ELITE TRAIT #2026MMM WINNERS: Aurochs, Humpback Whale, Honey Badger and Nile Crocodile! Please join us on MONDAY March 31st at 8PM EST for the FINAL ROAR!

#2026MMM ELITE TR8️⃣ EMOJI BATTLE 🦡🆚📿: 🪄🌳/🦡🙄🌳/🦡💥📿/ 📿🙂‍↔️🔊/📿🫦🦡/🦡🤷🏻‍♂️🍽️📿/🏆🦡 🐮🆚🐂: 🚣🏼🏹🐮/🪄🏜️/🐮🐂🥵/ 🏹🫀🩸/🐂➡️👥🐮/🐮☁️👀/🏆🐂 🐋🆚🦛: 🪄🪸/🦛🏊🏾🪨/🐟✂️🦛/ 🐋🔊👶🏻/🦈🔜🦛🩸/🦈🍽️🦛/🏆🐋 🐊🆚🦁: 🪄🇺🇬/🦁🦁🏊‍♂️/🐊👂🦁/ 🦁😱↩️/🐊🍽️🦵🏻🧫/🦁🦁👋🏻/🏆🐊

"Why did you burn down that Arby's, ma'am?" "Dylan told me to." #2026MMM

CROCODILE DE-FEETS LION!!!! #2026MMM

it would be so hard going through the day if I were venomous the temptation to bite others would be so great #2026MMM

The group who originally generated the draft Gila monster genome is now working a complete genome sequence for this wonderful creature, sequencing every base from telomere to telomere. #2026MMM #RIP

#2026MMM #EliteTrait #BoneyardDivision #TeamHoneyBadger Art by Olivia Pellicer @opellisms.bsky.social

uh, THATS SO METAL #2026MMM

The first draft of the Gila monster genome was used to study whether there is equal expression of genes on the Z chromosome between males (who have two Z chromosomes) and females (who have a single Z chromosome). academic.oup.com/gbe/article/... #2026MMM

#2026MMM #EliteTrait #BoneyardDivision #TeamGilaMonster Art by Valeria Pellicer @veppart.bsky.social

Honey badger is one of the species sequenced as part of the Zoonomia project, in an effort to better understand evolutionary constraint, and novel evolutionary genetics. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #2026MMM

#2026MMM #EliteTrait #BoneyardDivision #TeamHoneyBadger Art by Mary C. Freisner @maryfreisner.bsky.social

FIRST UP: 1-seed Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis) vs. 3-seed Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum). Tonight's battle is a collaboration with @mammalssuck.bsky.social #2026MMM

And one LAST warning... #2026MMM

Tonight begins the randomization of encounter ecosystems as combatants are #MMMagically translocated into the Desert, the Swamp, the Ocean Reef, or the Eucalpyt Forest! WHO will fortune favor TONIGHT? #2026MMM

Home Habitat Advantage, like the combatants from the Extinction is Forever Division… is now lost to the past! #2026MMM

TONIGHT, we have HALF THE BATTLES but TWICE THE ACTION in the #2026MMM ELITE TRAIT!!

“Plant blindness” was the term introduced in 1999 by the botanists and educators JH Wandersee (GREAT NAME) & EE Schussler to describe what they saw as a pervasive insensitivity to the green environment & a general neglect of plants on the part of biology education"(Thomas et al. 2022) #2026MMM

DOUBTED OUR PROMISE OF CARNAGE TONIGHT, or do plants not matter to you?! #PlantBlindness #2026MMM

Wildlife officials combat illegal hunting of chital deer, but their meat is not easy to recognize. Scientists created a fast DNA test that only fluoresces when chital DNA is present, which helps identify meat in the field to prevent illegal trading. #2026MMM #RIP doi.org/10.1007/s126...

