Weee my story just got featured/boosted on Medium ! Another good reason to ask yourself how you'd find your way home if you had no eyes AND no brain 🐚🌊🦑🧪

I mean

Your old-fashioned Christian morality lead you to believe that the naked mole-rat would be less ridiculous if it weren’t naked? You're wrong on so many levels.

You didn't know it yet, but all you needed today was this topographical map of a limpet (Lottia gigantea) shell.

I hate to be that guy but this mantis shrimp video is definitely AI. Did y’all forgot what decapod means ?

The « limpet nerd » nerding about limpets 👇 🔗 medium.com/@jf.cudennec...

I just read in a 1986 book that Neandertals were far more sophisticated than their brutish reputation suggested. That was 40 years ago. And yet, in 2026, we're still writing the same "actually, Neandertals weren't stupid" articles. At some point you have to ask: who exactly are we correcting ?

I'm building a new home for my writing on Substack. As part of the process, I'm revisiting some older pieces: here's a revised version of my article on Jōmon archaeology in Zelda, originally published in the @jgeekstudies.bsky.social 👇

You may know the « dishwasher salmon », but are you aware of the French « Gigot bitume » (asphalt leg lamb) ? The meat is wrapped in kraft paper and bathed in hot asphalt. Traditionally cooked to celebrate the completion of the structural portion of construction projects or public works.

⚒️ Did you know granite votes right and limestone votes left? I unpack the story behind this old idea in my (first) Substack post. Read it here 👇 substack.com/home/post/p-...

May I draw your attention to this unbearable deficiency in our knowledge about flying squirrels ?

These things are *way* bigger than you think they are. You know how in science fiction they talk about kilometer or mile long space ships as shockingly big? These are about a third to half that size. Floating islands powering environmental crisis after environmental crisis.

1/ On this day, 48 years ago. March 16, 1978: the supertanker Amoco Cadiz, loaded with 223,000 tonnes of crude, runs aground off Portsall, Brittany. It will become the largest tanker oil spill the world has ever seen.

Symbiotic relationship, a definition : - For the zoanthid coral : acquire mobility, can feed on different areas - For the hermit crab : a cool hat

Reposting for #MolluskMonday, and for the relevant feeds 🦑🧪🌊🌿🌍

Happy with the publication of this paper in which we demonstrate dietary responses to dry climate in extinct Gomphotherium based on the chemistry of their teeth. A very nice collaboration with Spanish and Portuguese colleagues, with more opportunities in the future! bg.copernicus.org/articles/23/...

It is surprisingly simple : just wait 42 857 years

1/ Homing is a widespread animal behaviour and uses lots of different mechanisms : magnetoreception for migrating birds, time-compensated sun compass for monarch butterfly... But one animal's homing ability remains unexplained after 60+ years of research: the limpet.

Spring migration hitting hard. Sanderlings everywhere. Can’t work.

Quick new paper out on the seasonal use of the Haua Fteah Cave during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. 🏺 Lot of shells with high-res relative temperature records. 140 of them! @rosaarnizmateos.bsky.social @leizarchaeology.bsky.social @maacambridge.bsky.social seafront-project.com/publication/...

And one more for the #MolluscMonday !

It's #MolluscMonday my dude

Are there any science nerds out who could weigh in on the viability of something that's been jostling around my head for a while? Here goes. I suspect there are more dinosaurs (by population) alive now than there were during the Mesozoic. I'm basing this on two factors: #paleosky #dinosaurs

Being easily accessible and providing a high meat yield (compared to other molluscs), the limpets were regularly eaten by prehistoric coastal populations. But they were also used for other purposes : ornaments, and even as a tool to paint the Altamira cave with ochre 🧡 #PaleoSky 🏺🧪🦑⚒️

Made it to Friday but at what cost

🧵A scientific cold case for #FossilFriday For decades, mysterious holes in fossil ammonite shells were attributed to mosasaur bites. But what if the real culprit was even more terrifying... Let me tell you about one of these little debates that makes palaeontology so cool👇

