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Dr Susannah Lydon

@susieoftraken.bsky.social
5.1K followers 1.4K following 2.4K posts

Palaeobotany | Scicomm | Associate Prof in Plant Science, Nottingham, UK | Vogon poet | Views my own | She/her

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Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
Prof Ros Gleadow FAA 💙💚 @rgleadow.bsky.social · 6h
The huge reduction in face-to-face teaching over the last 15 years, fewer lectures, elimination of tutes, less prac time, few if any excursions = less hours on campus, less opportunity for making connections #HigherEd www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...
theguardian.com
‘There’s a lot of silence’: have we created a new ‘Lonely Generation’?
Learning to be one human among many has always been a little lonely and discombobulating. But young people around the world are lonelier than ever. Why?
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fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 7h
I used to work for a Secretary of State (I won't say which) and we had a long running game of office tig. Often, the game would be during inappropriate meetings. My best Tig was using a No10 envelope containing the word TIg after declaring "urgent note from the PM"
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Doctor Who Production News @doctorwhopn.bsky.social · 12h
Russell T Davies provides a clearer timeline of the commissioning and cancellation of the 2026 Doctor Who Christmas special. cultbox.co.uk/news/russell...
cultbox.co.uk
Russell T Davies: Doctor Who 2026 Christmas special commission/decommission timeline
Russell T Davies provides a clearer timeline of the commissioning and cancellation of the 2026 Doctor Who Christmas special.
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Maggie McNeill @maggiemcneill.bsky.social · 11h
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is now older (51 years) than any of the movies mentioned in its title song were when the song was recorded: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSSl...
youtube.com
The Rocky Horror Picture Show- Science Fiction Double Feature
YouTube video by Dr. Frank-N-Furter
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Dragons of Wales @dragonsofwales.bsky.social · 11h
Three books. Hundreds of drawings of dinosaurs. This collection of three books, full of my palaeoart work, is back in stock and can be found here: dragonsofwales.etsy.com/listing/1689...
dragonsofwales.etsy.com
EX|TERRA - Complete Collection Dinosaur Books - Etsy
This Art & Photography Books item by DragonsofWales has 482 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from United Kingdom. Listed on Aug 27, 2026
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Scott Gray @scott1gray.bsky.social · 21h
No sci-fi writer's imagination has ever surpassed the wonders of the real world.
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THAWK! @thawk79.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Never trust a plant
From STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #33 by Steve Ditko. “THE LEAVES!
TH-THEY'RE COMING
AFTER ME!”
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Bat Conservation Trust @batconservation.bsky.social · 21h
🦇 We’re looking for an experienced Project Manager to lead our Connecting People and Landscapes project. More information and how to apply: www.bats.org.uk/the-trust/jo... Deadline: 09:30am, this Sunday, 5 October.
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Jane Hill @janehill.bsky.social · 21h
Naomi Alderman’s new book The Strangers is an absolute knockout. An autofiction about her mother’s death and multiple pregnancy loss, framed by a sci-fi novel about the arrival of mysterious creatures called mimmoths. Aren’t we lucky to have Naomi Alderman?
The cover of The Strangers by Naomi Alderman. A series of neat suburban back gardens, and underneath there’s an eerie root system.
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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
#fossilfriday The fossil mastodon molar found in a streambed in the Santa Cruz Mountains a month ago or so, recently donated to a research collection at Stanford. Photo by Jeff Chiu. 🦖🧪
A photo of a well-preserved mastodon tooth in an archival box; it has five transverse ridges or lophs, with gray enamel, and a series of reddish banana-shaped roots.
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Dr. Merritt Rae Turetsky @queenofpeat.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Un-optimized. Moss-covered. Decaying but deeply alive. Reject efficiency, embrace the peat. #BogLife
Image of a sundew plant in Sphagnnum moss.
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Dave Rodland @daverodland.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
#FossilFriday brings canoodling Seymouria, a largely terrestrial Permian tetrapod thought to be a stem amphibian. This replica is from our collection, but the original is apparently at Carnegie. They're called the Tambach lovers, although Seymouria aggregations have been found elsewhere too. 🧪⚒️
Replica cast of two canoodling Seymouria sanjuanensis, early Permian, Germany. 

Huh, didn’t notice the donor until just now. Guess the original's at Carnegie!
