Taphonomy is the science of what happens between death and discovery.
September 28, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Taphonomy is the science of what happens between death and discovery.
December 4, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Taphonomy is so fucking cool.
November 19, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Taphonomy is so fucking cool.
CW: Dead animal
Taphonomy-core
(source: reddit.com/r/natureismetal/comments/nz6w8a/baby_heron_fell_out_of_the_nest/)
Taphonomy-core
(source: reddit.com/r/natureismetal/comments/nz6w8a/baby_heron_fell_out_of_the_nest/)
December 14, 2025 at 2:07 PM
CW: Dead animal
Taphonomy-core
(source: reddit.com/r/natureismetal/comments/nz6w8a/baby_heron_fell_out_of_the_nest/)
Taphonomy-core
(source: reddit.com/r/natureismetal/comments/nz6w8a/baby_heron_fell_out_of_the_nest/)
the taphonomy of the Aplestosuchus' specimen looks as if its head was bashed in lol:
March 11, 2025 at 8:13 PM
the taphonomy of the Aplestosuchus' specimen looks as if its head was bashed in lol:
🏺 Taphonomy of social crises
I've been collecting pandemic era signs that nobody can be bothered to take down or remove. There's something grimly fascinating about this. Putting them up was urgent and important; removing them is nobody's job. How long will some of these hang around?
November 15, 2025 at 11:25 AM
🏺 Taphonomy of social crises
Tired: Derpy taxidermy
Wired: Derpy taphonomy
Wired: Derpy taphonomy
*Receives new exhibit art of Hyopsodus*
There's no way this animal looked that stupid.
*Looks up photo of fossil*
Damn, ok.
There's no way this animal looked that stupid.
*Looks up photo of fossil*
Damn, ok.
August 15, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Tired: Derpy taxidermy
Wired: Derpy taphonomy
Wired: Derpy taphonomy
🧪🦣 Tar taphonomy! Had not heard about this phenomenon before
Pit wear, but not the kind deodorant leaves on your old tees.
Bones inside ancient asphalt seeps rub against each other over time, thanks to the gloppy nature of the tar. Isolated and jumbled bones score each other, creating what looks like bite marks but is actually damage left long after death. 🧪
Bones inside ancient asphalt seeps rub against each other over time, thanks to the gloppy nature of the tar. Isolated and jumbled bones score each other, creating what looks like bite marks but is actually damage left long after death. 🧪
May 19, 2025 at 3:48 PM
🧪🦣 Tar taphonomy! Had not heard about this phenomenon before
April 1, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Amazing taphonomy inside... But I hope they also sampled the inside surface of the door for any residues...
A few days ago, the closing slab of an untouched Etruscan tomb was removed by archaeologists in the necropolis of San Giuliano (Barbarano Romano, Lazio). The burial chamber is from the 7th century BC.
Can you imagine the emotion entering this tomb, untouched for 2600 years ?
#PaleoSky #TombTuesay🏺
Can you imagine the emotion entering this tomb, untouched for 2600 years ?
#PaleoSky #TombTuesay🏺
July 1, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Amazing taphonomy inside... But I hope they also sampled the inside surface of the door for any residues...
That's some fascinating taphonomy! Maybe we need to start preserving a selection of plastic artifacts in concrete for future archaeologists
Walking home through Norwich last night I came upon the legendary fossilised computer keyboard.
March 21, 2026 at 9:52 AM
That's some fascinating taphonomy! Maybe we need to start preserving a selection of plastic artifacts in concrete for future archaeologists
Hello #PortfolioDay!
I'm Julian, a digital illustrator from the US! My work mostly revolves around my own original, video game, and TTRPG characters. I'm always open for commissions through Ko-fi and Vgen!
⭐ taphonomy.carrd.co
☕ ko-fi.com/taphonomy
💚 vgen.co/taphonomy
I'm Julian, a digital illustrator from the US! My work mostly revolves around my own original, video game, and TTRPG characters. I'm always open for commissions through Ko-fi and Vgen!
⭐ taphonomy.carrd.co
☕ ko-fi.com/taphonomy
💚 vgen.co/taphonomy
July 8, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Hello #PortfolioDay!
