If you feel you can speak up, do. Goodyear didn't know about the problem with Myhrvold, because many reporters aren't specialists who'd even know to look. It's not always safe to say something, but, where possible, it's so important to talk about what's happening if we're going to change it.

In things I learned just now. & these cockroaches aren't particularly close to the termite lineage (also cockroaches) who, in turn have, less gruesome(?) ways to remove their wings once paired off ( www.researchgate.net/publication/... ).

Putting in the Portuguese werewolf then: involving crossroads, wallowing in dirt where an animal wallowed before, transforming into that animal (which might not be a wolf) & then "running your fate" avoiding artificial light. Honestly, reading it now, sounds like a folksy framing of mental illness.

C'mon people: 'Dinosauria' and 'The Dinosauria' are up for grabs.

Olorotitan watercolor portrait

"Collective punishment is bad. Except when it's for people I've decided are bad, then it's good" seems to be a fundamental flaw in the human psyche

On the theme of space artworks: Comet Impacting Europa, Moon of Jupiter 30" x 40" Oil on Panel 2000 Created as part of a series of works celebrating the gas giants and their moons.

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

Idle curiosity bears weird fruit. Poked Google Trends on worldwide interest shown by web searches for 'Dinosaur' & 'Magic: The Gathering', subjects that have been nearer to my heart, over the past 20+ years. I reckon this shows changes in user population makeup, rather than interest at large.

In preparation for the upcoming conventions (looking at you, Wels Comic Con), I have begun the process of creating small illustrations for stickers and acrylic keychains (a process I am as of yet unfamiliar with and want to get proficient at handling). Dangling Spinosaurus, anyone?

Just your periodic reminder that today is the first day someone learned about something you've known about for decades. Be chill and supportive about that.

Thought I'd do a thread of some of my favorite #paleoart - inspired by watching an old Skeleton Crew podcast episode "Sinopteroberries" - uncertain pterosaur, possibly Nemicolopterus, but probably a juvenile Sinopterus enjoying some red podocarp berries (John Conway) #sciart

And here's a good, recent video on the conservation effort surrounding the Iberian lynx.

Also, buried in the article—Lord Howe Island is now rat-free and the bird population has rebounded SPECTACULARLY—Black-winged Petrels went from under 3% breeding success rate to 67%! mousefreemarion.org/australias-l...

YAYYY! More tree lobsters for the gene pool! These little weirdos make me so happy. People saw the last handful of surviving GIANT-ASS stick insects and said “They’re not dying out on my watch!”

Got a Dr.'s appt today to go over the results of my bloodwork I ran a crowdfunder for last month. Pretty sure they're going to want payment for some other past due bills, so buying one of my pins, #suncatchers, or #art prints will go a long way to help! Here's a megathread of my Etsy listings: /1

I certainly won't claim that all human scientific endeavors have always been good and noble and without any suffering to humankind. But I will say that the scientific impulse--the curiosity that drives us to work together to understand our universe--is one of my very favorite things about humanity.

It brings me some solace to know that whatever's happening down here, there are still some absolutely incredible human-made and human-driven robots wandering around Mars, looking at cool rocks and dirt and sending us pictures just because we're curious about planets and our own origins in the cosmos

(The target audience for this will be rather niche, but I’ll do it anyway.) “I asked ChatGPT…” Oh yeah? Well, I asked this guy, and got a more trustworthy answer than you did.

On people yearning for comeuppance in their fiction, I must say it was bemusing to find comments on the Jurassic Park movies claiming their main draw was to see the designated villains get mauled and devoured by dinosaurs. & then those types get discomfited when a bystander gets similar treatment.

We (and other eukaryotic organisms) are part of the “Asgard” archaeans, specifically the Heimdall group. (Except for our mitochondria, of course.)

I think it’s cool that some people focus on curing disease and some people focus on understanding what animals are up to and some people think about our place in the universe and how things came to be the way they are. People are driven by curiosity and I promise you you don’t want it any other way

Just found out that martens & fishers, among mustelids at least, converge with mongooses in having horizontal pupils. Hat tip to @rabosaalforn.bsky.social .

Good news, if I were inclined to take them at face value, which, considering WotC's track record and my own disaffection with, mainly, Magic, is not particularly so.

Highlighting fantastic palaeoartists: 渔火 on xiaohongshu, a mixed-medium artist from China. Magical depictions of theropods. Pictures are panels from their Spinosaurus comic.

~700 species of crabs in Superfamily Majoidea are termed "DECORATOR CRABS" because they festoon their carapaces with bits of sponge, seaweed, anemones. This can serve several purposes: disguise, poisonous armor, or even fishing hooks. Let's look at how this works.

This woman is a QUEEN. But also, did you know. A lot of Natural History scientific illustrators in the 19th century, were usually partners and wives of famous male academics. Buckland, Lyell, Mantell, Murchinson, Gould etc. Their academic output was carried by their (invisible) wives.

Today I learned about how you can search your own posts etc. to find stuff on Bluesky. bsky.social/about/blog/0...

