#fossil bone block

[uk-fossils]

RARE Fossil Ceratodus Coprolite with Reptile Bones Westbury Formation Triassic Aust Cliff Bristol UK Authentic

This listing features a rare and highly sought-after fossil coprolite (fossil poo) attributed to the prehistoric lungfish genus Ceratodus, preserved within a fossil-rich block containing reptile bone fragments. The specimen was discovered by our expert team (Alister & Alison) on 07 April 2025 at the renowned Aust Cliff, Bristol, from the Westbury Formation, Penarth Group, dating to the Upper Triassic period (~208 million years ago).

The Westbury Formation at Aust Cliff is internationally famous for its fish, reptile and coprolite bed, a layer of sediment rich in vertebrate remains deposited in a lagoonal to marginal marine environment during the final stages of the Triassic. This locality marks the transition between the Triassic and Jurassic periods and has yielded numerous important fossils.

About Ceratodus & This Coprolite:

Genus: Ceratodus (prehistoric lungfish)

Fossil Type: Coprolite with visible inclusions of bone and possible scale fragments

Morphology: Elongated cylindrical coprolite with surface impressions, fine preservation of inclusions

Preservation: The coprolite is mineralised, likely composed of calcium phosphate, showing embedded reptilian bone debris, which may have been ingested

Reptile Bone Inclusions:

Small fossil bone fragments embedded within or alongside the coprolite

May originate from small reptiles or amphibians inhabiting the same depositional environment

Geological & Scientific Details:

Species Attribution: Ceratodus sp. (coprolite producer)

Geological Formation: Westbury Formation

Group: Penarth Group

Depositional Environment: Marginal marine to lagoonal (low oxygen, promoting fossil preservation)

Geological Age: Upper Triassic (Rhaetian Stage)

Biozone: Rhaetian Vertebrate Bed (informal, Aust Cliff local faunal assemblage)

Location: Aust Cliff, Bristol, United Kingdom

This fossil not only showcases a fascinating example of prehistoric digestive processes but also preserves part of the food web from the Triassic ecosystem. Specimens with multiple fossil elements from this famous bed are rarely available.

The photo shows the actual specimen you will receive. Scale cube = 1cm. For full sizing, please see the image.

All of our Fossils are 100% Genuine Specimens & come with a Certificate of Authenticity.

Carefully selected, professionally cleaned and prepped by Alison, this is an exceptional collector's item from a site of international palaeontological significance.

[creative-chaos-apparently]

I have cried about him no less than 3 times today

Did the soulsand dry him out??? Did his mommy abandon him??? Are those his mom’s bones and he got dried out waiting for her??? Do ghasts shrink if they cry too much? Why do ghasts eat snowballs if they’re from a no-water environment? Are ghasts from the overworld originally and that’s why there’s fossils there too?

Also the implication of people using the dried ghasts as building blocks? NO! YOU PUT THAT POOR BABY IN WATER RN I SWEAR

[the-mid-night-witch]

Open RP:

I'm tagging everyone that was tagged in Dani's original post. If u don't wanna interact u don't have to, but this is the place to confront Nyx if you want to.

───── ⋆⋅ ☾⋅⋆ ─────

───── ⋆⋅ ☾⋅⋆ ─────

(i made the edit. yes ik dani isnt dead but it just fits the song)

───── ⋆⋅ ☾⋅⋆ ─────

───── ⋆⋅ ☾⋅⋆ ─────

You finally arrived at the small cabin in the woods. Snow fell around you and crunched beneath your feet, the wind ice cold against your face like a thousand knives. Inside lived the witch Dani had always talked about. Her mentor, her teacher. Though now Dani was in a coma, brain dead and in hospital, all signs pointed to the inhabitant of the cabin as the culprit. The moon burned into Dani's wrist was Nyx's symbol. Though she denied being at fault

The walls of the small wooden building were deep brown, the fenced gate decorated with the skulls and bones of small animals and birds. Any footsteps that may have indicated someone was home had been covered by the snow, and the shutters were closed to block any light coming from the inside. The place was deathly silent, even the rushing wind seemed dulled in volume. There was something very old and very powerful here, even the forest seemed to be trying to escape it, the dead, gnarled trees that lined the small dirt path to the house were bent away from it, as if trying to escape. No animals could be seen for miles, and all the plants were dead or dying.

The door had a small knocker shaped like a bird skull. Below it, carved into the old oak door were the words: 'An' ye harm none, do what ye will' You could enter politely, or forcefully. The choice was up to you. But this was the woman who harmed Dani, who had put her in a possibly fatal coma. The small, inconspicuous cabin was practically inviting you in. You knew she was powerful, dangerous, almost immortal. The few people that had come back from this part of the forest talked about how she was 'unkillable' What do you do?

