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Dave Watson

@ecosystemunraveller.com

2.7K followers 320 following 1.6K posts

Professor of Ecology, educator, maker | birds, mistletoe, acoustics, conservation | updates on research, family & other beasts. Living on unceded Wiradjuri country More at https://ecosystemunraveller.com

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Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · Jan 24

Oh, and welcome new followers, welcome aboard. Ecologist here, parasitic plants and birds, biogeography and acoustics, connectivity conservation and evolutionary ecology. Also Amazonia and aquaria, wood working and smoked meats. Welcome
Aboard.

View through an aquarium of unusual size (3.6 metres long) to a room full of handmade wood furniture looking through a very large window to a sun drenched lawn with big tree and sprawling pond. Aquarium has a substrate of brown leaves with a prominent stump with buttressed roots

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Paolo Viscardi @paoloviscardi.bsky.social · 3h

Any idea what this mandible came from? I'm keen to hear your thoughts!

Friday mystery object #523

This week I have a genuine mystery object for you, found in an unmarked box in the depths of the Dead Zoo: It's not too tricky, but hopefully it'll prove interesting to work out. Have fun!

paoloviscardi.com

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Reposted by Dave Watson

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 21h

The global whaling industry experienced a boom c. 1840-1950 as technology allowed whalers to hunt the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.

Under standard models, we would have expected krill populations to have *exploded*.

Instead, they DROPPED exponentially.

Let's talk about the KRILL PARADOX.

Change in distribution and abundance of southern right whales. (A) Shows historical and contemporary wintering distributions (Figure 1 from Carroll et al., 2018), and (B) shows decline in abundance and subsequent recovery (solid line is the mean, dashed line shows upper and lower 95% CI). Modified Figure 1 from Jackson et al. (2008). Contemporary sightings are divided into regions where large aggregations are seen during winter: Argentina (ARG), Brazil (BZL), South Africa (SAF), southwest Australia (SWA), south central Australia (SCA), and New Zealand sub-Antarctic (NZSA) and regions where sightings are typically of small numbers of individuals per year. The large aggregations are IWC management units and correspond to historical whaling grounds, although another 5 whaling grounds show little sign of recovery. Summer feeding areas are poorly described and so not shown.

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Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · 3h

The bird gallery at @mfnberlin.bsky.social is closed for redevelopment, but instead of packing away their #birds, they crated up 11,500 #taxidermy specimens and put the crates on display instead. It's a really interesting - and beautiful - approach to open storage. #museums

A series of wooden crates with glass fronts, containing densely packed shelves of taxidermy birds.

A wooden crate with a glass front, containing densely packed shelves of taxidermy birds.

A wooden crate with a glass front, containing densely packed shelves of taxidermy birds of prey.

A wooden crate with a glass front, containing densely packed shelves of taxidermy toucans and hummingbirds

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Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · 4h

True story. But storm petrels win the prize for largest egg relative to body mass at a whopping 29%!

Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · 5h

It’s National Egg Day, a reminder that although Kiwis may lay proportionally massive eggs, it’s exactly the volume expected by their body mass. The only birds that lay WAY more egg than expected are the only ones that incubate without body heat—moundbuilders! ecosystemunraveller.com/connectivity...

Graph between clutch volume and body mass for all modern bird families with just one dot (actually a black square) diverging from the overall close relationship

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Andrew Iwaniuk @evoneuro.bsky.social · 20h

As I tell my students, if you arrived at a simple answer in biology you have done one of two things: arrived at the wrong answer or asked the wrong question

Claus Wilke @clauswilke.com · 2d

Biology is much more complicated than most non-biologists can imagine. And AI is not going to change this anytime soon.
blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...

We still can’t predict much of anything in biology

Biology is hard. Yes, even for AI.

blog.genesmindsmachines.com

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Reposted by Dave Watson

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 23h

The fleshy sarcotesta of Ginkgo biloba smells really nasty. Some biologists suggest that the stench evolved to attract scavenging dinosaurs (or ancient mammals), which dispersed the seeds. 🤷‍♂️ Maybe. If so, that vile smell is the aroma of Jurassic death. 💀 #dispersal #Ginkgoaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a pair of fleshy seeds of ginkgo hanging in the tree, not yet dispersed. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Dr Mark E Hauber @thecowbirdlab.bsky.social · 12h

What the Solar Eclipse did for the birds: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science

On 8 April 2024, a total solar eclipse disrupted light-dark cycles for North American birds during the lead-up to spring reproduction. Compiling more than 10,000 community observations and artificial ...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Ken Shirasu @shirasulab.bsky.social · 11h

Seeking ghosts www.science.org/content/arti...

These ‘ghost flowers’ thrive without photosynthesis. One scientist is learning how

Japanese botanist Kenji Suetsugu studies plants that steal carbon and nutrients from soil fungi

www.science.org

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Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · 14h

Good morning. And hey, it’s Friday!

