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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

@coastalpaleo.bsky.social

4.6K followers 1.1K following 1.9K posts

Marine mammal paleontologist, artist, snorkeler, beachcomber, tidepool enthusiast. Blog: www.coastalpaleo.blogspot.com

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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · Aug 27

New #watercolor - the skull that launched a thousand papers - Aetiocetus weltoni, the ~25 myo toothed baleen whale that likely had teeth and baleen - from the Oligocene of Oregon. I started this last winter and only finally finished it yesterday. 🐡 🦖🐬 #sciart #whaleontology #whalewednesday #art

A watercolor painting of a toothed baleen whale skull in side view. The jaws are closed, and the skull has a rather large eye socket; the nose is still quite far out on the snout. There are a series of mostly conical teeth that interlock like a crocodile.

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Emil L’Amour @vireosy.bsky.social · 10h

leopard among the forest

(Swim On 7, 2021) #art #sciart 🎨🦑🦈

Illustration of a kelp forest in a teal ocean, rays of golden sunlight streaming in from above. Fish are swimming about, and near the bottom of a prominent kelp strand, a partially obscured leopard shark leisurely patrols the underwater forest. The palette predominantly features warmer teals, red violet, and gold.

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 8h

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 7h

Opisthobranchs are also called the "head shield slugs" and a few even retain a calcified shell. Many if not most are herbivores rather than highly specialized predators. They have independently lost their shells from shelled ancestors! Nudis in dark blue box, headshield slugs in light blue box:

A phylogenetic tree of gastropods showing the evolution of sea slugs: opisthobranchs, the headshield slugs, are more closely related to the pulmonate snails, whereas nudibranchs are more closely related to the bubble snails.

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Nicole 🪲 @fossilforager.bsky.social · 9h

Whale Fall pin 🦀🐋🦑

A photo of a large gold-plated enamel pin photographed on top of a lichen-covered rock. The enamel pin features a whale skeleton covered with various deep sea creatures, such as octopuses, hagfish, a giant isopod, a crab, and chimaeras.

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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 9h

This one is technically not even a nudibranch, but an opisthobranch! It's quite beautiful, but pales in comparison to some of our actual nudibranchs. We happen to have some of the most beautiful nudibranchs in the world along our coast, like these:

An opalescent nudibranch; the head and tentacles are pale electric blue and the cerata are orange with white tips

A reddish pink Hopkin's rose nudibranch; the body is a reddish magenta, and the cerata are cotton candy pink with white tips

A California chromodorid with a blue body and bold goldenrod spots

A McFarland's chromodorid, pale purple with gold stripes

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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 10h

Some random underwater photos from #snorkeling in La Jolla: aggregating anemones, topsmelt, a California spiny lobster, and a very lost mole crab. 🦀🦑🤿

A cluster of small (2 cm wide) aggregating anemones; they have dark khaki oral disks and tentacles that are pale green at the base and fade to a pink color

A school of silvery, bluish topsmelt swimming over a field of surfgrass and just below the water surface

A single spiny lobster walks across a sandy bottom; it is blackish brown with black legs that have a bright orange stripe along each one

A pill-shaped mole crab sitting on some green algae in a tidepool

Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Eric Ekdale @eekdale.bsky.social · 11h

This is the single most important video that you will watch all day.

Amy @lolennui.bsky.social · 1d

oh hell yeah youtu.be/nGZOFyLrCwk?...

Slug Eating Spaghetti Time Lapse (With Stopwatch Timer)

YouTube video by Nature's Fantastic

youtu.be

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Marthine Satris @msatris.bsky.social · 1d

This whole thread, looking at the evolution of sea otters and the establishment of kelp forest ecology is fascinating!

Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 12d

27/ Fossil and molecular evidence thus suggest a rich kelp forest habitat, full of kelp eating herbivores, was fully established on the Pacific Coast by the Miocene-Pliocene boundary ~5-6 mya, at least 5 my before the first Pacific sea otter. So, who kept all of these herbivores in check?

A photo taken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium of a kelp forest with a leopard shark, giant kelp, bull kelp, and many fish

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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 1d

yeah, me neither 🥰

Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

The Morrison Man | Tim @themorrisonman.bsky.social · 1d

Still not over how gorgeous the preservation is on that skull.

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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 1d

For #worldoctopusday here is my favorite photo I've taken of an octopus, in a hole in a rock about 10 feet down while snorkeling. Octopus are quite hard to spot unless they're moving! This one is a rather small (perhaps ~2' wide) American Octopus, Octopus americana. 🦑🦀🧪🤿

An underwater photograph of an octopus in its hole; the arm is wrapped around the eye, and pale red, whereas the head is bluish green.