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@mutantontheloose @justawhitewolf @they-call-me-birdsong @they-call-me-ricochet @poor-lost-leo @just-a-fucking-civilian

@hydras-tiny-dancer @agent-solenski @moongirlwidow @your-fav-russian-assassin @elia-theassassin

@thecrazyrplayerosie @the-other-lehnsherr-girl @thebetterbartontwin @clintbarton-thearrowguy @the-real-best-archer

@americas-favourite-fossil @that-punk-from-brooklyn @proud-owner-0f-americas-ass @we-love-redwing @captain-s-falcon

@serenastark-official @wandamaximoff-official @little-witchy-wanda @whosafraidoflittleoldme17 @lincoln-campbell-the-inhuman @the-good-redheaded-witch @thebestmerc-1

[saritapaleo]

Archovember 2024 Day 17 - Koreaceratops hwaseongensis

Koreaceratops hwaseongensis is a species of basal ceratopsian from Early Cretaceous South Korea. Unfortunately only the tail and hind legs of the specimen are known, due to the fossil being found in a block that had been quarried and used in a seawall, with the front half of the fossil apparently having been sliced off in the quarrying process. However, we can infer the front end of the animal based on other early ceratopsians, like Archaeoceratops. Thankfully, the most interesting part of this animal does seem to be its tail! Its tail was comprised of tall neural spines, similar to the “paddle tail” of Spinosaurus. This may have been a display feature, but it has also been postulated that this could be an adaptation for swimming! It’s unlikely that there was a fully or even semi-aquatic ceratopsian, but Koreaceratops may have used its tail to escape to the water to swim away from land predators. The specimen was an estimated 1.3 m (4.3 ft) long, but seemed to have been around 8 years old when it died, and may have not been fully grown.

Due to the nature of its discovery, Koreaceratops can’t be assigned to a specific formation. A bone histology examination reveals that it likely lived in a semiarid environment. Many arthropods are known from South Korea during the Early Cretaceous, but other archosaurs are only known from footprints and indeterminate teeth. Ichnofossils (species known only from footprints) include the large theropod Grallator, the tiny theropod Minisauripus, and the bird Ignotornis.

This art may be used for educational purposes, with credit, but please contact me first for permission before using my art. I would like to know where and how it is being used. If you don’t have something to add that was not already addressed in this caption, please do not repost this art. Thank you!

[the-teddy-roosevelt]

Let me tell you a little thing about cars.

I have had a gripe against modern car design, at least here in the States, for the longest time. Recently I have seen the utter abominations of the 21st century be more and more common and finally decided to share my stance to the wonderful world of the internet! So, be prepared for a lot of reading because this is a full scale rant with the occasional photo.

And now: Why Modern Car Design is Going to Kill Us All.

I have been doing much research these past months as I continued to observe more of these "newer designs" I have spoken so much about, and there are a few things I need to delve into.

The Flat Front

Supersize Me 2: Not so Electric Boogaloo

Elon's Bastard of a Car

1

The Flat Front

So, these cars I have been talking about, just to be more specific, are SUVs and Light Trucks/Pickup Trucks.

You see that massive, flat front in the image above? Well, believe it or not, that is causing more deaths in car-related accidents yearly! Due to being so boxy, when a pedestrian is hit, they are more likely to break bones around the torso/head, then pull the person UNDER the car rather than how a car normally would hit the person's legs, then they would hit the hood of the car.

These can also create massive blind spots/zones where you can't see what is right in front of you.

I shall dive more into this in the next section.

2

Supersize Me 2: Not so Electric Boogaloo

So, onto the next section. As you can see above you, this is a comparison of two cars, only 24 years apart(end of Escort to start of F-350). Only 24 years, and it had a 246% increase in weight, was 91.7 in. or about 7.64 ft. longer, and 26.8 in. or about 2.2 ft. taller.

This is a dramatic increase for little to no reason other than to "protect the drivers". As we have discussed in section 1, this is not the case. In fact, if one of these larger SUVs were to hit another, usually smaller car, it is more likely for the smaller driver to be killed, or at least seriously harmed by the bigger vehicle.

Speaking of smaller, children:

Children are one of the biggest victims of these larger cars with them being run over either in frontovers or backovers, most often by their own parents in a driveway.

If you don't fully believe me that these cars are truly big enough to run over the younger side of children, an entire experiment was done, putting kids in front of parked cars, and just look:

Terrifying.

I addition to this, the larger frame of these cars means that they create more pollution. Let me explain: The bigger cars needed more fuel, that means more fossil fuels being burned, and due to the US's car based infrastructure, there are more cars being produced, that is even more fossil fuels for both production and upkeep, and more pollution.

But oh dear reader, these SUVs and Light Trucks are not even the worst of it...

3

Elon's Bastard of a Car

Gentlemen, women, and all of you folk in between, I give you: The Tesla Cybertruck.

This... Thing, is the bane of everything I hate about modern car design, from the boxy shape going throughout the car, to being an "indestructible" vehicle, and its ability to kill anyone.

Okay, that is a lot I am claiming, so lets break it down.

We have already talked about how dangerous the box design is, but the Cybertruck appears to be a geometry problem found in high-school. This is unbelievably dangerous, making any crashes with other cars much more likely fatal.

The fatalities can also be helped by the fact the damn car is made of STAINLESS STEEL and "indestructible" according to advertising. Most cars are made to be able to crunch in order to let the force of impact be more spread out throughout the vehicle. Yes, it will cost quite a bit to fix, but hey, you're alive. Meanwhile when it is made out of such a hard material, such as steel, that crunch isn't going to happen and only kill the people inside the vehicle, and the people crashing into the giant steel block.

