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prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Pretty Ugly Things
@prettyuglythings.bsky.social
320 followers 1.1K following 140 posts
Amateur naturalist, serious collector, and appreciator of the unusual things our planet is capable of… based out of Tucson!

Purveyor of minerals, succulents, isopods, and information
https://prettyuglythingsaz.com // https://prettyuglythingsaz.etsy.com
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prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Pretty Ugly Things @prettyuglythings.bsky.social · Jan 12
Oh hi
A greater roadrunner standing at alert
Reposted by Pretty Ugly Things
geohenning.bsky.social
TIL that Japan has a museum called the Chinsekikan, which translates to “Hall of Curious Rocks”, that displays hundreds of naturally formed stones resembling human faces. ⚒️ #Geology

japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/features/jap...
Photo of a rock collection where the rocks look like human faces.
January 1, 2026 at 3:02 PM
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apsciencebylyn.bsky.social
Galaxy Spood 🌌
#InverteFest
There's a tiny Micaria species of ground spider which looks like a galaxy full of stars and I love them 🖤
Miniscule leggy ant-like spider who's iridescent dark purple all over with sparse bright scales like stars
December 31, 2025 at 1:53 AM
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richardgibson.bsky.social
#MineralMonday Quartz, Herkimer, New York USA 4.8 cm. Photo at right shows negative crystals in it, about 0.5 mm each. ⚒️ #geology . No MAGA! Science = Resistance! #standupforscience
December 29, 2025 at 4:53 PM
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mesabree.bsky.social
#ProjectAnimalia continues with
766: Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura)

What can I say about this magnificent creature? Supra-speedway soarer, fence post posturer? I just love them.

#sciart #dailyart #animalart #scientificillustration #medart #illustration #animalart #turkeyvulture #buzzard #vulture
Realistic illustration of a turkey vulture (Cathartes aura), sitting on a perch.
December 28, 2025 at 6:38 PM
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c0nc0rdance.bsky.social
This photosynthetic magic trick allows for the big finale: some sacoglossan sea slugs can detach their own heads from their body (which contains the gut!) & live on photosynthesis for a few weeks while the body regrows from the head!

The body, unfortunately, cannot grow a new head.
This Sea Slug Can Chop Off Its Head and Grow an Entire New Body--Twice
It is one of the “most extreme” examples of regeneration ever seen
www.scientificamerican.com
December 27, 2025 at 5:02 PM
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carlbergstrom.com
The Māori word for the smallest and cutest of kiwis, the lesser spotted kiwi, is pukupuku.

In Japanese, pukupuku (ぷくぷく) is an onomatopoeic word describing something cute, chubby, pudgy, or puffed up.

The two languages are from divergent language families. So WTF?

(Photo not mine; credit in alt)
Little spotted kiwi photo from https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/conserving-our-native-kiwi
December 27, 2025 at 6:19 AM
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callanbentley.bsky.social
Cool contrasting collapse patterns side by side on the leeward side of the crest of a sand dune in Mesquite Flats. ⚒️
Two areas where sand is collapsing downward on a sand dune crest - one is a concave scoop at the top with convex runout on the bottom, and seems to have two (overlapping) slip events, resulting in a sort of "Figure 8" pattern, and the other is more of a boxy rectangular shape.
December 27, 2025 at 3:21 PM
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bug-gwen.bsky.social
As a little treat this morning I am reading @nickybay.bsky.social's 2025 Macro-photography review. 📸 🪲 (1/2) www.nickybay.com/macro-highli...
Macro Highlights – The Best of 2025 - Macro Photography by Nicky Bay
After years of trudging through forests and peering into the hidden lives of tiny creatures, the number of lifers I get should rightfully decline but 2025 proved to be remarkably defiant. This year de...
www.nickybay.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:23 PM
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bug-gwen.bsky.social
I am absolutely gobsmacked by this spider's PINK egg sac he found!! 😍 www.straitstimes.com/singapore/en...
How a mystery spider’s candyfloss-like egg sac in Singapore spun a worldwide web of connections
An American and a Japanese were among people who helped identify the mystery spider sac photographed by a Singaporean. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
www.straitstimes.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:24 PM
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saimihanma.bsky.social
More photos from the special exhibit at the Nagoya City Science Museum.

#InverteFest
A large butterfly model with a wingspan larger than me A locust with purple hindwings A circular display with pinned beetles showing a pie chart of beetle diversity A circle of pinned beetles from small to large
December 25, 2025 at 2:44 AM
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jeffontherock.bsky.social
Splotches of Dimelaena oreina (Golden Moonglow) lichen. Northwest Territories, Canada. Each lichen is several inches in diameter.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends
Photo of a number of large, white, round lichens growing flat on rock.
December 25, 2025 at 10:14 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
We’re having a warm winter and the passion vine is still absolutely COVERED with gulf fritillary eggs and caterpillars.

