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Photographing nature, birds, and animals is one of Jack’s favorite pastimes. Connect with Jack and Connect with Science!

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Late Cretaceous sandstone in the Irvine Ranch Wild

Late Cretaceous sandstone in the Irvine Ranch Wilderness, only 15 miles from my house. A trip to the Mesozoic, post pandemic.

There is hardly anything better than a Monster fir

There is hardly anything better than a Monster first thing in the morning!! Avian dinosaurs agree!

Daydreaming of summer and les mauvaises terres, se

Daydreaming of summer and les mauvaises terres, sepulcrum of the dinosauria.

Cherry Headed Conures are back in the Mulberry tre

Cherry Headed Conures are back in the Mulberry tree. So beautiful, so raucous, so hungry! Gorgeous, vividly colored avian dinosaurs! I wonder why most dinosaur artists are so reluctant to make vividly colored nonavian dinosaurs?

T. rex is in the news this week with the publicati

T. rex is in the news this week with the publication of a fun paper from Charles Marshall and students at UC Berkeley. They say there were 20,000 living at any one time and that there was one individual for every 38 square miles... I personally think that number is low by a factor of about 5. Fun future exercises estimating the rex and other dino populations based on parameters other than those chosen by Marshall et al. 🦖 Congrats @AshPoust #fossilfriday #jurassicworldtrex

Capturing the tessellated patterns of Cannabis sat

Capturing the tessellated patterns of Cannabis sativa, marijuana from Mexican Spanish marihuana from mariguana alternating from the proper name María Juana or Mary Jane, a euphoric plant, all the same..

Some people swarm to beaches during spring break,

Some people swarm to beaches during spring break, I sought desertedness and a place where it was clear which way the wind was blowing.. the beautiful Anza Borrego Desert where you can see miles and miles of vacancy, teeming with life and fullness.

After researching the evolution of dinosaurs to bi

After researching the evolution of dinosaurs to birds and speaking with a number of developmental biologists, I initiated the Dinochicken Project around this time of year in 2011, ten years ago.. It took a while to find post doctoral researchers willing to risk their futures on a project many thought was “hair-brained.” Drs. Anne-Gaelle Blackwell and Dana Rashid were hired and so began this incredible endeavor! After 10 years Anne has moved on to another position but, Dana continues to oversee the project, as headway is now being made. New partnerships and exciting new discoveries on the horizon. Thanks to the many donors of this extraordinary project!!

Anticipating Charles Darwin’s birthday this Frid

Anticipating Charles Darwin’s birthday this Friday the 12th of February! A good time to celebrate the fact that we humans are the current culmination of hundreds of millions of years of evolution!! How cool is that?! #darwinday2021

Pachycephalosaur (bone-headed dinosaurs) skulls ha

Pachycephalosaur (bone-headed dinosaurs) skulls have the weirdest histology of any animal I have ever seen! Acellular, hypermineralized tissues with masses of extrinsic fibers oppose all hypotheses of dome function! Highly unlikely the living animal had a dome-shaped head! The dome is the foundation of a more exaggerated structure.. #FossilFriday

In August of 1989 Scott Harvey, the Museum of the

In August of 1989 Scott Harvey, the Museum of the Rockies exhibits carpenter said he was going hang gliding near Strickland Creek, a tributary of the Yellowstone River. I told him to be on the lookout for fossils because there is Jurassic Morrison Formation rocks exposed along that creek. A few days later Scott walked into my office with an anterior caudal vertebra of a sauropod. He said he landed on it. We began excavations there in 1990 and concluded them in 2016 after collecting portions of 4 sauropod skeletons (3 with skulls) and 1 theropod leg. I’m not much into sauropods but the scenery there was certainly nice. 🦕In the photo are Field Crew Chief Bob Harmon (foreground), Cary Woodruff (sauropodologist) to the right under the hat, and historian Cindy Ott. Photo from 2013. #fossilfriday

Decided to start off the new year by washing some

Decided to start off the new year by washing some sediment from a Judith River site known as “Mammal One” a site discovered by my friends the late Bob Makela and Larry French. Bill Clemens, who died last month, claimed that Mammal One was one of the best Cretaceous mammal sites in the world. Two summers ago I collected a quart size zip lock bag of dirt from the site and today washed it, screened it, and am now picking out really tiny, cool fossils. This photo is about 1.5 centimeters wide. Mostly finding the skeletal remains of fish, but have also found a few worn, baby hadrosaur teeth, two baby theropod teeth, one mutituberculate mammal tooth, and what I think is a frog vertebra. #fossilfriday

Coronal section through a 2 cm wide juvenile hadro

Coronal section through a 2 cm wide juvenile hadrosaur (Hypacrosaurus) sacral vertebral centrum.

Posterior view of a young freshwater crocodile sku

Posterior view of a young freshwater crocodile skull. Posterior views of skulls are hard to find! #animalskulls

Cross section of a T. rex tooth socket showing a s

Cross section of a T. rex tooth socket showing a smaller, newer tooth (oval) migrating into a resorbed pocket (C shape) in the base of an larger, older, tooth. Dinosaurs had replacement teeth through their lives. The image is about 5 cm wide. #fossilfriday

A basket full of #fossilfriday representatives and

A basket full of #fossilfriday representatives and a lone descendant!

“We need more.” “More what?” “Teeth. We

“We need more.”
“More what?”
“Teeth. We need more teeth!”
Gray Mitchell (#tysimpkins) #jurassicworld

In preparation for my honors class “Dinosaurs: I

In preparation for my honors class “Dinosaurs: In Science and the Media,” I’ve done my upmost to get these extinctophytes to self-distance, but it’s been a chore! The Thyreophorans are naturals, but the morginocephalians are having their typical identity crises! The sorrypods don’t understand the situation although they like the idea of wearing masks, and the theropods are convinced it’s all a hoax to keep them from having lunch. The spinosaurs are chasing silverfish, and the therizinosaurs are scaring the crap (coprolites) out of everyone, including me...

The Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone Near Bryce Canyon

The Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone Near Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah #brycecanyon

It was a fun way to get to those out of the way ou

It was a fun way to get to those out of the way outcrops... July 23, 2003 Hell Creek Formation, MT

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