The company claims it can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 2.6 seconds, which, if true, would mean it has a faster acceleration than most NASCAR and Formula 1 vehicles, with none of the accompanying engine roar to warn anyone that it's coming. The headlight, meanwhile, is one single bar of light, which some experts are already worried will blind oncoming drivers.

There are so many other things about this utter abomination that I would love to talk about, but I think this is where I'll leave off.

One last thing, I just want to say how this is mostly my experience and research from the United States of America, and not the rest of the world. Also, I do not see these things getting much better unless somehow the US removes all of its car based infrastructure.

Thank you for reading my friends, and remember, fuck monopolies.

[kneecapandribcageinverter]

Alright so apparently there's a new update coming out for minecraft and it's about friendly ghasts. That's great and cute and adorable and all but it raises some questions because of how exactly it works.

so there've been some hints at there being more to Ghasts than we know, from the vestigial gills on their sides, to their constant misery, to the "uneasy alliance" achievement talking about "rescuing them" from the nether and bringing them "home" to the overworld.

This update reveals some crazy stuff about ghasts. Like, you can find these dried out baby ghasts husks near fossils, which come back to life if you soak them in water. Like a tardigrade. They grow over time, and grow faster if you feed them snowballs. Which is weird.

Ghasts grown up in this manner are vulnerable to fire and are unable to shoot fireballs.

What is weirder is that you can craft the little buggers in a crafting table. Out of bone blocks and ghast tears.

Why the hell are these flying ghost balloons made out of bones? Bones that aren't theirs? What the hell are ghast "tears" if they are used to reproduce? If ghasts need water and snow to grow up, how do they keep spreading in the nether?

Are they mechanical? Some consider the Mobeastiary to imply that they are. If so, then what the hell is a ghast tear? If it were artificial, we'd assume that it'd be something one could acquire elsewhere and then use to build a ghast. But no, ghasts are the main if not only source of ghast tears in Minecraft, and it takes more tears to make a baby ghast than you can harvest from a grown-up ghast.

Are they undead? The wither doesn't attack them, so, maybe! I mean apparently they're made of bones so this seems entirely reasonable to me! But no! If they were undead, then healing potions would kill them!

Are they alive? You can make them on a goddamned crafting table. Out of bones. YOU tell ME if it's alive.

The ghast tears are used to make potions of regeneration. Which seems out of place. But you wanna know something about happy, healthy ghasts that get raised with water? When they fly to Y195, they just get the regeneration status effect! What the fresh hell is this!

They need water to function! There is no water in the nether! What is bringing the ghasts to life?

My going theory is that they're some kind of colony coral-like creature that nests in and dissolves bones into a stretchy gelatinous mass that they then inflate with some buoyant gaseous byproduct of the reaction, and that they usually need to be submerged in water for this. The "tears" are actually the living organism, and the ghast we know is just a puppet. Like a tardigrade or one of those frozen arctic worms, a ghast "tear" colony can remain dormant for decades or even centuries before being revived. Somehow, something in the nether is co-opting this process. Maybe if they wind up "infesting" wither skeleton bones by accident their husk winds up animating on its own, consumed by infernal malevolence? It'd explain the explosive breath and the indifference of withers, but if that were the case, I'd expect it to inflict the wither effect instead of just fire. Maybe they wind up using lava or volcanic fumes or nether rack or soul sand instead of water to catalyze the process, which would explain the flammability and irritability, but not anything else.

The "ghast warn" sound name might imply that the ghasts don't want to kill you at all and are giving you a heads up to dodge their body's attacks, potentially adding credence to the wither possession theory, or perhaps they're just making a threat display.

Anyway. These freaking things. Freaking weird.

[teratart]

August 7th was a big day for me. Finally. After 5 years of participating in fieldworks, I found a skeleton of a theropod!

Well, this is actually not a full skeleton, but! For all the years of research on the Shestakovo location since 1953, only single bones of various theropods have been found here. And in general, all previously found here articulated skeletons belong only to psittacosaurs... So... this is really something new.

The wet sandstone was very brittle and crumbled at the touch of fingers exposing the fossil.

However, finding something is only half the case. You have to take it with you somehow and not break it. The fossil was encased in a single piece of sandstone weighing at least a third of a ton, lying on the bank of the Kiya River and half submerged in water. A high sheer cliff overhangs the shore, and the surface below is littered with cobblestones, on which no one truck can pass. The only way to take the fossil is to float it down to the gentle shore.

But there was a small problem... We had no boat or something. Fortunately, a local resident agreed to transport the block with the fossil on his own rubber boat. This was a small two-person rubber boat that can barely withstand the weight of the rock block. In addition, it turned out that the tightness of the air chamber of the boat is broken, so it needed to be continuously pumped up, otherwise the boat would have just sunk. x') But after a couple of hard hours, the fossil was finally loaded into the car... which couldn't move because it got stuck in the mud.

In parallel with all these events, I fought for the safety of the fragile bone, which was in a piece that broke off from the monolith. Its transportation took another day.

Location: Shestakovo-1 «Malyi Yar», Kiya River, Western Siberia. 08/08/2023

Now the fossil is in the camp. After drying and removing excess rock, it will be sent to the city for tomography. And maybe after that we will find out the taxonomic affiliation of the found prehistoric animal.

