#PossumArchaeology 🏺

Somehow, somehow the knowledge of where to go and when to leave is encoded in the genes of the green darner dragonfly. I found this one, a male judging from his neon blue abdomen, sitting on the concrete outside a store in a strip mall in Atlanta. He likely hatched in a pond in Quebec or NY 🧵...

Oh. That doesn’t seem right

Coos in the mist 🐄 Sunday sunrise in Birsay, #Orkney

Lizards are famous for their ability to detach their tails under stress. But how do they manage to drop them so quickly, and why do they never seem to accidentally lose their tails if they come off so easily? 1/8 🧪⚛️

#SciArtSeptember 13 - Bottleneck We almost lost the last wild horses. At the end of the 1950s, there were only 12 Przewalski's horses left. After decades of conservation efforts, there are now a couple thousand horses living in zoos and conservation areas in several countries, from Spain to China.

Happy world dolphin day! Most of us probably can't see a dolphin today but you can celebrate by checking out our dolphin episode: Below the surface with @stephanielking.bsky.social Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/69Gt... Other links in bio. #dolphin #WorldDolphinDay

New paper on precise tool use learning in carrion crows @currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that—like New Caledonian crows—expert carrion crows pay close attention to the working end of their tool, suggesting tool integration into their peripersonal space. 🧵 & vids! 👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

News from Mars reminds us that all life on Earth is basically an offshoot of rocks and water. Some of the rock water got alive, most didn’t

Quokkas are soooo adorable! 🤩 #quokka #drawing #australia #animalart

Hey biologists and ecologists! I'm a science journalist looking for recently-published and/or soon-to-be-published studies to cover! If you've got one, please send it my way!

Today is #ThreatenedSpeciesDay, which marks the anniversary of the death of the last #thylacine in Hobart zoo in 1936. Their part in the record of Australian culture is long: there are examples of rock art that depict the marsupial.

#SciArtSeptember 5 - Corridor Highways are like stripes of death criscrossing the world. Though useful to humans, they damage ecosystems directly by killing wildlife and in various indirect ways, including fragmenting habitats into pieces. Wildlife crossings are one way to mitigate that damage.

Amazing that, as @royalsociety.org reminds us, Voyager 1 was entirely ‘man-made’. Apparently not a single woman involved at NASA or the JPL. The current project manager, Suzy Dodd (who also designed the Voyager 2 Neptune flyby in 1989) must be such an outlier 🧪🔭 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne...

Half the paintings in this image are by amateur human artists, and half by chimpanzees. Can you tell which ape made which? And why you think so? Intriguing new study led by Larissa Mendoza Straffon on intentionality in art 🧪🏺🎨 [see reply below for answers] onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Paid my respects today to the Stone of Setter, inhabitant of Eday in Orkney’s northern isles for the last 4000 years or so. At 4.5 metres tall, over 2m wide, it’s a gentle giant 🏺🧪 #StandingStoneSunday 📷 31 August 2025

I was super excited to receive this award! Thank you so much!

Our article "Impediments to countering racist pseudoscience" (with @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social, @kztwyman.bsky.social & Marc Feldman) is now published online. We describe five factors that contribute to the spread of racism and suggest strategies for countering them. doi.org/10.1017/ehs....

It’s Krakatoa Day, when the gigantic volcanic eruption of 27 August, 1883 created the loudest sound in human history (probably). For more see Simon Winchester’s book Krakatoa. And for an eclectic look at the world of sounds you should read A Book of Noises by @casparhenderson.bsky.social 👂🎧🌋🔈🧪

New study led by Joanna Baker shows bigger brains and relatively longer thumbs coevolved in primates. Humans have huge thumbs, but only what our brain size (esp. neocortex) would predict. It’s NOT driven by tool use. A fantastic paper with a huge amount of work, and superb data presentation 🧪🏺👍🧠💀🐒🦧

Jim generously took the time to talk with me and Nat Uomini while we were working on our sea otter archaeology study. He was encouraging and enthusiastic, full of curiosity, and he did brilliant work. Sad news 🦦🧪🏺