I'm Julian, a digital illustrator from the US! My work mostly revolves around my own original, video game, and TTRPG characters. I'm always open for commissions through Ko-fi and Vgen!
⭐ taphonomy.carrd.co
☕ ko-fi.com/taphonomy
💚 vgen.co/taphonomy
I'm Julian, a digital illustrator from the US! My work mostly revolves around my own original, video game, and TTRPG characters. I'm always open for commissions through Ko-fi and Vgen!
⭐ taphonomy.carrd.co
☕ ko-fi.com/taphonomy
💚 vgen.co/taphonomy
There’s a concept called taphonomy, that basically says our knowledge of the past is limited by the artifacts that survive. Whole worlds were evanescent on geologic time. Blue and green pigments, complex textiles, wood tools….entire “woodhenges,” maybe.
A close look at 300,000-year-old pieces of wood shows early Neanderthals were careful planners and skilled woodworkers. “The whole idea of a Stone Age might be wrong,” says co-author Dirk Leder. “Maybe we should be talking about a Wood Age.” www.science.org/content/arti... 🏺🪵🪓
April 2, 2024 at 2:21 PM
There’s a concept called taphonomy, that basically says our knowledge of the past is limited by the artifacts that survive. Whole worlds were evanescent on geologic time. Blue and green pigments, complex textiles, wood tools….entire “woodhenges,” maybe.
Taphonomy in action. A partially-preserved Varanus choking on an Echidna. It's not uncommon to find choking or vomiting animals in the fossil record.
March 5, 2026 at 5:10 AM
Taphonomy in action. A partially-preserved Varanus choking on an Echidna. It's not uncommon to find choking or vomiting animals in the fossil record.
The first chapter of my PhD is published! If you're interested in how bones can be buried in floods, check it out in Paleobiology! (doi:10.1017/pab.2025.10087) And if you want to see the full scale experiments we ran, I did a summary video featuring a cover of When the Levee Breaks! #Taphonomy
When the Levee Breaks - Taphonomy in Action
YouTube video by Earth Encompassed
youtu.be
January 13, 2026 at 1:31 AM
The first chapter of my PhD is published! If you're interested in how bones can be buried in floods, check it out in Paleobiology! (doi:10.1017/pab.2025.10087) And if you want to see the full scale experiments we ran, I did a summary video featuring a cover of When the Levee Breaks! #Taphonomy
Now that's what I call taphonomy
A marine Cretaceous "turducken" from Queensland, Australia, where an ichthyosaur ate a pterosaur, then a giant pliosaur (Kronosaurus) ate the ichthyosaur. Extraordinary example of how gut contents can show us trophic relationships of ancient ecosystems. 🧪🪨⚒️
The remains of an orca-sized ichthyosaur include evidence of what it ate – before it too got eaten by an even bigger marine predator
July 30, 2026 at 1:12 PM
Now that's what I call taphonomy
Team Fossils because I'm legally obligated as an anthropologist. Going to add Lar and Lehua's pages this weekend!
#Artfight
artfight.net/~Taphonomy
#Artfight
artfight.net/~Taphonomy
June 28, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Team Fossils because I'm legally obligated as an anthropologist. Going to add Lar and Lehua's pages this weekend!
#Artfight
artfight.net/~Taphonomy
#Artfight
artfight.net/~Taphonomy
Next up: Apatosaurus is pretty much the poster child for gluttony, right? 🦕
Still a pretty skull, despite postmortem taphonomy.
Still a pretty skull, despite postmortem taphonomy.
September 25, 2026 at 9:43 AM
Next up: Apatosaurus is pretty much the poster child for gluttony, right? 🦕
Still a pretty skull, despite postmortem taphonomy.
Still a pretty skull, despite postmortem taphonomy.
