Well, the octopus was popular, here is another video of a mollusk from that adventure, this time an adorable sea hare that appears to be grazing on coralline algae

Went tidepooling today. Saw the best octopus.

In case anyone wants a little break, here are a few of my favorite facts that I learned in 2025, in no particular order. Some trees benefit from, and may even encourage, getting struck by lightning because it kills their nearby competitors nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Seeking scientist volunteers for the 2026 spring semester! Want to practice science communication and help author a 🌟comic🌟 about your research? Apply by 1/25. Please share widely. bit.ly/comicscollabspring2026

LSU Museum of Natural Sciences is hiring a postdoc! Come join our very active and supportive museum community. Applicants can work with any of the major divisions: 🐀🦜🦎🐸🐠 Review begins February 15th, please share! lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LSU/job/0119...

If you are a resident of California, the state now has a portal where you can demand deletion of your personal data from 500+ registered data brokers with a single request form, for free. consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov

Very excited for this incredible lineup of talks at #SSB2026! ssb2026.github.io/talks.html For those giving talks, more instructions will be sent shortly. @systbiol.bsky.social

We have 526 scientists signed up for spring semester. We try to get that to about 1000 scientists before unleashing the teachers on the database. Wanna connect a class of kids with science this spring? Sign up!

We're editing a special issue of Ibis and are after the best in collections-based research and commentary! All the usual Ibis paper formats are welcome (reviews, viewpoints, research articles, short communications). #ornithology #museums #birds

I started getting reports of an unseasonal Joshua tree bloom in the last few weeks, and looking over records on @inaturalist.bsky.social it's pretty widespread! So we're putting out the call for folks to record this "bonus bloom" and help us study it 🌿 lab.jbyoder.org/2025/12/10/w...

Looking for an *L.A. based* artist who (against all odds) has time for a poster gig before the end of the year. It's for a science + art event. We can offer $500 for the gig. Dreadfully sorry about the timeline. Link a portfolio if you're interested, I'll delete this post when we found someone.

Thrilled to share that @corriemoreau.bsky.social and I have a new paper out in Evolution, digging into the varied ways that extreme worker plasticity impacts genome evolution in turtle ants! Paper 📃: doi.org/10.1093/evol... Image 📸: Steven Wang, tinyurl.com/2rbjbyjh

For this month’s @outsidemag.bsky.social column, I took a rat taxidermy class, and it was… surprisingly sweet? As the teacher said, “We’re reclaiming what’s beautiful and interesting about the things we’ve been told are bad or gross.” I love my rat. His name is Meatball.

Check out our review/perspective piece on phylogenetic diversification analysis, intended for the 75th anniversary of @systbiol.bsky.social. I had the privilege of working with great coauthors, @fhenaodiaz.bsky.social, @tvasconcelos.bsky.social and @roszenil.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

This is such a neat story!

Please apply to the ASN student research awards! This is such an amazing opportunity to get experience grant writing as a grad student, and the $$$ has funded some really fantastic research!!!

I know there are many worthy places to give, but if you're looking for a place to donate, @mammalogists.bsky.social is fundraising for a new award that honors Dr. Ralph Eckerlin to support students studying mammal parasites. You can donate to that fund (and others) here: asm.wildapricot.org/Donate

Looking for input on rodenticide testing . . . Colleagues are using a lab that needs 1 gram of liver sample to test, but often has specimens with less than that. Does anyone know if that amount of sample is really needed and/or have leads on labs that might be able to work with less? 🧪

The darkest fabric ever made is now a dress www.popsci.com/science/dark...

🚨🚨 WeeooWeeoo 🚨🚨 Black Friday deals at the Squid facts shop are LIVE! Here's the deal: When you buy calendars, stickers, and posters, you get the satisfaction of supporting science education FREE! Wow! What a deal! Who could pass this opportunity up? not me! That's for sure. SquidFacts.net

Please apply to join the Diversity Committee of the American Society of Naturalists! www.amnat.org/announcement...

If you'd like to celebrate the biology of viruses - or the fight against viral diseases - this winter, try out our free and updated #VirusSnowflake designs. Please share, and if you have any photos of Virus Snowflakes in your area it would be lovely to see them! cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl...

The SSB Bulletin just published a detailed monograph about Halichondria sponges written by Thomas Turner and colleagues. See more at ssbbulletin.org/article/id/5.... @systbiol.bsky.social @systassn.bsky.social @journalsysevo.bsky.social

Pavan 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭. (2024) look at mammalian diversity in the eastern Andean slopes, a biodiversity hotspot with high conservation priority, with high endemicity and new species of mammals revealed through DNA barcoding. Read the full study here: buff.ly/GLwWblD #Didelphimorphia #Peru #Rodentia #Yungas

NSF is open again! A few comments: *Please be patient. During a shutdown NSF employees cannot open computers or respond to emails. *Merit review will continue. However panels won’t resume until after Dec 8th. *POs remain excited and committed to advancing science and the scientific workforce.