[bloop-im-a-frog-now]

Sniffer Adventure and Pets

Pearl checked her inventory one last time.

“Sword, pickaxe, shovel, brush, golden carrots,” she hummed to herself. “Maybe I should bring a shield. Juuust in case.”

Once she crafted her shield, she beamed to herself and went out the door, the rumbles of the warden head vibrating her feet. She flew off and was ready to explore those warm ocean ruins.

She couldn’t get the two rarest flowers without some sniffers sniffing the seeds for her.

Tango had told her to head South, where most Hermits haven’t touched any warm ocean ruins. Most have gone North and West, where they could also get the mangrove wood and be left alone while grinding resources.

She threw a rocket to the ground, flying off as she held her Post Office cap on her head during the journey. Pearl didn’t want it to fly off and forever be lost. She loved the hat.

The first warm ocean she encountered didn’t have a lot of suspicious sand. Still, she brushed it, uncovering the mysterious items buried deep in it, like she was discovering fossils.

The first one ended up being a stick, an item very unnecessary for Pearl at the moment.

“What a shame,” she muttered to herself.

She brushed another suspicious sand block, muttering to herself “Sniffer egg, sniffer egg, sniffer egg” like a prayer that would be granted. Instead, she found an emerald.

“Aw man,” Pearl pouted. “I don’t even have a villager hall.”

She was hoping to use other Hermits’ villager hall this season. She kept the emerald for good measure.

“Maybe if I find gravel instead of sand?” She asked herself.

Right beside her was suspicious gravel, and she grinned.

“You cannot escape Pearl’s brush, you little gravel.”

She brushed it carefully, and saw something red being dug out.

She gasped. “Is this it? Did I finally found one?”

The more she uncovered, the more she realized it was a pottery shard. She let out a frustrated groan.

“I feel like I’m gonna find a lot of these pottery shards.”

And how she wished she was wrong. After visiting one-too many ocean ruins (it was more like two, but flying around to find them was worst than finding the mangrove forest), Pearl was almost ready to give up on this region of the world. She looked at the last suspicious sand and glanced back at her brush.

“One last try. C’mon Pearlie, just one last time. This time, it’ll be a sniffer egg. I can feel it in my bones.”

Despite her pep talk, she did not feel confident about the loot in the suspicious sand. Every centimetres she uncovered, her breath stuck in her throat, as if she’d be disappointed by what the sand would unravel.

She saw red, and inhaled loudly in the bubble column she used for breathing — a fatal flaw in her preparations was to bring water breathing potions. She closed one eye, as if the disappointment would be less grand if she didn’t fully witness it.

It could be another pottery shard, or it could be a smithing template. Pearl played on loop the mantra “sniffer egg, sniffer egg, sniffer egg” in her head, brushing like every mistake would cost her her life.

God she hoped it was a sniffer egg.

Suddenly, she saw green spots on the object, and she let out a squeal of joy. She brushed the rest of the sand away and admired the wonderful egg in the palms of her hands.

“What a beauty,” she whispered.

She slowly caressed it with her index finger, cooing at it.

“You’re gonna look amazing, and you’re gonna dig out sooo many flowers for me, and you’re gonna help me make money. Oh, it’s gonna be wonderful!”

The egg did not reply, but Pearl didn’t need a response. She gently tucked it in her inventory, swimming up to the surface until a huge realization struck her.

She needed two eggs to have more than one sniffer.

She groaned. “Damn you breeding mechanics.”

And thus, the search for a second sniffer egg began, much quicker than the first one. She didn’t listen to Tango’s advice and immediately went West, where there was a warm ocean biome that would surely have an ancient ruin in it.

When she spotted one, she flew immediately down, and gasped in excitement when she saw suspicious gravel and sand.

Her luck would definitely turn around this time.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” she whispered to herself as she brushed a suspicious gravel.

It gave her a pottery shard.

She inhaled sharply. “It’s fine, that’s okay, I can — there’s more! Just — brush these, it’s gonna be okay, you’ll find a sniffer egg. Yeah,” she nodded to herself, “the next one’ll be it.”

She had guessed correctly. She rolled on the ball of her feet in joy and took the sniffer egg in her hand, gently petting it.

“You’re gonna be amazing in my farm,” she whispered to it encouragingly.

It didn’t respond. Pearl didn’t really care, she swimmed to the surface and flew to her base as fast as she could.

She wanted to see those sniffers hatch, after all.

Pearl almost face-planted to her roof with how fast she was going. She threw open the door to the sniffer room, a nice bamboo and sand colour with green grass surrounding it. She took out the first egg from her inventory, and carefully placed it on the ground, making sure it wouldn’t fall and break once Pearl let go of it.

It was standing proud in her base, a nice splash of colour in a room that blended into itself. She hummed in satisfaction and placed her fists on her hips.

“Yeah, that'll do,” she smiled. “Now, time for little guy number two!”

She bit her lower lip as the egg touched the ground, hands so gentle with it, as if it was a block she needed to put at the perfect spot for it to fit with the rest of her build. She couldn’t afford to break it, those eggs were so hard to find, and she needed those flowers so badly.

She made sure the egg was balanced on its own before taking her hands off of it. She beamed when the two eggs stood proudly on their own in the green house.

