If squid could speak English, they’d say we have our expressions “blood-red” and “baby blues” mixed up. As cephalopods, they prefer “blood-blue” and “baby reds.” All this and more in the latest Octopost! buttondown.com/dannastaaf/a...

Hooray, a taxonomy expert weighs in--there are indeed five accepted families of cirrate octopuses! The paper has a fabulous graphical abstract: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🧪

My cousin saw the trumpet-playing squid and requested a baritone-saxophone-playing squid, and I was happy to oblige! (My understanding of orchestral anatomy is not on par with that of biological anatomy; please forgive errors)

Did you know there's a searchable library of science stories about failure? It was truly an honor to contribute my story to Fail-Safe Science, "an initiative designed to normalize experiencing and overcoming challenges in science graduate programs." risecenter.asu.edu/fail-safe 🧪

I can't overrecommend this incredible paper about water skaters (genus Halobates). No one knows how they evolved. No one knows what they eat. They are superhydrophobic, which means water LITERALLY CANNOT WET THEM. Perhaps we should call them anti-water skaters? 🌊🧪 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

In this liminal time between the gregorian new year and the lunar new year, I thought I'd share two old sketches of my blended zodiac sign (Pisces + Year of the Pig). Which is best?

In these trying times, may I offer squid emoji to express key emotional states: - pretending to be happy so effectively it might manifest as truth - trying your hardest to camouflage against an unnatural background - fabricating a friend, enemy, or decoy from your own secretions - sploosh. ink

Doodled at the request of a musician/scientist friend

In addition to making new art this year, I'm going to dust off and share old art! This one was inspired by the interesting colors of marine invertebrate eggs. Drawn during the Embryology course at Friday Harbor Lab in 2008--15 years before the publication of NURSERY EARTH! 🐡🦑

I’ve had the words ‘POLLY WANNA KRAKEN’ running round my head for the last week and today I was finally able to exorcise them.

At last, the dicyemid life cycle for #InverteFest! These absolute weirdos infect ONLY cephalopod kidneys; they are worms of discerning taste. 🦑🌊🐙🧪🐡

My daughter made me an octopus who's upset about being anatomically incorrect 😭

Hand pluteus drawn per @dannastaaf.bsky.social ’s instructions in _Nursery Earth_

For a second I thought this was a book cover, and got all hyped to read it. Fabulous design for a fascinating topic! (And maybe a future book...?)

I wrote a piece about translation earlier in the year, talking about how a good translation isn't, and can't be, just matching words one-for-one: whatever.scalzi.com/2025/02/03/h...

People who aspire to be academics: I wish to live a life of the mind Actual academics:

Reading _Nursery Earth_ by @dannastaaf.bsky.social about baby animals and its incredible—every chapter not only has WTF moment after wild WTF moment, but also insights that have changed my whole understanding of biology. Truly one of the great science communicators of this century.

🙌

A cool thing I learned at the cephalopod conference is that squid embryos actually look out of their capsules while they're developing and learn what prey will be available to hunt after they hatch. 🧪🐡🦑

Some of the cutest images at the cephalopod conference were the dwarf cuttlefish of @tessamontague.bsky.social. I just had to try a quick sketch of one photo in which I swear the cuttlefish was doing this 👉👈

One of my fave cephalopod conference talks was Erica Vidal on baby squids and octos. Reminded me that everyone needs to see this 2023 paper from Erica and Liz Shea that shows how utterly unbothered hatchlings are about any preconceived notions of Correct Shape 🐙🧪: www.frontiersin.org/journals/mar...

I made a 4 page comic for Root & Stem about Gen-AI which is pretty funny, if I do say so. The whole magazine is very cool, with a goal of making STEM available to remote and Indigenous communities. Read the whole thing here: rootandstem.ca/learn/always...

In Japanese, the common name for vampire squid is koumori-dako, or bat octopus. I illustrated it for this month's OctoPost: Bats and Jellies. 🐙🦑🐡 buttondown.com/dannastaaf/a...

the typo in this is killing me, but on the bright side "gelantious" is fun to say

My new proposed common name for Haliphron atlanticus is the JELLY OCTOPUS (thx to @motthepaladin.bsky.social for asking!) because this species ✅ is very gelantious ✅ eats jellyfish ✅ may even use jellyfish as tools to capture other prey However, it ❌ does not make tasty preserves

One of the least-appreciated giant cephalopods, Haliphron atlanticus, is in the news! (thx @scsmith4.bsky.social for the heads up) Unfortunately the common name seven-arm octopus - only describes males - actually doesn't even describe males Can we think of a better one?? www.bbc.com/news/article...