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Emily Mitchell @egmitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Wrapping up a fantastic field season #laserscanning #Ediacaran fossils in Newfoundland @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social and Mistaken Point. Our 10th year of laser scanning 🥳
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New town every hour @townsusa.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Dinosaur, Colorado Pop: 332 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur,_Col… Images: commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?c… commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?c… commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?c…
picture of Dinosaur, Coloradopicture of Dinosaur, Coloradopicture of Dinosaur, Coloradopicture of Dinosaur, Colorado
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Tim Demko @timdemko.xyz · 03/10/2026
and I've had a rewarding career as a scientist, although I chose this route out of pathological curiosity, not to become wealthy. This whole binary labor/elite bullshit discourse chaps my ass. Society needs us all, and it is not zero-sum. It's creeping anti-intellectualism bred with materialism 2/2
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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
#InverteFest announcement: The December art book will be our 8th and last edition. We've been doing this since 2024 but my real life responsibilities have changed. We might revive the idea in the future in one form or another, but no promises. If you want in, this is your last chance.
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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A very roughly remembered but pleasingly early (1854) take on the @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social. Coloured engraving from Maclure, MacDonald & MacGregor, William Tegg & Co. Digital image © London Museum, Object ID: 58.22/49 (www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/...).
A print showing the full span of the Crystal Palace grounds.A close-up of Waterhouse Hawkins's models, some more accurately drawn than others.
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toxxy 💮🏳️‍⚧️ @toxxy.neocities.org · 02/10/2026
bring back lepidodendrales. return to carboniferous. we need to breed lycophytes to be gigantic again, use a bit of nuclear radiation to speed up the process
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Gef the Toking Mongoose @geftokingmongoose.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
God this shit was cool as fuck
Still from the movie Jurassic Park showing a raptor with genetic code projected onto it
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Dr Susannah Lydon @susieoftraken.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Michael Rennie was ill...
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252MYA @252mya.com · 02/10/2026
Atopodentatus went from zipper-mouth (2014) to vacuum-cleaner-faced (2016) when two new fossils revealed the first was crushed. Art by @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social fossi.ls/tgvnRD
Atopodentatus went from zipper-mouth (2014) to vacuum-cleaner-faced (2016) when two new fossils revealed the first was crushed. Art by @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social https://fossi.ls/tgvnRD
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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Today's four random pieces of palaeoart: Margaret Colbert's Brontosaurus, Peter Snowball's Deinonychus, @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social's Spicomellus, and Maurice Wilson's Saltoposuchus!
A heavily built, tail-dragging Brontosaurus stands in a stooped posture, pelted by a heavy downpour and powerful wind. Ferns form a blanket over the ground beneath, and a single windblown tree sits beside it.A scaly, reddish-brown Deinonychus leaps through the air with its right leg curled up in preparation to kick out with its sickle claw. A blue-grey Spicomellus covered in light-toned spines stands in a beam of light, backed by a wall of ambiguous darkness. Extremely long, slightly recurved spines decorate its nape and shoulder, matched by long trailing spines at the base of the tail. A striding, bipedal Saltoposuchus shown with theropod-like proportions. Its fat-padded tail sticks out behind it, counterbalancing the slightly upright-oriented body. Its short, stumpy arms end in tiny hooked claws, held out in front of it.
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Callan Bentley @callanbentley.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Great day capturing drone imagery of Triassic dinosaur footprints in lakeside sediments in the Luck Stone Culpeper quarry. ⚒️
Callan's fingertips next to a dinosaur footprint in ancient brown rocks.Two of Callan's students measure the distance from one footprint to another on a subhorizontal outcrop, with quarry walls rising up behind them.
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Maria Strutz @mariastrutz.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Autumnal textures, Kew Gardens #FossilFriday 🌿🌗🍂
ginkgo leaf, green with droplets of water pearling off it. Ginkgo leaf lying on the ground next to some dried and shrivelled up brown leaves, on top of dried grasses.
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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Variety pack of eurypterids at UMMNH for #FossilFriday: Acutiramus (UMMP IP 86635), Paracarcinosoma (UMMP IP 62598), Eurypterus (UMMP IP 7157), and Dolichopterus (UMMP IP 62680). All from the Silurian of New York and Ontario.
A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock.A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock. It has a narrow tail and a swollen midsection.A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock next to a model of the same species painted green.A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock with long, extended swimming appendages. It is displayed next to a model of the same species painted brown and yellow.