“You guys will be adorable, I can already tell. Now,” she went towards her door, “I’ll go fix some redstone while you two hatch. Be good.”

She looked at them sternly when she said it and left the room to go downstairs, where her redstone was. The Hermit hummed as she thought. Etho suggested she put a player’s head on the noteblock to not hear the farm or the allays activating it.

She slammed her fist against the palm of her hand.

“Time to search for a player's head,” she declared.

As she went to do that, the sniffers in the egg slowly squirmed in place, getting warmed up to hatch. The cracks were already there when she came up to the farm, where her sniffers would dig out the flowers for her shop.

“You guys are already hatching!” She exclaimed, a wide smile on her face. “Wait up, I wanna see you out of your shell, don’t you dare do anything.”

She changed the head she already had on the noteblock only for a small snort to echo in the room. Pearl swivelled around and cooed at the sight.

“You guys are so cute,” there was only one sniffer hatched, cleaning itself from the juices of the egg.

The second one hatched right under Pearl’s eyes, and she gasped in surprise.

“Down right adorable,” she cooed again, and slowly approached the sniffer who had finished cleaning itself. “Hey there little guy,” she greeted, and scratched the top of its head.

It snorted and shook its head like it had water splashed on it. Pearl chuckled and scratched underneath its chin. Immediately, it fell on its stomach, eyes closed and let the Hermit pet it.

“Oh, you’re so adorable. You like Pearl’s scratches? Yes you do, oh you big guy.”

The second bumped its head against Pearl’s shoulder, making doe eyes at her, pleading for something. She laughed and scratched right between its ears.

“Aw, you felt left out?”

The sniffer fell right beside her, caging her between the two of them. She laughed and continued her pets, appreciating this last moment she’ll probably ever spend with her sniffers.

“You guys are so big for babies. Can’t wait for the money you’re gonna make for me.”

The sniffers simply snorted and let themselves be petted by the Hermit. This sniffer farm will be better than her last one, Pearl just knew it.

[xtruss]

What Dinosaur Has 500 Teeth? This Prehistoric Jaw Was One-Of-A-Kind! This dinosaur’s skull was light as air but its mouth was packed with power—and a unique ability to quickly grow teeth. Here’s how Nigersaurus was built for nonstop grazing. The cast of the skull of Nigersaurus. The fossil skull of Nigersaurus was one of the first dinosaur skulls to be digitally reconstructed from CT scans. Photograph By Ira Block, National Geographic Image Collection . By Riley Black, June 9, 2025

Scientists unveil the reconstructed skeleton of Nigersaurus on stage during a press conference at National Geographic. Discovered in 1999, the assembled bones show it was a strange plant eater. Researchers created a sculptural rendition of what they expect the dinosaur's distinct head to look like. Scientists also cast reconstructions of the bones to assemble them in the proper shape of the Nigersaurus. Photograph By Bill O'Leary, The Washington Post/Getty Images

[uk-fossils]

RARE Fossil Reptile Bone - Aust Cliff UK - Westbury Formation - Upper Triassic - Genuine Specimen with COA

RARE Fossil Reptile Bone – Westbury Formation, Aust Cliff, Upper Triassic, UK

This listing is for a genuine fossilised reptile bone preserved within a natural matrix from the famous fish, reptile, and coprolite bed of Aust Cliff, Bristol, UK. This rare and historically significant site is part of the Westbury Formation within the Penarth Group, dating to the Upper Triassic period (approx. 208–201 million years ago).

Your specimen was carefully discovered by our own team members Alister and Alison on 07 April 2025, and has been professionally cleaned, prepped, and treated by Alison to ensure both preservation and presentation quality.

The Westbury Formation at Aust Cliff represents a transitional coastal lagoonal to marginal marine depositional environment. Fossils found here are often associated with the Rhaetian Stage of the Upper Triassic, making them invaluable for understanding the pre-Jurassic marine and nearshore fauna of the UK.

The bone is likely to be from a marine or semi-aquatic reptile, with known species from this bed including Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, and primitive Crocodyliforms. While exact taxonomic assignment is not possible without further scientific analysis, the morphology is consistent with vertebrate skeletal remains from these groups.

Geological Formation: Westbury Formation

Group: Penarth Group

Stage: Upper Triassic (Rhaetian)

Location: Aust Cliff, Bristol, England, UK

Depositional Environment: Shallow marine to marginal lagoonal

Notable Features: Preserved in original matrix with other fossil material potentially visible

Specimen Type: Reptile bone fossil in matrix

Each fossil we offer is 100% genuine and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. The fossil in the photograph is the exact one you will receive.

Please refer to the photo for full sizing details — the included scale cube is 1cm for reference.

Perfect for collectors, educational use, or display, this is a striking and authentic piece of British palaeontological history.

All of our Fossils are 100% Genuine Specimens & come with a Certificate of Authenticity

[rabbitcruiser]

Appreciate A Dragon Day

Dragons, the magical scaly creature born from fire, have existed throughout mythology since the times of the Romans and Egyptians. Dragons, with their celestial ways and otherworldly presence, make our lives a lot more interesting, and never cease to amaze people.

Appreciate a Dragon Day is a day dedicated to learning about dragons and sharing your love for these creatures! 