The last known inscription made in #Egyptian hieroglyphs was carved #OnThisDay in AD 394 🏺 #Archaeology The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom depicts the god Mandulis, accompanied with a text hoping the inscription will last forever. It seems the engraver got their wish 1/2 📷Olaf Tausch / CC BY-SA 3.0

The #kakapo population has dropped to 238. Adult female Lisa was found dead on Anchor Island recently, and two of the 2019 cohort, Tūmanako and Whakakini, have not been since since then and so have been removed from the official count. #conservation #parrots #birds

Six years ago - the stone guardians of London’s Natural History Museum. Seen from the members lounge/Anning Rooms 🧪🏺🦕🌱💎🐋🌏 @nhm-london.bsky.social

For anyone wondering why their humans keep getting away 🧪

What if there was a job where you were paid £33,714 a year to play with Lego and work in an internationally renowned museum, with the aim of inciting curiosity and wonder about the natural world? Applications close end of August. @nhm-london.bsky.social 🧪🧸🏺

We will soon advertise these two post-doc positions (multispecies archaeology + primatology): zoogestures.uni-koeln.de/opportunities

Gang-gang Cockatoos are so beautiful with their red heads, wispy little crests, & the tiniest tinge of green on their feathers! #birdart #drawing #wildlife #australia #wildoz

This is what non-human #tool use looks like. The crab has special fifth pereopods (back legs) that sit above its body and hold the covering shell. You can see one of those legs trying to get a grip towards the end of the film. It is just as adapted to tool use as we are with our weird thumbs 🦀🧪🛠️

This is what non-human #tool use looks like. The crab has special fifth pereopods (back legs) that sit above its body and hold the covering shell. You can see one of those legs trying to get a grip towards the end of the film. It is just as adapted to tool use as we are with our weird thumbs 🦀🧪🛠️

To be heard over roaring rivers, white-throated dippers swap from song to flashing their bright eyelids. New research reveals one of the clearest examples yet of animals switching between senses to communicate – showing how noisy environments can shape evolution: www.bi.mpg.de/news/2025-08...

Wrote this out today: Fossil teeth reveal a previously unknown human ancestor from eastern Africa | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Real sharks sound suspiciously like this… 🧪🦈

Our paper on 🌱🦧ANIMAL MEDICINE🐜🍄 has been accepted for publication in Philosophy of Science! You can find the accepted version here, open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Maybe you've heard that some animals use "medicine". But did you know some chimps seek out special plants, chew them up, and apply them to their open wounds? Mind-blowing new science I got to take a deep dive on for @cenmag.bsky.social 🧪🦊🌿 cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

There’s always one…

Always a pleasure to see hominin graffiti. Tbilisi, Georgia.

Stop poking it then

🐚

Flashback to all of humanity waiting for the #90s to get on the internet

Monkey Mia 🫶

Seven stone flakes dated ca. 1.5-1 million years ago from the Calio site in Sulawesi, just reported in @nature.com. Most likely made by an erectus/floresiensis type hominin, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that an orangutan ancestor made these 🧪🏺🦧🪨 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

ICYMI : #ASABWinter2025 will take place from December 15-16, once again in lovely Edinburgh! Registration is now open 🎉 Abstract submission deadline for posters and talks is August 29 🏃‍♀️🏃🏃‍♂️ More information here: asabwinter.github.io/2025/

Throwback #illustrations (while I make new art) #ProjectAnimalia Day 83: West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) #sciart #medart #dailyart #wildlifeart #illustration #scientificillustration #biodiversity #manatee #oceanart

New paper! Material matters: raw material influences stone tool performance in capuchin monkeys 🐒 🔨🌰 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social @neoprego.org 🧪

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls.

Wrote this, out today: Our ape ancestors’ taste for fermenting fruit may have paved a boozy evolutionary path | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Excited to share that we have just been awarded a NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant to work on between-group cooperation in the Shark Bay dolphins. We will soon advertise a 3 year post-doc to join the team - drop me an email if you might be interested! Pls share widely 🙏🏻

Soooo happy to finally see Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age has a streaming date: November 26! I’m so happy for you all to see this amazing show and I am super proud to be once again among the amazing group of talented people who put this show together! 😍😍😍