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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 1d

#worldoctopusday Perhaps my best photo of an octopus - likely an American octopus, Octopus americana - taken while snorkeling on the Atlantic coast of Florida back in 2023. I've since seen many, many more octopus here in socal while tidepooling! 🧪🦑🦀

An octopus with a reddish tentacle and white suckers hides in a hole in the rocks, staring out at me; the eye and head are bluish, fading to yellow, and then red; a single arm with suckers wraps around the octopus' head.

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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 1d

You can also read our #openaccess monograph on Xenorophus and the early evolution of dolphins for free, here! One of the publications I am proudest of, representing six years of research.🐬🦖🧪 www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/15...

www.mdpi.com

Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 1d

ugh, bluesky and mspaint really don't play well together. Already deleted and re-posted, not doing it again 😑

Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 1d

#whalewednesday The spectacular early toothed whale Xenorophus sloanii from the Oligocene (~28 mya) of South Carolina! This is a critical transitional fossil, known from about a dozen skulls and partial skeletons. Read more about Xenorophus here on my blog: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-...

A black and white skeletal reconstruction of Xenorophus sloanii, and a pair of photos of the skull and neck vertebrae of the best known specimen in top and side view.

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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 1d

Xenorophus hails from the Oligocene epoch of South Carolina and dates to about 23-30 mya; we reported about a dozen specimens consisting of skulls and partial skeletons - one of the largest sample for any Oligocene cetacean - two years ago in our open access monograph: www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/15...

www.mdpi.com

Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County @nhm.org · 1d

🦅 It's a bird, it's a plane, it's 𝘼𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙨!

Take a peek into the Collections with our Director of Archives & Library, Yolanda Bustos, and discover what exactly this magnificent bird (literally) was.

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

David Brace @davidbrace2.bsky.social · 3d

"3 of cicadas", oil on watercolour paper, 5 /14 x 7 1/4", 2025- $150 (Cdn) #art #sciart

A small painting of 3 molted cicada shells in a column down the center of the page.

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Ligus @greyauk.bsky.social · 3d

This was supposed to be the #SundayFishSketch ...
The bumby snailfish is refusing to get painted at the moment :/ ... I may return to it later or try again.

tiny watercolour of a bumpy snailfish looking ahead
pencil stump for size reference
It looks like a pjnk bumpy blob withe spiky fins

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Ana Silva @7anasilva.bsky.social · 2d

Day 7 Dolphin. Ink and charcoal.
#dolphin #animalart #drawtober #Sciart #natureart #ink #artober

Ink wash and charcoal drawing of a dolphin. #inktober25

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Patrick Lynch @patrlynch1.bsky.social · 2d

An iconic keystone species of the U.S. Atlantic Coast, the Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus), or "beautiful, savory swimmer." For a new project.
🧪🌿🌎 #sciart #wildlife #scicomm #sciviz #wildlifeart #illustration #scientificillustration #natureart #visualscicomm #sciviz #scicomm #crabs #BlueCrab

A very detailed top-view illustration of a female Blue Crab. Drawn with Photoshop and a Wacom drawing tablet.

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Emil L’Amour @vireosy.bsky.social · 2d

spiny dogfish

(Swim On 5, 2019) #art #sciart 🎨🦑🦈

Illustration of a spiny dogfish and smaller fish swimming among stylized kelp strands, white lines of current threading around it and its surroundings.

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Petra Korlević @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social · 2d

Day 7 #Invertober2025 - Scaly foot gastropod (Chrysomallon squamiferum) 🐌

SNAIL. BYE.

#SciArt #invertebrates

semi-realistic drawing of a Scaly foot gastropod, a very fancy black shiny shelled snail with a red soft body but it is covered in little black scales, on a black background.

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 16d

New! Longer body size means more female calves in baleen whales! By Zoe Rand, Sarah Converse and myself

Paper: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Press:
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...

Longer body size means more female calves for baleen whale moms

University of Washington researchers found, in historical whaling data, that longer baleen whale mothers were more likely to birth female calves than males. These results run contrary to a leading...

www.washington.edu

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Reposted by Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 2d

When you hear about Big Tech companies lobbying the federal government to stifle AI regulation in the states, this is one reason why.

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 2d

California has now banned algorithmic price fixing.

The state has outlawed the practice of landlords colluding to raise prices using rental software and AI.

This is a huge victory for renters in the biggest state in the country.

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