Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD
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trosborne.bsky.social
Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD
@trosborne.bsky.social
320 followers 310 following 170 posts
Mariana Islands invertebrate conservation biologist 🏝️🇲🇵 Postdoc on ant locomotion 🐜 PhD in Pacific Island land snails 🐌🐚 I go by Rose, she/her 🖖
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trosborne.bsky.social
Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD @trosborne.bsky.social · Feb 19
Check out our new paper on inclusive fieldwork!

As The Forces That Be try to make science more exclusionary, fostering accessible, equitable, and diverse research teams is resistance. Be the change you want to see in your world. The #JoyOfMolluscs is for everyone 🐌✊
doi.org/10.4003/006....
Figure legend: A conceptual framework describing key components for inclusive fieldwork planning and best practices. QR code links to “Inclusive Fieldwork Resources from the American Malacological Society” (American Malacological Society 2024). QR code link: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25050557.v2 Figure legend: Assessment of field excursion risk level based on the remoteness of the field site, familiarity with the field site, researcher identity as it may relate to being otherized or make one a target for certain risks, team size, duration of field excursion, and team members' experience levels. See the main text for descriptions of factors represented by axes and four hypothetical field excursions represented in the figure. Axis values increase from 0 at the center of the graph to maximal at the outside edges. Except for team size, the risk increases as axis values increase; both very large and very small team sizes are risky. Note that team members' familiarity with the field site and experience levels are inversely correlated with risk. Our assessments of these axes are rough approximations and by no means universal; for example, some of the worst field situations can occur close to home, in familiar, nearby sites. “Med” = medium.
Reposted by Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD
emojimeadow.bsky.social
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December 5, 2025 at 3:46 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Lovely piece from @anngawel.bsky.social on akaleha' tree snails in Guam & the CNMI. Dr. Gawel visited Rota to hear from elders on how they collected & used akaleha'. And she helped me map living akaleha' & showed me an akaleha' site I didn't know! #JoyOfMolluscs
www.guampdn.com/lifestyle/st...
Start small, start now: Akaleha’—our forests’ living gems
When you grow up in Micronesia, you can sometimes feel a bit small and overlooked compared to the rest of the world. After all, “Micro,” meaning “small,” is literally in
www.guampdn.com
December 4, 2025 at 3:53 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
- obsessed with slugs as a kid
- learned in 8th grade that paid to play with slugs = "biology"
- research opportunities in undergrad & grad school for shelled snails, so I expanded my horizons to the shelly
- postdoc was ending & saw a job posting for snail conservation on a tropical Pacific Island
I stand under a tree in a tropical rainforest on Rota Island in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. I gaze up at the tree, searching its leaves for endangered tree snails (Rota tree snails, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta, scientific name: Partula lutaensis). I stand on a fern-covered slope, flanked by limestone cliffs. The forest behind me glows in the sunlight. An endangered tree snail (Rota tree snail, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta, scientific name: Partula lutaensis) crawls on a coconut palm frond. Its shell is beige, and its foot and tentacles are pale, translucent gray.
November 23, 2025 at 11:43 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
Slug fight!!!!
#JoyOfMolluscs

www.instagram.com/reel/DRPkgRx...
Nature on Instagram: "It’s a surprising showdown in slow motion: two slugs fiercely battling over food by swinging their mouthparts at each other in a slug-sized duel. Though often thought of as slow ...
Learn about the fascinating world of slugs and their unique behavior, where they show a competitive side when resources are scarce. Explore how they use their radula and mouthparts to fight for food a...
www.instagram.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Reposted by Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD
elizabethbeston.bsky.social
Cutie baby sea snails hanging out.
#marineplankton 🦑
November 16, 2025 at 6:34 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
#HappyHalloween!
Did you know -
Hermit crabs use snail skeletons to cover their butts 😱
🐚 Hermit crabs don't build their shells
🐌 But snails do!
A snail's shell is its skeleton and grows as the snail grows. Hermit crabs use dead snails' shells protect their soft backsides. Creepy!
☠️ #JoyOfMolluscs
A hermit crab inside an adult akaleha' tree snail shell. A small hermit crab inside a subadult akaleha' tree snail shell. A large hermit crab inside a seashell.
October 30, 2025 at 11:19 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
a boy and a girl are sitting at a desk and the girl says " it 's october 3rd "
ALT: a boy and a girl are sitting at a desk and the girl says " it 's october 3rd "
media.tenor.com
October 2, 2025 at 9:58 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
These 2 showed up on our doorstep just days after my birthday, when they were maybe 2 months old. Raising them is the unexpected birthday gift that keeps on giving 🖤🖤
Woman with two small black dogs
October 1, 2025 at 8:40 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
Happy #MolluscMonday!
Snail shells in traditional Pacific arts:
🐚In the Marianas, Chamorro & Refaluwasch people used akaleha' tree snails to make beaded bags & jewelry
🌏Many Pacific cultures use seashells for islands in stick chart maps, combining art, science, & geography
#JoyOfMolluscs
Akaleha' shell purse. Stick chart of the Marshall Islands.
September 21, 2025 at 10:11 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
Clara Peeters clearly had excellent taste in still-life subject #JoyOfMolluscs 🐚
womensartbluesky.bsky.social womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · Sep 19
The Prado, national art gallery of Spain, founded in 1819, only hosted its first solo exhibition of a female artist's work in 2016, 17thc painter Clara Peeters (her work below), not untypical of many major galleries across the world....
#WomensArtHistory
Painting featuring eight differently coloured and shaped sea shell and an empty glasd on a wooden table top
September 19, 2025 at 6:08 AM
Reposted by Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD
xkcd.com
Biology Department

xkcd.com/3140/
Comic. [Building with large sign in front of it[ SIGN: Welcome to the *Biology Department* It has been [changeable sign: 3] days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality
September 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
Want an #SnailSunday challenge? 🤓 Try to find the snails in these photos!
Partula lutaensis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta)

