monsters/food have been replaced with various Cambrian animals, drawn by a variety of talented artists that are not me. Thank you, Ni075 especially!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Had so much fun presenting at #PintofScience2025 last night with @palaeo-jrule.bsky.social and @sharkslikejazz.bsky.social ! Thank you both for so many awesome secret sea-crit facts, and thanks to the organizers at Pint of Science Australia!

A woman in some kind of paleontologist get up gives a double thumbs up, standing in front of a powerpoint screen. Her smile is large and unsettling. It’s me!

A confident woman stands before an ocean themed presentation, speaking calmly into the microphone. It’s Lucille!

A man stands before an adorable seal, prepared to make devastatingly funny jokes and show people some super cute animals. It’s James!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

This was such a fun chat, and lots of great info for up and coming artists in our space! Have a listen :)

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Hey folks! Another awesome Karim event is coming up soon. If you weren’t at the first virtual extinct fine art gallery for paleo artists this year, you missed a real treat. But don’t worry- Karim is bringing this and more art events to our community in the coming months!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Total treat meeting James and chatting about all things paleo creativity! James outs so much thought into all his work. Cannot wait to share all you had to say with listeners (including some of my students ☺️!). Thanks for joining us!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Awesome short explainer on the whole dire wolf situation. Even if you’re fine with “modified grey wolves”, should a company that misleads the public and investors keep getting access to resources, materials and funding to make them? esp when it’s a method that won’t/can’t produce real dire wolves?

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

KRAKEN GUY! He was at GSA 2019; the room was so full I couldn’t get in.

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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 27/03/2025

LOL. Savage (but accurate I guess) Also, another well written 'Big Story' from @wired.com 👏

Every industry has certain problems universally acknowledged as broken: insurance in health care, licensing in music, standardized testing in education, tipping in the restaurant business. In academia, it’s publishing. Academic publishing is dominated by for-profit giants like Elsevier and Springer. Calling their practice a form of thuggery isn’t so much an insult as an economic observation. Imagine if a book publisher demanded that authors write books for free and, instead of employing in-house editors, relied on other authors to edit those books, also for free. And not only that: The final product was then sold at prohibitively expensive prices to ordinary readers, and institutions were forced to pay exorbitant fees for access.

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

I was part of the team that helped collect the transect, and I have to say, it’s a great joy to finally see our work getting out there for everyone to see! Heck yeah Steph! You can find me in the acknowledgements (my first time appearing in science publication, eep!)

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

THE BUG IS LOOSE 🦐! 2020-2021, a team of Cambrian workers completed a massive transect (the BUG) through the Flinders Ranges looking at a highly complete series of early Cambrian stratigraphic units. Today, the story of BUG begins, with Steph Richter-Stretton’s new paper: tinyurl.com/33b6a8ke

The Bunker’s Graben (BUG), where the start of the Cambrian is splayed before you like a pack of cards

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Thinking about the amazing women in my field on #internationalwomensday. Anne Holmes, Amy Brock-Hon and Bret Buskirk were some of the first to help me fall in love with fossils, while folks like these have nurtured the field here in Aus! So lucky to know so many kickass ladies 💚!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Did not realize Phoebe was on this platform! Tagging her so listeners can find her amazing research (and see more of Jacob’s awesome illustrations)! @phoebyornis.bsky.social @blokoweka.bsky.social

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

This was such a fun interview! Thank you again to Dr. Phoebe McInerney for schooling me on Genyornis, the swamp-dwelling giant, flightless bird from Australia’s not-so-distant past!

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Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Unite! 💪 "Conflicts btw faculty & administrators ... should be set aside to focus attention on this ruthless takedown of academia. All disciplines will be affected by these cuts, not just science. This is a moment to unite." www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... by @holdenthorp.bsky.social

science.org

A direct hit

Earlier this month, the Trump administration set off a frenzy in the US scientific community when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that indirect cost reimbursement for federally funde...

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Oh and thank you to Jake for moderating, and to all who attended or asked questions!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

What a blast, being on the inaugural Women in Palaeontology panel in Inverloch this past week! Thank you again to Sally Hurst for leading the panel. And thank you to co-panelists Adele Pentland, Pat Vickers-Rich, and Doris Seegets-Villiers for being kickass #womeninSTEM 🌟 📸: R. Duncan, A. Pentland

A black and white photo featuring (from left to right): Doris, Pat, Adele, myself, and Sally. Pat is speaking while we all look on, contemplative or smiling.

