Some Messy Stuff

Wahoo! May your sciencing uncover new swathes of knowledge :D

You might know this tiny frog.

This is Mini mum (photo by Andolalao Rakotoarison), a species I had the pleasure to name—together with a team of amazing colleagues—back in 2019.

That was the start of a fascination with the process and consequences of miniaturisation for vertebrates. How the hell does this tiny frog manage to fit all of its vital organs—more or less all the same senses and organs that we have—into a package the size of a tic-tac‽ Why and how has it evolved to be so small? And why don't we get frogs that are much smaller?

Well, I just secured 1.5 MILLION Euros (!!!) in the form of a European Research Commission Starting Grant, to answer these and other related questions in the genomes of Mini frogs and other miniaturised vertebrates.

Because it turns out, there are *lots* of miniaturised vertebrates, and they push the boundaries of how small we think it is possible for a vertebrate to be! Here is a little graphic of some of them, scaled to a BIC ballpoint pen.

The project is called GEMINI: The Genomics of Miniaturisation in Vertebrates! You can read more about it on my website here, and in the press release, here!

I think I'm snarky and rebellious and evil and all that but sadly, deep down I know I'm a soft loser in love with books and bugs and the world and I would never do anything deliberately to hurt any living creature, but you know.....still EVIL because ✨aesthetics✨

Illustrated here is an Ornate hawk-eagle. Just trying some stuff out with watercolor and gel pens

this looks worryingly like microplastic in a slice of strawberry 10× magnification

Horse skull dorsal view

I'm a vet student 💀

@willowcrowley @thatskindarough @funnyoldworld-isnt-it

last google search, go

um. Tag four people.

what do they make sewer tunnels out of

@ncc1701ohno @affixjoy @the-magpieprince @twinkboimler

I don't think it should be weird, for me to put a fruit fly outside

*sob*

[WH Auden]

Aztec goddess Coatlicue aka mythology milf, mother of the sun, the moon and the stars

She's a Killer Queeennn~

Behold, the most efficient predator on earth

We don't respect their 95% hunt success rate enough smh

A certified Duke of a demon