#Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

[bobnichollsart]

My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

Chomping into 2009, today I'll post a few of the 14 artworks I created for the University of Cambridge Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. First is Tyrannosaurus rex.

[dinocanid]

Attendee registration for Othercon 2023 is open!

Othercon.org is finally open again, thanks everyone for your patience! Also a reminder that this year's convention is on August 11th - 13th (it's always the second weekend in August). If you don't have an account: All you have to do is register one and you're all set for attendee registration, there's no extra steps.

If you do have an account: You don't need to make a new one every year. However, because of Discord's latest update, Discord tags/discriminators are a thing of the past. You'll have to edit your on-site account to include your Discord user ID instead.

Now onto the other relevant information.

Theme and Charities

This year's theme is: Prehistoric!

Details on our charities for this year can be found here. The list of them is as follows:

St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site (spotlight)

Archangel Ancient Tree Archive

Ice Age Trail Alliance

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

For Artists, Dealers, and Panelists

I haven't been able to go through submissions yet, so nobody has been sent any emails so far. I should be able to get to them by next week!

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

How did the building blocks of life arrive on Earth? Zinc fingerprints in meteorites offer clues

Researchers have used the chemical fingerprints of zinc contained in meteorites to determine the origin of volatile elements on Earth. The results suggest that without 'unmelted' asteroids, there may not have been enough of these compounds on Earth for life to emerge.

Volatiles are elements or compounds that change into vapor at relatively low temperatures. They include the six most common elements found in living organisms, as well as water. The zinc found in meteorites has a unique composition, which can be used to identify the sources of Earth's volatiles.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, have previously found that Earth's zinc came from different parts of our solar system: about half came from beyond Jupiter and half originated closer to Earth.

"One of the most fundamental questions on the origin of life is where the materials we need for life to evolve came from," said Dr. Rayssa Martins from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences. "If we can understand how these materials came to be on Earth, it might give us clues to how life originated here, and how it might emerge elsewhere."

Planetesimals are the main building blocks of rocky planets, such as Earth. These small bodies are formed through a process called accretion, where particles around a young star start to stick together, and form progressively larger bodies.

But not all planetesimals are made equal. The earliest planetesimals that formed in the solar system were exposed to high levels of radioactivity, which caused them to melt and lose their volatiles. But some planetesimals formed after these sources of radioactivity were mostly extinct, which helped them survive the melting process and preserved more of their volatiles.

In a study published in the journal Science Advances, Martins and her colleagues looked at the different forms of zinc that arrived on Earth from these planetesimals.

The researchers measured the zinc from a large sample of meteorites originating from different planetesimals and used this data to model how Earth got its zinc, by tracing the entire period of the Earth's accretion, which took tens of millions of years.

Their results show that while these 'melted' planetesimals contributed about 70% of Earth's overall mass, they only provided around 10% of its zinc.

According to the model, the rest of Earth's zinc came from materials that didn't melt and lose their volatile elements. Their findings suggest that unmelted, or 'primitive' materials were an essential source of volatiles for Earth.

"We know that the distance between a planet and its star is a determining a factor in establishing the necessary conditions for that planet to sustain liquid water on its surface," said Martins, the study's lead author. "But our results show that there's no guarantee that planets incorporate the right materials to have enough water and other volatiles in the first place – regardless of their physical state."

The ability to trace elements through millions or even billions of years of evolution could be a vital tool in the search for life elsewhere, such as on Mars, or on planets outside our solar system.

"Similar conditions and processes are also likely in other young planetary systems," said Martins. "The roles these different materials play in supplying volatiles is something we should keep in mind when looking for habitable planets elsewhere."

TOP IMAGE: An iron meteorite from the core of a melted planetesimal (left) and a chondrite meteorite, derived from a 'primitive', unmelted planetesimal (right). Credit: Rayssa Martins/Ross Findlay

LOWER IMAGE: An iron meteorite from the core of a melted planetesimal (left) and a chondrite meteorite, derived from a 'primitive', unmelted planetesimal (right). Credit: Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge.

[nithishag]

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is the epitome of research universities in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is among the oldest universities globally. It is ranked #2 among the Best Global Universities in Europe. Today caters to more than 18000 students from all corners of the globe. The university's motto is “Hinc lucem et pocula sacra,” which translates to - From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.  

