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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD

@trosborne.bsky.social

300 followers 310 following 170 posts

Mariana Islands invertebrate conservation biologist 🏝️🇲🇵 Postdoc on ant locomotion 🐜 PhD in Pacific Island land snails 🐌🐚 I go by Rose, she/her 🖖

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Feb 19

Check out our new paper on inclusive fieldwork!

As The Forces That Be try to make science more exclusionary, fostering accessible, equitable, and diverse research teams is resistance. Be the change you want to see in your world. The #JoyOfMolluscs is for everyone 🐌✊
doi.org/10.4003/006....

Figure legend: A conceptual framework describing key components for inclusive fieldwork planning and best practices. QR code links to “Inclusive Fieldwork Resources from the American Malacological Society” (American Malacological Society 2024).
QR code link: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25050557.v2

Figure legend: Assessment of field excursion risk level based on the remoteness of the field site, familiarity with the field site, researcher identity as it may relate to being otherized or make one a target for certain risks, team size, duration of field excursion, and team members' experience levels. See the main text for descriptions of factors represented by axes and four hypothetical field excursions represented in the figure. Axis values increase from 0 at the center of the graph to maximal at the outside edges. Except for team size, the risk increases as axis values increase; both very large and very small team sizes are risky. Note that team members' familiarity with the field site and experience levels are inversely correlated with risk. Our assessments of these axes are rough approximations and by no means universal; for example, some of the worst field situations can occur close to home, in familiar, nearby sites. “Med” = medium.

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · 4d

#HappyHalloween!
Did you know -
Hermit crabs use snail skeletons to cover their butts 😱
🐚 Hermit crabs don't build their shells
🐌 But snails do!
A snail's shell is its skeleton and grows as the snail grows. Hermit crabs use dead snails' shells protect their soft backsides. Creepy!
☠️ #JoyOfMolluscs

A hermit crab inside an adult akaleha' tree snail shell.

A small hermit crab inside a subadult akaleha' tree snail shell.

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Oct 2

a boy and a girl are sitting at a desk and the girl says " it 's october 3rd "

ALT: a boy and a girl are sitting at a desk and the girl says " it 's october 3rd "

media.tenor.com

Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Oct 1

These 2 showed up on our doorstep just days after my birthday, when they were maybe 2 months old. Raising them is the unexpected birthday gift that keeps on giving 🖤🖤

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Sep 21

Happy #MolluscMonday!
Snail shells in traditional Pacific arts:
🐚In the Marianas, Chamorro & Refaluwasch people used akaleha' tree snails to make beaded bags & jewelry
🌏Many Pacific cultures use seashells for islands in stick chart maps, combining art, science, & geography
#JoyOfMolluscs

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Sep 21

Disagree. Jane Austen adult works. It refers to grown adults who still have a crush on Mr. Darcy

Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Sep 19

Clara Peeters clearly had excellent taste in still-life subject #JoyOfMolluscs 🐚

womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · Sep 19

The Prado, national art gallery of Spain, founded in 1819, only hosted its first solo exhibition of a female artist's work in 2016, 17thc painter Clara Peeters (her work below), not untypical of many major galleries across the world....
#WomensArtHistory

Painting featuring eight differently coloured and shaped sea shell and an empty glasd on a wooden table top

Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Sep 15

NPR has already done this story on horse racing

Reposted by Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Sep 11

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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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Sep 7

I don't collect many seashells. My work focuses on the land snails. One of our local artists here on Rota makes some wonderful jewelry, collage, etc out of beach glass and shells

Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 31

How many akaleha’ can you find in this photo? I see 2 ✌️
#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 5/5

Snails hanging from the underside of vine leaves: slightly above and left of center, upper right quadrant of photo behind woody stem.

Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 31

Juvenile akaleha’ are a bit harder to find 🔍
#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 4/5

Juvenile snail crawling on the top of the leaf in the “1 o’clock” position of sapling.

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 31

Let’s make it a little harder…
#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 3/5

Snail hanging from the underside of a leaf on the left end of the branch.

Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 31

Can you find both akaleha’?
#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 2/5

Snails on the underside of vine leaves: lower-most leaf on the right side of vine stem, third-highest leaf on the left side of vine stem.

Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 31

Want an #SnailSunday challenge? 🤓 Try to find the snails in these photos!
Partula lutaensis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta)

Answers in the alt text

This snail was much harder to find in the field than in the photo

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 1/5

Snail hanging from the underside of the right leaf of sapling.

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 30

At first glance, Omphalotropis snails can also look like baby akaleha’, but Omphalotropis shells are pointier and have more whorls
#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 4/4

Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 30

Under a microscope, Elasmias look very different from baby akaleha’. Elasmias have transparent shells and “teeth” in the shell opening
🔬
But since I can’t collect baby akaleha’ to look at them under a scope (they’re endangered), this doesn’t help!

#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 3/4

Two Elasmias shells as viewed under a microscope, on top of a mm ruler. The larger of the two shells is just over 2 mm in shell height. A small projection called an apertural tooth is visible in the shell opening.

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 30

In the field, baby akaleha’ can look similar to Elasmias snails. The largest Elasmias are ~2 mm vs the baby akaleha’ are ~4 mm. Somehow, it’s even harder for me to tell them apart in photos - even with a ruler 📏

#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 2/4

Juvenile Partula lutaensis hanging from a palm frond, next to a mm ruler. The snail is about 5 mm in shell height.

Elasmias crawling on a leaf, next to a mm ruler. The snail is about 3 mm in shell height.

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 30

Sometimes, I confuse baby akaleha’ (Mariana Islands tree snails in Family Partulidae) with other, smaller species

Here’s what a baby akaleha’ looks like 👶🐌
#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 1/4

Juvenile Partula lutaensis on the underside of a leaf, with one tentacle extended.

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 29

Liardetia sp., Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 🇲🇵

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs

Tiny, disc-shaped snail, which has stuck itself to the underside of a leaf.

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 29

Elasmias cf. quadrasi, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs

Small snail held in a researcher’s fingers, with the shell opening facing the camera.

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 29

Cocoon, Guam

#InverteFest

Tan cocoon hanging from the underside of a limeberry branch.

Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 28

Speedy Omphalotropis land snail crawling along the inside of a plastic terrarium 🏎️

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌

Reposted by Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD

Lauren @tinylongwing.bsky.social · Aug 27

Out in the CNMI here, where I currently am, the best answer I know of is the local Golden Huntsman, Olios sp. Relatively abundant among the spiders here, but undescribed regardless.

#InverteFest #spiders 🌏🧪

Photo of a pale yellow huntsman spider underneath a leaf. It is relatively small compared to most well-known huntsman species at about 1-2 inches in diameter. It has fuzzy legs, a gray abdomen, and a bunch of tiny black eyes on the front of its face.

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Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 27

A few more introduced spp on Guam that we'd rather not have in the Northern Mariana Islands

1️⃣ beetle eating flowers 🪲

2️⃣ lined tree snail 🐌
Beautiful, but they don't belong here

3️⃣ great banded hornet 🐝

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 3/3

Line tree snail with a striped, pointed shell hanging from a narrow tree stem.

Very large great banded hornet resting on the underside of a breadfruit leaf.

Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Aug 27

Little fire ants 🐜🔥
These are a terrible invasive on Guam
We're trying to keep them out of the Northern Marianas

In June, I went to Guam with other Fish & Wildlife, Invasive Spp, & Biosecurity folks to learn to detect & ID these jerks if (when) they reach the CNMI

#InverteFest 2/3

Many little fire ants on a peanut butter bait stick.

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