Michael Haslam
@twigtechnology.bsky.social
Australian archaeologist, PhD, obsessed with tool-using animals. Steward at Skara Brae, Orkney | http://twig.technology | writing Intelligence Hallucinated with @abigaildesmond.bsky.social for Harvard Uni Press (2027)
🐒🦦🐙🐦⬛🐝🕷️🦧🐴🐠🪲🦜🐿️🐋🦀
🐒🦦🐙🐦⬛🐝🕷️🦧🐴🐠🪲🦜🐿️🐋🦀
Pinned
In October 2016, I filmed this wild New Caledonian crow making a probe tool to extract beetle larvae from candlenut trees.
It carefully trimmed the leaves and ends, testing its grip a few times, then flew off to use the tool. A well planned heist.
📽️ west of Mont Do, New Caledonia 🧪🪶🏺
It carefully trimmed the leaves and ends, testing its grip a few times, then flew off to use the tool. A well planned heist.
📽️ west of Mont Do, New Caledonia 🧪🪶🏺
Reposted by Michael Haslam
Do Africa’s Mass Animal Migrations Extend Into Deep Time?
www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
Do Africa’s Mass Animal Migrations Extend Into Deep Time?
Isotopes in fossil teeth suggest ancient animals traveled less—making researchers rethink past human societies and future conservation.
www.sapiens.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Do Africa’s Mass Animal Migrations Extend Into Deep Time?
www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
Most people don’t know that part of a Steward’s job at Skara Brae is keeping away the #Orkney Neolithic demons.
I’ve just performed the salting ritual on our visitor centre (the site uses environmental and monument friendly artificial salt) 🧂😈🏺🧪
I’ve just performed the salting ritual on our visitor centre (the site uses environmental and monument friendly artificial salt) 🧂😈🏺🧪
November 25, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Most people don’t know that part of a Steward’s job at Skara Brae is keeping away the #Orkney Neolithic demons.
I’ve just performed the salting ritual on our visitor centre (the site uses environmental and monument friendly artificial salt) 🧂😈🏺🧪
I’ve just performed the salting ritual on our visitor centre (the site uses environmental and monument friendly artificial salt) 🧂😈🏺🧪
“Fishes, but not other vertebrates, are repeatedly asked, in increasingly elaborate experiential designs, to prove that they can feel pain.”
🐟🐠🧪🧠
🐟🐠🧪🧠
November 22, 2025 at 5:13 PM
“Fishes, but not other vertebrates, are repeatedly asked, in increasingly elaborate experiential designs, to prove that they can feel pain.”
🐟🐠🧪🧠
🐟🐠🧪🧠
November 21, 2025 at 5:54 PM
A thoughtful look at the seals and selkies with which we’ve long shared these islands, from @cammy-06.bsky.social.
(Sadly the superb @sapiens.org magazine that published this piece runs out of funding at the end of 2025. Enjoy it while it exists!) 🦭
(Sadly the superb @sapiens.org magazine that published this piece runs out of funding at the end of 2025. Enjoy it while it exists!) 🦭
So good, by @cammy-06.bsky.social @sapiens.org: "Selkie stories often centered female autonomy. Female selkies choose their partners, return to the sea leaving families behind..Giving voice to women’s agency, these narratives shape reality, empowering human women" #Orkney #anthropology #multispecies
Connections and Conflicts With Seals in a Scottish Archipelago
An environmental archaeologist investigates deep-time, mythical, and contemporary relations between seals and Orkney Islanders.
www.sapiens.org
November 21, 2025 at 5:42 PM
A thoughtful look at the seals and selkies with which we’ve long shared these islands, from @cammy-06.bsky.social.
(Sadly the superb @sapiens.org magazine that published this piece runs out of funding at the end of 2025. Enjoy it while it exists!) 🦭
(Sadly the superb @sapiens.org magazine that published this piece runs out of funding at the end of 2025. Enjoy it while it exists!) 🦭
Reposted by Michael Haslam
It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation:
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
November 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation:
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
“those who were left, triumphant and mad at their success, recreated the whole world on its broken places”
Another glittering dark gem from @premeemohamed.com
Another glittering dark gem from @premeemohamed.com
Ooh ooh SONGS NEVER SUNG is live at @3lobedmag.com ! 🥰
It's... it's sort of about birds? (It sort of is not.)
www.3lobedmag.com/issue46/3lbe...
It's... it's sort of about birds? (It sort of is not.)
www.3lobedmag.com/issue46/3lbe...
