Fossilized Crinoid stems and segments in a dark sedimentary stone. Looking like the scattered pieces of some long forgotten machine.
County Clare, Ireland.

Cormacscoast.com walking tours

'The #EU is spending more money on #Russian #fossil #fuels than on financial aid to #Ukraine, a report marking the third #anniversary of the #invasion has found.'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/24/eu-spends-more-russian-oil-gas-than-financial-aid-ukraine-report

Jurassic #fossil rewrites history of bird evolution https://www.reuters.com/science/jurassic-fossil-china-rewrites-history-bird-evolution-2025-02-12/

Earliest short-tailed bird from the Late #Jurassic of China https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08410-z

"The newly identified bird, called #Baminornis zhenghensis, joins the similarly aged #Archaeopteryx as the oldest-known #birds. But Baminornis, about 15 cm long, was far more advanced anatomically and a better flier than crow-sized Archaeopteryx, a creature seemingly half #bird and half reptile."

This week for #Fossilfriday we have another #Guess that #Lego #Fossil.

This one I would rate as easy. This large theropod is known from North America.

Reminder: hide your answer behind a content warning. This will allow others to guess without a hint. I will post the answer tomorrow (and to anyone who guesses correctly).

This was designed by Ambrosino

Cretaceous #fossil from #Antarctica reveals earliest modern bird
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-cretaceous-fossil-antarctica-reveals-earliest.html

#Cretaceous Antarctic bird skull elucidates early avian ecological diversity https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08390-0

"Few #birds are as likely to start as many arguments among #paleontologists as #Vegavis. This new fossil is going to help resolve a lot of those arguments. Chief among them: where is Vegavis perched in the bird tree of life?"

Happy #FossilFriday everyone. For your viewing pleasure here is, what I think is, a Proceratopyge canadensis, a trilobite I found from the McKay group Cambrian deposits. That means this little critter was likely alive around 490 million years ago

I can't NOT post this to sauropds.win: New #paleoart for #FossilFriday: BRONTOSMASH! II: the BRONTOSMASHENING. High-resolution version just posted to #patreon along with lots of discussion about the apatosaur neck combat hypothesis: https://www.patreon.com/posts/120678428

HT to @mike, because I believe he likes this sort of thing.

#Fossil Discovery Rewrites Global #Dinosaur History https://www.sciencealert.com/fossil-discovery-rewrites-global-dinosaur-history paper: https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/203/1/zlae153/7942678

"Ahvaytum bahndooiveche is now the oldest-known dinosaur from #Laurasia, the Northern Hemisphere land mass of the late Paleozoic supercontinent #Pangea... That age places it in a similar time period to #dinosaurs of Pangea's Southern Hemisphere land mass, #Gondwana, which were thought to be the world's first by a long shot."

Discovery of rare new #fossil sheds light on #NewZealand's extinct dolphin-like reptiles https://phys.org/news/2025-01-discovery-rare-fossil-zealand-extinct.html

A platypterygiid #ichthyosaur from the #Cenomanian of central New Zealand https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2024.2408391

"This #discovery is particularly exciting because the specimen is about 98 million years old. This is about four million years before the final #extinction of #ichthyosaurs, which makes it one of the youngest semi-complete ichthyosaur skeletons known."

Top #fossil discoveries of 2024 https://paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2024/12/31/top-fossil-discoveries-of-2024/ by @Ferwen

"On the bicentenary of #MaryAnning’s #Plesiosaurus and the introduction of #Megalosaurus, the first scientific report of a #dinosaur, #Paleontology stood out and offered some extraordinary highlights about life in the past."

#green #capitalism? #fossil fuels? what about the beauty unspoiled #wildlife?

Travels and Tales of Discovery in Minnesota's County Museums: Lost Bones #2 (Not Worth Losing an Ear)

https://open.substack.com/pub/marcusbrandel/p/lost-bones-2-not-worth-losing-an

Dozens of massive #data #centers humming at the outskirts of Dublin are consuming more electricity than all of the urban homes in Ireland -- and starting to wear out the warm welcome that brought them here.

Now, a country that made itself a computing factory for Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok
is wondering whether it was all worth it
as tech giants look around the world to build even more data centers to fuel the next wave of artificial intelligence.

Fears of rolling blackouts led Ireland’s grid operator to halt new data centers near Dublin until 2028.

These huge buildings and their powerful computers last year consumed 21% of the nation’s electricity, according to official records.

No other country has reported a higher burden to the International Energy Agency.

Not only that, but Ireland is still heavily reliant on burning #fossil #fuels to generate electricity,
despite a growing number of wind farms sprouting across the countryside.

Further data center expansion threatens Ireland’s goals to sharply cut planet-warming emissions.

Ireland is a “microcosm of what many countries could be facing over the next decade,
particularly with the growth of AI,”
said energy researcher Paul Deane of University College Cork.
https://apnews.com/article/ai-data-centers-ireland-6c0d63cbda3df740cd9bf2829ad62058

"The life cycle emission intensity of solar solar photovoltaics is approximately 40 gC02/kWh."
- Zero CO2 emissions in the energy sector is therefore not currently possible in practice if we consider it globally and not just locally.
- If the EU were to buy these panels from #China then the emissions associated with the production and recycling of the panels would be shifted abroad and the EU would be seemingly "emission free" (but its territory is not under a glass lid).
- Although solar energy is significantly less carbon-intensive than coal or gas, it still produces carbon emissions.
- the key question is what the EU will pay for those imported solar panels with if, in time, the #BRIX countries reject the devaluing euro (devaluing for the very reason that the EU's economic problems are solved by issuing a new Euro, thus reducing its purchasing power)
- or will the EU manufacture the panels on its own territory? But from what, and how will it do it with zero emissions?
https://kubyenergy.ca/blog/the-positive-and-negative-environmental-impacts-of-solar-panels
#energy
#fossil
#solar
#economics
#enviromentalism
#ecology
#co2
#emission
#economy
#EU
#photovoltaics
#solarpunk

Wow. Klassevortrag von @thomasfricke ! Wenn ich da mal nachrechne komme ich auf diese Aussage: "Eine #KI mit gleich großer Rechenleistung (soweit möglich) verbraucht heute 1,6 Millionen mal soviel Energie wie das menschliche Gehirn."
Wer da auch Kühlung, Netzwerk, Clients, Hardwarebau und Rohstoffe einberechnen landet schnell im Milliardenbereich. Cui Bono? Big #fossil and #nuclear corporations.

#feilnerism #AI #KI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC4O92Lw7N8

This week for #Fossilfriday we have another #Guess that #Lego #Fossil.

This one I would rate as medium. This very large famous theropod is from South America.

Reminder: hide your answer behind a content warning. This will allow others to guess without a hint. I will post the answer tomorrow (and to anyone who guesses correctly).

This is designed by S7evinDE

Using fossilized feces and vomit samples from Poland, scientists have reconstructed how dinosaurs came to dominate the Earth millions of years ago, AP news reports:
https://apnews.com/article/dinosaur-poop-fecal-matter-poland-af3f94e214caab3de055e8312627132a