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 1d

Impending Clements alignment with AviList
ebird.org/news/2025-ta... #Ornithology #SplitsLumps&Shuffles

2025 Taxonomy Update—COMING SOON - eBird

The 2025 eBird Taxonomy Update will begin on 28 October and big changes are already underway as we prepare the eBird database for this year's revisions. Follow this page for updates throughout the pro...

ebird.org

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Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · 1d

Evening all.

Reposted by Dave Watson

Schmidt Ocean Institute @schmidtocean.bsky.social · 1d

In celebration of World Octopus Day, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite cephalopod sightings, the glass octopus — Vitreledonella richardi filmed during a month-long #PhoenixIslandsCoral expedition in 2021.

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Chris Simms @chrisnsimms.bsky.social · 1d

Naked mole-rat workers may have specific roles, such as cleaning the toilet chamber or transporting waste, rather than being generalist helpers. The findings suggest their colonies are even more complex than we thought. 🧪 #animals #zoology #nature

www.livescience.com/animals/land...

Some naked mole rats are designated toilet cleaners, study suggests

Naked mole rats may have specific roles, such as cleaning the toilet chamber or transporting waste, rather than being generalist helpers. The findings suggest naked-mole-rat colonies are even more com...

www.livescience.com

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Guardian Environment @environment.theguardian.com · 4d

Going extinct ‘right under our noses’: the quiet plight of Australia’s rarest bird of prey

Restricted now to the tropical north, the mysterious red goshawk is fast disappearing as a result of climate change and habitat loss

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 1d

Proud to share a new piece in Scientific American co-authored with the brilliant @lnwilson.bsky.social , edited by @katewong.bsky.social, and featuring this spectacular depiction of the endless daylight of the Cretaceous summer in Alaska by Chase Stone!

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

Bird Migration Is One of Nature’s Greatest Spectacles. Paleontologists Just Found Clues to Its Origin

Tiny fossils hint at when birds began making their mind-blowing journey to the Arctic to breed

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Dave Watson

WA Orchids @wa-orchids.bsky.social · 1d

Research into orchid seed germination shows the importance of deadwood and wood-decaying fungi: 🪵🪾🍄🍄‍🟫

“For conservation, our results mean that protecting orchids in the wild is inseparable from protecting deadwood and its fungi”
#orchids #fungi #nativeplants #germination

John Holmes @jhaue.bsky.social · 1d

Deadwood brings wild orchids to life: Study uncovers important carbon flux in the ecosystem phys.org/news/2025-10... via @physorg_com

Deadwood brings wild orchids to life: Study uncovers important carbon flux in the ecosystem

Orchid seeds are as small as dust and do not provide any nutrients for the young plant to grow. The adult plants are known to rely on a certain type of fungi that develop structures within the plant's...

phys.org

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Perry Beasley-Hall, PhD @pbeasleyhall.bsky.social · 1d

Calling #ICZN people: we had a #taxonomy paper come out w/ literally dozens of publisher errors. Told it can’t be fixed online as that’s against the Code & needs a lengthy correction notice. 😤 imo that would make it even less accessible - is it really our only option?

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Leo @leo-in-merimbula.bsky.social · 3d

Pied Honeyeater feeding on an Eremophila longifolia (from the archives) #birds #WildOz

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WA Orchids @wa-orchids.bsky.social · 1d

When art and nature merge 🪵🪚🍃🥀

A few of the numerous sculptures on display at the Chainsaw Sculpture Drive in Albany on the south coast of Western Australia.

It’s amazing to think these sculptures were all created from wood using a chainsaw!
#sculpture #wood #birds #octopus #WesternAustralia

Sculpture of a kookaburra and tawny frogmouth

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Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · 1d

Good morning.

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Marc Gilles @marcgilles.bsky.social · 2d

Want to know everything about bird smell?
I wrote an "Ornithological masterclass" on Avian Olfaction for BTO News @btobirds.bsky.social #ornithology
Link to the article 👉 www.researchgate.net/publication/...

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Margaret Stanley @ecostanley.bsky.social · 2d

The remarkable rise of eBird – the world’s biggest citizen science project
theconversation.com/the-remarkab...

The remarkable rise of eBird – the world’s biggest citizen science project

In 2002, an online database was set up allowing birdwatchers to record their species observations. It is now a vast resource, shaping scientific research.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Janet Hill @saskajanet.bsky.social · 2d

Look at her go!
#invertebrates 🌿

Screen shot of Project Monarch app map of progress of a monarch butterfly from southern Ontario to Oklahoma.

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Margarita Lopez-Uribe @mmlopezu.bsky.social · 2d

🌼 New paper showing that it's not just pollinators shaping flowers—abiotic factors like humidity and temperature also influence floral form and function. Check out this new paper on a more complex picture of floral evolution. 🌬️🐝
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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