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Danna Staaf

@dannastaaf.bsky.social

1.8K followers 210 following 1.2K posts

https://www.dannastaaf.com/ Author, artist, speaker with a fondness for cephalopods. Books: 🦑 Monarchs of the Sea 👩‍🔬 The Lady and the Octopus 🐣 Nursery Earth 🐙 The Lives of Octopuses and Their Relatives Newsletter: https://buttondown.com/dannastaaf

www.dannastaaf.com

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Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · Jan 27

this may be the pinnacle of my science communication career

How to make a cephalopod. (With cartoony drawings)
1. Remove limbs. (Smiling human with dotted lines at shoulders and hips)
2. Attach to lips. (Human with flat mouth expression, just head and torso. Arms and legs are floating above with arrows pointing from them to lips)
3. See? It works. (Smiling human cephalopod with arms and legs around mouth. Drawing of an octopus shows anatomical similarity.)

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Reposted by Danna Staaf

evocation of potato @stomachlining.bsky.social · 3h

Today in #CephalopodAwarenessDays: #Squittleday! Today honors squid & cuttlefish. This should be done every day imo, I'll take what I can get..

FUN FACT: Cuttlefish have been my favorite creature since I was 5. I fell for them HARD. Here is Ze Frank with TRUE FACTS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDwO...

True Facts About The CuttleFish

YouTube video by Ze Frank

www.youtube.com

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Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 1h

Oh wow thank you so much! I am tentacularly honored 🤩🦑

Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 1h

It's strangely satisfying 😆

Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 12h

Me too 😭

Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 15h

Flamboyant cuttlefish are heavier (less buoyant) than other cuttles, which is why they "walk" on the sea floor most of the time instead of swimming. This poor little pal can't float up to visit the nebula! 🥺 #Inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge #OC_tober

Pen on paper drawing of a fantastical space scene. Two happy-looking cuttlefish float among stars, planets, and a nebula. Below them, a teary-eyed flamboyant cuttlefish is grounded on a planet, reaching wistfully upward. The prompts on one side read: heavy, flamboyant cuttlefish, nebula, angst.

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Reposted by Danna Staaf

Nicole 🪲 @fossilforager.bsky.social · 23h

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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Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 1d

Yesterday's #inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge #OC_tober mashup!

A pen on paper drawing of a small Budgett's frog riding a very large fly. The words "it is Wednesday, my dudes" are flying back from the frog to indicate how quickly they are traveling. The frog is barely holding on by the reins. The prompts are listed below: reckless/bee-killer robber fly/propulsion/meme redraw.

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Reposted by Danna Staaf

Cephalopods Daily @cephalopodsdaily.bsky.social · 1d

It's #WorldOctopusDay!

While I already have a post for #OCTOtober, here's a bonus of some octopus shitposts from personal collection

"Is it really worth it?" meme. Text says "is it really worth it?" and below it is two pictures. The left picture is a flapjack octopus (Opisthoteuthis sp.), probably Opisthoteuthis californiana. It is a small, adorable orange octopus. It has arms that are all connected with gelatinous webbing. It is big round black eyes with orange pupils, and two adorable fins on its mantle that look like cute little eats. The image on the right is a scoop or mango ice cream, which vaguely has the same shape as the octopus. The octopus is circled with a red circle and a red arrow extends from the circle pointing to the ice cream.

A photo of a Curled Octopus (Eledone cirrhosa) sitting in a tide pool with its head and mantle out of the water. It is surrounded by mussels. Text in a black box says "unbothered. moisturized. happy. in my lane. focused. flourishing."

A "live slug reaction" meme, except it is "Live Octopus Reaction" and the image is a low quality image of a glowing sucker octopus (Stauroteuthis syrtensis) Its arms are going out and down with its webbing out. Its fins are tucked in. It is staring at the camera as if you just caught it eating your potato chips at 3 AM.

A blurry photo of a Curled Octopus (Eledone cirrhosa) in a shallow pool on a beach. The octopus is partially out of the water, with its head sticking out and facing forward to the camera. Its arms are spread out. The camera is almost level, slightly from above, so it almost looks like the octopus took the photo, although the photographer's reflection is visible. The beach is brown and muddy. The octopus is orange, with the part out of the water being shiny. A grey, transparent box with white text is going across the image to help make the image look like a Snapchat message. The text says "hey i think you accidentally left me on read haha"

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Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 1d

Happy #WorldOctopusDay! My newsletter today has a guide for teaching tricks to your pet octopus 🐙🦑 or maybe it's research about octopus arm flexibility in the wild, read it and find out!
buttondown.com/dannastaaf/a...

The OctoPost: Happy World Octopus Day!

Cephalopod News October 8th is World Octopus Day, and the octopuses have given us plenty to talk about! The full scope of octopus arm flexibility during...

buttondown.com

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Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 2d

THANK YOU 🤣 this is the balm my soul needs after witnessing the horrors of those "octopus skeletons" in Halloween stores...

A sketch of an octopus with an inset photo of an octopus skeleton decoration. The octopus looks upset. It is surrounded by thoughts:
Help I'm full of bones how do you live like this
My eyes are stuck pointing in the same direction but frankly that's the least of my worries
I can't squeeze my mantle for jet propulsion :(
This body only had one shape!!
My arms are stuffed with muscles to move all these bones
Do I have suckers? I don't even care

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Reposted by Danna Staaf

Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology @sicb.bsky.social · 2d

#WorldOctopusDay 2025- Takotsubo and #Optic Glands: The Poetic Deaths of #Octopuses
with our flagship journal ICB author Z.Yan Wang
blog by Colleen Heck

learn more about the extraordinary circumstances of this species death
integrativeandcomparativebiology.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/w...

#science

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Reposted by Danna Staaf

Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 2d

I love cooloola monsters but let’s be honest this is an antipodean stenopelmatid. Ninos de la Terra Nullius en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammopel...

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Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 2d

I wish I could re-follow you just for this

Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 2d

Per my daughter's request, the #Inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge mashup now includes #OC_tober 😁
I'm actually ridiculously proud of this one 🌊🧑‍🚀

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Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 2d

it's baby 🥹

Perry Beasley-Hall, PhD @pbeasleyhall.bsky.social · 2d

Cooloola monsters are weird, chunky insects endemic to South East Queensland, Australia. They're probably related to king crickets (Anostostomatidae), but not much is known about their evolution. The wingless females live permanently underground. #EverydayEnsifera

📸: Visit Gympie Region

A pale insect with tiny eyes digging underground. It looks almost like a fat potato with legs.

Source: https://www.visitgympieregion.com.au/great-experiences/wildlife/

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Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 3d

A quick doodle mashup today for #Inktober #Invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge

Small pen on paper drawing of a moth with its wings folded. The left wing has two piercings. The dark parts of both wings are decorated with patterns like constellations in a night sky. You know, if you squint.

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Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 3d

Hehe thank you

Reposted by Danna Staaf