I do wonder how many have dealt with both. A dark horse of my output on my early days on DA was a palette for MS Paint: www.deviantart.com/dracontes/ar... I did do my time in supermarkets, restocking shelves, and more recently helping deliver cargo to supermarkets for those restocking shelves.

If you see this, post an eye. My own #art then, while we're at it.

During my stint as Quaternary Geology research assistant trudging mudflats in the Algarve's Ria Formosa lagoon for sediment cores, I often had to dig myself out of the muck. Once I got cut by buried, rusting metal dumped there. I was definitely glad I had my tetanus shots up to date… & a few others.

There are a lot of scientific illustrators and graphic designers who are building their portfolios and will take on work for less than you might imagine. It's not out of reach.

#Sciart #Paleoart #Dinosaur Collaborative work: Tyrannosauroid dinosaurs

Reading through this paper, given the experience I have with my neck of the woods in the Algarve, that cave entrances are often used as rubbish tips sounds, to my chagrin, about right. Not rare to find trash dumps amid local Mediterranean scrubland. Still, neat, resilient critters I was unaware of.

A few months ago, the genAI-enhanced video, from which the screenshot below was taken, was a fairly disheartening find on YouTube. Portugal tends to be niche for a lot of subjects. In this day & age of AI slop for easy money, a lie is indeed halfway around the world before truth puts its shoes on.

This is how I access Bluesky. Quite literally as it turns out Librewolf, my current "official business" browser, doesn't cut corners as concerns playing it safe about privacy. Considering how things are going, that sort of tack is likely for the best. Corporations aren't your friends, etc.

In other news, quite the way to find out that Librewolf, the official business browser I moved to as I was fed up with Google messing with content blockers on Chrome, is fiddly about image uploading. Third time's the charm I suppose. Here's the fix that worked for me, codeberg.org/librewolf/is... .

On the converse, I must say realizing that _I_, with my lapsed academic background, am not the audience for most(?) wildlife documentaries & those documentaries are _still_ useful as primers for others was liberating: No longer beholden to broadcast schedules or hype, with a backlog to pick through.

#Iguanodon was formally named 200 years ago today in 1825. The second dinosaur to be named after Megalosaurus, and one of three genera originally used to define Dinosauria.

Hey @wotcmatt.bsky.social just to be sure: the interaction between Aminatou, Veil Piercer & Room enchantments regarding miracle cost works the same as determining flashback cost for Fire//Ice in graveyard with Lier, Disciple of the Drowned on battlefield, right? (CR 702.1b) Thanks for your time🙂

Stark to see Musk stating towards the end his intent to dispassionately manage his fellow human as a trophy hunting entrepreneur manages big game: more meat for capitalism's grinder, more creativity to claim credit for. He believes himself a savior. He's rather another blight on humanity.

Bird nests made from anti-bird spikes?! 🤯 Hi, I'm a nest researcher 👋 and new here on BlueSky, sharing the craziest #bird nests I've ever found. 👀 Today, I’m sharing my discovery of rebellious birds that build nests out of anti-bird spikes. And honestly, it's like telling a joke... A thread. 🧵

There's a petition to ban conversion practices (targeting LGBTQIA+ people) in the European Union. We need one million signatures, and we currently have 180,000+. If you live in Europe (even if you don't), spread the word ! 🌈🔥✊ eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#...

Included in my furry resumé: - Not as much the cartoon people angle as the creature feature one - Indulged frankly furry forays even before I knew what a furry was - So much lurking - So much time to figure myself out: the queer in me, especially - A good amount of relevant, moldering WIPs

I've felt it more, I'll admit. It's good though to find a level engagement that doesn't lead to burnout. Knowing how the literature goes, I usually wait for the review papers.

Years ago I tried, similarly, to do #art more consistently: jotting a scribble & working it as pareidolia suggests. The problem is Photoshop allows a lot of refinement & I was then neck deep in my undergrad degree. In other news, doing this with MS Paint's calligraphy brush only was challenging.

Changing things up a bit to keep it interesting on MS Paint: this time with the menu's first brush. Also committing to the bit, as it were, trying to recall as much ray-finned fish anatomy as I could. Probably not enough to make sense, but these are quicker drawings to get back on the #art horse.

Exploring MS Paint more as far as brushes are concerned. This time, something calling back to Barlowe's Darwin IV & a perennial aesthetic fallback, Allosaurus. Tentative takeaways: - Layers in MS Paint are useful but not dependable - I might just enjoy this foray into #art with limited implements

Did you know MS Paint has layers? I didn't until a few months or so ago. So today I picked up an abstract scribble I saved (as one does). Duplicated/reflected layers until the overlap suggested... some sort of ruminant? Then I cleaned it up with the charcoal brush just enough for visual interest.

Idle curiosity had me look into what the Inostrancev part of Inostrancevia means: "Foreigners" in Russian (see declension table on Wiktionary link). Now, with the impression surnames were earned as nicknames by the populace early on, I wonder how insular a community has to be for such a sobriquet.