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Adiel Klompmaker @paleoadiel.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
‼️Here's a nice trackway possibly made by a scorpion on the mudflats of Alabama ~315 million years ago (Pennsylvanian)🦂. This one comes from the famous Union Chapel Mine, and was cited in Buta & Kopaska-Merkel (2016). #FossilFriday @The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections! #fossil
trackway possibly made by a scorpion on the mudflats of Alabama ~315 million years ago (Pennsylvanian)
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Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I haven't posted anything for a while, so here's some new #paleoart for #FossilFriday: Cetiosaurus in a Middle Jurassic landscape. I've had to compose and execute this in just two days, so hopefully it looks OK! (All data for the plant recons comes from @palaeojules.bsky.social.) #dinosaur #sciart
A long-necked dinosaur walks along a shallow river surrounded by various Jurassic trees, ferns and shrubs. A small predatory dinosaur watches from the nearest riverbank.
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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
#FossilFriday this week is brought to you by the paratypes of #Edrathina from the #InnerMeadow lagerstätte. Both #Ediacaran aged fossils have fallen atop #rangeomorph fossils meaning part of the calyx of both was not impressed onto the seafloor. This kind of evidence suggests an upright life habit.
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Mark Griffiths @markauthor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Kickstarter is now live for Share & Enjoy, the graphic novel I’ve written about the improbable life and times of Douglas Adams, creator of The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. With illustrations by the mighty Martin Geraghty! www.kickstarter.com/projects/roo...
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Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It's that time again.
Panel 1 title: grant proposal. A happy tetrapod pootles about in a wetland with trees in the background. 
Panel 2 title: final report. The same tetrapod stares in dismay at the dead fish in the tainted water as forests burn in the background. 
Original artwork: Victor Leshyk
Actual paper: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/toxic-slime-contributed-to-earth-rsquo-s-worst-mass-extinction-mdash-and-it-rsquo-s-making-a-comeback/
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Professor John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Grant agreement signed! Advertising 4 new jobs (3 year contracts w/potential to extend +2 years) on ERC #CROCOLOCOEVO grant next week-- stay tuned for details. 2 postdocs 1 technician 1 research administrator who can do science communication Start date flexible but could be as soon as 1 November!
Picture of right hindlimbs and pelvis of Terrestrisuchus (long skinny legs) and Crocodylus (modern croc; beefy and stubby), from 3D computer models
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University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 02/10/2026
"Students know whose fault this is." Students turned out alongside staff at the University of Nottingham, with a clear message to management: stop the cuts and listen. "We aren't going anywhere." Staff and students are united.
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Robert Sansom @fossilrob.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
PhD opportunity: 🦠🪱☠️🪣🔬🏞️ Do you want to test hypotheses of how fossils form, figure out if lab experiments reflect the real world? Come and join our lab! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
findaphd.com
[School of Natural Sciences PhD Scholarships] Bridging the taphonomic gap between the lab and the real world: Experimental Insights into Fossilization and Preservation at The University of Manchester ...
PhD Project - [School of Natural Sciences PhD Scholarships] Bridging the taphonomic gap between the lab and the real world: Experimental Insights into Fossilization and Preservation at The University ...
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University of Nottingham UCU branch @uonucu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Our strike action yesterday wasn't the first step in this fight and it for sure won't be our last. Our members, our students, and our community members know what is at stake. And we will all keep going toe to toe with management until they listen to reason.
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University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 02/10/2026
“We will not stand for it silently. We will keep fighting.” Hundreds gathered at yesterday’s University of Nottingham rally in solidarity with UCU members fighting devastating job and course cuts. From Monday, members begin long-term strike action. Show your support. Stand with Nottingham UCU.
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Tom Sharpe @tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
#FossilFriday & ahead of next week's fossil marine reptile conference @morethanadodo.bsky.social, here are some of Mary Anning's most impressive ichthyosaur finds @nhm-london.bsky.social, including the 'first' ichthyosaur of 1811–12, the large 1832 Temnodontosaurus, & big vertebrae of the mid-1830s.
A museum display case with fossil skeletons of large ichthyosaurs.
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Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
For #FossilFriday, a sampling of Late Cretaceous dinosaur footprints preserved as natural casts & attributed to hadrosaurs, but ranging from teeny-tiny to less teeny. On display at the Prehistoric Museum, Utah State University, Price, UT. 🧪🪨🦖🐾
A series of hadrosaur (dinosaur) tracks on display, preserved as dark-gray natural casts, with six on a shelf above arranged—from right to left—in order from smallest to largest on an upper shelf, then two larger tracks on a shelf below.
