In my opinion, the most interesting findings were: 1) just how diverse their diets were for such a populated area 2) how many bobcats consumed semi-aquatic prey 3) how ubiquitous squirrels and cottontails were, compared to other studies. Maybe a result of our methodology increasing detection? 2/3
I'm pleased to share that my first paper, "DNA metabarcoding on roadkill stomach contents reveals the breadth of species present in bobcat diets" has been published in PLOS One! (tinyurl.com/4nh3cv6c) In addition to a somewhat novel methodology, we saw some interesting results as well...1/3
Color photograph. Zeus, a tiny black and gray tabby kitten with striking blue eyes, lays on a tan cat bed. Next to him is another tiny kitten, all Siamese white with grey tufts on his ears called Dionysus. The white kitten snuggles into the tabby kitten and seems to be hiding his face beneath his paws. This is funny because his namesake is the Greek god of wine and festivity.
Zeus (left): “I rule the skies.”
Dionysus (right): *faceplants into paws*
Bold of you to be named after the god of parties and then immediately choose… nap and avoiding eye contact. Introvert (complementary).
#cats #BlueskyCats #gato #adoptdontshop #fosterkittens #DMV #adoptme #photography
A tiger cub of tigress Riddhi walking forward through rocky terrain in Ranthambore, its body streaked with mud. The cub’s tail is raised, eyes focused ahead, with water droplets suspended in the air behind it.
Riddhi’s cub. Mud-streaked, steady-eyed, moving with intent.
May 2024.
📍Ranthambore, Rajasthan.
#lensonwildlife #ThePhotoHour #Nature #Photography #Mammals
Darwin wrote in his 1859 On the Origin of Species "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one... from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." #2026MMM
Painting of a herd of Steller's Sea Cows
All individuals of a species come from the complex interactions of their genes and their environment, & the rich developmental endowment epigentically inherited from the parent.
Nothing can replace or recreate that.
In this Anthropocene, once lost, the species is lost forever.
#2026MMM
These words celebrate that each living species is a treasure, the result of an incredible evolutionary journey through mutation, drift, and selection. A species is a miracle of existence. #2026MMM
Since Groundhog's Day we have announced the #2026MMM theme: March Mammal Madness Celebrates LIBRARIES! We've released the calendar, opened the Educator MMMaterials request form, & crafted a sheet of combatant Valentines! All available at the LibGuide: libguides.asu.edu/MarchMammalM...
You get so used to hearing from professional opinion-havers that "everyone hates and distrusts academics and they fail to demonstrate their value" that sometimes you forget it's not true.
Some of my students were really stoked about legless lizards last semester and it warmed my heart!
a creature that looks like a yellow and orange snake, but is actually a legless gecko. or maybe its a cartoon come to life. Its hard to tell as it has a smooth, round head, perfectly round, black eyes, and a slight smile.
Oops I accidentally spent three hours making a powerpoint presentation on phylogenetics and legless gecko diversity/appreciation.
Look at how cute Aprasia inaurita is!
📷 Nick Volpe @nvolpe.bsky.social
There’s a wolf in LA for the first time in 100 years. A collared gray wolf entered the mountains of north Los Angeles County yesterday. Known as “BEY03F” she traveled hundreds of miles from her pack in Plumas County crossing highways, mountains, creeks and valleys.
www.latimes.com/environment/...
me as corbeau pokemon pushing up my glasses and holding a dusk ball. the light looks nice reflecting off my velvety glasses chain. photo is by amiephotos.com!
❝I take it you're here to talk some sort of deal? Better make it worth my time.❞
character: corbeau ポケモンZA / カラスバ
cos: meeee #lemcos
photographer: @amiephotos.bsky.social
Digital artwork of a dragon head caterpillar (Polyura schreiber) with the many dots on its horned head and chubby body rendered to resemble little stars, a few actually being tiny four-pointed stars. Above its head a partially eclipsed moon is framed between its inner horns, and large four-pointed stars rest on the center of its upper head and hang on either side of its head between its outer horns. More stylized rays and stars radiate out into the edges of the image, rich textured gold against a dark blue framing the green bug's body. The caterpillar is outlined in metallic gold and has fairly realistic face details and feet. Art by Moth Monarch.