Can you imagine the genuine excitement I felt when I learned about the existence of a started pack dedicated to Mollusc enthusiasts ? A great feature used in the most appropriate way here. I found my people 💙 🌊🦑🌍🌿🧪 go.bsky.app/Eh4qpKr

“Look aloft!” cried Starbuck. “The St. Elmo’s Lights !” All the yard-arms were tipped with a pallid fire; and [...] each of the three tall masts was silently burning in that sulphurous air, like three gigantic wax tapers before an altar. H. Melville, Moby Dick

For 23 million years, temperate Europe was dominated by a mosaic of woodland-grassland biomes, shaped by large herbivores. Until human started eradicating the megafauna and closed-canopy forests took over. Paintings by Márton Zsoldos #PaleoSky 🧪 ⚒️ 🌍 🌿

Adding to #MolluskMonday and limpet discourse with ... wait a second. That's a keyhole limpet, Fissurella. They're not true limpets (Patellogastropods)! 🧪🐚 Ah, yes, convergent evolution strikes again. Only this time, it remembered to add an exhaust pipe!

Fellow evolution-heads, another chance to learn about convergence! (I devote as much of my pop sci journalism as possible to aspects of this wonderful theme in evolution. Incl this beautifully-menacingly illustrated story. www.salon.com/2024/10/14/i...)

1/ One more extraordinary deed from the humble limpets: They are keystone species, and their presence shapes entire intertidal ecosystems in a fascinating cycle of grazing, competition & physical disturbance. Let's see how! ⬇️

During bursts of international chaos, I’d spend entire weekends monitoring the situation. This time, I spent my Sunday tidepooling. Huge win. 🌍🌊🦑

New handle 😊 #EuroSky

This one is definately fitting for #FossilFriday

What the so called « free thinkers » see VS what the authors actually say #PaleoSky 🏺

when the sex is visible from space (herring spawn off the North Coast Trail, Google Earth image from March 2024)

Spilling out some limpet facts until people know about limpetization, ep. 01 : Limpet teeth are the strongest biological material ever tested. Nanofibers embedded in a protein matrix, they outperform Kevlar, spider silk, and even rivaling the best synthetic carbon fibers.

Hours in the cold, barely moving, watching the river. Then a flash of blue and everything makes sense. #Photography #Bird #Wildlife

At the tip of this arrow, there is a 290 million years old impression of a cloaca from a fossilised reptile of the Goldlauter Formation in Germany. It’s the oldest known butthole. #PaleoSky ⚒️

1/ Everyone keep talking about carcinisation. Nature keeps evolving crabs. It's even a meme now. Five ≠ origins of the crab body plan in decapod crustaceans. Truly impressive. But what if I told you that in term of convergent evolution, crabs are amateurs ? 🧪 🦑 🌊 🌍

Y'all meming about carcinisation for years now. Five independent origins lol Let me cook a thread about the real boss of convergent evolution.

Where are all the cool posts about Spinosaurus mirabilis ? This is truly a stress test for Bluesky algo.

A new Spinosaurus species uncovered in northern Niger appears to have been a wading predator of fish like its close relatives, but it lived as many as 1000 kilometers inland from the Tethys Sea. Learn more this week in Science: https://scim.ag/4arYPUI

Cornelius the cone snail wishes you a happy #MolluskMonday and apologizes for the delay #MarineLife

Outrunning the Atlantic #Photography #Wildlife #Canon

We are proud to unveil the world’s longest underwater timelapse, starting May 1st 2023 and running 1,000 days through January 28, 2026. This 10fps period covers summer 2023’s coral bleaching mortality event, but then recovering and growing through ‘24 & ‘25 into ‘26 #coralcitycamera

"do not eat the forbidden gummy bear lollll" Someone actually 3D-scanned the Neolithic amber bear, printed molds, and created edible cola-flavored gummy bears based on them. Who's going to stop me from eating the forbidden gummy bear now ?? 🐻

Job alert! 3 year post doc in my research group at University College London working on Roman Leather via biomolecular archaeology. #ZooMS #stableisotopes www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQJ187/r...