3LBE Magazine - Songs Never Sung by Premee Mohamed
It only ever spoke to me once and that was to say Do not sleep too deeply. Said upon departure, an aside tossed over its shoulder like salt. I paid little attention; I was staring at the thing it had ...
www.3lobedmag.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:49 PM
“those who were left, triumphant and mad at their success, recreated the whole world on its broken places”
Another glittering dark gem from @premeemohamed.com
Another glittering dark gem from @premeemohamed.com
This headline does not mean what I thought it meant 🧪💋
Ape ancestors and Neanderthals likely kissed
www.biology.ox.ac.uk
November 19, 2025 at 9:25 AM
This headline does not mean what I thought it meant 🧪💋
Still pushing my and @abigaildesmond.bsky.social’s term ‘fixel’ for tool-like fixed objects (incl. ropes, vines, anvils, scratching posts, etc.).
Using tools or fixels doesn’t mean any animal is ‘smarter’ than any other. It does tell us about how they perceive what matters in their world.
🏺🧪🛠️🐺🦀
Using tools or fixels doesn’t mean any animal is ‘smarter’ than any other. It does tell us about how they perceive what matters in their world.
🏺🧪🛠️🐺🦀
Have wild wolves learned to use tools?
Video captures a lone female pulling crab traps out of the water, but does it count as tool use?
www.science.org
November 18, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Still pushing my and @abigaildesmond.bsky.social’s term ‘fixel’ for tool-like fixed objects (incl. ropes, vines, anvils, scratching posts, etc.).
Using tools or fixels doesn’t mean any animal is ‘smarter’ than any other. It does tell us about how they perceive what matters in their world.
🏺🧪🛠️🐺🦀
Using tools or fixels doesn’t mean any animal is ‘smarter’ than any other. It does tell us about how they perceive what matters in their world.
🏺🧪🛠️🐺🦀
12,000 years ago in what is today northern Israel, someone made a tiny clay image of a woman. Mating with a goose. Today that figurine got its own prestigious scientific paper.
The lesson: make weird art. Express whatever is in you, however you want. In AD 14,000 they will thank you
🏺🧪🎨🎭🪿
The lesson: make weird art. Express whatever is in you, however you want. In AD 14,000 they will thank you
🏺🧪🎨🎭🪿
A 12,000-year-old clay figurine of a woman and a goose marks symbolic innovations in Southwest Asia | PNAS
Paleolithic representations of human–animal interaction are rare, with only a few
painted or engraved examples recorded in Upper Paleolithic contex...
www.pnas.org
November 17, 2025 at 10:19 PM
12,000 years ago in what is today northern Israel, someone made a tiny clay image of a woman. Mating with a goose. Today that figurine got its own prestigious scientific paper.
The lesson: make weird art. Express whatever is in you, however you want. In AD 14,000 they will thank you
🏺🧪🎨🎭🪿
The lesson: make weird art. Express whatever is in you, however you want. In AD 14,000 they will thank you
🏺🧪🎨🎭🪿
Reposted by Michael Haslam
Do bees see nothing? Primates with damage to the visual cortex have no conscious visual experience, but display adaptive visual behaviour (a phenomenon called blindsight). Here I team up with two primate researchers to ask if bee vision could be similar to blindsight. www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
November 17, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Do bees see nothing? Primates with damage to the visual cortex have no conscious visual experience, but display adaptive visual behaviour (a phenomenon called blindsight). Here I team up with two primate researchers to ask if bee vision could be similar to blindsight. www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
Reposted by Michael Haslam
What does it feel like to be a remora?
It seems that, despite the benefits they provide, whales do not like their presence and do everything they can to get rid of them. They observe them, jump several times, and check again to see if they are still there.
(blog) phys.org/news/2025-11...
It seems that, despite the benefits they provide, whales do not like their presence and do everything they can to get rid of them. They observe them, jump several times, and check again to see if they are still there.
(blog) phys.org/news/2025-11...
November 15, 2025 at 4:46 PM
What does it feel like to be a remora?
It seems that, despite the benefits they provide, whales do not like their presence and do everything they can to get rid of them. They observe them, jump several times, and check again to see if they are still there.
(blog) phys.org/news/2025-11...
It seems that, despite the benefits they provide, whales do not like their presence and do everything they can to get rid of them. They observe them, jump several times, and check again to see if they are still there.
(blog) phys.org/news/2025-11...
Why did consciousness evolve?
What’s it for?
The latest issue of @royalsociety.org Philosophical Transactions B has a series of papers from very smart people on this topic, covering all kinds of creatures 🧠🧪🤔
royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
What’s it for?
The latest issue of @royalsociety.org Philosophical Transactions B has a series of papers from very smart people on this topic, covering all kinds of creatures 🧠🧪🤔
royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1939
Can't sign in? Forgot your password?