The caterpillar’s warning is to dissuade birds/predators because they taste foul from feasting on passiflora foetida
A caterpillar with spikes down its back, stretched long on a thin vine tendril. The caterpillar is a dark purplish color with an orange and white stripe down its sides. Detail of a gulf fritillary caterpillar’s face, covered with small hairs like a walrus and striped black and orange. The spikes stick out of its back and sides, and have secondary hairs poking out all along them. Detail of a caterpillar chewing on a leaf, its front three pairs of feet in focus. They are pointed and covered with black hairs, spread to reach for a leaf. Detail of the side of the caterpillar, a raisin purple-black color on the top and underside, with parallel orange and white stripes running the length of the side. There is a black dot along the orange stripe at every diameter where spikes radiate out, with a spike right below the white line and a row of random white dots below it. The feet gripping the vine just look like fuzzy black lumps.
December 25, 2025 at 5:38 PM
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geohenning.bsky.social
Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄⚒️ @berkeleymews.bsky.social
Comic by Berkeleymews. Unpacking presents "What the...? Coal!!" And then the kid looks at the complete rock collection at the wall.
December 24, 2025 at 12:17 PM
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leastactionhero.bsky.social
time to resurrect the victorian xmas card quoteskeet thread happy quahogmas one and all
Old Victorian Christmas card with some illustrated clams with little faces on them and British flags. It says ABSENT FRIENDS [NATIVES] May we soon see them again! A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU
December 24, 2025 at 12:47 AM
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richardgibson.bsky.social
#MineralMonday Wulfenite, mimetite, Rowley Mine, Arizona USA. Approx 3 mm wide. ⚒️ #geology . No MAGA! Science = Resistance! #standupforscience
December 22, 2025 at 4:29 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I just learned of glauberite this year after getting some gypsum-after-glauberite pseudomorph specimens from Camp Verde, AZ, via a local rockhound.

Look at this weirdo.
An opaque white mineral held in a hand over a flat of minerals. The mineral is composed of intersecting random-appearing jagged blades
December 23, 2025 at 8:16 PM
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seafloorscience.bsky.social
The Seasquare 😂

📸 Prof Michael Sweet
Two seastars but one is a square due to a defect
December 23, 2025 at 3:52 AM
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saimihanma.bsky.social
Today I visited the Takeshima Aquarium in Gamagori, which specializes in deep sea animals. I saw giant isopods, spider crabs, deep sea octopus and all kinds of fascinating #invertebrates.
A small giant isopod looking right at its dignified yet alien face Blue jellyfish The underside of a spider crab A weird crab looking at the camera
December 22, 2025 at 12:09 PM
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drkatfish.bsky.social
My absolute favorite holiday tradition is Lampreia de Ovos, a Portuguese Christmas dessert which contains zero (0) actual lamprey but 50 (!) egg yolks, sugar, and almonds - and is shaped to look like a lamprey. Don’t forget cherries for the eyes! #25DaysofFishmas www.atlasobscura.com/foods/lampre...
Lampreia de Ovos, a Portuguese Christmas dessert
December 22, 2025 at 2:36 PM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
I’m prepping some “fairy forest” epidote quartz for sale, and my favorite subtype is when the quartz has phantoms. Excellent zoning!
A small specimen of epidote and quartz, the quartz is more prominent than the epidote which grows in small bunchy clusters between the quartz crystals. The quartz is colorless, but several of the larger crystals have mint green phantoms inside. Detail of the larger crystals with phantoms, showing more complex zoning with fine layers of the mint green inclusions inside like tree rings.
December 20, 2025 at 8:52 PM
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mesokari.bsky.social
Tonicella lineata - lined chiton (2023)

Imagine a really flat slug wearing plate armor; that's basically what these guys look like. All the other mollusks downsized on their shell pieces but the chitons said "nah I think 8 pieces are still in fashion"

#invertebrates #mollusks #chitons #art #sciart
eight colorful chitons with different variations of stripes on their valves. (I drew this so long ago I can't remember what I ref'd, so if I got the stripes wrong and accidentally ended up drawing a totally different species i'm sorry) ink and watercolor
December 20, 2025 at 1:43 AM
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menestune.bsky.social
Good morning! A starfish clearly saluting their greeting. Surrounded by many barnacles and anemones for #crustmas.

#nature #oregoncoast #christmas #crustacean #love #smallwonders #cool #bluesky #nokings #marinelife #photography #seastar
A starfish in a dry tidepool surrounded by many smaller creatures and another starfish nearby. One of their "arms" is bent back toward their "head" in what looks like a textbook salute.
December 19, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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nadwgab.bsky.social
348 of #365Minerals 🧪⚒️

Aragonite:
- A calcium carbonate mineral
- Forms via metamorphism, precipitation in warm marine water, around hot springs and in caves
- A component of mollusc shells and coral exoskeletons
- Named after its type locality Molina de Aragón in Spain #minerals
Blocky twinned prisms of aragonite, colourless and translucent, with some bright yellow sulphur. From Cianciana, Sicily, Spain. Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London. A group of pale brown pseudo-hexagonal aragonite twin crystals. They are arranged in a spherical shape. From Cobeta, Spain. Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London. Aragonite, var. flos ferri. It's a white, branching mass of aragonite with a silky shimmer. From Dufton, Cumbria, England, UK. Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London.
December 14, 2025 at 12:48 PM
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dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social
A jackdaw who has declined my totally innocent, no-catch offer to buy it a drink, leaving us both sitting us at a park bench in awkward silence and wondering how we ended up here.
December 13, 2025 at 5:45 PM
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andersonmineral.bsky.social
Just a beautiful fold!! I hope even non-geologists can appreciate the beauty of what pressure can do to a rock. #FoldFriday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪
Pale whitish rock with black flecks with a black curvy bed going through it in the shape of a mirror image S. The background is pale green. At the Field Museum.
December 12, 2025 at 12:39 PM