The Cambridge University Press is the world's oldest publishing house and the second-largest university press in the world. The university is globally recognized for offering top-rated undergraduate and graduate programs and welcomes students irrespective of their background. Cambridge University has a global; reputation for innovation. 

Cambridge University is home to 8 museums that combined have more than 5 million works of art, artefacts, and specimens. The museums include - the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, the Museum of Classical Archaeology, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Kettle’s Yard, The Polar Museum, the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Whipple Museum of the History of Science, and the Museum of Zoology.

As one of the elite research universities in the world, the research carried out at Cambridge University is one of its kind. From highlighting the threat of the global sea-level rise to discovering a revolutionary DNA sequencing technology to improving the design of new houses for slum-dwellers in India, every research has a positive impact around the world. 

Cambridge University does not have a primary campus; instead, it is known for its 31 autonomous colleges scattered across the city. Apart from 31 colleges, the university has six schools - Arts & Humanities, Biological Sciences, Clinical Medicine, Humanities & Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Technology. With more than 12000 staff and faculties, 31 colleges, 150 departments, and thousands of aspiring students have contributed to making Cambridge a modern-day giant in the field of education and research!   

[jadetheobscure]

Author Interview - Mark Wells, Riddle of the White Sphinx

Author Interview – Mark Wells, Riddle of the White Sphinx

I am delighted to be able to share with you my exclusive interview with Mark Wells, author of the new children’s series Hidden Tales.

The first book in this exciting new series, Riddle of the White Sphinx, was launched on Saturday 29th June in a themed event held at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge’s historic city centre.

I caught up with Mark ahead of of the launch to discuss…

[hannahjpeg]

this week i went to a museum and it was great. one of my favourite places in cambridge

[earthstory]

Heteromorph Ammonites: When Mother Nature got Creative Ammonites are well known throughout the world and are a prized find for any level of fossil hunter. We are all well acquainted with the spiral shells (homomorphs) that can commonly be found within Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks. However, during the Cretaceous ammonites started to branch out and a series of weird and wonderful shell shapes appeared.

These shapes ranged in size and style from those that only departed slightly from the characteristic swirl to those that literally spiralled out of control. These changes occurred gradually over time with the earliest heteromorphs almost identical to the homomorphs, the only difference being the last chamber which took on a hook like geometry. This progressed almost chamber by chamber until the resemblance between heteromorph and homomorph was merely that they both had ribbed shells and lived in the ocean. There wasn’t just one style of uncoiling, many different species developed their own unique design and shape, which is thought to have helped them capitalise on ecological niches that homomorphs struggled to exploit. As you can imagine heteromorph shells were not designed to be streamlined, indicating that these ammonites were unlikely to rely on swimming as a method of catching prey. It is thought that they were either bottom dwellers or simply floated within the water column feasting off plankton as they bobbed along. If you can’t swim away quickly, then how do you avoid predatation? Judging by the geometry of these ammonite’s shells it has been proposed that the ammonites may have used their buoyancy to their advantage. By retracting within their shells they may have been able to rapidly change their centre of gravity and therefore were able to rapidly rise through the water column. While these weird creatures were lost at the K-T extinction they still induce a sense of awe and wonder today at just how creative Mother Nature can be! - Watson Reference: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/fantastic-fossils.html Further reading: https://ukfossils.co.uk/2013/06/13/an-introduction-to-ammonites/ Image Credit: Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences http://bit.ly/1JfZ1EA

[albertonykus]

Back in March, my labmate Lizzy Steell enlisted me to draw templates for an activity she'd wanted to host during the Cambridge Science Festival, which, well... didn't happen due to the global pandemic. However, the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences offered to put the activity up on their website, so here we are!

The activity is "Build a Bird", in which participants can mix and match the body parts of eight different bird species to create their own fictional bird. The templates are available for participants to print out here. Lizzy also put together some informational sheets about the bird morphotypes represented here, illustrated using photographs taken by our supervisor, Daniel Field.