History of Appreciate a Dragon Day 

Appreciate a Dragon Day began when Donita K. Paul wanted to celebrate the publishing of her first fantasy novel “Dragonspell”, part of the five-volume series, The DragonKeeper Chronicles.

Dragons have always been popular, existing in the mythology of cultures from all over the world. Dragons inspire us and fill us with fear at the same time. Western dragons have always been depicted as fearsome creatures to either overcome or have a kinship with, while eastern dragons were typically equated with the royalty and heavenly forces, depending on the culture.

Nevertheless, dragons also tend to represent the conquering of the spiritual soul, as they are related to many of the human emotions that block the way to enlightenment. Dragons in modern culture have always been a place of fascination for them, as many authors and filmmakers have helped transform the image of a dragon to something people can admire.  

Some of the most famous stories to depict dragons are seen in Tolkien, Ursula, and J.K. Rowling’s novels. In films, movies and TV shows such as How to Raise a Dragon, Game of Thrones, and Eragon have helped shape the way people see dragons and ultimately fall in love with them. Dragons have existed since the earliest parts of history and have appeared in many different forms with many different alignments of good and evil.

The depictions of dragons tend to differ by culture. In ancient times, most societies had an ambivalent view of dragons. Like any other creature, these giant flying serpents had both a good side and a bad one. 

In the West, however, attitudes towards dragons changed with the advent of Christianity in the late Roman era. Suddenly, dragons became associated with evil because of their serpentine nature and needed vanquishing. Some people believed that dragons were a real phenomenon and created stories about how great warriors had to go out into the wilderness to defeat them. The tale of St. George and the dragon is likely a direct descendent of this thinking.

When you think about it in more detail, you can understand why people thought dragons were real. Remember, in ancient times, there was no explanation for giant bones. Nobody had a clue what dinosaurs were, or that fossilized bones were millions of years old. For all they knew, these creatures perished recently and could live beyond the horizon. Believing in “dragons” was logical and perhaps necessary to protect yourself.

The old ideas weren’t far off eighteenth- and nineteenth-century discoveries in paleontology. Once the dinosaur age took off, it became clear that there really were giant serpent-like creatures who roamed the Earth millions of years ago, firing the public imagination.

The diversity of dragons is considerable, and one of the main motivations for Appreciate A Dragon Day. The fire-breathing variety is the most famous, but there are others too. Some are like gargoyles found in medieval churches. Others are many-headed hydras that pop out of the ocean. Some even depict them as wyverns, basilisks, and other mythical creatures with loose connections to the real world. 

Folklore experts like Carol Rose point out that dragons are essentially “composite creatures.” We tend to think of them as highly-stylized, as depicted in films like The Hobbit. But Rose notes that they can have really unusual features, including elephant trunks. 

Ultimately, the idea of dragons interacting with humans fills our mind with awe and inspires us to delight our minds with fancy. Appreciate a Dragon Day asks people to share what their favorite dragon is in popular culture and tell people why they love dragons.  

How to Celebrate Appreciate a Dragon Day 

When it comes to celebrating Appreciate a Dragon Day, you have a lot of options. 

Draw, sketch, or color in pictures of dragons. Watch your favorite dragon-themed movie with friends. Read fantasy novels about dragons, including The DragonKeeper Series. Buy or sew a stuffed dragon for you or a friend you know – it’s all totally kosher!

If you love art, you can print out a dragon coloring page. Or you can attempt to paint a picture of one of these mythical beasts from scratch if you’re feeling brave. 

Another popular idea is to use the day to cook a meal fit for a dragon. What, precisely, this entails is anyone’s guess. But heavy charring is clearly an option here. You want something that involves a little fire and passion!

Another thing you can do is learn to write in Dragonese. For those of you who don’t know, this is the language that dragons speak in the film How to Train Your Dragon. The scriptwriters created an entire universe of words, waiting for you to explore them. 

You can also indulge yourself in other ways. How about collecting books and movies related to dragons and starting a dragon collection? Or what about creating a dragon mosaic, hosting a puppet show, or doing all kinds of things you can think of related to dragons?

Once you start talking about dragons, you’ll be amazed by how many people love them. Don’t keep Appreciate a Dragon Day to yourself! Share this holiday with your friends and spread your love for dragons! 

[thewholeloaf]

Happy pride month from dinosaur fossil stamps

Save me dinosaur stamps. Save me help me dinosaur stamps. Dino stamps please save me help please fossil dinosaur stamps

[preventthetoast]

A BATSHIT insane one shot I ran: Welcome to Durn city, Neo-Brazil.

they found you a fossil. an important artifact from before before was before. They dug you out. like a worm from its home, desperate cilia grip and grasp and then they pulled you out. with lasers and knives sharper than atoms they chipped away at you. cell by cell. day by day. ad by ad. appointment by appointment. they rasped and replaced until they met it. they met the wall. the part of you thats real and would always be real. the part of you that would not dissolve or wash away. the part of you that would be stone. they met that matrix of collagen and calcium and pure human soul and they had to stop. there was nothing for them there. they patched you back up and told you to go back to work. like sonar blocking a whale call the gadgets and apps and rotten impurities of frivolous "neo-plastic" drowned the desperate call of bone. the desperate call of you. day by day dripped by as a slurry of neon and pointless mindless busywork. then one day something clicked. you ran to beat your friend to the vending machine. you accidentally indulged in the purest expression of the soul. you shared a moment of love. you shared a moment of friendly rivalry. you shared a moment of food. you shared a moment that would waste the pennies of the men upstairs. at this bone screamed and tore through, briefly, the facade they made you into. you felt it in your bones, your soul. you felt it in whatever else was left. the flecks of organelles clinging to your fake cheeks. the last vestiges of papillae dutifully sifting through fake food in a fake intestine. you. where. going. to. dissipate. what you didn't realize is. that you where never really you at all also your car can talk and its your best friend <3

