This incredible graphic is by @maijakarala.bsky.social and is an excellent crash-course in bird (and honestly animal) color/pigmentation. Check it out! I’ve continually come back to this for reference and always love sharing it with others 🐧🐦🐤🏳️‍🌈

Pet rat update! This spring and early summer have been quite eventful (which is also why I haven't been posting much). On the rat side of things, most important news is that nobody has died: it seems we did get rid of the horrific lung epidemic of last winter. A little 🧵 of cute rats:

When reality surpasses fiction! Top: fictional forecast for August 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014 to warn about the consequences of global warming. Bottom: Real French forecast for yesterday, June 22, 2026.

It turns out all that screen time disrupts brain development...in guppies. Now out @royalsocietypublishing.org royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article....

Dawn of Agriculture Last of three landscape illustrations for my recently published article in the Finnish magazine Tiede Luonto. This one depicts southern/central Finland about 5,000 to 3,500 years ago, time passing as we go from left to right. A little thread on what's there. 🧵 #SciArt

Some 40 million years ago, northern Europe was covered by what is known as the Baltic Amber Forest, now known only from pieces of amber found on the coastline. An illustration from my recent article in the magazine Suomen Luonto, based on research by Dr. Eva-Maria Sadowski. cara.app/post/6e6ed80...

Wonderful news! Our comic book The Mind of a Dog is finally available on Amazon (US and UK). Find it by searching "arador mind dog". #SciArt Made by @arador-innovations.bsky.social, myself and @villesinkkonen.bsky.social, it's a mix of storytelling and cutting edge animal cognition science. A 🧵

A Golden Age Second of three landscape illustrations for my recently published article in the Finnish magazine Tiede Luonto. This one depicts southern/central Finland about 8,000 to 5,000 years ago, time passing as we go from left to right. A little thread on what's there. 🧵

It's also called Nature Amnesia. There is a Dutch book about this that is a really heartwrenching but important read: Natuuramnesie by Marc Argeloo delevendenatuur.nl/nieuws/net-v...

Lazy sunday sketching. Deinotherium and some funky bipedal apes in a watering hole somewhere in east africa #sciart

Europe is warming >2x as fast as the global average, reducing snow & ice cover. High air temperatures, drought, heatwaves & record ocean temperatures affect regions from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. European State of Climate #ESOTC2025 Read more: bit.ly/ESOTC2025pr Full report: bit.ly/ESOTC2025

After the Ice Age First of three landscape illustrations for my recently published article in the Finnish magazine Tiede Luonto. This one depicts southern/central Finland about 11,500 to 10,000 years ago, time passing as we go from left to right. A little thread on what's there. 🧵

Ammonite Rock ~ 🐚🦑🦀🪸 . For years I’ve been curious by all the different ammonite shapes and types, I knew I wanted to create a design that brought them altogether! . #paleoart

Hey artists, if you see this, post a dog. Portrait of Pimu, my dad's now long-gone English setter from when she was already an elderly lady. She had the most soulful eyes I've yet seen on a dog (or any other species).

Pet rat update! After a deadly pneumonia took several of the boys during the winter, we've been in a long quarantine. Luckily, everyone has been healthy for nearly three months now and I'm starting to hope the epidemic has run its' course. A little thread on what's been going on with their lives 🧵

A portrait of the newly described early dinosaur Ptychotherates, from the amazing Ghost Ranch locality in the US. Though hiding a row of formidable teeth, the short snout combined with large eyes makes this little guy both unusual and very cute.

LOOK AT THE BABY LYSTROSAURUS

@elsa-panciroli.bsky.social talking about mammals in the time of the dinosaurs. There's also a cool and slightly weird image of a human skull showing our baby and our adult teeth together which I'd never seen before! www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrF2...

If a squirrel is just a rat with better PR, then maybe a rat is just a squirrel that hasn't yet found a pinecone. The boys have spent a week or so carrying this pinecone around the room and chewing it. Like cats, they often ignore expensive stuff bought for them and enjoy the most mundane objects.

A bunch of paleontology-inspired dragon critters from a few years back. Which one would you like as a pet? Somehow, I have a soft spot for the turqoise-eyed weirdo.

Finally got around to organizing last year's photo folders. It was a pretty good year with many fascinating animal encounters. A mountain hare in spring, some dramatic baby geese, a nice freshwater sponge, and a somewhat unfinished-looking white-tailed deer hanging out with friends.

Wow. It's alarming that with all the other chaos around, rapidly progressing climate crisis doesn't get anything remotely resembling the attention it needs. From a purely selfish point of view though, I've actually felt alive this March. Usually I'm still a winter zombie at his point.

Now this looks gorgeous! The Dinosauria short film series is a great example on how paleoart (and science art in general) can be accurate and striking without photorealism.

Creative spaces that haven't been invaded by AI slop exist. The SciArt Feed has over 1,500 approved artists engaged with science sharing inspiring work to see every day. Like & Pin a Bluesky Feed with real creators, not slop-feeds.

Happened to scroll through older artwork today and found some odd doodles. It looks like I used to have more fun drawing weird stuff a few years ago. Definitely something I should get back to! Attempts at explanations for each one in alt text.

Doing tricks with little Basil. He loves doing this so much will start pulling on my clothes if I forget. There's two "spins" and "paw" on this video. Next, I'll break out the agility equipment for him.