🌘 "Starchild" 🌟
Commission for @franzanth.bsky.social & at last another of my Golden Orbits.
If you’re not sold on When the Earth Was Green, you can check out at sample at Smithsonian all about the goopiest time in Earth’s history. 🦟
Critters! 🌱
Glacier the skunk is chowing down on an apple in her home at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Until 1993, Glacier would have been in Family Mustelidae with weasels & badgers.
But molecular evidence showed that her ancestors diverged 60 MYA, so she gets her own family: Mephitidae which means, roughly, "stinky."
Some people (too many in academia) just feel the need to make others feel neverendingly inadequate. It’s a really messed up way to live, imo. Like, have you tried being genuinely nice to people? With no backhanded compliments? Kinda feels great, actually!
If you like Pokémon, may I suggest “trading various plants and invertebrates with likeminded individuals”
Ughhhhhhhhhhh. Well, he was wrong!
Yiiiiiikes. I’m sorry that happened to you.
Ages ago, while out in the Triassic of New Mexico, paleontologist Kevin Padian told me - apropos of nothing - “You’re a good writer, Riley. Not great. But good.”
And to this day I think Fuck You Kevin.
Sacabambaspis
Psammolepis alata
Elga Mark-Kurik, Estonian fish palaeontologist, is responsible for making these charming memable jawless fish museum models.
Pterosaurs
Ordovician Marine Life (Gastropod, Coral, Astylospongia, Trilobites, Calymene, Asaphus, Ceraurus, Crinoids, Polyzoan, Pterinaea, Graptolite, Cystid, Lampshell), c.1905-1912
Alice Woodward (1862–1951), a prolific illustrators known for her work in children's literature, and scientific illustrations. One of the few, prolific 19th century women credited in palaeoart.
Sarah Landry's 1975 feathered Syntarsus reconstruction
Sarah B. Landry, her illustration of a feathered dinosaur(s) for the landmark publication "Dinosaur Renaissance" in the Scientific American, were the very first to be published.
marta with dyzio the feathered dilophosaurus from 1997
A protoceratops family from the museum of evolution
Muzeum Przyrody i Techniki w Starachowicach
It is International Day of Women in Science! For this ocassion, a thread on influential women that illustrate prehistoric life🧵
Marta Szubert. Creator of one of the first to-scale feathered dinosar models (1997). If you've been to Poland or Slovakia, you've probably seen her models on display.
This art features 100 bees of various colors and shapes. These bees are designed in a cartoonish style, based on real species. The common name or species is written below the animals. Some bees are moving leaves, scraping plant hair, or sticking out their tongues. Some male bees have hairy faces and unusually shaped legs. There are also baby bees that have just hatched from their petal nests. Cute and colorful atmosphere. There are over 20,000 species of bees, so I only depicted a very small fraction of them!
Bees 🐝
Recent DSLC.io club meetings:
🔵 Cookbook: Animal shelter intakes: making gauge charts with ggforce youtu.be/Fkav5oxt0c0
Support the Data Science Learning Community at patreon.com/DSLC
#dataBS #TidyTuesday #RStats #DataViz #ggplot2
Glad to see you are liking my Anatomy moth series so much. Did you know you can get prints of them too? Framed on the wall they look like little taxidermied weirdness!
Get them here:
ko-fi.com/anatomoth/sh...
When the researchers tested the LLMs without involving users by providing the models with the full text of each clinical scenario, the models correctly identified conditions in 94.9 percent of cases. But when talking to the participants about those same conditions, the LLMs identified relevant conditions in fewer than 34.5 percent of cases. People didn’t know what information the chatbots needed, and in some scenarios, the chatbots provided multiple diagnoses and courses of action. Knowing what questions to ask a patient and what information might be withheld or missing during an examination are nuanced skills that make great human physicians; based on this study, chatbots can’t reliably replicate that kind of care. In some cases, the chatbots also generated information that was just wrong or incomplete, including focusing on elements of the participants’ inputs that were irrelevant, giving a partial US phone number to call, or suggesting they call the Australian emergency number.
people often don't know what's relevant to doctors, and a good doctor's job is to know what follow up questions to ask to get to a correct diagnosis and course of action. chatbots just can't do that www.404media.co/chatbots-hea...