This was a game of Tonight, Tonight by Grant Howitt, but the worldbuilding is mostly mine.

here's some of the stuff in the far future of 1 billion years from now

cars are sapient and have children ("carlings"). the carlings are cryptically colored for camouflage reasons. instead of steering wheels they got silicon lips (to communicate). they also have little hands under them which they use as claspers during mating. this one is named Orbeez.

Turns out more guns was more effective at stopping plane/spaceship highjacking. this anti-TSA agent has a greek statue for a head.

The roads are often blockaded by gangs which attempt to extort people for money. this guys is a spider kind of. his hat casts a very very very dark shadow but his eyes and mandibles are very very very very bright

Our players worked at the very very very tip of an unimaginably powerful company/cult/god called The Red Hand. their boss sends them on random jobs for seemingly no reason.

this is the boss of course. an eye in a jar and the foot of a toad. its whatever

The streets are inhabited by many forms of wildlife. there's the lava piranha. the ppppppigeon. and the three-eyed-legged-fish.

there's also GMO pets. this is Romeo. the pet of one of the players. he's a "raptor." his legs cannot move and so he must move on wheels. his arms, neck, and head, and tail are fully articulated. he's basically an organic animatronic.

the end of the day arrives. as is the plot of Tonight, Tonight, our players feel that they are about to fade away into nothing. the waxing sun begins to rise. they share one last ride on the highway, before arriving at a strange building just before the night truly ends. this is, I suppose, the HQ of The Red Hand. they go inside.

cybernetics and implants slough off as they enter, leaving geometric, bloodless scars in the flesh. the building is much deeper than they could see. it spirals off into darkness. night vision implants come off. the only sense is each others hands. miles and miles of facade and wire trail behind them as they stumble through the murk. finally they each touch something. a door. rough stone. two hands squeeze together. their owners are now ragged and skeletal. barely anything remains, but what does is rarified humanity. their final embrace is the most tender touch shared in a billion years. "I'll see you later" they say to each other. their tongues catch in their throats. they know the truth.

...

I needed to post that somewhere. I hope this is legible (if even barely) to anyone not part of this campaign. thanks to my friends, @sentient-deer-skull and another not on tumblr, for playing my batshit insane absurdist world, and thanks for making me cry during what was otherwise the goofiest thing I've ever done.

[minced-mangoes]

Last night I dreamt that the Ghastlings update completely redid the soul sand valley Nether biome, and instead of it being fiery and hot like the rest of the Nether it was the only freezing cold biome, and it was always snowing, huge fossils poking out of the snow, the walls made of iced over soul sand...

And instead of finding a dried up baby ghast you had to go to the center of the biome (extremely difficult as the snow deepened as time went on so you needed leather boots to stand on it) and there you'd find a huge castle made of basalt, bone blocks, and packed ice. There you had to fight a huge Ur-Ghast from the Twilight Forest mod, and only then, once you defeated it, you could take it's Ghastling, the thing it fought so desperately to protect...

It was like fighting the Ender dragon specifically for the egg. Not to liberate the end, but to steal that creatures young.

It also changed the way Ghasts spawned and instead they floated around in packs of 3-4, meaning ghast spawns were rarer, but more dangerous...

[specksizedgoddess]

Once upon a time there was a tiny speck of a girl. She'd scamper about the floor, living off crumbs and lint. While she cobbled together a meager existence she dreamt of being noticed by the owner of the apartment. She learned her schedule, when she showered (almost never), when she'd have floor time, when she'd eat raw ramen in bed or at her computer, even how long it'd take for her to burp after drinking an energy drink. Eventually the mote built up enough courage to approach the slobbish girl. She hiked all day to reach the spot where they'd typically lay down, waited, then once she was in place, began climbing her thigh, each oily hair like a handle for the tiny buggirl to ascend. Though the little thing picked quite a day because she was greeted by a twitching girldick and hand after finally summiting her thighs. After admiring for a while---a real girl, satisfying her real needs---, the giant stopped without finishing, and the bug continued to make her trek. Across the crumb-covered belly, the greasy bra, the sticky chest, finally she made it up to the girl's face. Nervous but eager, the tiny thing tried to speak up, "...h... uh... h-Hi!"

Her advance was immediately met with a yelp and jolt from the girl, the tiny bug cast to the floor, bones broken. After searching briefly, she found you amidst the clutter. She stared at you, her giant eyes consuming your bloody vision. You spoke up again, trying to introduce yourself and how much you loved her. Still bewildered, she got a loose candy wrapper and picked you up and placed you into an empty shot glass at her desk. That little cup became your home while you recovered. You'd watch her watch streams, she'd put crumbs in there--giant ones, her fingers unable to create crumbs small enough for your--as well as the occasional drop of water. Even after you had recovered, you didn't leave. She was noticing you, caring for you, even if only as a curious pet-like-thing.