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Dr Susannah Lydon @susieoftraken.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Finally - the Swap Shop dilemma just for me
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Benjamin @benjaminschneider.ch · 01/10/2026
just came across this incredible picture of Terry Pratchett
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Anne-Laure D 🌿 @aldpaleo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
For this #FossilFriday a section of the early #fern Diplolabis from the early Carboniferous showing beautifully preserved tissues 🌿⛏️ (proposed reconstruction from doi.org/10.1016/j.re...) #Paleobotany #botany
Section of a fossil fern axis with preserved tissues, showing the X shaped vascular tissues. The axis is a few in diameter. A reconstruction of the plant by Phillips and Galtier 2005 is shown in a corner
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Paul D. Taylor @nhmbryozoa.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
#FossilFriday It’s easy to see why Cotham Marble is often referred to as ‘landscape marble’. This Late Triassic limestone from the Bristol area is a microbialite. Detail from a specimen about 10 cm thick on display at the Natural History Museum, London.
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Jean-François Cudennec @limpetnerd.eurosky.social · 02/10/2026
It's a briliant new addition to my my collection of “fossils before paleontology”, and once again it’s a Mollusc !
substack.com
Things from Below: Fossils Before Palaeontology
Fossils did not suddenly appear with Victorian paleontology 150 years ago. How did earlier societies perceive and respond to these mysterious objects?
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Jean-François Cudennec @limpetnerd.eurosky.social · 02/10/2026
A gorgeous specimen for #FossilFriday : the internal cast of a Jurassic bivalve (Pleuromya cf. uniformis), turned into a talisman with a religious Islamic inscription : ‘There is no god but Allāh [and] Muḥammad is His Prophet’ #PaleoSky ⚒️🏺🧪🦑🦕
Fig. 1. Pleuromya cf. uniformis (Sowerby 1813), Jurassic, Morocco. Internal mould of articulated specimen bearing a religious inscription in high relief. Museo Geominero, Madrid, catalogue number MGM-7809X. (a) Left valve view; (b) right valve view; (c) anterior view; (d) dorsal view; and (e) detail showing striations visible on the surface of the letters (left arrow) and how a fissure in the rock also affects the letter (right arrows), indicating that the letters were carved in high relief and do not represent surface adherences of any foreign material. The thick patina of dirt that covered the specimen, originally dark grey in colour, was removed by washing with detergents, alternating with immersions in hydrogen peroxide.

Source : https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/full/10.1144/jgs2026-014
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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Boudinage are one of the most spectacular geologic structures and some of my favorite rocks. The boudins are the eye-shaped lenses of rock wedged between the white quartz layers. This happened when the rocks were being stretched by tectonic forces. The eye-shaped lenses, augen… 👇🏼 #MinCup26
Boudins of amphibolite layers (metamorphosed basalts) that were stretched between quartz schists (Norway). Photo credits: Haakon Fossen.
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Simkaye 🌈 @simkaye.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
anyone else feel like this
A digital illustration of a quetzalcoatlus perched on telephone wires among a flock of crows
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Mostly Harmless @whalepetunias.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Prak nodded again. "Forty-Two," he said. "Yes, that's right."
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Katherine McDonald @katherinemcdon.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Work on the assumption that your institutional website will either (a) delete you without trace the day you leave or (b) somehow keep implying you work there forever, give people a non-functional email address to contact you on, and never update your achievements past 2015.
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Dr Hannah M. Rowland @hannahmrowland.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hope your day was better than Darwin’s, on this day 165 years ago
I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody &everything.

Charles Darwin
Letter to Charles Lyell
1st October 1861
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Alejandro Ordonez @anordonez1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"🌿 We're hiring at @econovoau.bsky.social! Postdoc position forecasting how land-use change, climate shifts & rewilding will reshape European plant diversity. Biodiversa+ REDESIGN project, Aarhus Uni. 2 years. Closes 1 Nov 2026. 🔗 www.au.dk/om/stillinge... #ecology #postdoc
au.dk
Postdoctoral researcher in biodiversity forecasting, vegetation dynamics and rewilding - Ledig stilling på Aarhus Universitet
Ledig stilling ved Institut for Biologi - Økoinformatik og biodiversitet, Aarhus Universitet
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