#fossils
Using lignin to replace fossil materials
Ball-like lignin particles developed by researchers open up completely new possibilities for the utilisation of lignin.
Plastic is everywhere. Massive barges of plastic waste float in our seas. A plastic bag and other plastic waste have even been found in the nearly 11-kilometre-deep Mariana Trench, the deepest known point in the world’s oceans.
Plastic waste is one of the biggest pollutants threatening our oceans, lakes and food chain. Over one third of waste is made up of microplastics, particles that are less than five millimetres in size. According to numerous estimates, in 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the seas. Can we influence this trend in any way – could fossil materials used as the raw materials for plastic be replaced with biodegradable options?
“Lignin is an excellent alternative as a replacement for fossil materials. It is created as a by-product of pulping. Cellulose is a common material that is often discussed and researched, but lignin has not been given as much attention”, replies Professor Monika Österberg.
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Since we’ve been suck at home, my husband and I got creative and threw a budget Animal Crossing themed birthday party for our 1yr old with party games for our older boys to play. They had a blast and finished the night with some dino egg bath bombs they excavated from their dig site.
Therizinosaurus t-shirt
Therizinosaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia some 70 million years ago. It is also one of the latest dinosaurs to be turned into a movie monster by the Jurassic World franchise. Available as a t-shirt in multiple sizes and colors.
sulc.us/theri
Design by David Orr
Ask me About t-shirts
Do you ever wish you could get the chance to talk about paleontology more often? Of course, you do! Well, problem solved with any of these fun t-shirts. Get conversations started with strangers over topics like pterosaurs, dinosaurs (even feathered dinosaurs!) and evolution.
Designs by David Orr
La Brea Tar Pits poster
Design by Greco Westermann
This 200-million-year-old baby ichthyosaur died with a belly full of squid
- Millions of years ago during the early Jurassic period, a baby marine reptile called an ichthyosaur gorged itself on prehistoric calamari. Then, it died abruptly — its belly full of squid.
- Roughly200 million years later, paleontologist Dean Lomax was examining this creature’s fossilized remains at the University of Birmingham’s Lapworth Museum of Geology when he realized he was seeing a few fossil firsts.
- The two-foot-long skeleton was the first fossilized newborn of its species. So it was certainly the first to be found with leftover squid in its guts. He and paleontologist Nigel Larkin published their findings last week in the journal Historical Biology. Read More
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Could this be a prehistoric petrified lizard or some amphibian in the Colorado Rocky Mountains?..
Many rocks in the same area show signs of being a post-organic material too:
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Several ammonites from my collection of fossils, Jurassic period, territory of Ryazan and Samara regions, Russia
/sees fossils of older dinosaur and baby dinosaurs intertwined in a way that implies the adult died crouching over the nest trying to protect them from a natural disaster/ oh my god it died crouching over the nest trying to protect them from a natural disaster
it’s about the permanency of an act made in love (or the closest thing they could experience) by an individual animal that existed before our farthest human ancestors ever walked the earth. love is real and time didn’t let them be forgotten
They were in their bedroom. The mother, a young woman of 19, still clutched her one-and-a-half-year-old baby to her breast. The child, its teeth still coming in, grasped the mother’s elbow. Over them lay a man of about 28, presumably the father, who had tried to shield the pair from a deadly rain of limestone building blocks weighing as much as 300 pounds, National Geographic, July 1988
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Just returned home from digging up Pleistocene fossils in rural Mexico with the La Brea Tar Pits crew and Western Arizona College Geology Lab.
The Pleistocene era is just 2.5 Million to 11,000 years ago roughly. Ice Age stuff, so no dinosaurs. A couple members of our crew found some very large pieces that even needed jacketing with plaster, which is very rare for this kind of fossil hunting.
My better finds were an antler (pic 1) and an ancient Camel metapodial bone (pic 5).
This is my 4th time volunteering to go on this trip and I loved learning from all the paleontologist there. Also, I managed to get some dog snuggles and a lot of hiking in. Bonus pic of a Scorpion under black light; they glow!
This is the third part of a seriesaboutisotopesand why they’re useful and interesting to scientists.
Isotopes are the flavors of elements. And because our universe is made up of atoms of elements, every object can be thought of as a delicious smoothie of flavors. Scientists like me are trying to reverse engineer those mixtures and pick out individual tastes, in order to answer questions about…
BIG UPDATE!
I’ve finally finished my biological patches set! After many months of designing, editing, and trial and error, I’m proud to post up photos of the final products!
They are woven with bright, beautiful colors that will endure many washes and adventures to come. They’re only $8 in my store:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Monsternium
Here are the first five patches in my biological patch set. Once all ten are made, the rainbow of studies will be complete! Each one is illustrated, digitized, and embroidered by me. Stay tuned for more! Next up is herpetology ;)Reblogging this post for the update!
Reblogging again for yet another update! Newly added: Arachnology.
All the designs have been redrawn, new creatures picked. Super happy with these!
Available now in my shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Monsternium
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This beautiful fossil is that of an ancient Calymene Trilobite. It’s a beautifully preserved piece. Trilobites were very successful during their time on the planet, making these interesting fossils relatively common.
Trilobites, though now long exctinct, were marine arthropods (think spiders/crustaceans) that existed millions of years ago. The dates they occupied the earth range between 500 million years ago (the Cambrian period) up until 250 million years ago where they were wiped out along with most everything else during the mass extinction.
There are many different species and variations, and these interesting fossils are found in many different locations around the globe. This particular little soul was ethically sourced from Morocco. It’s currently available here.
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This #FossilFriday, get to know “the father of all beasts”: Indricotherium transouralicum.
It lived during the Oligocene some 30 million years ago. Indricotherium represented the culmination of an evolutionary lineage of fast-running rhinos that developed relatively long necks, legs, and feet. This animal probably fed on the leafy vegetation of shrubs and trees that grew above the reach of other large, contemporary herbivores. The skull and jaw on display in the Museum’s Hall of Advanced Mammals were found in Mongolia.
Photo: E. Louis/© AMNH
#AnimalFacts #paleontology #fossils #rhino #NaturalHistory #amnh (at American Museum of Natural History)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbhuQPhL27v/?utm_medium=tumblr
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