Same seating order, this photo is in color. Hey, I’m yapping! People are being patient.

A selfie from Adele, with Pat raising her small, stuffed Leaellynasaura.

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Isopod Fan Account @bedupolker.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Happy Valentine’s Day- Show your friends that your feelings will NEVER go extinct with some cambrian critters.

Two opabinia, prehistoric shrimp-like creatures with long trunks, share a bouquet made of sea creatures. Text: we're two peas in a lobo-pod.

A marella, a creature that resembles a horseshoe crab or trilobite, carries an engagement ring. Text: will you marry-ella me?

An ayshea, a prehistoric creature with a round mouth, multiple legs, and wormlike body, holding a pair of sunglasses. Text: ayyyyyyyyyyyy girl

An anomalocaris, an arthropod with fins and two prominent front claws, holding a heart-shaped box of valentines chocolate. Text: I anomalo-care about you

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Happy #internationaldayofwomenandgirlsinSTEM (what a mouthful)! Greetings from beautiful Inverloch VIC, where the Cretaceous bone animal hunt continues. Love Dino Dreaming!

A strangely proportioned smiling lady (why is her neck so long??) with a hi vis vest and a hard hat gives a thumbs up. She’s outside, where it’s sunny and nice, and also there are lots of rocks!

The vast crumbling cliffsides of the eastern Victorian coast (that’s Victoria, Australia- I haven’t yet mastered time travel). These boulders have yielded material from both large and small dinosaurs through the end of the Cretaceous, telling us more about polar dinosaurs. The weather is nice. The boulders are crawling with hard hatted scientists, who are nose deep in the rocky contents.

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Thanks Karim! This was my first ever panel and I feel very honored!

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Karim Zanaty @extinctfineart.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Listen and chat - more about the online event! I had to repost this as I have an amazing announcement: @extinctmonsters.bsky.social, exhibition developer at the Chicago Field Museum, will give a presentation! After short welcome you are invited to chat and network. You can still join! more below

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Chris Manias @chrismanias.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

We'll be having the online launch for Palaeontology in Public on Tue 18 Feb 18:00-19:30 UK-time It will feature comments from Mike Benton, Riley Black, Natalia Jagielska and Alison Laurence, & discussion with some of the chapter authors More info & signup link here: forms.office.com/e/gpWburvZPk

Poster advertising the launch event for Chris Manias (editor), Palaeontology in Public (UCL Press, 2025). It contains the following text:

Online Book Launch
Tuesday 18 February, 18:00-19:30 (UK Time) on Zoom
Chaired by Adrian Currie
Responses from Mike Benton, Riley Black, Natalia Jagielska and Alison Laurence
And discussion with some of the chapter authors.
Register at: https://forms.office.com/e/gpWburvZPk

There is also an image of the book cover. This features the text "Palaeontology in Public: Popular Science, Lost Creatures and Deep Time. Edited by Chris Manias." The cover image depicts a large long-necked Sauropod dinosaur, modelled after the famous animation "Gertie the Dinosaur" in a park, with a city skyline in the background. A range of humans are standing around Gertie, pointing at and admiring her. There is also a man in a ringmaster outfit standing on Gertie's shoulder.

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Some amazingly talented folks have helped put together this Virtual Art Gallery! I am also here 🙃. This my first time ever participating in a gallery or any kind of art show (outside grade school), and my one contribution is pretty amateur. But it’s nice trying to get out there more to improve!

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Caroline Hu @hudrewthis.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Seeking scientist volunteers for this spring! Want to practice science communication and help author a ✨comic✨ about your research? Learn more & sign up here by 1/30: bit.ly/comicscollabspring2025

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Hey! Fossil nerds in Victoria- the annual #DinosaurDreaming Dig in Inverloch is next month. Lots of great events- learn what we do, come out to site, see how you can help! I want to highlight the Women in Palaeo panel on Feb 11- panelists incl. Pat Vickers-Rich, Adele Pentland (and me 😨)!

