Unsolicited bug pics

Introducing Megasiphon thylakos, a 500 million-year-old tunicate from Cambrian Period Utah.

These magnificent tubes are some of the closest cousins of us filthy vertebrates, but their lack of hard bones means they don't fossilize well.

I've been documenting my illustration process, which tbh is just summarizing the commission email thread. You can read why this animal is illustrated the way it is here.

Ever seen a bug pic & wished the photographer flipped the bug so you could see the underside? Wonder where leg go? Wing confuse? Mouth many parts? Introducing "Bug Pics for Art Refs™" where I compile bug pics that have helped me in my own art projects.

I scour the internet and my own files for bug refs all the time anyway. As per @sohkamyung's idea, it's probably better to have a public collection that others can use. Right now I've only compiled my own photos, but I will go through other people's photos when I have their permission!

If you're not familiar with iNat, the biggest reason why I started this collection there is that you could do taxonomic search! Do you specifically need slug moths? Search Limacodidae. Need more of the genus Narosa? You can do that. It's really helpful for comparative work.

Greetings, chordate comrades.

#InverteFest is officially here. We invite you to nerd out about invertebrates for an entire week on whichever social platform you're on. Feel free to reupload this image to spread the word!

Can't find critters in the wild?

Show us: - Your pet snail - Your Vivillon collection - That scifi book about sentient clams - Your OC based on a parasitic nematode - That game where you played as a crab with a sword

Feel free to come up with your own idea, we don't gatekeep fun!

Want to contribute to community science?

If you have an iNaturalist account, you could contribute by surveying your local critters! Join the project using this link.

Note that only photos taken between 24-30 April your LOCAL time will be counted!

The time frame and project URL will vary each season, but I plan on reblogging this post each season and updating the dates and links.

Still life from an apocalypse

Though the extinction at the end of the Cretaceous devastated plants as it did animals, the flora that eventually covered South America afterward resemble the species we have today.

One site in Bogotá, Colombia, preserved leaves from familiar plant families like moonseeds, legumes, palms, spurges, and many others.

Though the fossil insects of South America are less well-known, leaf beetles and various true bugs like stink bugs and cicadas already coexisted and interacted with the plants back then.

Auroralumina attenboroughii

A 560 million years old goblet-shaped organism interpreted as a cnidarian—relative of jellyfishes and sea anemones.

Charnwood Forest

6 years, 9 posters. is it time for a 10th? there's been a lot of weirdness in the roster so far. is it time to return to the basics and do "normal" animals like moths? beetles? corals?

Timorocidaris

a stalkless crinoid/sea lily from the Permian Period of Timor Island. 110,000 fossils of its mushroom-shaped body have been found, but little is known about it.

Aegirocassis

Prodryas persephone

is the first fossil butterfly found in North America. To date, it is one of, if not the best preserved fossil butterfly ever found. Its four wings are found intact, with pattern and venation visible.

It’s time for spoods.

12 spoods from my backyard and other places around my neighborhood.

This is an animal.

Monobrachiocrinus is a one-armed crinoid, a marine animal related to living feather stars (and sea stars). Several species have been found in Permian rocks, aged 252+ million years, in Southeast Asia all the way to New Zealand.

Greetings, chordate comrades.

I’m attempting to export yet another culture we’ve had for the past few years on the dying birdsite. Basically three times a year we’d use the hashtag #InverteFest to post unsolicited bug and slug pics and YELL ABOUT HOW MUCH WE LOVE THEM.

It could be pics from your garden, OCs, doodles, shitposts, crab memes, whatever. Just remember this is strictly a NO BONE ZONE.

But if you’re going out and feeling like contributing to community science, we have a project on iNaturalist for you to join.

Ascaulocardium armatum

Fossil clams that built a case around their body, with bizarre pipe-like protrusions sprouting all over the place like a human heart that grew too many arteries.

On the fourteenth day of #Crustmas, my true love gave to me Fourteen Shinkaia adapted to the crushing pressure and oppressive darkness