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Jo Wolfe, PhD

@jopabinia.bsky.social

16K followers 2.9K following 15K posts

Why things evolve into crabs. Evolutionary biologist (species alive today AND fossils, and how to study them together). Canadian at UCSB and Harvard (she/her) My science: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CKqoVjEAAAAJ&hl=en

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · Aug 1

Our paper on convergent evolution of land crabs is out in its final final form. The journal didn't pick my image as the cover, so I'm sharing it here because it must be seen!

academic.oup.com/sysbio/artic...

🦀🦑🧪

Circular timetree of crabs with pie slices colored by superfamily (Figure 2 in the paper). Simplified version with no text/labels. Line drawings of crabs arranged around the perimeter like a zodiac, with colors matching the superfamily pie slice.
Figure by me, drawings by Harrison Mancke and Javi Luque

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 2h

#NationalFossilDay now with hashtag

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · Oct 11

National Fossil Day 🧪
The Cambrian fossil Opabinia was thought to be a weird wonder unrelated to any species. New data shows it was cousin to arthropods! We described 2 new species last year & they survived 40 mill yrs! 😍
Art @franzanth.bsky.social
Papers tinyurl.com/mr2c73kd &
tinyurl.com/yvar544a

Utaurora comosa reconstruction by Franz Anthony. It is a soft bodied but arthropod like creature, with lateral flaps instead of legs, dorsal furrows instead of segments, and big tail fan. It has a proboscis and (speculative based on Opabinia) 5 eyes

Mieridduryn bonniae reconstruction by Franz Anthony. It is a tiny (under 13 mm) soft bodied but arthropod like creature, with lateral flaps and spiny lobopodian legs, dorsal furrows instead of segments. It has a spiny proboscis and "hat" which may be some kind of head carapace. 2nd individual shown is 3 mm and may be a larva

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Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD

Daniel and Kelly's Extraordinary Universe @dandkuniverse.bsky.social · 7h

How might aliens perceive the Universe?

Daniel and Kelly talk about how aliens might experience the Universe and how it might shape their science, a topic from Daniel's new book "Do Aliens Speak Physics?"

www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 4h

🦀

Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD

Patrick Lynch @patrlynch1.bsky.social · 5h

Spread design for a new book project on the natural history of the U.S. Atlantic Coast.
🧪🌿🌎🐡 #design #BookDesign #illustration #scientificillustration #natureart #visualscicomm #sciviz #scicomm #ChesapeakeBay #BlueCrabs

Book spread design on the Blue Crab fishery in Chesapeake Bay, USA.

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Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD

Emily Stepp @emilyart.bsky.social · 14h

#Paleoctober2025 day 13 and 14 paleoart sketches with the early stick grasshopper Eoproscopia and the strange shaped coelacanth Allenypterus.

#Paleoctober #Paleoart #Eoproscopia #Allenypterus

The Early Cretaceous stick grasshopper perched on a giant horsetail. It has well developed wings.

The lobe-finned fish swimming in the Late Carboniferous tropical shallows.

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 6h

+ @geologyjohnson.bsky.social (needed to search your handle)

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 6h

@fossils.bsky.social et al are far braver souls than I to tackle the Proterozoic...

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 6h

I had a brief sojourn into this field and have seen material like it. All of it feels like a Rorschach test.

But idk if multiple multicellularity events is even controversial? (Plants, animals, fungi...). Seems more whether there was multiple eukaryogenesis or if they were that old

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Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD

Asher Hellbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 7h

In 2010, a scientist argued that 2.1 billion-year-old African specimens showed complex life appearing 500 million years ahead of schedule. His critics say they are — literally — fool's gold. At stake? The question of when and how complex life arose at all.

My cover story (!) for @sciam.bsky.social!

These Enigmatic ‘Fossils’ Could Rewrite the History of Life on Earth

Controversial evidence hints that complex life might have emerged hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought—and possibly more than once

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD

citrus sapling 🍋 mcm lnd 2p7 @citrussapling.bsky.social · 1d

I spy... With my 30-40cm diameter eye #art #watercolour #sciart

A watercolour painting of a colossal squid, with eyelashes on it's large eye. The text around it reads "I spy with my COLOSSAL eye".

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Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD

Shazzoir @shazzoir.bsky.social · 21h

Some stabby artwork for #CrabTime

🦀

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

oh I'd agree the white parts are tiny compared to the leaf! but not zero, I guess, and I like how it looks/smells too

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

*I'm not trying the indoors because the windows have weird coating that killed mint (despite a sunny seeming apartment)

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

currently I'm doing inside by night, outside by day for lemongrass and tbh it is becoming purple which is probably bad. prob going to harvest it all this week

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Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD

Andrea Peterson @andreapeterson.bsky.social · 1d

A moss crab looking pretty at the Monterey Bay Aquarium 🦀

#MarineLife #Crabs #LoxorhynchusCrispatus #Decorator #Pacific #WestCoast #MBARI #Photography #MontereyBay

A moss crab with a chunk of kelp on its head sitting on a rock covered with pink algae in an aquarium

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

my fat fingers = DSB = Deep Sea Biology = the org you quoted

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Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD

Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · Sep 4

For the day 4 #SciArtSeptember prompt riverbank I am sharing my portrait of geologist & #paleontogist Alice Wilson (1881-1964) who mapped the Ottawa-St Lawrence river valley. 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬⚒️
⁠
After completing her BSc in ‘11 she was 1st woman offered a position at GSC & 1st female geologist in #Canada. 🧵

Linocut portrait of a young Alice Wilson with her hands under her chin printed in gold ink. Behind her is her own geological map of the Ottawa Valley with the different features on collaged translucent Japanese papers in raspberry, purple, yellow, pale blue, and beige in inks of similar but darker hues. “OTTAWA RIVER” is marked but the final R is obscured by her head.

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Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD

Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 1d

A very good morning from this unimpressed glyptodon model - which was to be one of twelve real scale sculptures in Ciutadella Park, Barcelona.

Only a mammoth was completed before the project ended in 1910

(All the models are here:
mdc.csuc.cat/digital/coll...)

black and white photo. Close-up of a model glyptodon head. it has quite the facial expression

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

@the-episiarch.bsky.social

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

Haha I made a thread of many Halloween themed crabs last year

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · Oct 31

Quick thread of the many crabs named for Halloween related topics. This one is Gecarcinus quadratus, aka THE Halloween crab 🦀

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · Sep 12

Interested in carcinization? 🦀🧪🦑 #invertebrate
Check out the Crab Time feed by liking/pinning here,
bsky.app/profile/did:...
and let me or @lucidillusions.in know if you want to post crabs!

How can you say no to this face?

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

Lol just realized this plus the photo set really embrace the pre-made vegan proteins. I don't even eat them that much, literally finishing up some beans and rice rn

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

I'll describe how I do caesar too then. Rip up kale (or lettuce tbh). Halved cherry tomatoes, cut avocado, croutons, plant based dressing. If I have it, lightlife vegan bacon

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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 1d

I make salads with it too! It's good in a caesar, or this

kale salad with pecorino and walnuts

Cut into thin threads and tossed with vinegar-soaked golden raisins, sharp cheese, toasted walnuts and crispy breadcrumbs, I could eat a mile of this kale.

smittenkitchen.com

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