me: I'm so happy about Scrivener's commitment not to include or train AI! I wonder how I can support them spouse: you could buy their product me: NOT MY FAULT IT'S FREE ON MY OS

🦇🦍🦉 Do you root for the weird, wild, under-appreciated species of the world? The slime molds and sunflower stars; the cormorants and caddisflies? So do we. And we need your help! A donation of any amount goes straight to supporting narrative journalism about biodiversity. Pls spread the word! 🐢🐛🌵

So many scientists are also fantastic artists! Bertha Patricia Ceballos Vázquez, who studies marine reproduction, gave me this gorgeous handmade rainbow octopus in Okinawa. I assigned my two little octo finger puppets to be its attendants.

⚠️ 👋 Hey Original Art Collectors and Gift Givers 🐙 BIG savings on this series 🐙 LIVE NOW: sculptedreef.com/collections/... #ArtYear #Art #ArtGallery #Sculpture #Octopus #MarineLife #ArtSale #BSNM #Invertebrates 🦑🐡

This is a gorgeous, informative, and fun book that I highly highly recommend! The publisher's website has links to buy it in lots of places: www.abramsbooks.com/product/radi...

BIG news about vampire squid! I just learned their Japanese name "koumori-dako" means "bat-octopus," which is objectively better* and I'll be using it from now on. 🦇🐙 That's not the news though, the news is that scientists sequenced their genome and it's ENORMOUS 🧪🧵 www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

I ran out of sticker space on my laptop and water bottle, but needed to display this incredible art from @invertebabe.bsky.social (nautilus, squid) and @octopolis.bsky.social (moray, cuttle, monsters). What a delight to realize the flatbed scanner on my desk offers extensive sticker real estate!

Thank you @skylerdware.bsky.social for the opportunity to contribute to this story! It's a splendid, illuminating read. And I'm delighted that I could provide a good kicker quote 😁🦵

I share some raw notebook pages from the Okinawa cephalopod conference in this month's OctoPost! (I'd hoped to post more during the conference itself, but the international travel kinda wrecked me and I'm still recovering.) 🦑🐙 buttondown.com/dannastaaf/a...

I discovered these layers in an old art file. Dear past me, I think you need to lie down and perhaps take an ibuprofen

Fact!

Today's #Paleoctober prompt was my baby Plectronoceras, so I had to add it to the #inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge #OC_tober mashup. They all played nicely: the gravity of the black hole makes things ragged, and Plectro is already my non-human OC.

The Worm represents flexibility, adaptability, surprise, determination. Reversed: hunger, greed, traps, unchecked growth. (A sand striker can grow almost 10ft. The spacecraft entering its jaws represents its broad diet and large appetite.) #inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge #OC_tober

What is going on here on day 13 of #inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge #OC_tober? My daughter took one look and said "Oh, it's drinking blood." 😬 The banded sugar ant is quite capable of killing other ants with formic acid, but idk, this one looks kind of sad...

Today in cutest thing ever -- did you know that the star Betelgeuse has a *companion star* and it's called Betelbuddy?! BETELBUDDY!! ✨ earthsky.org/space/new-de...

I love this book. I want to live in it. The characters are a delight, the plot is gripping, and most of all the biological worldbuilding blew me away. Giant toads with hot springs inside their mouths! Migratory mountain ranges! Actual sundogs!

I think we can safely assume this razor clam is shredded from all that exercise shredding (and playing saxophone). Day 12 #inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge #OC_tober catchup

Catching up with day 11 of #Inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge #OC_tober . . . In which asteroid witches threaten to throw live spider into cauldron, unaware they are falling victim to sting operation! (Look, sometimes the prompts don't fit together all that well 😆)

Today's #Inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge #OC_tober mashup is a patch!

Today in #CephalopodAwarenessDays: #Squittleday! Today honors squid & cuttlefish. This should be done every day imo, I'll take what I can get.. FUN FACT: Cuttlefish have been my favorite creature since I was 5. I fell for them HARD. Here is Ze Frank with TRUE FACTS: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDwO...

Flamboyant cuttlefish are heavier (less buoyant) than other cuttles, which is why they "walk" on the sea floor most of the time instead of swimming. This poor little pal can't float up to visit the nebula! 🥺 #Inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge #OC_tober

Whale Fall pin 🦀🐋🦑

Yesterday's #inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge #OC_tober mashup!

It's #WorldOctopusDay! While I already have a post for #OCTOtober, here's a bonus of some octopus shitposts from personal collection