As time went on, however, more cans built up around your glass enclosure. She got lost in her shows and games for longer and longer, your novelty having worn off and your insignificance forestalling her ability to even remember you were there in the first place. You waited, desperate to be seen again, until you were too emaciated to escape that tiny cup. The last thing you remembered before you dried out into a speck of dust, was touching yourself as you watched her jerk off to some porn--the cans and junk around you blocking your view of the screen. Though you did receive a proper sendoff--one befitting a horny speck of worthless dust. Long after you were gone, after she got another energy drink and was finally able to satisfy her needs as a real girl, she needed something to catch her mess... and how convenient, an empty shot glass was right within arm's reach.

And so would have ended the tale of the little horny speck, buried 6 mm under, though in cum rather than dirt, and with a eulogy that the speck could have predicted given the timing of her most recent energy drink: a fat, wet burp. "Would have ended", only that the cum dried and more was layered on as time marched on. Until the thing was a fossil under layers of sediment. A potentially precious specimen---had the girl not then thrown out the ruined shotglass rather than clean it.

~Love you 🐍💜

HSCJDBJDJVJCJDJCJDJCDJD OH MY GOD

FAVE FAVE VERY QUICKLY ADDING THIS TO MY FAVES TAG <33333333

I DONT EVEN HAVE ANY WORDS THIS IS JUST. MMMMPH <3

Oh to be an obsessive little bug of a girl, absolutely obsessed with someone... staring up at them every day, moaning with every action, they dont even know I exist... memorizing everything, touching myself, desperately fantasizing about them- finally working up the courage to talk to her...

Oh my GOSH I ffucking. moaned out loud at the "real girl" comment 😵‍💫

Happily waving, introducing myself, holding back my exitement... pretty soon, I'm spending every second in that glass, eagerly whimpering and staring at her- I never imagined I would get so close, let alone eat crumbs given by HER... I'm a moaning mess, exitedly watching everything she does...

And of COURSE I'm still happy when I'm weak from hunger~ just the honor of being hers, of being so close........ my last moments spent happy and horny~ she even gave me a proper sendoff, how thoughtful.... hchshchxhchds NEED OH MY GOD

[datapacks]

The other tie for the second place on my postpoll was to post about the new Archeology stuff, so here's the info about the new archeology stuff for my minecraft mod, Valley of Plenty!

Again, this'll be coming to the 1.1 release, not the 1.0, and is for an update focused on Deserts & Painting. This update is largely already finished, despite the 1.0 release not being out yet! I just like talking about my ideas, too 🤷‍♀️

Essentially, I'd like to introduce a few new pot shapes, some new options to decorate pots with, more pots with loot tables in pre-existing structures, and more archeology sites to begin with. Another huge part ov this is that I want to introduce more things for the Sniffer to dig up, way more biome-based, so you actually have some reason to bring them places.

For the archeology system as a whole, I want to change things a bit, so that when players dig something up, it starts off as an unidentified artifact! These artifacts can be identified at a new archeology workstation, essentially making it so that players don't just start brushing, see a stick, and decide to call it quits.

I've got some plans, also, to make it so that even with things like sticks, what you dig up actually reflects some ov the culture surrounding the place you're digging in. For instance, instead ov just finding a golden nugget, you might find an old piece ov broken golden jewelry- functionally, still just working as a nugget, but like... adding some more character to the system!

I want to introduce some rare / unique artifacts! The idea is to use new loot table functionality so that the first time a player meets the conditions to find one and does so, they'll retrieve the only "legitimate" original copy ov the item. The item can be found in recreations, otherwise, and can be recreated, itself, but ideally I'd like to incentivize players to build museums for things by actually implementing more scarcity to them in the first place. Think sorta how Animal Crossing has "real" artifacts, and very-close "fake" artifacts. Additionally, if any ov these has a function, the function will only work with the recreations- the idea being that the originals should probably not be being used for risk ov damaging them.

I'd also like to introduce a couple ov "multi-part" items able to be found in dig sites, so that you need to collect at least 1 ov each unique piece from the dig site to be able to complete the artifact.

Another part ov this is the introduction ov a handful ov blocks that are very similar to pre-existing blocks, but cannot be collected by breaking them! You'll either have to display them on-site, or move them with pistons if you're really dedicated. Like, make fossils out ov "Fossilized Bones" instead ov just bone blocks, so that if the player wants to show off the actual fossil, they'll have to put some work into it, instead ov just making a recreation ov said fossil. I really want to make all ov this stuff very niche, so that it doesn't ever become an issue ov "this block is way too valuable for this type ov build to be scarce".

Also, new paintings the player is able to dig up, and a couple ov new banner patterns! I'd also really like, with my new painting system for blocks, namely the Painting work station, to be able to introduce a sort ov "Armor Trim Template" type item to some blocks; the item itself would essentially be a "Pattern" template for players to apply to some pre-existing blocks, with the Pattern 1) taking durability damage in the crafting process, and 2) being replicable a la smithing templates.