Dane Pavitt 🦕🌍

@danepavitt.bsky.social

1352 Followers 1345 Following

Natural Sciences student, researcher & educator at The Open University & Potteries Museum Palaeontologist 🦕 Natural Historian 🦈 Museum worker 🏛 Science Communicator 🥼 Conservation & climate 🌍 Metal guitarist 🤘(He/him) Often speak in GIFs

An illustration of a Baryonyx (a long-snouted carnivorous dinosaur) on blue paper. Coloured markers sit across the paper to the right, while a replica Baryonyx claw borders the illustration to the left. The text title reads 'Beginner's Palaeoart Workshop'.
A red and white scientific conference poster titled "Illustrating environmental change in the Pisco Basin with fossil occurence data."
M. anhuiensis – Anhui musk deer M. berezovskii – Dwarf musk deer M. chrysogaster – Alpine musk deer M. cupreus – Kashmir musk deer M. fuscus – Black musk deer M. leucogaster – White-bellied musk deer
On July 24, 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported that a letter from Myhrvold containing wildlife photos from a recent trip to Africa was included in a leather-bound birthday book given to Epstein in 2003, three years before criminal charges were first filed against Epstein. The photographs included "a monkey screaming, lions and zebras mating, and a zebra with its penis visible." The letter commented that the photos "seemed more appropriate than anything I could put in words."
Hi [-] I have some concerns I want to run by you regarding my participation in the [-] project. The current climate surrounding Jack Horner and other's associations with Jeffrey Epstein and SVP's statement addressing it have left a lot of people feeling uncomfortable with the society's position, especially given past reports of Horner's behaviour. I was hoping that given your position on [-] you'd be able to offer some reassurance that action is being taken to protect members of the palaeontology community from such behaviour, and that individuals with power and status not be allowed to exploit their positions. I wouldn't neccesarily be so perturbed had you not stated that the project itself is explicitly associated with the society. The broader palaeo community has not taken SVP's statement well, myself included if I'm entirely honest, and I fear that if I were to be associated at this uneasy time I'd be sacrificing integrity for personal gain. As tantalising and valuable as an author credit is, I can't allow myself to be unconcerned or dismissive of these matters. Hopefully you can alleviate some of my worries and things can move forward productively. Regards Dane
CONFIRMED African Sabretooth (Megantereon?) Cave Fossa (Cryptoprocta) Columbian Mammoth Diprotodon Dire Wolf Doedicurus Dwarf Elephant (Stegodon) Elasmotherium Elephant Bird Eremotherium Giant Elk Giant Otter (Enhydriodon?) Gigantopithecus Glyptotherium Homotherium (Two species?) Hydrodamalis Leptoptilos Macrauchenia Megalania Megantereon Moa Mountain Sloth (Diabolotherium?) Procoptodon Psilopterus (Terror Bird) Smilodon Short-Faced Bear (Arctotherium) Snow Sloth (Megalonyx) Thylacoleo Woolly Mammoth Woolly Rhinoceros
The Sabre-toothed cat Smilodon as depicted in Prehistoric Planet Ice Age
The scimitar-toothed cat homotherium walking through the snow, as depicted in Prehistoric Planet Ice Age
A white-furred giant sloth sits in deep snow with its baby clinging to its back. They are surrounded by a dense pine forest.
A list of animals predicted to appear in Prehistoric Planet Ice Age CONFIRMED Cave Bear Dwarf Elephant (Stegodon?) Elephant Bird Giant Otter (Enhydriodon?) Glyptotherium Homotherium Mountain Sloth (Nothrotheriops?) Smilodon Snow Sloth (Megalonyx?) Thylacoleo Woolly Mammoth Woolly Rhinoceros LIKELY Aurochs Cave lion Diprotodon Dire Wolf Giant elk Gigantopithecus Megalania Megatherium Moa Procoptodon Steppe / Ancient bison Titanis Toxodon POSSIBLE Castoroides Deinotherium Dodo Elasmotherium Great Auk Harpagornis Hydrodamalis Macrauchenia Mastodon Megantereon Palaeoloxodon (Namadicus / Antiquus?) Thylacine WILD CARDS Archaeoindris Cuvieronius Hesperotherium Josephoartigasia Lestodon Megalocnus Meiolania Notiomastodon Ornimegalonyx Pachycrocuta Palorchestes Panthera fossilis Patagonian Panther Pelagornis Pelorovis Postschizotherium Sivatherium Teratornis Voay
A taxidermy monkey in a glass display case holding an orange
A link to a news article from the Oxford Mail. The headline reads 'Dangerous animals living in Oxfordshire including world's most venomous snake'. The link is accompanied by a photograph of a cobra
A diagram showing the distances of galaxies from Earth in lightyears, & corresponding events in Earth's history. A series of concentric circles spread out around a central point, along a time scale with markers of 100 million light years
The Crown pub in Birmingham city centre. Large black & white photos of Black Sabbath in their youth occupy the windows.
A white, woolly mammoth shaped art installation in a museum exhibition hall. The bones of the mammoth's leg bones are visible inside the legs of the art piece, & the side of the mammoth's torso is decorated with information plates & interactive displays.
A block of yellow stone on a black sand beach. Blocks of what appear to be bone are embedded in the rock; two long lines & three lumps in parallel rows. A geological hammer is placed upon the rock for scale.
An ammonite fossil visible in the polished stone floor of a shopping centre
A thick bodied snake sits coiled in a box. The snake has a complex, colourful pattern of red, yellow, black & blue scales
A scene from Disney's Brother Bear. Three bears sit on a frozen lake. The Bear on the left is of average size. The Bear in the middle is a small cub. The Bear on the right is exceptionally large & robust
Two sabretoothed cats with thick, white fur nuzzle in a cold, snowy landscape with a low-hanging sun lighting them from the right.
Three men in formal attire in a courtyard. One has one arm folded across his chest & the other out in front with his hand expressively opened.
A screenshot of Ben Lamm's twitter feed reading. "There are sometimes crazy, weird conspiracy theories about Colossal which make us laugh - But the dumbest headline of all time goes to this article whose author doesn't even know moas couldn't fly. If the moas fly, we really fucked up, LOL. I wish people did more research" followed by twelve cry-laugh emojis
A fossilised amphibian tooth in a block of sandstone
A screengrab from marketing material of Jurassic World: Rebirth, describing Titanosaurus. The text reads: Largest known sauropod of all time. Height: 51ft/15m. Length: 68ft/21m. Weight: 29,000lbs/13,154kg
Laszlo & Nandor from What We Do In The Shadows
Dane Pavitt's science CV, providing information on skills, expertise & history of employment, volunteering & vocational activities including as a museum educator & collections worker, practical science work both in the field & with data collection, & prolific work as a science communicator & event organiser.
An AI generated image of sloths of various sizes.
A Garden with a thick, overgrown lawn full of yellow flowers & diverse undergrowth foliage
A man wearing headphones looking angrily towards the camera. He has several Atlases on a shelf & is wearing a Marvel superhero t-shirt
A photo from a science event in a pub. A man wearing a dinosaur themed shirt stands with a microphone in front of a projector screen. The room is warmly lit with fairy lights.
A large, green, card cutout of a giant predatory fish.
A hillside in a park. A large patch of burnt, ashy ground is visible in the center of the image. Dehydrated bushes of yellow gorse sit nearby
A row of tables in a museum showcasing a range of real & replica fossils, including ammonites, crinoids, a sabretoothed cat, a diplodocus & an early human skull
A child wearing a pink sunhat walks through a forest
A sunny, inner city park. The sky is clear & the grass is bright green.
A small fossil fish in a block of black mudstone. The fish's body is curled up, & its scales shine in the light
A fuzzy, orange bee feeds on nectar from a bright yellow gorse flower