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Nicole Gerlach

@ngerlach.bsky.social

450 followers 540 following 750 posts

Behavioral ecologist, evolutionary organismal biologist (birds, other verts, & critters in general), & educator. Aspiring Ms. Frizzle. Avid reader. Seeker of tiny moments of joy and magic. she/her. Comments, opinions, & photos my own.

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · Aug 20

Hi, I'm Nicole. I'm a biologist and full-time teaching faculty. I'm primarily a behavioral ecologist by training, with my main research interests in mate choice / parental care behavior, especially extra-pair mating behavior in socially monogamous songbirds like the dark-eyed junco!

A female junco stands on a rock, with her head turned to the side to glare somewhat angrily at the photographer. She's mostly light grey, with a white belly and outer tail feathers. She has hot pink and black plastic bands on her legs.

Three baby juncos in a woven grass nest cup, surrounded by leaves and ferns. They are old enough that their eyes are open (about 7 days old), although they're still covered in dark grey fuzz and don't really have real feathers yet. They have yellow borders around their mouths, so that when they are begging, which two of them are, the mouth is a bright red circle outlined in yellow. The third nestling is hunkered down beside its begging siblings, barely noticeable.

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 1h

I read Laurie Andersen's The Darkling Bride last weekend and it was a perfect spooky season read (despite being set in April, I think?). A great mix of modern cold case mystery, Victorian tragedy, and Gothic ghost story, all set in a Norman castle in Ireland. Definitely recommended. #books 📚💙

Cover of The Darkling Bride: A Novel
Laura Andersen
Award-winning author of The Boleyn King

Cover features a sepia-toned image of an old castle on the top, and a large open book against a shadowy background on the bottom.

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 5h

You’re already 90% of the way to painting annelids! 😄🪱

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 5h

Major kudos to the students from both schools here.

Gabrielle Hecht has no more spoons @gabriellehecht.bsky.social · 22h

Purdue to the rescue of IU student newspaper, whose institution was attempting censorship. Details in alt!

Sara Whitmer
• • •
1h • 8
I'm sure many of you have heard by now that earlier this week, IU k*lled the print edition of its student paper, the IDS. The issue that was supposed to print this week contained criticism of the Whitten regime and IUs further slide into scist control, and they couldn't allow that to happen during Homecoming, when all the rich alumni are in town.
Enter Purdue! The Purdue student paper, The Exponent, owns its own presses. Yesterday, in an act of tremendous solidarity with their biggest rival school, they printed the forbidden issue of the IDS. They then drove it to Bloomington overnight and stocked all of the IDS boxes on campus, just in time for Homecoming.
Solidarity is what makes us stronger, and solidarity will be what ultimately allows us to triumph, if we can ever truly get it together. I hope everyone has a fun, safe day if they're going out today, and I hope we can think about what acts of solidarity we can begin taking to really make this movement MOVE - beyond a permitted expression of upset into more active resistance.
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Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Dr. Brendan Anderson @fossilsndcoffee.bsky.social · 13h

Day168 of photoshopping @lastweektonight.com's John Oliver with fossils in the hopes that he helps save the Paleontological Research Institution

John(H. sapiens) reflecting on what could have been with a specimen of Tiktaalik roseae Don't let PRI go extinct! #Science #SavePRI still going @ #GSA 🧪⚒️

John Oliver holding a specimen of TIktaalik roseae an amphibious creature which represents a transition to tetrapods. In the video bubble is a picture of John Oliver shirtless on the beach with his hair blowing in the wind, holding hands with a green and tan Tiktaalik plush

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 19h

Plan is to rewatch the series, some of which I haven’t seen in AGES, then get to Bloodlines.

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 20h

Not yet!

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 20h

If you say “phobias caused by the Final Destination movies,” everyone of a certain age is going to go directly to the log trucks. But they’re also the reason I still leave my old checked baggage tags attached to my suitcase until I get to the airport.

A movie still from Final Destination. A woman’s hands are ripping the baggage tag from the handle of a suitcase. The caption reads “Where would you get a nutball idea like that?”

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 23h

Image alt-text that I forgot: a mushroom growing from the forest floor. The stem is tan and looks faintly hairy; the cap is covered in shaggy clumps of light pink fibers with more tan on the ends. It looks like your grandma's 1970s shag carpet had a latte spilled on it and then dried badly.

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 23h

I told them this in lecture (and even changed the title of the first slide discussing the evolution of limblessness) and everyone got a good laugh out of it.

Predictably, the answers to this question for next week included more than a few “why are turtles?”.

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 9d

In my post-class wrap-up questions, I ask students what they most want to know about the topic that's coming up next, so I can try to include it in lecture. Next week is squamates (lizards and snakes).

A solid 50% of their answers can be boiled down to "Why are snakes?" #vertz

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 1d

The trail that my dog and I were following on today’s hike suddenly wasn’t, then she decided we were going to push on anyways. I’m scratched all to hell from bushwhacking through cat’s-claw, but I did find this awesome #mushroom (Pineapple Bolete, Boletellus ananas), so I’d say it’s a draw. #fungi

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Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

It's a good time to lean into using Wikipedia as your first point of call for researching stuff. It certainly shouldn't be your last, but it's always a great jumping-off point, with links aplenty.

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 2d

So for-profit AI companies have trained on the world's largest collaborative volunteer project and a precious free resource, to make money for their for-profit enterprises. They have crushed traffic to the volunteer project, starving it of donors and volunteers

www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...

Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors

“With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.”

www.404media.co

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 1d

Oh noes! Here’s hoping it is just allergies and you’re feeling better soon!

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 2d

I think I probably have too much fun writing clicker questions.

