On the Sunday of the Paleo 2026 symposium, we had a real treat - a workshop on placoderms and other early fishes by Dr. Melina Jobbins of the University of Manitoba! She took us through the evolutionary history of these different groups and then set us loose on a collection of lovely specimens. We got to practice identifying different features of these groups and 'seeing scientifically'.

#palaeontology #paleontology #fossils #fish #placoderm #alberta

For @draakvuur.bsky.social , Ashton on the chunky bitey blow-up #fish.

I don’t feel like the composition feels quite right and the #inflatable #dunkleosteus is a bit too fat. (This is the redesigned neon one, by the way.)

#placoderm #alligator #furryart #wip

An inflatable #dunkleosteus that's pretty big even by Melville's standards. I'm not sure how much more air the dunk can take.(This is the Mk II "happy neon" version.)

The foreshortening needs work, admittedly.

#devonian #placoderm #whale #drysuit #inflatable #pooltoy #furryart #wip #gear

Guess who found his red-cyan #3D glasses and some old photo experiments. (Photographed the feesh at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, May 2011.)

#dunkleosteus #anaglyph #placoderm #devonian #fish #cmnh #cleveland #naturalhistory

My parasitologist friend (who is on Bluesky @the-episiarch.bsky.social) told me about a parasitic flatworm that left its fossilized hooks on Lodeacanthus gaujicus and Asterolepis ornata from the Devonian of Latvia, and was described by Ieva Upeniece in 2001.

#parasitology #parasites #flatworm #fossil #palaeontology #invertebratepalaeontology #invertebrates #sciart #scientificillustration #devonian #palaeozoic #marinelife #prehistoric #placoderm