jvaldz

thagomizers:

Titanoides primaevus (“titan like”)
Chordata/Mammalia/Cimolesta/Pantodonta/Titanoideidae

• Paleocene (60 Ma)
• 9 ft in length and 330 lb

Described in 1917
Location : North America (North Dakota)
Diet : Herbivore

staceythinx:

Insects organized neatly by Christopher Marley.

Marley on his work:

My chief objective in working with obscure organisms is to foster a deep appreciation for the masterful design found everywhere in the natural world.

This passion began for me with insects. Though an avid naturalist from my youth, for most of my life, insects were to be all that was wrong with nature. I could not find beauty or appreciation in them - only abhorrence. However, once I look at them from the perspective of a designer, I was immediately affected by how cleanly and precisely they fit my own artistic standards of purpose and sleek utilization. Delving a bit deeper into the insect world, I was shocked to discover how much latent elegance and lustrous beauty I had been unable to see before. As my intense emotions regarding insects switched polarity. a driving passion was born to share my newfound perspective. In order to bring others to others to this alternate view, I needed to take these enigmatic creatures as far as possible out of their natural context, where I had studiously avoided them for so many years.

I undertake this by prepping the insects in the most cleanly symmetrical forms possible and displaying them in a perfectly antiseptic, inorganic presentation: effectively diminishing the fear of reprisal that large bugs tend to inspire. In some cases, little else is required to form an appreciable tribute to these architectural marvels. For this reason, at times, I consider myself more of a designer than an artist. So much of nature’s story is yet unheard. I hope to help it ring more clearly.

staceythinx:

Today’s dose of wonder and awe comes from photographer John Colbensen 

blamoscience:

If you approached the rim of a volcano and looked down into it, you might expect to see a lava pool, but if the volcano previously erupted and then the top of it collapsed into a huge bowl-shaped crater, or caldera, then what you might see when you peer over the rim is a beautiful crater lake. Sometimes the water is acidic and the lake has a bright greenish hue. Other times the water is a cloudy turquoise color, yet other times the lake may appear to be a very deep shade of blue. Crater Lake, Oregon, is one of the most well known, but crater lakes can be found all over the globe. If the volcano has been dormant for a long time, the water can be extremely clear because no river or streams flow into with sediment deposits. In some cases, water may have filled up an impact crater to form a lake, but this is less common. A few crater lakes were created by man via an atomic blast, but an artificially-created crater lake is the least common of all. All crater lakes were once a place where the earth experienced great violence, but now are a place of great beauty … even though the volcano can become active and violent again.

See the full gallery here!

(via geologyrocks)

bubbybobble:

feruchemist:

momoneymoboolits:

paranoidandroid42:

katrka:

Bismuth is the prettiest element, guys.

Three cheers for bismuth

I have a piece of this on my desk at home. My entire family made fun of me for buying bismuth instead of some other precious stone, but it’s a gorgeous element and I don’t regret a thing.

GOD GET IN MY POSSESSION

FUCK YEAH, BISMUTH! I need to get myself a good sized chunk of this stuff.

(via beautiful-minerals)

mineralogy-porn:

Follower request for Carnelian
Calcedony var. Carnelian
For: willowmoon92

Sources: http://www.mindat.org, http://www.ebay.com,