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 13, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Why did consciousness evolve?
What’s it for?
The latest issue of @royalsociety.org Philosophical Transactions B has a series of papers from very smart people on this topic, covering all kinds of creatures 🧠🧪🤔
royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
What’s it for?
The latest issue of @royalsociety.org Philosophical Transactions B has a series of papers from very smart people on this topic, covering all kinds of creatures 🧠🧪🤔
royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
Reposted by Michael Haslam
3 year postdoc funded by @ukri.org NERC on between-group cooperation in the Shark Bay dolphins is now live - please share widely 🙏 www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...
Details | Working at Bristol | University of Bristol
University of Bristol Beacon House Queens Road Bristol, BS8 1QU, UK Tel: +44 (0)117 928 9000 Contact us
www.bristol.ac.uk
November 10, 2025 at 9:43 AM
3 year postdoc funded by @ukri.org NERC on between-group cooperation in the Shark Bay dolphins is now live - please share widely 🙏 www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...
On the left, Alan Turing’s 1950 paper introducing the imitation game, where he says that using public polling as a guide to whether machines are intelligent is absurd.
On the right, yesterday’s NYT opinion piece using public polling as a guide to whether machines are intelligent.
🧪🤖
On the right, yesterday’s NYT opinion piece using public polling as a guide to whether machines are intelligent.
🧪🤖
November 9, 2025 at 12:09 PM
On the left, Alan Turing’s 1950 paper introducing the imitation game, where he says that using public polling as a guide to whether machines are intelligent is absurd.
On the right, yesterday’s NYT opinion piece using public polling as a guide to whether machines are intelligent.
🧪🤖
On the right, yesterday’s NYT opinion piece using public polling as a guide to whether machines are intelligent.
🧪🤖
Watching @realgdt.bsky.social’s excellent new Frankenstein film reminded me of a specific passage from the book.
Mary Shelley wanted somewhere extremely remote and depressing for Victor Frankenstein to create the companion for his ‘monster’. So she sent him to…Orkney
📚🧬⚡️
Mary Shelley wanted somewhere extremely remote and depressing for Victor Frankenstein to create the companion for his ‘monster’. So she sent him to…Orkney
📚🧬⚡️
November 9, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Watching @realgdt.bsky.social’s excellent new Frankenstein film reminded me of a specific passage from the book.
Mary Shelley wanted somewhere extremely remote and depressing for Victor Frankenstein to create the companion for his ‘monster’. So she sent him to…Orkney
📚🧬⚡️
Mary Shelley wanted somewhere extremely remote and depressing for Victor Frankenstein to create the companion for his ‘monster’. So she sent him to…Orkney
📚🧬⚡️
Update: the Buckquoy Pictish site and surrounding coast looking their best this afternoon 🏺
November 7, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Update: the Buckquoy Pictish site and surrounding coast looking their best this afternoon 🏺
Excellent thread on new dates from the #Orkney Pictish Buckquoy site, 5 minutes from my house.
If you’re visiting the Norse settlement (or looking for puffins) on the Brough of Birsay, this site is beside the carpark before you walk across to the Brough at low tide 🏺🧪🌊
If you’re visiting the Norse settlement (or looking for puffins) on the Brough of Birsay, this site is beside the carpark before you walk across to the Brough at low tide 🏺🧪🌊
NEW Were the Picts of northern Scotland wiped out by Viking conquest? New radiocarbon dates from the 1st millennium AD settlement of Buckquoy, Orkney paint a more complex picture of cultural interaction in the Northern Isles.
#AntiquityThread 1/15 🧵
@northernpicts.bsky.social🏺 #Archaeology
#AntiquityThread 1/15 🧵
@northernpicts.bsky.social🏺 #Archaeology
November 7, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Excellent thread on new dates from the #Orkney Pictish Buckquoy site, 5 minutes from my house.
If you’re visiting the Norse settlement (or looking for puffins) on the Brough of Birsay, this site is beside the carpark before you walk across to the Brough at low tide 🏺🧪🌊
If you’re visiting the Norse settlement (or looking for puffins) on the Brough of Birsay, this site is beside the carpark before you walk across to the Brough at low tide 🏺🧪🌊
Reposted by Michael Haslam
Looking for a different gift idea this year? How about a #kakapo adoption? Adoptions are open again until 25th Nov, with postage or email options. These fund a significant proportion of our programme and make a real difference to the #conservation work we do. Thanks! www.doc.govt.nz/our-work/kak...
