Krista Koeller
@kristalerista.bsky.social
4.3K followers 810 following 5.8K posts
Researching why legless lizards and snakes don't have feet. (She/her) 😷 convergent evolution, paleontology, ADHD, disability rights, grants, whatever my hyperfixation is this week. kkoeller3115.wixsite.com/kristakoeller https://twitter.com/KristaLerista
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Reposted by Krista Koeller
andrejpaleo.bsky.social
Extinct Pleistocene carnivores were diurnal and had high metabolic rates:
"Only basal metabolic rate and diurnality are robust predictors of extinction, even after accounting for phylogenetic and trait uncertainty"
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Macroecology
Results of logistic regression analyses associating traits with extinction outcomes. Violin plots comparing the basal metabolic rate and threat status of living species.
kristalerista.bsky.social
Thank you for broadening my vocabulary!
Reposted by Krista Koeller
sarahmackattack.bsky.social
Might make my own little audio lesson for last minute cramming on the flight over.

"Ok, Sarah. Repeat after me.

Would you like a squid zine?
イカのジンはいかがですか?

Which way to the squid?
イカはどこですか?

Thank you for the squid!
イカありがとう!

No octopus please, I only like squid.
タコはやめて、イカだけが好きです。"
Reposted by Krista Koeller
damienfarine.bsky.social
Very pleased to see our study that formally quantifies the society of zebra finches. They have different types of relationships, and these form tiers, but they do not form a multilevel society.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

This was a very nice collaboration with great colleagues.
kristalerista.bsky.social
Same! This is a genuine PSA. I bought into the stigma against fish and thought they were boring. It’s perhaps the thing I’ve been most wrong about.

They have so many beautiful patterns and colors! So many weird ways to arrange bones! So many superpowers!
kristalerista.bsky.social
Don’t let anyone tell you fish are boring.
blueappaloosa.bsky.social
Fish cranial kinesis model is now listed in my Etsy shop! Hopefully useful for showing the mechanism that opens and closes a teleost fish's mouth.

(Ships from US) blueappaloosastudio.etsy.com

#SciArt #SciComm #BSNM #ArtShop #Fish
Reposted by Krista Koeller
blueappaloosa.bsky.social
Fish cranial kinesis model is now listed in my Etsy shop! Hopefully useful for showing the mechanism that opens and closes a teleost fish's mouth.

(Ships from US) blueappaloosastudio.etsy.com

#SciArt #SciComm #BSNM #ArtShop #Fish
kristalerista.bsky.social
Neat! Thanks for the information! That diagram is super helpful.
kristalerista.bsky.social
They are basically small cows.
kristalerista.bsky.social
Is the injection similar to one you would get for cosmetic reasons?
kristalerista.bsky.social
Not if it’s resting on my ponytail. And if it does start to exert an uncomfortable pressure, it can easily be moved around and adjusted.
kristalerista.bsky.social
I love them so much! How? What???
A profile view of a gulper eel. It has possibly the most massive mouth for such a tiny body that’s physically possible. It also has a small protruding nose and small, round eyes that are very far forward on its head.
Reposted by Krista Koeller
emilyart.bsky.social
#Paleoctober2025 day 6 paleoart sketch of the giant Late Triassic ichthyosaur Ichthyotitan.

#Paleoctober #Paleoart #ichthyosaur #Ichthyotitan
Painterly hour long digital sketch of the massive ichthyosaur in cool ocean waters with much smaller ammonites swimming past.
kristalerista.bsky.social
Omg is that a thing???? I’m 5 foot nothing and am always looking up.
kristalerista.bsky.social
I’ve noticed a lot of the discomfort comes from ear loops, so I recommend the ones that loop around the head. If those don’t work for you, you can copy my weird contraption.
A woman with her hair in a ponytail wearing a face mask. The face mask ear loops are not looped around her ears, they’re hooked onto a piece of wire that is hidden in her hair. It’s basically a headband of wire that ends in small hooks just above and in front of her ears. The wire contraption. It is a thin piece of aluminum wire that is shaped like the top of a head, but with a small bump at the top, to hook around the ponytail for stability. The two ends of the wires are hooks.
kristalerista.bsky.social
Someone is retiring and I noticed they just recently changed their pronouns in their email signature. It’s never too late!
kristalerista.bsky.social
The lizard depicted here is likely Bachia flavescens!

Having more reduced hind limbs than forelimbs is extremely rare among limb reduced lizards, but happens most often in the group Gymnophthalmidae.
americanbeetles.bsky.social
Okay but why did they illustrate it with an adorable cartoon of a limb-reduced lizard
rogerfreedman.bsky.social
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 has been awarded to John Clarke, UC Berkeley; Michel H. Devoret, Yale and UC Santa Barbara; and John M. Martinis, UC Santa Barbara “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.” #physics 🎢
kristalerista.bsky.social
Also the short tail means it shed its tail at some point! Dude is smiling despite the trauma it has experienced!
kristalerista.bsky.social
Three fingers on each hand and one toe on each foot is extremely rare. I’ve only heard of it occurring in some specimens of Bachia flavescens, who usually have just a thigh and shin going on, with no feet!

📸andruisp
A long lizard with a tiny arm and an even tinier back leg. It is scooting along on a tile with its tongue sticking out.
kristalerista.bsky.social
Drepanosaurs: “what if we had even more claws?”
maijakarala.bsky.social
Drepanosaurs have such character!

Drepanosaurus, a Late Triassic arboreal reptile not closely related to anything living today. #Sciart
Illustration of an angry-looking lizard-ish animal standing upright on two legs on a mossy branch. The animal is blue-green with orange eyes and very strong arms.
Reposted by Krista Koeller
jexpbiol.bsky.social
Read this month's Editors' choice, Marine iguanas have lower metabolic rates during El Niño, by Shahar Dubiner and colleagues

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
A Galápagos marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) on a volcanic rock with a wave crashing in the background. Photo credit: Kenneth J. Lohmann.