A flyer for the community hub display for Dinosaur Dreaming, a volunteer collective along the Victorian coast. Several cartoon dinosaurs by Zev Landes popular the flyer. A QR code at the bottom displays a full list of events

A flyer for the Women in Palaeontology panel, organized by Sally Hurst. The flyer contains an image of Sally and many cartoon dinos by Zev Landes

Hey, a flyer just for me! It says “Alyssa is studying ancient arthropod (bug) growth and evolution with Monash Uni and the Uni of New England. She researches early animal life in Australia, enjoys sci comm, and co-hosts the Fossils and Fiction podcast”. The photo is of me outside the ROM looking Very Serious

A flyer advertising Pat Vickers-Rich, a lady with large glasses and short hair. career paleontologist. The text reads: “Pat has named multiple Australian dinosaurs, including many from Victoria! Originally from California, she studied fossil birds in Australia and has been a pioneer and inspiration for women in paleo for generations”

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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

This is officially my horizontally longest image to date, depicting some of the earliest complex animals on the planet from 565 to 505 million years ago and how they changed over time. Thank you to @egmitchell.bsky.social and Steve Pates for trusting me with this gargantuan task! #Art #SciArt

the same image, repeated twice. one image is just a scenery, the other includes text and very complex arrows pointing to each other explaining the relationship between substrate, plankton, predators and other elements in a marine ecosystem.

the scenery is of a seafloor split into 4 horizontal slices depicting 4 time frames. the first one is an ediacaran scene filled with frond-like organisms attached to the seafloor. the second one shows fewer fronds and more things crawling on the seafloor. the third shows a sponge reef, with herbivores and active predators lurking in the sediment. the fourth shows a very active cambrian period scene with swimmers and burrowers.

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

This is how we get the second bone wars 😂

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

That said, there are works that focus on this human connection, too. If you like Mantracks, the recent film ‘Why Dinosaurs’ comes to mind, as does ‘Rola’, a short film about the native groups of the NSW tablelands and their connection to Country.

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

That human connection is something I feel the absence of in modern paleo documentaries. Prehistoric Planet and other series focused on the animals? Mind blowing, works of artistry. But paleo is also *our* story; we’re the forces behind how these fossils are dug up, prepped, described, imagined.

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

I feel like this built on SJ Gould’s essays, particularly Lying Stones of Marrakech, if more in spirit than citation. The fascination with human behavior *around* fossils, real or fake, the interweaving of science, myth, profit and legacy… This is the kind of story I went into sci comm to tell!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Dan does an admirable job conveying complex concepts in paleo in a way that felt accessible. While I worry that the explanations for geologic time and deposition may be harder to understand without more visual cues for a general audience, that’s *the* concern in paleo sci comm, right?

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

I’ve been a fan of @foldablehuman.bsky.social documentaries for many years now. His latest work, ‘Mantracks’, delves into the history of a fossil track site in Texas, anti-science rhetoric, and the way communities connect to their natural heritage. Let’s talk about it! Vid: tinyurl.com/ybjw7mxz

The title card (slide?) for Dan Olson’s latest documentary/video essay on the Glen Rose dinosaur trackways, featuring the word “MANTRACKS” in all caps, an open field in Texas, and the date for the year at the bottom.

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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

I'm proposing a #SciArt Challenge for 2025! Every month, make art of one of the animals that lives in your area. Post your work with the hashtag #NearbyNature2025 along with something you find interesting about them. Bonus points for organisms that most of your neighbors won't know live close by!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Merry Christmas from the Evans Evomorphology lab! 🎄 🦀🦖🐍🐋🦭🦷🦍 🎅 Featuring an absolutely INSANE poster of our lab made entirely in powerpoint, by the super talented Astrid O’Connor! She’s not on this platform, but highly recommend giving her a follow on Insta (@palaeoastrid). #auspalaeo #evomorph

A smiling lab group poses with a large banner, depicting vectorized silhouettes of 17 evolutionary morphology researchers. Astrid, the artist, is holding the left hand side of the banner!

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Alyssa F. @slyssabits.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

11/10, very polite honkler with a jaunty stance.

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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 01/05/2024

Quick crab drawing guides that @jopabinia.bsky.social and I made a few years back to get you all started for this month's #InsertAnInvert2024 theme: Carcinization. Fun fact, this was the beginning of the whole "Insert An Invert" series

crab anatomy diagram that covers the basics of the crab anatomy and names of various body parts

diagram that shows the various different shapes of crab claws and how the shapes relate to their lifestyles

diagram showing the various segments of crab legs and how the different leg shapes relate to their lifestyles

diagram showing all the complicated limbs that sprout out from a crab's face

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