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robertborland.bsky.social
/ɹɑb/ 𓅃
@robertborland.bsky.social
550 followers 1.4K following 1.1K posts
•𐑮𐑭𐑚 he/him 𓃰
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speaking of bivalves, today i learned "margaret" means pearl and derives from either an old iranian or persian word ("mr‌gāhrīta" or "murwārīd" respectively, idk which is older). then i had an aha moment over the unionid genus name margaritifera because i realized it means pearl-carrying!! perfect
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Did you know. That the meme-explosion that was the wooden model of Sacabambaspis (an Ordovician jawless fish) held at a Museum in Helsinki, was created by a pioneering Estonian fish paleontologist and palaeoartist, Elga Mark-Kurik. 🧵
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The name Bakiribu waridza derives from Kariri words: bakiribú (“comb”) and waridzá (“mouth”), referring to the animal’s comb-like dentition. The name also honors the Indigenous peoples native to the Araripe region, Brazil.
🎨 by @lacerdajulio.bsky.social
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Happy There Is A Circulatory System Walking Through The Kitchen Day to all who celebrate.
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This would also open up an under-explored angle in Star Wars' setting: how does the spacefaring necessary in a galaxy-spanning polity affect how people behave?
I dig this: what makes sub films work for me is the way the inherently hostile environment outside the vessel turns it into an isolated social microcosm & a pressure-cooker for characters' personalities to spark conflict. [I think of IKIRAE XB-1 (1963), for example.] bsky.app/profile/robe...
I think a sci-fi film about a submarine mission to search for signs of life under Europa's ice would be an interesting idea; a combination of two surprisingly similar settings - submarines and spaceships.
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A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
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happy anniversary of Stupid Lake getting its name [citation needed]
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Phylogeny of tinamous based on whole-genomes and fossils: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... 🪶🧪 (📷Musher et al.)
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Flying Squirrel Loves It Every Time
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One of the largest temmnospondyls ever to exist: the gigantic Koolasuchus was also the last non-lissamphibian temnospondyl to exist. It survived into the Early Cretaceous of Australia when all other stereospondyls were long gone

#temnospondyls #paleoart
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This #FossilFriday I’m excitedly sharing a new #Ediacaran #Charnia brasieri named for my PhD Supervisor & friend Martin Brasier who died 2014. I’ve wanted to name something for him ever since but I wanted it to be something special. When I saw the first one from Inner Meadow I knew it was the 1 🧵
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Sorry spider haters, but this was just the most beautiful beast & I knew (nearly everyone) would need to see it 😉. It sat frozen, up on its toes, on the edge of Leeman (WA) salt lake while I took pics. Unfortunately it was too big (body length 1.4cm) for my lens. #spider #Lycosidae #Tetralycosa
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regular reminder that when i say something is my *favorite* that is distinct from saying it is *the best*.
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i’m just so mad because if we absolutely had to elect an unqualified media personality to be president we should have gone with either of the guys from CAR TALK
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New paper today in @science.org: we date the Naashoibito Member (New Mexico) to 66.4–66.0 Ma, coeval with the Hell Creek, with important remarks on pre-extinction dinosaur diversity & regionalisation in North America 🦖🦕☄1/
Art: @nataliajagielska.bsky.social
🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Had the pleasure of working on the press release image for this groundbreaking research!
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Sound UP! When a gang of young male Superb Lyrebirds surround you, often within less than a metre. I zoomed back to 80mm but often had to lean back to get this footage. I've left it largely unedited to capture the mayhem of the moment. #birds #birding #nature #lyrebirds
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