Answers in the alt text

This snail was much harder to find in the field than in the photo

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 1/5
Snail hanging from the underside of the right leaf of sapling.
August 31, 2025 at 12:30 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Sometimes, I confuse baby akaleha’ (Mariana Islands tree snails in Family Partulidae) with other, smaller species

Here’s what a baby akaleha’ looks like 👶🐌
#InverteFest #SnailSaturday #JoyOfMolluscs 1/4
Juvenile Partula lutaensis on the underside of a leaf, with one tentacle extended.
August 30, 2025 at 2:07 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Liardetia sp., Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 🇲🇵

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs
Tiny, disc-shaped snail, which has stuck itself to the underside of a leaf.
August 29, 2025 at 5:35 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Elasmias cf. quadrasi, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs
Small snail hanging on a leaf. Small snail held in a researcher’s fingers, with the shell opening facing the camera.
August 29, 2025 at 4:07 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Cocoon, Guam

#InverteFest
Tan cocoon hanging from the underside of a limeberry branch.
August 29, 2025 at 2:19 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Speedy Omphalotropis land snail crawling along the inside of a plastic terrarium 🏎️

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌
August 28, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD
tinylongwing.bsky.social
Out in the CNMI here, where I currently am, the best answer I know of is the local Golden Huntsman, Olios sp. Relatively abundant among the spiders here, but undescribed regardless.

#InverteFest #spiders 🌏🧪
Photo of a pale yellow huntsman spider underneath a leaf. It is relatively small compared to most well-known huntsman species at about 1-2 inches in diameter. It has fuzzy legs, a gray abdomen, and a bunch of tiny black eyes on the front of its face.
August 27, 2025 at 9:37 AM
trosborne.bsky.social
Some invasive inverts in the Mariana Islands

1️⃣ coconut rhinoceros beetle 🪲
These jerks are on Rota, but our invasive species team keeps them contained 🏅

2️⃣ succineid snails 🐌
We might have native ones, too, but this one was at my apt, so I think it's introduced

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 1/3
Bucket of coconut rhinoceros beetles, slowly dying in ethanol. Succineid land snail crawling on a white surface next to a mm ruler. Shell is about 15 mm long.
August 27, 2025 at 10:49 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
Want an #InverteFest challenge? 🤓 Try to find the snails in these photos!
Partula lutaensis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta)

Answers in the alt text

We’ll start off easy…

#JoyOfMolluscs 🐌 1/5
Snail hanging from the underside of the lowest, left-most leaf of sapling.
August 26, 2025 at 10:49 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
Samoana fragilis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha'), found on Rota Island in the Northern Mariana Islands and on Guam

These snails have translucent shells, so color differences are from their flesh, not their shells

#InverteFest #JoyOfMolluscs 🐌
Snail crawling up a screw pine leaf. The flesh under the largest shell whorl is bright yellow with thin, dark brown lines. Under smaller whorls, the snail is mostly dark brown with yellow splotches. The snail’s head is dark gray, and its tail is pale gray. Snail crawling up a tree trunk. The snail’s upper tentacles and the top of its head are dark gray, and its lower tentacles, foot, and tail are pale beige. The flesh under the snail’s shell is dark brown with large, pale gold splotches. Snail hanging from the underside of a leaf. Under the largest shell whorl, the snail has large, golden splotches on dark brown. Under smaller whorls, the snail is mostly dark brown with smaller golden spots.
August 26, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Reposted by Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD
jopabinia.bsky.social
#InverteFest
trevorpadgett.bsky.social Trevor Padgett @trevorpadgett.bsky.social · Aug 25
Semi-snails (Megaustenia app.) of Vietnam: an evolutionary link between slugs (no shell) & snails (full shell).

Their shells are thin & incomplete, & need to be covered by their skin ('mantle') which offers protection, camouflage, & secretes calcium carbonate to build more shell.

#Vietnam #snail
August 25, 2025 at 11:12 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
Happy #MolluscMonday of #InverteFest!
Please enjoy these Partula lutaensis (Family Partulidae, Chamorro: akaleha' Luta)
These snails are only found on Rota Island in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 🏝️
#JoyOfMolluscs #MolluskMonday 1/2
Two snails hang next to each other on a leaf. One has a yellow shell with a white lip at the opening. The other has a pink-tinged binge shell. A snail hangs from the underside of a palm frond. A snail crawling on a branch, as viewed from behind. The snail’s shell is pale lemon yellow near the opening, with an ever-widening dark brown stripe around the spiral towards the shell tip. Snail crawling on the underside of a leaf. The shell is light beige with a dark brown lip at the shell opening and a dark brown brown stripe around the spiral. The snail’s head is dark gray with long tentacles, and its tail is light gray.
August 25, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by Teresa Rose Osborne, PhD
schmidtocean.bsky.social
Clearly amazing appearance around 888m in #MarDelPlataCanyon: Amphitretus sp. This telescope octopus has adapted to live in a place where there is nowhere to hide but in plain sight. Deep gratitude to @autsquidsquad.bsky.social for species ID. Description on Insta: www.instagram.com/reel/DNittGh...
August 19, 2025 at 5:08 PM
trosborne.bsky.social
Incredible glass models of soft-bodied inverts 😍

vt.tiktok.com/ZSSTt9pFB/
TikTok - Make Your Day
vt.tiktok.com
August 14, 2025 at 6:49 AM