#2026MMM #MoneyDivision #TeamIndianRhinoceros Art by Charon Henning @oddangel.bsky.social

Field biologists may identify a species from environmental samples, but determining its sex may require genetic tests. A PCR reaction can identify the sex of chital tissue or fecal samples. A 5:1 male to female ratio was found from samples in India doi.org/10.1007/s120... #2026MMM

#2026MMM #MoneyDivision #TeamChital Art by Olivia Pellicer @opellisms.bsky.social

There are two remaining Indian rhinoceros populations. Genetic sequencing of rhinos from these two sites showed that Assam is the historical source while the Nepal group formed later when individuals moved from Assam #2026MMM doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

#2026MMM #MoneyDivision #TeamIndianRhinoceros Art by Charon Henning @oddangel.bsky.social

NEXT UP: No. 4 Indian Rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) vs. No. 13 Chital (Axis axis) #2026MMM

You ready #2026MMM

It's time! Tonight will be year two of serving as a narrator for #2026MMM - I still can't believe I get to be a part of something that I've loved for so long...

At the #AAASmeeting, Sudip Parikh & Michael Crow emphasized the need for science communication that builds trust & strengthens relationships. That’s exactly the challenge we’re tackling tomorrow in our session: “Bridging Ideological Divides About Science.” I hope you join us.

The professor is in!

Twelve years (and 2.1 billion views) ago, when my brother and I decided that we could make videos that could maybe help people in their high school and college educations and then give them away for free, no one was there to tell us we were crazy, and I am very glad for that...🧵

Word of the day is ‘forswunk’ (13th century): exhausted from too much work. I like to think that ‘foreswunk’ is to be exhausted before you even begin.

In Pope Francis’s last public address, he preached care of the marginalized, the vulnerable, and migrants, saying: “I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves.” May we heed his wish.

This would be utterly disastrous not just for climate research, but this data is very interwoven into the fabric of our economy. As the story notes, farmers and fisheries depend on it. It is *crucial* to the insurance industry.

THANK YOU EVERYONE for another INCREDIBLE MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS! #2025MMM Please help defend the Arctic and protect Polar Bears! www.defendthearctic.org

Time has NOT run out, & each of us can make an impact protecting our communities & recovering our ecosystems- through our time, through our effort, through our choices, through our political engagement, through our thoughtful conversations with loved ones. #2025MMM

March Mammal Madness would not be possible without MUSEUMS, LIBRARIES, & the Department of Education!!! Protect theses essential foundations of our society. These are the fulcrum moments of history on which our future TILTS. #2025MMM

Further- March Mammal Madness would not be possible without the incredible achievements of scientists the world over, so many funded by those engines of excellence- the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration #2025MMM

Real Talk: you hear from me A LOT, but March Mammal Madness is made possible by the most incredible teaMMM of the very awesomest people you will ever have the honor of knowing and collaborating with! #2025MMM

Recent weeks, months, years have been full of challenges and heartbreak. For everyone. For all of you here tonight, we are so happy and thankful that you are joining us in this celebration of our natural world. #2025MMM

The funding for these long COVID research grants was given back bc disability activists urged us to contact our reps persistently, in high volume, and we did. Remember that these tactics work the next time someone tries to get you to passively react instead of taking an active part in organizing!

RAMPANT TAIL ENVY IN MY TIMELINE #2025MMM

I have spent three hours trying to solve a problem with census data and ArcGIS so I can extract data for a colleague’s dissertation research. I am somehow no closer to a solution now than I was when I started. I’m going home, we’ll try again tomorrow.

WOW WHAT A NIGHT! Polar Bear Narwhal Gelada Sun Bear Gingko & Rhizzo Alligator Gar Addax & Puma ADVANCE to Tomorrow Night's ELITE TRAIT and the beginning of RANDOM HABITATS! Who will triumph? WHO WILL FALL? #2025MMM

Y’all wanted carnage… #2025MMM

Such an epic battle! Though I sort of got attached to frilled shark and those terrifying teeth… #2025MMM #NoSleepOnlyShark

I can't believe I actually spent time making this mmmeme #2025MMM

AND A BIG WARM WELCOME FROM THE #2025MMM COMMMUNITY for our special GUEST NARRATOR FOR THIS NEXT BATTLE... @solomonrdavid.bsky.social

#InspirationalIntermission #2025MMM