Some More Dinosaur Footprints From Picketwire Canyon.

Paleontologists Find New Fossils of Gigantic Freshwater Turtle

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/stupendemys-geographicus-shells-08131.html

On one side this may look like just a ordinary clam shell but when you flip it over it contains beautiful golden calcite crystals. The crystals formed when the clam died and a cavity formed allowing the crystals to develop. Took over two million years to do this. Found on the east coast of Florida in Brevard County.

capturing_the_cosmos

Watercolour and gouache fossil study and life reconstruction - Elrathia kingii, a very common trilobite from the Wheeler Shale Formation, Utah. Excited to be starting a short course in natural history illustration with @newcastlexnhi this week!

A Stark Forest Of Standing Stones

The Pinnacles, a stark forest of standing stones on a plain of bright yellow sand.

Thousands of limestone pillars stand in groups in the silence of Western Australia’s south-west ‘Painted Desert’, part of the Nambung National Park. Nothing but the sighing and moaning of the wind breaks the eerie silence of the Pinnacles Desert. Any science fiction writer seeking a setting of a spinechiller need look no further than this alien spot, perhaps the inspiration of the blockbuster movie ‘Pitch Black’?

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Moss Agate looks like it has a forest inside. (Source)

Follower celebration: Make me choose between __and __

@x-kytanna-x asked: Thorin or Bilbo?

Stomata as a Proxy for Atmospheric CO2 Levels

These strange, mouth-like structures are called stomata. Stomata are specialized pore structures found on plant leaves that permit the exchange of gases such as CO2, O2 and H2O, between the inside and outside of the leaf. They do so through the opening and closing of stomatal guard cells.

Plants convert visible light into sugars via the process of photosynthesis, which uses CO2 as a reactant. Along with light availability and temperature, CO2 is a limiting reactant of photosynthesis which means that the quantity of this compound controls the number of reactions that can take place.

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One of my students left her salt water out over the 4 day weekend and these beautiful crystals formed.

Phlogopite and quartz

Wtf does modern interior design have against back support