Dr Craig R McClain
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drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain
@drcraigmc.bsky.social
10K followers 2.3K following 1.6K posts

Marine Ecologist, Deep-Sea Explorer, Climate Change Researcher, Science Communicator, Ed @deepseanews

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Environmental science 55%
Geography 19%
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drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · Jun 24
I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science
Too poor to science: How wealth determines who succeeds in STEM
From student to researcher, a career in science can come with a high price tag. This Perspective explores how persistent financial barriers limit who can succeed in science, revealing how wealth shape...
journals.plos.org

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5h
Read and see more at @mbarinews.bsky.social www.mbari.org/animal/ballo...
Balloon worm • MBARI
The balloon worm drifts through the midwater, casting a mucous net to feed on tiny bits of food slowly sinking from above.
www.mbari.org

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5h
The balloon worm looks nothing like a typical worm because it doesn’t live on the seafloor, it floats in the deep midwater. With a gelatinous, bag-like body for buoyancy, it drifts and feeds on sinking organic particles. www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5KG... #marinelife #wormwednesday
Weird and Wonderful: The balloon worm floats in the ocean’s twilight zone
YouTube video by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
www.youtube.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5h
Ocean heat content keeps smashing records, but don’t worry! Someone will definitely invent a new graph before they cut emissions.
zacklabe.com Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 6d
An additional dataset in showing that global ocean heat content (0-2000 m depth) is surging off the charts after another new record in 2025... 🌊

Graphic/data (anomalies) from www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/globa...
Line graph time series of global ocean heat content for the 0-2000 m layer for 3 year averages, yearly averages, and five years averages from the late 1950s to 2025. There is a long-term warming trend. The baseline is 1955-2006 for the zero reference to calculate the anomalies.

Reposted by Craig R. McClain

bookswain.bsky.social
bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 7h
“ZOOPHYTES Pl. 1”

Hand-colored illustrations of echinoderm species from ‘Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle’ by French botanist Charles
d'Orbigny, published in 1849.
Zoophytes is an antiquated term for plant-like invertebrate animals.
Coin for scale. 🦑
Illustrations of different echinoderm species dominated by a light purple striped sea urchin (Cidaridae) in the center. A sand dollar in the lower left (order Clypeasteroida) highlights the five-fold symmetry radial symmetry found in echinoderms. #oceanlife #sciart 🐡 #sealife #invertebrates #invertefest

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Marc Lynch, Tobias Bunde , and 72 more

davidho.bsky.social
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 21h
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 22h
Naturally occurring wood from trees and logs swept to the ocean

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 1d
It’s controlled biomineralization.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 1d
Like other snails, these scaly foot snails build armor (shell) by secretion. The mantle and foot tissues actively transport dissolved iron and sulfur ions from vent fluids into specific tissues, where they’re chemically precipitated as iron sulfide inside an organic matrix.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 1d
You’re right. Iron sulfide isn’t a metal. It’s a compound made of iron and sulfur, and while the iron part is metallic, the resulting material has very different properties. Still impressive materials science even if it is not a Marvel origin story.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 1d
This seems like a very cool paper. Unfortunately, I don't have access to Ecology Letters. How can I get one form you?

Reposted by Trevor A. Branch

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 1d
Shipworms aren’t worms. They’re bivalves that eat wood with the help of symbiotic bacteria turning wooden shipwrecks into functioning ecosystems. #MolluscMonday Fantastic image from seahistory.org/sea-history-...

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 1d
Many deep-sea bivalves don’t rely on feeding at all. They host bacteria that turn chemicals like methane or sulfide into food. Sunlight optional. #MolluscMonday 📷 ocean.si.edu/ecosystems/d...

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 1d
Some deep-sea snails reinforce their shells with iron sulfide. Not metaphorical armor. Literal metal. #MolluscMonday

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 1d
FYI cowrie biology is quietly wild. Their living mantle completely envelops the shell, repairing damage, maintaining that gloss, and even controlling color patterns. There are likely well over 300 species, many rarely seen and still poorly studied. #molluscmonday
k-hermit.com でんか @k-hermit.com · 8d
Because I love cowries and their mantles,
I’ll keep creating the “Cowrie Before & After photobook.” 📖´-

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
Life in Extremes — Cold Seeps of Argentina | 4K ROV Highlights
YouTube
Share your videos with friends, family, and the world
www.youtube.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
The deep ocean operates on scales that are hard to study and easy to ignore. This paper is an attempt to give that complexity a framework and to encourage more people to work across disciplines to make sense of it.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
One of the core ideas of this paper is that the deep ocean isn’t uniform or featureless. Spatial structure, connectivity, and context matter at depth and seascape ecology gives us a way to finally study that at the scales it deserves.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
Feeling very grateful today to be part of this big, thoughtful collaboration. New open-access perspective on deep ocean seascape ecology lays out where the gaps are and how we actually move from concept to practice. Huge thanks to an incredible group of coauthors. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Deep ocean seascape ecology: gaps and pathways for application - Landscape Ecology
Context The ecological implications of multiscale spatial heterogeneity remain poorly resolved in many parts of the ocean, especially at abyssal (3000–6000 m) and hadal (> 6000 m) depths. Seascape eco...
link.springer.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
Being good at science and being good at navigating academia are two very different skill sets.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 4d
Whales, sea lions, sharks, basically in vertebrate that dies and falls to the deep ocean floor

Reposted by Craig R. McClain

whoi.edu
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution @whoi.edu · 5d
What looks like a peaceful marine snail inching across a soft coral is actually the result of an evolutionary battle.

In this ongoing “arms race,” soft corals evolved powerful toxins to ward off predators, but the flamingo tongue snail developed genes and proteins to neutralize those toxins.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
Me too...

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
Everyone know Fridays are for comb jellies!

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
Some abyssal brittle stars (Ophiuroidea) drop limbs to escape and then regrow them later. Survival isn’t about overpowering a threat. It’s about refusing to let violence be the end of the story.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
Deep-sea mussels at cold seeps survive by cooperating with microbes that detoxify their environment. Collective resilience beats brute force every time.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
Deep-sea corals grow millimeters per year and still build structures that last centuries. Violence is fast. Stability takes patience.

Reposted by Trevor A. Branch, Stephen D. Murphy

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
Osedax worms dismantle bones molecule by molecule, no spectacle, no force. Long-term change often looks boring if you don’t understand the process.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
The Hidden World of Cold-Water Corals Rises to the Surface With These Glass Sculptures That Are Resurrecting a Lost Craft #marinelife www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu... #marinelife
The Hidden World of Cold-Water Corals Rises to the Surface With These Glass Sculptures That Are Resurrecting a Lost Craft
As increased industrial activity puts fragile deep-sea ecosystems at risk, one artist is raising awareness about imperiled corals through scientific model making
www.smithsonianmag.com

Reposted by Craig R. McClain

trevorabranch.bsky.social
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 5d
Hallucigenia ate comb jellies
www.newscientist.com/article/2511...
Fossil may solve mystery of what one of the weirdest-ever animals ate
Hallucigenia was such an odd animal that palaeontologists reconstructed it upside-down when they first analysed its fossils - and now we may know what it ate
www.newscientist.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
We have no idea what it does down there yet. Predator? Menace? Vibes-only organism? Classic deep sea: shows up, breaks the rules, refuses to explain itself.

Watch video at www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-stor...
NOAA Scientists Virtually Discover New Species of Comb Jelly Near Puerto Rico
The comb jellies were recorded two and a half miles below sea level using NOAA's Deep Discoverer remotely operated vehicle.
www.fisheries.noaa.gov