Adopt a kākāpō
Kākāpō adoptions are a special way to support the conservation of this taonga species. You can adopt a kākāpō for yourself or as a gift.
www.doc.govt.nz
November 4, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Looking for a different gift idea this year? How about a #kakapo adoption? Adoptions are open again until 25th Nov, with postage or email options. These fund a significant proportion of our programme and make a real difference to the #conservation work we do. Thanks! www.doc.govt.nz/our-work/kak...
Reposted by Michael Haslam
Our seminar on animal agency, between biology and philosophy, is back !
Check out the programme for the next sessions here !
We meet on the second Wednesday of each month, on Zoom, from 4 to 5 PM (UK time).
You’re very welcome to join ! :)
www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...
Check out the programme for the next sessions here !
We meet on the second Wednesday of each month, on Zoom, from 4 to 5 PM (UK time).
You’re very welcome to join ! :)
www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...
Seminar Agency between Biology and Philosophy 2025/2026
Here, you will find the 2025-2026 programme, and general information about our seminar. The introductory post can be found here.ProgrammeThis year, we will meet each second Wednesday of each month, fr...
www.animalinventiveness.com
November 2, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Our seminar on animal agency, between biology and philosophy, is back !
Check out the programme for the next sessions here !
We meet on the second Wednesday of each month, on Zoom, from 4 to 5 PM (UK time).
You’re very welcome to join ! :)
www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...
Check out the programme for the next sessions here !
We meet on the second Wednesday of each month, on Zoom, from 4 to 5 PM (UK time).
You’re very welcome to join ! :)
www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...
What spooky #Orkney site is this?
It’s the view inside House 7 at Skara Brae, the one we keep locked. The only two skeletons found at this ancient village were under the wall to the left. Look closely to see Neolithic carvings in the stone, made over 4500 years ago….if you dare
#Halloween 🏺💀
It’s the view inside House 7 at Skara Brae, the one we keep locked. The only two skeletons found at this ancient village were under the wall to the left. Look closely to see Neolithic carvings in the stone, made over 4500 years ago….if you dare
#Halloween 🏺💀
October 31, 2025 at 8:18 PM
What spooky #Orkney site is this?
It’s the view inside House 7 at Skara Brae, the one we keep locked. The only two skeletons found at this ancient village were under the wall to the left. Look closely to see Neolithic carvings in the stone, made over 4500 years ago….if you dare
#Halloween 🏺💀
It’s the view inside House 7 at Skara Brae, the one we keep locked. The only two skeletons found at this ancient village were under the wall to the left. Look closely to see Neolithic carvings in the stone, made over 4500 years ago….if you dare
#Halloween 🏺💀
Brilliant new study (preprint) led by @noraslania.bsky.social on how wild eastern chimpanzees observe each other.
'Peering'—or close-range attentive observation—happens in all kinds of contexts and esp. for young chimps, opening the door to new cultural traits 🧪👀
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
'Peering'—or close-range attentive observation—happens in all kinds of contexts and esp. for young chimps, opening the door to new cultural traits 🧪👀
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 31, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Brilliant new study (preprint) led by @noraslania.bsky.social on how wild eastern chimpanzees observe each other.
'Peering'—or close-range attentive observation—happens in all kinds of contexts and esp. for young chimps, opening the door to new cultural traits 🧪👀
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
'Peering'—or close-range attentive observation—happens in all kinds of contexts and esp. for young chimps, opening the door to new cultural traits 🧪👀
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Michael Haslam
Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵
Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs
The selective revision of beliefs in light of new evidence has been considered one of the hallmarks of human-level rationality. However, tests of this ability in other species are lacking. We examined...
www.science.org
October 30, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵
Reposted by Michael Haslam
#CrowCoG is hiring🚨MULTIPLE PAID RESEARCH ASSISTANT POSITIONS 🚨for our 2026 field season (May - Sep)! Field and aviary-based positions - come help us study the remarkable tool-making New Caledonian crows. Apply here: bit.ly/3WlxxHE
October 27, 2025 at 8:57 AM
#CrowCoG is hiring🚨MULTIPLE PAID RESEARCH ASSISTANT POSITIONS 🚨for our 2026 field season (May - Sep)! Field and aviary-based positions - come help us study the remarkable tool-making New Caledonian crows. Apply here: bit.ly/3WlxxHE
Reposted by Michael Haslam
This time of year, spiders receive a lot of attention for their creepier qualities. But researchers value them year-round for pulling off impressive cognitive feats with very little brains.
Spiders Are Smart, Not Scary
Spiders aren't just spooky Halloween mascots. Their keen senses, complex behaviors, and diverse lifestyles make them excellent subjects for cognitive studies.
www.psychologytoday.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:27 PM
This time of year, spiders receive a lot of attention for their creepier qualities. But researchers value them year-round for pulling off impressive cognitive feats with very little brains.