Delighted to see our work on ammonoid diversification out today in Nat Comms, along with some stunning artwork by Callum Pursall (DM for commissions) for the press releases. We know that diversity varied around the globe, so the drivers of diversity must also have shown similar spatial variation 1/n

Here are some #ammonites we've found on recent fieldwork to the Chalk of Devon and East Sussex. This #FossilFriday check out the new paper by James Witts, Joseph Flannery Sutherland & colleagues looking at the diversity of this group throughout the Late Cretaceous Nature Communications! 🐚🦑

It's not just creatures that lived in the ocean that are preserved in the #Chalk! For #PterosaurTuesday, here's some of the small but very interesting collection of flying reptiles (not 'extinct winged lizards!') that we will re-date as part of our project.

#WhiteCliffsWednesday #NannoNuggets Time! Last week's nanno was Corollithion kennedyi. This week, we showcase another fascinating Cretaceous species! 🌟 It first appeared in the Barremian (~122 million years ago) and thrived until its extinction within the Coniacian (~85 Ma).

This week the new Natural History Museum Gardens officially opened to the public. Featuring a 'walk through geological time'! Come and relax on a #Chalk bench (Ulster White Limestone Fm.), learn about #nannofossils and the chalk seas, and ponder the unusual Paramoudra #flints. 🤔

🚨Our publication on the famous fish beds of Lebanon is now out!!🚨 We provide the first comprehensive review of the 4 best sites of exceptional preservation of marine Cretaceous fossils in Lebanon, their fossil species, and their >1600 year long history of discovery 1/17🧵

😎 Beautiful day for some #fieldwork looking at the Cenomanian-Turonian #Chalk sections between Folkestone and Dover!

Apparently today is Yorkshire Day. As a Yorkshireman, I give you this SEM image of Podichnus from the Early Cretaceous Speeton Clay of Speeton in North Yorkshire. This trace fossil on a belemnite guard was made by the pedicle of an attached brachiopod.

Last week we said farewell to ChaSE Curator Kim Chandler 🐿 who has done an amazing job providing curatorial support for our project! Wishing Kim good luck in her new job looking after collections Dublin's Dead Zoo (probably with 99% less time getting covered in chalk dust.. 😉).

#MolluscMonday - a slice of Cenomanian #Chalk seafloor Natural History Museum feat. the belemnite Peaeactinocamax primus. These are fossilised internal skeletons of cephalopods related to modern 🐙. This species is rare in the UK, probably because it preferred cooler water temperatures.

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#TeredoTuesday - these weird looking fossils are the calcified borings of wood-eating 'shipworms', actually bivalve molluscs which once colonised #Cretaceous driftwood. Wood itself is only rarely preserved in the #chalk (see the second pic for a lucky piece of flint!).

#FossilFriday this week features beautiful specimens of the lobsters Palaeastacus sussexiensis and Glyphea willetti from the #Chalk, now in Natural History Museum collections looked after by Richie Howard

Check out chalksea.co.uk for Q&A's with Chloe and Alex, Masters students who have worked with our project this year. In those posts they tell us a bit about themselves, their research, and surprising things they've learnt about #Chalk!

#MaastrichtianMonday James Witts and Prof. Andy Gale from ChaSE are in Maastricht 🇳🇱, presenting a poster at a meeting celebrating 175 years since Andrè Dumont first described the original type section for this stage of the #Cretaceous!

Great turnout at yesterday’s #Cretaceous #Nannofossil structure and taxonomy workshop co-led by Paul Bown from #ChaSE at the #InternationalNannoplanktonAssociation meeting in Llandudno, North Wales! #INA19

#FossilFriday Sponge on a stick. Toulminia bullatus from the Cretaceous Chalk of southern England.

#FossilFriday From the Cenomanian of Beer Head in Devon, this Cretaceous fossil was originally described as Ceriopora ramulosa, a bryozoan genus, but is now attributed to the sponge genus Acanthochaetetes.