A message for you all to carry through the year

#Nikon #photography #nature #UKbirds #birds #ukwildlife #ukbirding #wildlife #birdsinflight #murmuration #predators 3/3

Some particularly excellent meringue mushrooms for an in-progress yule log 🪵

This is news that makes me happy. It really feels most of the time that taxonomy is in a bad place. But in reality, it seems that in the last decades, the rate of species description has been the highest it ever was! 🧪 Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Being in a campus building during winter recess feels little like the professional version of Home Alone. (I can't decide if I'm Macaulay Culkin or Joe Pesci in this scenario)

“All evolutionary biologists know that variation itself is life’s only irreducible essence”—Gould Evolutionary biology is the study of how complicated and diverse life can be; the field has its jerks, but a good evolutionary biologist learns pretty fast that life doesn’t like boundaries or binaries

From the depths, hope rises. As 2025 comes to a close, momentum to protect the deep sea is growing - powered by science, solidarity, and global action. We’re carrying that energy into 2026. 🌊 #DefendTheDeep

It me. #crustmas

A+ snowflake art at OSU's Military and Veterans Services

So many anemones! Lolling, grabbing, winking

Anemone w/ a psolus(maybe) & ophiuroid next to it, anemone, snail, anemone on Balcitina. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 880 #argentiniandeepseeps #MarineLife

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

Pretty sure this is MANY people's dream job

Is there anything better than discovering that last winter, when you used up the last of the NyQuil, you bought a fresh bottle so that there's some on hand at a moment's notice? Usually, past me is an agent of chaos who seeds disorder in the life of present me, but this time she came in clutch.

Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :) The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used > neal.fun/size-of-life/

We are calling for your nominations for the WoRMS Top Ten Marine Species of 2025! Details: marinespecies.org/news.php?p=s... Nomination form: form.vliz.be/en/form/worm... Deadline: Sunday January 25th 2026 @oceancensus.bsky.social @unoceandecade.bsky.social @vliz.be @lifewatcheric.bsky.social

As the year wraps, it's time to celebrate marine biodiversity! Nominate your favorite new-to-science *marine* species. form.vliz.be/en/form/worm... The species must have been validly published in 2025. It can be extant or extinct. @marinespecies.bsky.social @vliz.be @oceancensus.bsky.social

Absolutely buzzing over this new video of a rarely seen giant squid

Disabled students belong in biological sciences spaces! Here is a thread of some tips and suggestions to make your spaces more inclusive.

The UC Davis Ecology and Evolution in Working Landscapes REU provides undergrads with research experience in ecology and evolution in natural and managed landscapes. Apply now through Feb 15 via etap.nsf.gov Contact me or @clhom.bsky.social for questions!

Thoughtful and easy to read consideration of "data" esp as it might relate to info that feeds the AI beast.

The #DisabledInSTEM Mentorship Program has almost an equal number of applicants for mentees and mentors! Just sad to see interest extremely low this year. I’m not sure how I could reach people better so please share within your networks! 💜

I read about field biology as a job in The Cats Eye by Margaret Atwood. Did not know it was a thing before that! Uni I had already committed to had no entomology so I studied invertebrate zoology

One of the most beautiful creatures in the world 👑✨️

when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean

Cool Penguin Facts 1. There's a version of them that's little. And blue. 💙. Shockingly, they are called Little Blue Penguins. Also sometimes, fairy penguins. 2. The oldest one is 25 years. Old. This is her. 3. Her name is Lazzie and it's her birthday.

This is glorious

Planula is #unbothered

Be ungovernable

This makes me wish I could knit more than lumpy rectangles

Surprisingly delicious🐓💃

Did women ruin the workplace?

The Sea Around Us assessed 18 fish and invertebrate stocks and concluded that “most species are unsustainably fished”, with particular worry for conch and lobster, Belize’s export mainstays. news.mongabay.com/2025/10/beli... (via @mongabay.com)

Stop "...writing nature’s obituary—instead of its recovery." www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

In my happy place!

The University of Hamburg has opened 14 PhD positions focused on ecological and evolutionary research, including climate change impacts on aquatic populations. Details here: https://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/en/forschung/grk2530/openpositions.html #phd

Bringing the outside in

A "good news" thing that the State of Ohio does is partner with universities and orgs like @visitcolumbuszoo.bsky.social to do vital conservation research. This story highlights fantastic work on native bees, but the efforts also focus on snakes, mussels & hellbenders news.osu.edu/ohio-state-s...

There is a Cnidaria-focused collection in the journal Diversity through which some interesting new papers are being published--this one resolves a taxonomic question around a common sea anemone, reinterpreting it as a native rather than introduced species. www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/17...

This is an INCREDIBLE advance in our understanding of coral diversification. 🪸🎉 Fantastic new work led by @claudiavaga.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Why are some species smaller than a paperclip while others grow longer than a school bus? How is body size evolution governed in animals? Out now in @pnas.org we tackle these longstanding questions through a genetic lens using my favorite group of fishes as our model!! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Unnoted in this piece is the role PROFIT plays... Universities can better recognize a breadth of contributions. But publishers could use their profits to recognize & compensate work done by researchers in the publishing process (or lower costs of open access). www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

I have stolen the jewels that were in the museumcase and which you were probably saving for visitors forgive me they were expensive so shiny and so old

Students (and recent graduates) working on anything phylogenetics, systematics or taxonomy-related, the abstract submission deadline for this year's (FREE ONLINE) Young Systematists' Forum approaches! Send us your abstracts by Saturday, OCTOBER 25 11:59PM GMT+1 tinyurl.com/2w5n3e8

Love how this is formatted like the hippo sat for a portrait at Sears, circa 1983

Yet, we don’t train young scholars to fail well. 
We praise resilience, but rarely explain how to build it. 
Rejection is part of the scientific method. 
It’s the friction that refines our thought. 5/

Just home after the PhD defense of @anemone-padawan.bsky.social . Nothing in my professional life offers more joy than the growth and success of my students. I could not be happier, prouder, or more excited for his future😍🎉

The Young Systematists' Forum is nearly upon us! If you are a student (or postdoc) working on phylogenetics, taxonomy or systematics, join us Nov 14th for this free and friendly online conference! Abstract submission closes Saturday, October 25th at 11:59PM GMT+1 REGISTER: tinyurl.com/2w5n3e8