Hit 9,000 observations on iNaturalist today 🥳

Sharing with the #SciArt Feed:

I was careful to stop last night at 1004 so now it’s a little easter egg when you filter my iNat data to go from beginning through April 10th, 2026. Next ones I see though will definitely be going up. Next goal is to encourage more people to go looking so we can reach 1004 cteno observers.

screenshot of iNaturalist page for Phylum Ctenophora. Ja_fields is the top global observer with 1,004 observations. There's also some photos of common ctenophores, a seasonablity chart with its peak in April, and info about total global observations which is 16,389.

It just really tickles me that I actually reached 1004 (ten oh four) ctenophores on Ctenophore Day.

Screenshot of JA’s inat observations showing 1004 cteno observations of 9 species as of 11:34 PM. The latest one is a Bolinopsis microptera. Their phone is at 2% battery and has one bar of service. Truly a nail biter.

I did it! 1004 wild cteno observations uploaded to @inaturalist.bsky.social before the end of #CtenophoreDay!

I had 26 minutes and 2% battery life to spare 😮‍💨

🦑🐙🌿

Thank you 😄

So I've been considering making 3d printed, scaled up, invertebrate models. Probably prehistoric/fossil reconstructions, but some extant ones too.

My hang-up is that they'd probably be single-color, or have very simplified coloring, because I don't want to paint them.

Thoughts?

#SciComm #Inverts

If you think I’m awesome and want to celebrate by sending me $10.04 on venmo @JA-Fields it will help cover summer research permit application fees and transit costs 💜💜💜 *cteno emoji*

Screenshot of JA’s inat observations showing 1004 cteno observations of 9 species as of 11:34 PM. The latest one is a Bolinopsis microptera. Their phone is at 2% battery and has one bar of service. Truly a nail biter.

I did it! 1004 wild cteno observations uploaded to @inaturalist.bsky.social before the end of #CtenophoreDay!

I had 26 minutes and 2% battery life to spare 😮‍💨

🦑🐙🌿

A graphic that reads Happy Ctenophore Day in glowing pink text twice between three rows of different ctenophore species. The top row is lobate ctenophores including Bolinopsis microptera, Leucothea pulchra, Mnemiopsis leidy, and the bloody belly comb jelly Lampocteis. The second row has three different Beroe species. The lowest row has Pleurobrachia bachei, Dryodora glandiformis, red-x, and Euplokamis dunlapae.

Happy Ctenophore Day!
🐙🦑🧪

Teardrop shaped little ctenophore with four orange ribbon-like spots and two white tentacles inside

Back in January, @jensseattle.bsky.social found this rare ctenophore while nightlighting.

Haeckelia rubra is a delightful contrarian. It’s a comb jelly with stinging cells in its tentacles. It might not make them itself but it impressively wields them & steals them from a much larger jelly.
🧪🐙🦑🌿

#CtenophoreDay

Happy #CtenophoreDay (10-04) for those in Europe, UK, Australia & others that use DD-MM-YYYY format! This bi-annual event celebrates these squishy globs of goodness 🤩 Go ahead: share your favorite #ctenophore images and videos using the hashtag #CtenophoreDay! Credit video to @oceana.bsky.social.

translucent blue comb jelly with shimmering lines against a black background. kind of a lobate shape with round butt on the bottom

translucent blue comb jelly with shimmering lines against a black background. kind of a lobate shape with round butt on the bottom

translucent blue comb jelly with shimmering lines against a black background. kind of a lobate shape with round butt on the bottom

Wow. Comb Jellies really are space ships! This one from 765 m in the Gulf of Mexico, taken during #Okeanos in 2018 #ctenophoreday

small translucent ball with red stuff inside and 2 very long fluffy trailing tentacles

small translucent ball with red stuff inside and 2 very long fluffy trailing tentacles

A remarkable comb jelly from Okeanos Ridge in the Gulf of Mexico #okeanos spied in 2017! #ctenophoreday

Happy #CtenophoreDay (10/4)! Last month, my picture of a cteno illustrated the cover of the latest paper of @annaferraioli.bsky.social & @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social lab on the Aboral Organ of Mnemiopsis. Zoom in on the centre of the image to see a white dot: the AO www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Awww I’m sorry you didn’t see any this morning. I’ll go check with the experts and see if we can do anything.

Happy Ctenophore Day to everyone using the DD-MM calendar and everyone who loves ctenos enough to celebrate on both days 😊

🐙🦑

Getting closer... need to get some sleep now though. Wish me luck and ctenophores!

Happy Ctenophore Day to everyone using the DD-MM calendar and everyone who loves ctenos enough to celebrate on both days 😊

🐙🦑

Thank you! May the tides and the ctenos align

I was so cocky. There were so many at the start of the week and then they totally dropped off/ didn’t align with my sampling sessions for a few days. I’m holding off on sleeping and going to go back out when my battery is a little more charged and then going to go as soon as I can tonight.

Screenshot from iNaturalist showing JA has 969 wild ctenophore observations across 9 species

My goal has been to hit 1004 ctenophores uploaded to iNaturalist for Ctenophore Day which has officially started. I'm so close. Do you think I'll make it before the end of the day?

#CtenophoreDay

Embroidered ctenophore on a blue green water color like fabric

Here’s a sneak peek - Euplokamis dunlapae

They really outdid themselves with it. I’m so excited its back a decade later - I had maybe just barely learned what a ctenophore was when it first ran (if that) so I’m excited to get to experience it. I’m working on a shirt embroidered with all our local species.

I’m hoping to go to Ctenopalooza ctwo in August!

The nightlight is utterly surrounded by shrimp

This may perhaps make it a little more difficult to make progress on my 47 more ctenophores I need for my goal…

🐙🦑🦐

Glorious little Bolinopsis microptera with its dazzling rainbow ctenes, black spots on its meridional canals and lovely lobes.

Ctenophore Day is tomorrow!
Here’s one I saw this morning 😊

#CtenophoreDay 🐙🦑

I've shared this Bathothauma before but it's such a weird one so why not have another look? The commentary from the pilots & watch leads crack me up. From @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 642 #sepacificseamounts #MarineLife

Close up with a beautiful nudibranch on a rocky reef. The lower half of the image is a palette of swatches made from the nudi's vibrant colours.

Once upon a time I just admired nudis and sea slugs.

But it was not enough. Now apparently I'm creating an R package to celebrate their colour palettes? 😅

First up, my Sydney fave, Hypselodoris bennetti.

#rstats #nudibranch #dataviz 🦑🐙🧪 #marinelife #invertebrates