ngerlach.bsky.social
Behavioral ecologist, evolutionary organismal biologist, and educator. Aspiring Ms. Frizzle. Human to the best dog. Avid reader. Seeker of tiny moments of joy and magic. she/her.
Comments & opinions are my own.
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That mountain reminds me a lot of Mt. Wapta in the Canadian Rockies -- the trail to the Burgess Shale quarry site goes right around the base of the escarpment. There were fewer dragons when I was there, though.
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Hey, now you get to cross something off!
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This is fantastic! Totally including this in my Animal Behavior class. (Probably in one of the lectures on learning, although maybe in the lecture on the genetics of behavior as a counterpoint?)
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Ultimately I went with “none of these”, because sea turtles are also phylogenetically bony fish but have their own ID category, but the part of me that works so hard to get students to understand monophyletic classifications did put up a bit of a fight.
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Looks like it. Neat!
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If the elytra are fused, how do they get their wings out and what happens to the elytra when they fly? Do they just flip upwards like opening the trunk of a car?
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Get a 4-channel lab timer. It’s a godsend for recipes that have multiple things going at once.
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This looks like the aftermath of a tragic bagel spill.
Are they really that big? Or am I getting a false sense of scale?
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...which *is* actually at least somewhat relevant, since the data they were analyzing comes from the juncos living near the Mountain Lake Hotel, where Dirty Dancing was filmed.
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In addition to cool facts about snails, this thread also taught me the word “stonking”!
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Hmmm. “Decorative”.
I was going to make a joke about it bleeding from its eyes, but it turns out there actually is a species of pelican that looks like that. So that’s a horrifying thing I (and I guess you) now know.
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Great, that's what I've been doing! (Although I did flag a few images that I thought were truly ambiguous.)
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Is there a good way to handle photos with two taxa, like the octopus eating the sea star? Or is that coming in the new update?
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Try the hack where you change the date on your phone?
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Oh no!! Streak freezes won’t save it?
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Cowboy caviar. Can of black beans, can of corn, chopped up tomatoes, avocados, and red onion (and cilantro if you like it). Some olive oil and vinegar (red wine or cider). Works as a salad but even better with tortilla chips.
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This one isn’t about sharks, but it certainly made me giggle at the march in Pittsburgh, PA
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Did the great news also come in juicebox form?
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The final vote: 51-45, with 4 people absent.
CLOTURE FAILS, A CONGRESSIONAL SPORTS BAN WILL NOT HAPPEN.
Democrats hold firm, not a single dem voted for cloture.
MAJOR victory for everyone who called in today and this week in support of trans people.
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You’ve got me beat!
By several years, actually.
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Definitely the highlight of my whole week, at least!
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In summary: I freaking love teaching days like this.
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My favorite was from a “male” who was trying to convince a “female” that he’d already mated with once to mate with him again: “You’d really leave our offspring - our CHILD! - all alone without a sibling?!?” in the most wounded voice you can imagine.
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Also the typical hilarity during the activity: “where are all the high quality males at?”; “does anyone have any eggs left they need fertilized?”; “I’ve got the best sperm over here, I swear!”
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There were of course lots of giggles when I explained the rules, and jokes like “what did you do in class today? Oh, nothing, just mated with my classmates.” (Me: "hey, don't get me in trouble!")
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We can then use the results to discuss concepts like Bateman's principles, limitations to reproductive success, different strategies by males vs. females, or high vs. low quality individuals, etc.