As I was mixing the next couple of months worth of dry food for the ratties, I felt like sharing how feeding is one of the most rewarding parts of having pet rats in particular. At least for me. A little thread on how fun it is - and how they have changed my own diet for the better too.

A friend recently remarked that the saiga antelope looks like something from a fantasy tale. And yeah, it does. A little feel good doodle of an elf and her steed heading out on an adventure, I think.

The rarest of the rare! This holy-grail dream fish is a larval-stage #monkfish, aka #goosefish. Shot in the wild, using scuba, while diving at night over water several thousand feet deep, several miles offshore from Kumejima, Okinawa. #larvalfish #blackwater #gug #deepseafish

It's International #polarbearday 🎉🐻‍❄️🧊 I couldn't in good faith draw them on land, their world is melting. These 2 polar bears are swimming towards an uncertain future. #PolarBear #Internationalpolarbearday #WildlifeArt #AnimalArt #SciArt

Tianyulong confuciusi, a tiny heterodontosaur dinosaur, looking about as happy in the snow as I. Based on an undescribed specimen at the Beijing Museum of Natural History. Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation is considered warm temperate to subtropical: mostly mild, but occasional snow days are possible.

That sexual selection is one of the primary drivers in evolution is well established. Studies of Mesozoic #dinosaurs and #pterosaurs, however, have been dominated by the view that the variation, extravagance and diversity seen in these animals is not due to the pressures of sexual selection, but...

Spiny little friend. A quick doodle of Haolong dongi, a newly described ornithopod from China with... spikes. Numerous sharp spines grew from the animal's neck and back, seemingly different from all other known dinosaur integuments. Definitely wasn't on my bingo card for 2026 dinosaur finds!

Reindeer Days Back in the Pleistocene, reindeer were found as far south as Spain. While many populations today are endangered, there are also semi-domestic reindeer. I met this pair in the Finnish far north, just jogging along the road. It's such a unique animal and always a joy to see.

The reign of the orange tyrant is soon to be over! Sadly, I don’t mean the one you’re probably thinking about (though one can hope). I mean Rufus, who has the questionable honor of being my meanest rat ever. He finally had a hormone-blocking implant installed today. A small thread!

A lovely example of rat empathy from last night: Lumo (black and white) notices little Reino is in pain, consoles him with a bit of grooming and quickly checks his hurt foot before giving him space. No worries, it was just a strained muscle. He was fine after pain medication and 12 hours of rest.

Curious noses. This is the sort of welcome you get arriving home to your boy rats after visiting some girl rats. Or vice versa. Like dogs, rats can learn much from each other’s smell - health, diet, relatedness, immune system compability. Imagine being able to do that with humans!

Christmas break fantasy doodles, before work resumes tomorrow. A wild winged unicorn and a dragon peeking into an abandoned garden.

Sad news: As of this year, Finland allows the killing of about a fifth of our grey wolf population annually, regardless of whether the particular wolves cause any harm. This on top of harm-based permits and poaching puts our endangered wolf population at risk. More info: www.sll.fi/ajankohtaist...

Last art of the year! #SciArt As a fun pastime on my Christmas break, I looked into basal ceratopsians a bit and doodled them. Turns out they vary from cuddly little guys to beasts that would have made a mighty (and very bitey) steed. Close-ups of each one in thread 🧵:

As far as we know, vertebrate animals have equally deeply experienced emotions regardless of size or expressiveness. And sometimes, it really comes up to hit you in the face. These two are the brothers of my recently deceased Taika and Nikos - and both got ill from the stress of losing them.

Nice puppy... I hope. Borophagines, or bone-crushing dogs, are an extinct group of canids with hyena-like teeth, wide skulls and high foreheads, somewhat resembling domestic dogs such as Rottweilers and mastiffs. I wonder if they had the same powerful-but-cute look? Just a goofy little doodle.

Animals with misleading names. I'm seeing this go around as part of a viral tumblr thread so I thought I'd reshare it.

Vielä ehtii jouluksi! 🎄🎅 Jos tilaat viimeistään to 18.12. www.aradorsuomi.fi/kauppa saat kirjasi viimeistään ti 23.12. Myymäläsaatavuus: Tällä hetkellä Koiran mieli löytyy ainakin Akateemisesta kirjakaupasta ja Turun Sarjakuvakaupasta. Kuvassa pakataan tänään Aradorista lähteviä kirjoja 😊

Flirting Diplodocus. A new study was able to locate melanosomes inside fossilized diplodocid scales. It concluded they had patterns and several types of pigment. Here's a somewhat creative interpretation on their possible appearance. #SciArt royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...

With pets, heartbreak is inevitable, but wow, does it sometimes come in shocking ways. We lost both Taika and Nikos last weekend, within a day of each other.

We had sunlight today! It was, in fact, such an unusual occurrence it was featured on national news (with a livestream, no less).

It was so much fun getting to meet different dogs to create the characters for our science comic book, The Mind of a Dog. Milo was based on a young and very enthusiastic Dachshund called Mauri.

Tänään ja huomenna Koiramessuilla Helsingissä. 🐕

Do you know a dog owner who would be delighted to get this for Christmas? #dogs #comics #nonfiction #books #christmas