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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 1d

The global whaling industry experienced a boom c. 1840-1950 as technology allowed whalers to hunt the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.

Under standard models, we would have expected krill populations to have *exploded*.

Instead, they DROPPED exponentially.

Let's talk about the KRILL PARADOX.

Change in distribution and abundance of southern right whales. (A) Shows historical and contemporary wintering distributions (Figure 1 from Carroll et al., 2018), and (B) shows decline in abundance and subsequent recovery (solid line is the mean, dashed line shows upper and lower 95% CI). Modified Figure 1 from Jackson et al. (2008). Contemporary sightings are divided into regions where large aggregations are seen during winter: Argentina (ARG), Brazil (BZL), South Africa (SAF), southwest Australia (SWA), south central Australia (SCA), and New Zealand sub-Antarctic (NZSA) and regions where sightings are typically of small numbers of individuals per year. The large aggregations are IWC management units and correspond to historical whaling grounds, although another 5 whaling grounds show little sign of recovery. Summer feeding areas are poorly described and so not shown.

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Center for Biological Diversity @biologicaldiversity.org · 2d

A big win for one of California’s smallest native mammals 🎉

The CA Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously today to declare the Pacific pocket mouse a candidate species under the California ESA, granting protections for them as the state conducts a yearlong review.

Read on ➡️ bit.ly/474L4Iz

A small brown rodent, the Pacific Pocket Mouse, sits on the ground with its tail slightly curled around its round body.

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Oregon 🕎🎲 @oregonthedm.bsky.social · 8d

Goodall transcribes field notes by lamplight in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park c.1960

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · 12d

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Great article linking Web origins w/ AI today:
"Hard to imagine a big tech company agreeing to share the world wide web for no commercial reward like Cern allowed me to. That’s why we need a Cern-like not-for-profit body driving forward international AI research."

Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee

My vision was based on sharing, not exploitation – and here’s why it’s still worth fighting for

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Nate Upham

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County @nhm.org · 14d

🐍🦎 We're all familiar with snakes, but have you heard of legless lizards?

Join Collections Manager Nefti Camacho behind the scenes in the Museum's Herpetology Collection and learn the similarities and differences between the two species!

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 17d

The cutest!!! Sea snail larvae are just adorabubbles 🥹
#marineplankton 🦑

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Reposted by Nate Upham

Sofya Garushyants @garushyants.bsky.social · 25d

hey bluesky 👋 visa hurdles mean I’m looking for opportunities outside the US. I’m a computational biologist (bacterial + phage genomics, postdoc in Koonin’s group @ NIH). I am interested in teaming up on funding apps. reach out if this resonates!

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · 26d

Thanks Iroro!

Reposted by Nate Upham

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 29d

Biology Department

xkcd.com/3140/

Comic. [Building with large sign in front of it[ SIGN: Welcome to the *Biology Department* It has been [changeable sign: 3] days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · 29d

Thanks Theresa and Jack!!

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Casey terHorst @ecoevolab.bsky.social · Sep 8

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

www.nsf.gov

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · Sep 8

Impressively, most small mammal specimens (87%) were collected prior to 1980, meaning they were collected without DNA/RNA preservation as a priority.

This work lays the foundation for future fieldwork in the Madrean Sky Islands, especially from undersampled mountains.

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · Sep 8

Mexico's 25 sky islands are mostly unsampled (only the San Luis, Sierra dos Ajos, and Sierra La Mariquita have any specimens) and several of Arizona's larger sky islands have fewer than 40 specimens (Galiuros, Canelo Hills, Santa Teresas, Mules, and Dragoons).

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · Sep 8

Answer? Mostly on 5 of the 54 sky islands: 79% come from the Chiricahuas, Pinalenos, Huachucas, Animas, and Santa Catalinas.

Only 25 sky islands in the Madrean system have any recorded specimens.

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · Sep 8

When & where have species of bats, rodents, & shrews been collected across the 54 mountains of the Madrean Sky Islands?

Damien Rivera in our lab led this effort to find out!

New preprint "Uncovering historical small mammal biodiversity among the Madrean Sky Islands" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · Sep 3

Beauty of a figure!!

Dan Baldassarre @evornithology.bsky.social · Sep 3

Oh word? Birds-of-paradise are just fluorescing left and right now? Goddamn! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

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Michelle says: Be kind. Always. ❤️ @snarkysillysad.bsky.social · Sep 2

Bargibant’s Pygmy Seahorse. #AGoodPlace

Video credits: www.instagram.com/reel/C5iNmVf...

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Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · Sep 3

'Here, we detail the biological, environmental and experimental factors that can affect circadian rhythms of mice and provide recommendations for designing and reporting experiments for in vivo metabolic studies.'
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

The time is now: accounting for time-of-day effects to improve reproducibility and translation of metabolism research - Nature Metabolism

This broad group of authors summarizes the impact of circadian factors on metabolic biology and offers recommendations on how to account for and report biological, environmental and experimental facto...

www.nature.com

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · Aug 31

Just watched "Boy and the Heron" -- legendary!!

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Patrick Vallely @pjvphotography.bsky.social · Aug 28

"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"

Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.

Tighter crop of the same pika, focusing on its head.

An even tighter crop, focusing more on the pika's eye.

An extremely tight crop of the pika's eye, emphasizing their reflection of an early morning mountain scene.

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Crivens Givens @crivens24.bsky.social · Aug 26

At Cerro Pelon, the monarch sanctuary.

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · Aug 25

#teamPeach #booMelons

Sarah Ballantyne, PhD @drsarahballantyne.bsky.social · Aug 24

Stone fruits (aka drupes) are fruits with a single pit surrounded by juicy flesh—like plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines + cherries. 🍑

They’re packed with gut-friendly fiber + phytonutrients with wide-ranging health benefits.

Isn’t that just peachy?

Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · Aug 25

Sounds a lot like this! Workers being converted to 'consumers' and progressively marginalized: youtu.be/4pG-8XLLaE0?...

Consumerism is the Perfection of Slavery - Prof Jiang Xueqin

YouTube video by Prof. Jiang Clips

youtu.be

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Nate Upham @n8upham.bsky.social · Aug 24

Congrats Fernando!! Outstanding work, super great story

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Fernando Villanea @fervillanea.bsky.social · Aug 24

Thank you for the write-up @johnhawks.net in particular for dedicating space to explaining mucin structure and function.

The gene from Denisovan to Neanderthal to modern mucus
open.substack.com/pub/johnhawk...

The gene from Denisovan to Neanderthal to modern mucus

A “genetic sandwich” reveals how a block of DNA entered several populations successively and was affected by natural selection.

open.substack.com

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