A clicker question that says "2. long answer
Is Keanu right? Is the body plan of snakes best described as "a head with a long tail"? Explain why or why not."
Below this is a "conspiracy Keanu" meme with a picture of a scared-looking Keanu Reeves from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The meme text reads "Snakes, man. They're just a head with a tail."

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 3d

It seems deeply unfair that I can get a decent night's sleep and still be tired. Like, what do you mean, 7.5 hours doesn't make up for decades of accumulated sleep debt??!?

Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Kate Jeffery @katejj.bsky.social · 18d

The University of Glasgow groundspeople are going to be quite annoyed when they come in to work tomorrow...

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Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 3d

Violence, scientific DRAMA, and misunderstanding!
Who first asked if woodpeckers get headaches, or if rams are immune to brain damage?
New Paper! I trace the history of human thought on brain injury in head-hitting animals, and it's a wild ride. 🧪 🏺
A thread - 1/🧵
doi.org/10.1002/ar.7...

Graphical abstract for A history of human thought on brain injury in head-hitting animals. Humans have hypothesized about headbutting for centuries. Biological misunderstanding has often been the cause of "invulnerability" theories. An accumulation of biological misinterpretation has led to the belief that animals are immune, despite evidence that headbutting causes brain injury.

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Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Ted Stankowich @tedstankowich.bsky.social · 3d

New in rodent forensics: Turns out Chicago’s viral “rat hole” in fresh concrete wasn’t a rat. It was probably an E Grey Squirrel! This paper is a love letter to curiosity. Sometimes science starts w/ a viral concrete smudge & ends w/ multivariate analysis. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Rodent indent not self-evident: a case of mistaken identity of the ‘Chicago Rat Hole’ | Biology Letters

The ‘Chicago Rat Hole’ is a remarkable full body impression ostensibly created by a brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) crossing fresh concrete in Chicago’s Roscoe Village that became a viral sensation. Whi...

royalsocietypublishing.org

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 3d

#LocalVertDiversity 23. Crow (Genus Corvus)

Most likely American Crow (C. brachyrhynchos), but we also have the slightly smaller Fish Crows (C. ossifragus) here, and they’re hard to tell apart unless they’re standing next to each other or calling, and this one was alone and silent. #birds #wildlife

An all-black crow stranding on a tree branch surrounded by Spanish moss.

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 4d

Had a meeting on my calendar this morning that I had no memory of arranging. A bit of snooping reveals that it was on 15 Oct *2024*, but there was a typo in the original scheduling email, and I never caught it.

I wonder if I just totally missed the meeting last year? (And if I was the only one?)

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 4d

My lecture room shares a hallway with a bunch of administrative offices. I often play videos with weird noises during lecture, like this one today (from a student presentation about Indri, a species of lemur). #vertz

I often wonder what the people in those offices think is going on in my class.

Some lemurs sing in sync | Science News

YouTube video by Science News

www.youtube.com

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 5d

I heard/saw it while on a spontaneous walk to combat the mid-afternoon drowsies, so moral of the story is: put your computer down and go outside more often.

Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 5d

For #Arachtober, here is a spider that's not a spider. It's Petrophila jaliscalis, a jumping-spider-mimicking moth - see the face-on spider pattern, with orange legs and sparkly dark eyes? I love finding these - I think they breed in my small goldfish pond, because the caterpillars are aquatic. 🌿🐙

A macro photo of a moth, seen from the side, on brown bark. The moth has white wings with lots of dark speckles, and a pattern of four orange vertical stripes, plus a row of dark spots above, with reflective scales in the centers. The effect creates a pattern that looks like a jumping spider seen face-on; the orange stripes mimic legs, and the dark spots mimic a jumping spider's row of large eyes.

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 5d

Over four months of hearing this almost every day and I FINALLY laid eyes on one of the singers: it is in fact a bluejay. The Merlin app has never recognized it, though, despite there being multiple individuals in my neighborhood who use it. Maybe it's a very local regionalism? #birds

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · Jun 5

Birders: who is this rusty swingset of a bird (in FL)? Merlin would sometimes ID it as a bluejay, but would sometimes say “hearing a bird” then not light up any ID at all. There were also bluejays making more recognizable calls down the street, so that may have been confusing things. #birds 🦅

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 6d

#LocalVertDiversity 22. Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)

Conveniently, Turkey Vultures spell out their initials for easy ID even when you can’t see their pink heads. T for the dark part of their bodies vs. wings, and V for how they hold their wings when soaring.

#bird #nature #wildlife

A small black dot soars in a sunny blue sky, with trees in the corners of the view, and some wispy clouds.

Zoomed waaaaaay in on the tiny black dot in the previous picture: it’s a vulture! The body, tail, and leading edges of the wings are black, while the feathers forming the outer and trailing edges of the wings let more light through, forming a dark “T”. In contrast, black vultures have the lighter parts only at the tips of each wing.

Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Claire Zagorski, MSc, EMT-P @clairezagorski.bsky.social · 8d

A student on TikTok has been documenting her journey with a professor who “wrote” the anatomy textbook and it’s all a bunch of AI hallucinations.

She’s saying that, understandably, the students are doing super poorly!

Behold what we’re teaching the healthcare professionals of tomorrow:

A diagram of the bones and (some) deep muscles of the hand and forearm. AI says that we only have four digits. It’s also identified a tendon as the median nerve, another tendon as the ulnar nerve, among other issues.

An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the neck. It hallucinated the “ennocleidomasid” muscle, and the “anterior scalpalin muscle”.

An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the lateral thigh. It says that the gluteus Maximus (the big juicy butt muscle) is on the anterior side. It also points to the quadriceps muscle and says “attattment”. It also says that the same structure is the tibia AND the deep fascia of the leg.

An AI generated diagram of the bones of the hand and forearm. This time AI says we have 6 digits. It also says that the radius is the ulnar artery. Among other many issues.

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