For those curious, the bird species illustrated are (left to right, starting from top): common ostrich (Struthio camelus), ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus), black jacobin (Florisuga fusca), Sabine's gull (Xema sabini), African penguin (Spheniscus demersus), long-winged harrier (Circus buffoni), and pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator).

[oneawkwardcookie]

for the questions game, 12, 22, 40! <3

12. What is your favorite season? Why?

Summer, because the weather is warm and the days are long, and there's always something going on in the city. There's nothing nicer to me than walking around with some ice cream or frozen yoghurt, or chilling in the park with friends and music and picnic snacks.

22. Which do you prefer: a museum, a night club, the forest or a library?

Museum, because I love the peace and learning things, and the awesome rocks and crystals in the gift shop. I miss the Ashmolean in Oxford, and the Birmingham museum and art gallery, and natural history museum in London, and the Sedgwick museum of earth sciences in Cambridge

40. What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?

Under the cut for obvious reasons

Pedophilia, islamophobia, anti semitism, disabilities: basically, anything that mocks the underdogs, the oppressed, the voiceless, is not cool and is N O T satire

[bobnichollsart]

My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

In 2012 I created some 2D art for the University of Cambridge's Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. Here's Acanthostega, which was created with guidance from the brilliant and greatly missed Jenny Clack.

[agavex]

Ichthyosaurus fossil collected by Mary Anning. Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Cambridge. April 2019.

[b-blushes]

a few from my postcard collection ✨

some notes on where I got these ones! 

- the top left and bottom middle are from a set of Botanical Illustrations postcards by Katie Scott and Kathy Willis. Ginkgo Biloba (the branches in the top left) are my favourite tree, I’d love to have one of my own one day! 

- the top middle is from the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge

- the top right is by Megan Rhiannon included when I ordered her illustrated christmas cards last year, both this postcard and the christmas cards were beautiful! 

- the middle left is from Blausee in Switzerland, it was so magical to visit (although I was there in May so it wasn’t snowy at all!)

- the middle middle is what my living room looks like!! 

- the middle right was sent to me from Nara in Japan by a school friend, I didn’t even know he had my address and I was so!! excited!! to receive this! 

- the bottom left was sent to me by a friend, it’s so sweet and was such a surprise to receive! 

- the bottom right was from paperchase a long time ago!

i’m always on the look out for postcards to add to my collection, they’re such a lovely way to remember places or moments or people and hanging them up around my home makes it feel warm and light <3

[trix20]

The beautiful Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences 😍

🦖🦕 🦴 🪨💎🐚 🦣🕰🚢⚓️

[sciencebulletin]

First complete dinosaur skeleton ever found is ready for its closeup at last

The first complete dinosaur skeleton ever identified has finally been studied in detail and found its place in the dinosaur family tree, completing a project that began more than a century and a half ago. The skeleton of this dinosaur, called Scelidosaurus, was collected more than 160 years ago on west Dorset's Jurassic Coast. The rocks in which it was fossilised are around 193 million years old, close to the dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs. This remarkable specimen—the first complete dinosaur skeleton ever recovered—was sent to Richard Owen at the British Museum, the man who invented the word dinosaur. So, what did Owen do with this find? He published two short papers on its anatomy, but many details were left unrecorded. Owen did not reconstruct the animal as it might have appeared in life and made no attempt to understand its relationship to other known dinosaurs of the time. In short, he 're-buried' it in the literature of the time, and so it has remained ever since: known, yet obscure and misunderstood. Over the past three years, Dr. David Norman from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences has been working to finish the work which Owen started, preparing a detailed description and biological analysis of the skeleton of Scelidosaurus, the original of which is stored at the Natural History Museum in London, with other specimens at Bristol City Museum and the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. Read the full article

[alinasurnaite]

More of my sketches from Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge. The place was full of children with parents and lots of inspiration for children's book writers and illustrators. #alinasurnaite #sketch #sketchbook #museumsketch #museum #observationaldrawing #sedgwickmuseum #SCBWI #scrawlcrawl

[untreacherous]

The Sedgwick Museum is heavenly, and totally satisfying my Echinoid obsession right now. #Cambridge #museum #sedgwickmuseum #fossils #paleontology #micraster #echinoderm (why is there no emoji for these?) (at Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences)