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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲
@swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
220 followers 460 following 290 posts
Entomologist, Sevilla, Spain ‪@ebdonana.bsky.social‬, Australian Fossils, climate change studies using Diptera fossils, insect decline and microplastic pollution - once @swarmofthoughts/ Investigador Ramon y Cajal en EBD-CSIC, Entomologo y Paleontologo
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 21d
Hi, I am Viktor! Pleased to meet you, I entomologist and paleontologist originally from Ukraine, now working in Spain, after a decade in German academia. I study amber fossils, Jurassic of Australia, Insect decline, climate change in the pas, and gleefully use Synchrotrons. Languages: EN, ES, DE, UA
Viktor sits on the side of the volcano on Tenerife, Canary Isles, Spain. Slope of the volcano is covered by the succulents and dry shrubbery Interactions of higher temperature and lower oxygen saturation with Chironomidae flies growth and resulting size. Arrow from low temperature to high, shows that flies are growing smaller at the higher temperature, as well as growing smaller at the lower oxygen concentration in the water, where they larvae developing - from Baranov et al., 2025 https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/een.13469 CT scan reconstruction of the fossil of Caddisfly larva (Lepidostomatidae) from Baltic amber, showing general body shape and upclose images of the head. From Baranov et al., 2023 https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2023/3938-caddisfly-larvae-from-amber?fbclid=IwY2xjawM8c6xleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFOS2J1REg2U1hHalRGTVNPAR6ETJYe1UcizRcTcfYbThRHsBMuPRMt6AEimp3kP3f9JUA6C78DzwmTI7gEqw_aem_g3VnlHq5LzbQyBDflhgveg Viktor next tot the hatch of the synchrotron in DESY, Hamburg, standing next to the "Prohibited zone/ Radiation" sign
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 8h
Thanks a lot! Very cool! Yes, fossils can be tricky, even when you know that you deals with Arthropod, its often hard to tell which one.I was once convinced I had a partial onychophora in amber, just to understand after CT that its a beetle larvae...
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 16h
You sent me into a tailspin - my last contact with Anatolepis was in the vertebrate comparative anatomy class in 2011, I had no clue it moved up in the world and was found to be an Arthropod!
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 2d
Una cosa que me molesaba (poco) HPL liberalidad con geochronologia - el va a escribir sobre "depth of the appaling aeons" y despues dice qur el Permico sigue al Silurico :)))))))))))
swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 2d
Es me parece muy ineteresante, que otros paleontologos tambien les gustan HP Lovecraft - you creo que tienes razon completto - Lovecraft ha capturado este sentido de profundid de tiempo, que necessitas para entender tiempo geologico, pero que tambien te daba cierta inquetatud.
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 2d
When i am saying oh no, i mean that I can take daily mail or Bild calling ichtiosaur a "dinosaur", but k do expect higher standards from bbc
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 2d
Oh no, bbc does it agai, calling ichthiosaur a "dinosaur", but the main thing is that @deanrlomax.bsky.social is doing an astonishing work as always!
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 2d
Shameless self plug for this #fossilfriday - our team have published a very bizarre 🪰, that used a suction disc on abdomen to cling to dear life in Jurassic of Australia and helped us better understand continental drift 🦖
swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
thread 1/9
How a 150 MYA fly from Australia helped us understand continental drift 🪰🌏🧪🦖
Meet Telmatomyia talbragarica — a new Jurassic non-biting midge (Diptera: Chironomidae) from the Talbragar Fish Beds, NSW. It once clung to life in a Jurassic lake. @ebdonana.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/2v3kx4h7
The oldest Gondwanan non-biting midge (Diptera, Chironomidae, Podonominae) sheds light on the historical biogeography of the clade
Podonominae, a group of non-biting midges within the Chironomidae family, serves as an important biogeographical model. For a long time, it was believ…
tinyurl.com
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Reposted by Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲
ebdonana.bsky.social
Estación Biológica de Doñana - CSIC @ebdonana.bsky.social · 2d
🦇 El murciélago más grande de Europa, el nóctulo grande, es capaz de capturar y consumir pequeñas aves migratorias en vuelo.

Es el sorprendente descubrimiento que ha realizado un equipo de la @ebdonana.bsky.social y la @au.dk.

🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

➕ info: www.csic.es/es/actualida...
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Reposted by Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲
ebdonana.bsky.social
Estación Biológica de Doñana - CSIC @ebdonana.bsky.social · 2d
🦇 For the first time, researchers have documented how Europe’s largest bat — the greater noctule — hunts and eats migrating birds in midair.

Study led by @ebdonana.bsky.social and @au.dk

🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 2d
For this #fossilfriday I have Pliensbachian ammonites in the center of interpretation of Canyon "Gorges de Sierroz" in Aix les Bains 🦖⚒️
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 3d
Que chulo!
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 3d
Thanks @cesar-morales.bsky.social !
swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 3d
Thank you!
swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
Hi @tetzoo.bsky.social , do you still ship to EU?
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
Yes, he is missed
swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
He passed away in june 2022
swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
Awesome, thanks so much! Paddy was my good friend and mentor, I miss him a lot. Here is Paddy during his last visit to Munich, staying in Bavarian collection of Zoology in May of 2019
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
Thanks!
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
Valentyna Inshyna has supplied this amazing palaeoart with Rhaetosaurus brownei, Cavendrichties sp and newly described by us Telmatiomyia talbragarica fly, reconstructing late Jurasic of Australia #fossils 🦖🧪⚒️https://tinyurl.com/2v3kx4h7
Reconstruction of the lake shore of Talbragar Fossil Fish Bed, depicting several Tlmatomyia talbragarica on the foreground pupae attached to a rock underwater. Pair of Orthogonikleithridae fishes are patrolling the waters of the lake, while Rhoetosaurus brownei is approaching. Art by Valentyna Inshyna.
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
9/9
Me llevó siete años darme cuenta de que las pupas no estaban mal conservadas, sino que tenían un disco al final del cuerpo.
Un pequeño momento “¡Eureka!”, pero probablemente el más grande de mi carrera. ✨ @davidperis.bsky.social
Baranov et al. 2025, Gondwana Research
🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.gr...
doi.org
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
8/9
Nuestro análisis filogenético sugiere un origen austral con una dispersión posterior hacia el norte.
Y deja una lección importante: el registro fósil está sesgado hacia el norte global.
Muchas piezas perdidas de la historia evolutiva aún yacen en el hemisferio sur.
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
7/9
Este fósil es el Podonominae (y Chironomidae) más antiguo del hemisferio sur.
En el norte (Mongolia y Siberia) hay fósiles de unos 180 millones de años.
Curioso, ya que la mayor diversidad actual está en el sur. ¿Se originaron en el norte o en el sur? 🤔
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
6/9
Telmatomyia pertenece a la subfamilia Podonominae, que hoy vive en Sudamérica, Australia, Sudáfrica y Nueva Zelanda: un ejemplo clásico de vicariancia.
Cuando Gondwana se fragmentó, estas poblaciones quedaron aisladas y evolucionaron de forma independiente (Brundin, 1966).
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
5/9
Sabíamos que los fósiles pertenecían a Chironomidae — mosquitos no picadores, parientes lejanos de los mosquitos.
Hoy existen unas 8.000 especies vivas.
Son indicadores esenciales de la calidad del agua dulce y, sorprendentemente, también de los movimientos continentales. 🌍
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swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 4d
4/9
Las pupas (etapa intermedia como la crisálida de una mariposa) fueron descubiertas por mi colega y coautor Robert Beattie, del Museo Australiano.
Ofrecen una mirada única a la evolución temprana de los jejenes no picadores, un grupo ecológicamente clave.
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