Submit them to Aurorasaurus!!! They're an NSF funded project out of University of New Mexico that takes crowdsourced aurora observations for research purposes: www.aurorasaurus.org

Very happy that our new paper on the odd, looped optic nerves of chameleons is now out! It turns out having highly mobile eyes require some pretty specialized connections! doi.org/10.1038/s415...

The Undergraduate Community at Evolution program provides travel funding, mentoring, and a presentation opportunity at #Evol2026. Please share with undergrads in your lab! www.evolutionsociety.org/content/educ... @asn-amnat.bsky.social @systbiol.bsky.social @evolmtg.bsky.social

I LEARNED THE ANSWER TO THIS Chris's Steakhouse was a New Orleans landmark Chris Matulich periodically got bored, sold it, waited for the new owner to fail, and bought it back cheap The sale conditions: Can't move it, can't change the name He did this six times Then he sold it to Ruth Fertel

This year we have sold 31% of the advent calendars that we sold last year 😓 The art is so pretty and colorful 🥺 The facts are so good 🥺 Eels are so cool 🥺 Get an eel facts advent calendar at EelFacts.net

A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women 🧵

We have a big @hyperfixedpod.bsky.social episode this week featuring baker and magician Claire Saffitz. Listen wherever you listen to podcasts.

Funds available for grads and postdocs to visit @burkemuseum.bsky.social collections! Applications due Dec. 15th. Please share!

Can you #FindThatLizard and that scholarship?! I am incredibly excited to announce that the 2nd annual #FindThatLizard Scholarship is now open! You can find the application at earynmcgee.com/findthatliza...

Hi, I’m Alex goldman. I used to host a podcast called Reply All that some people liked. For the past year I have been making a show called @hyperfixedpod.bsky.social. We now have 25 episodes (50 if you count premium episodes). You might enjoy it! Listen if you liked reply all

I don't even care about baseball but for some reason I can't seem to stop watching

My exit from the other site cost me a contact and wondering if anyone can assist with a taxonomist who works on polychaetes??? 🪱🧪🔬

Proud of the latest edition of my free intro biostats book. gitrepo: github.com/ybrandvain/b... book: ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/ Not complete but at a good point to take a break, and I think its quite usable dm me with comments , ideas etc

New Collection Study Grants for students and postdocs to come visit the @burkemuseum.bsky.social! Applications due 12/15/25. www.burkemuseum.org/collections-...

Heyyyy we desperately need more archaeologists to volunteer to answer questions from students via video chat through @skypeascientist.bsky.social. We have 80 unmatched teams. We’ve already matched 650 😵‍💫 If you know any archaeologists, please send them here www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

Halloween costume ideas for birders.

It’s #TautonymTuesday! Meet 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠, the red-backed bearded saki. This Neotropical #primate inhabits Amazonian forests and is recognized for its thick beard and strong jaws adapted for cracking hard seeds. #TaxonomyTuesday #Systematics #Primates #Mammals Photo: Allan Hopkins

The other day I got to hold an ivory-billed woodpecker. It hit pretty hard - some thoughts here.

Postdoc and lab tech positions! 🧪

Western Alaska was hit hard by the recent storms. Houses floated away in Kipnuk, houses flipped over, people lost everything from the flooding that came with the storms. Please donate if you can. This group has a long history of supporting AK communities. alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...

Successful cleanout so far--half these shirts are gone! Thanks to everyone who has helped support my rebuilding efforts!

Here I am. Once again. I'm out of archaeologists. We matched 576 groups w/archaeologists, leaving 13 groups unmatched. This brings me pain! We've never run out of scientists like this before. 598 requests for one category is A LOT. But still. Archaeologists 🥺 www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

74 students and 48 mentors have signed up so far! We can accommodate more of both groups. Student sign-up link is in the first comment.

Ok, we're down to the last 10 (!) spots available to register for #SSB2026 in Baton Rouge in January. Who's in? ssb2026.github.io @systbiol.bsky.social

It’s #TautonymTuesday! Meet 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑢𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑢𝑠, the black rat. This globally distributed rodent is a classic tautonym and a key species in studies of #urbanecology, invasive biology, and zoonotic disease transmission. #TaxonomyTuesday #Systematics Photo: H. Zell