🐘 check out our newest paper from Liang Bua!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Did H. floresiensis hunt Stegodon? 🔪 Did they also had control use of fire? 🔥 We tested these early claims of complex behavior using taphonomy, experimental archaeology, and zooarchaeology of the Stegodon assemblage.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Did H. floresiensis hunt Stegodon? 🔪 Did they also had control use of fire? 🔥 We tested these early claims of complex behavior using taphonomy, experimental archaeology, and zooarchaeology of the Stegodon assemblage.
doi.org
July 3, 2026 at 6:04 PM
🐘 check out our newest paper from Liang Bua!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Did H. floresiensis hunt Stegodon? 🔪 Did they also had control use of fire? 🔥 We tested these early claims of complex behavior using taphonomy, experimental archaeology, and zooarchaeology of the Stegodon assemblage.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Did H. floresiensis hunt Stegodon? 🔪 Did they also had control use of fire? 🔥 We tested these early claims of complex behavior using taphonomy, experimental archaeology, and zooarchaeology of the Stegodon assemblage.
🧪 #FossilFriday
Mummified baboon, Namibian cave, prob lost beyond the roosting chamber.
Re: taphonomy of Homo #Naledi, this baboon was +70m in, via small tunnels, and despite humid cave it formed in arid ledge microclimate. as did a 2nd one, in <5 yrs.
digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcont...
Mummified baboon, Namibian cave, prob lost beyond the roosting chamber.
Re: taphonomy of Homo #Naledi, this baboon was +70m in, via small tunnels, and despite humid cave it formed in arid ledge microclimate. as did a 2nd one, in <5 yrs.
digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcont...
March 20, 2026 at 9:39 AM
🧪 #FossilFriday
Mummified baboon, Namibian cave, prob lost beyond the roosting chamber.
Re: taphonomy of Homo #Naledi, this baboon was +70m in, via small tunnels, and despite humid cave it formed in arid ledge microclimate. as did a 2nd one, in <5 yrs.
digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcont...
Mummified baboon, Namibian cave, prob lost beyond the roosting chamber.
Re: taphonomy of Homo #Naledi, this baboon was +70m in, via small tunnels, and despite humid cave it formed in arid ledge microclimate. as did a 2nd one, in <5 yrs.
digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcont...
In the Eocene, this was a semi-tropical swamp with acidic bogs that rapidly preserved any fossils.
In fact, paleontologist Johannes Weigelt did work at this site in the 1920-30's that unlocked the science of 'taphonomy': how fossils form.
There are tiny horses, giant flightless birds, crocodiles.
In fact, paleontologist Johannes Weigelt did work at this site in the 1920-30's that unlocked the science of 'taphonomy': how fossils form.
There are tiny horses, giant flightless birds, crocodiles.
August 7, 2026 at 1:15 PM
In the Eocene, this was a semi-tropical swamp with acidic bogs that rapidly preserved any fossils.
In fact, paleontologist Johannes Weigelt did work at this site in the 1920-30's that unlocked the science of 'taphonomy': how fossils form.
There are tiny horses, giant flightless birds, crocodiles.
In fact, paleontologist Johannes Weigelt did work at this site in the 1920-30's that unlocked the science of 'taphonomy': how fossils form.
There are tiny horses, giant flightless birds, crocodiles.
I’m wrapping up a new dinosaur manuscript this weekend with a final chapter on taphonomy, the science of “what happens between death and discovery.” It’s gross and wonderful, the long afterlife that brings us so many beautiful bones.
November 16, 2024 at 1:16 PM
I’m wrapping up a new dinosaur manuscript this weekend with a final chapter on taphonomy, the science of “what happens between death and discovery.” It’s gross and wonderful, the long afterlife that brings us so many beautiful bones.
Some taphonomy out and about in the sun today #UrbanPalaeoecology
April 8, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Some taphonomy out and about in the sun today #UrbanPalaeoecology
PhD project opportunity here in Manchester to do some cool inter-disciplinary stuff on the taphonomy and fossil record of collagen. Ancient, recent, modern, lab-work, theoretical, data, imaging, its all there! Deadline Jan 31st
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
January 13, 2025 at 11:03 AM
PhD project opportunity here in Manchester to do some cool inter-disciplinary stuff on the taphonomy and fossil record of collagen. Ancient, recent, modern, lab-work, theoretical, data, imaging, its all there! Deadline Jan 31st
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...