Jo, war eher im Sinne „warum das, WDR“ gemeint 😉

Oh je, warum?

Happy #MicroscopyMonday!

Sinking shell of a pteropod, Clio pyramidata, collected at 1500m (4920 ft) in an Oceanic Flux Program (OFP) trap.

Imaged by JC Weber and the OFP.

Great student grant! Supported me looking at fish fossils.

Mom and dad jewel cichlid with fry

Good parents

Holotype of Pterobunocephalus carvalhoi from the Napo River basin, Ecuador, coordinates 00°27’53”S 76°19’09”W, MEPN-I 20199, 69.9 mm SL. Scale bar = 10 mm. Photo by P. Argüello.

Crispim JL, P Argüello, GSC Silva, C Oliveira, KR Luckenbill & MH Sabaj, 2026. After eight decades: a new species of Pterobunocephalus (Siluriformes: Aspredinidae) from the upper Putumayo, Napo and Pastaza rivers, Ecuador. Neotropical Ichthyology 24:e250162.🐟🧪

doi.org/10.1590/1982...

One of the most famous mosasaurs, Tylosaurus proriger, submerges after taking a breath. It is dark above and light below, as tentatively suggested by some palaeocolour data. The challenges of interpreting scaly reptile palaeocolour, and the tiny scraps of colour data we have for this animal, preclude much confidence in chromatic interpretations of this species, however. Also, if you stare at this long enough, you'll see a few sharks. No foolin'.

Been thinking marine-reptiley thoughts today. Here's one of my latest #paleoart efforts along that line: Tylosaurus proriger. The colour is based on fossil colour data, although it's far from certain that this animal was black and countershaded.

Print link: www.markwitton.co.uk/product-page...

Everything We Know About the Neon Orange Shark Discovered in Costa Rica It's just a nurse shark, but it has creepy white eyes and bright orange skin. Now, scientists think they finally know why.

Don’t flush goldfish, they just keep growing!

Drawing of a lawnmower blenny sitting on a purple couch. He’s a light brown mottled fish with lil fuzzy things coming out of his head in several spots. He is accompanied by a brown mottled snail.

#SundayFishSketch this week is @fishfetisher.bsky.social’s Henry, a lawnmower blenny, painted (drawn) like a french girl 😂

Ka-chow! 💫

#MolluscMonday Rare example of an Ordovician orthocone nautiloid with a fractured shell. Photographed in the stone floor of the King’s Gallery at Hampton Court Palace last week.

A small blenny fish sitting on a 3d printed purple couch alongside a snail

On the couch with one of his pet snails.

Still on the process of setting up my aquariums in the ne apartment.
Today, I finally set up the 30L tank. I‘ve had this piece of wood for years and have been waiting for a good moment to finally use it in a cube that fits it perfectly.
#fishkeeping #aquarium

One more Endromis versicolora Birkenspinner as its season is now in the full swing. #teammoth, #moth, #stadtnatur, #berlinbiodiversity, #berlin, #urbanbiodiversity

Müsste „Lindlarer Grauwacke“ sein, also Devon.

Een fotorealistische render van een 3d model van C. elegans

Dan maar ondertussen proberen een realistische afbeelding van C. elegans proberen te maken

My photo shows a frontal view of a buff-coloured Minoan pottery jug with a dark-red, stylised octopus painted beneath the dark red pouring spout. The jug has a rounded body with very short neck with out-turned rim, the body tapers downwards to a slightly turned out flat base also painted red. On each shoulder there’s a small chunky loop handle. The octopus is stylised and looks cartoon-like with a vertical dumbbell shaped body, with two large circular eyes with central red dots staring out at the viewer. From the top of the head emerge eight suckered arms. Four arms hang symmetrically downwards on each side of the body, writhing and curling at the tip. There is a similar red octopus on each side of the jug not shown in my photo.

A 3,500 year-old Minoan jar with a cartoon-like octopus under the spout! 🐙

From Kommos, Crete. Heraklion Archaeological Museum 📷 by me

#Archaeology

Finger pointing at crinoid fossils in a rock

Finger pointing at crinoid fossils in a rock

Some crinoid stem imprints in sandstone boulders. 🧪⚒️ #fossils

#FossilFriday Space, the final frontier. Branching cyclostome bryozoan battling it out for living space with two cheilostome bryozoans on a shell from the Early Pleistocene Nukumaru Limestone, Whanganui Basin, New Zealand.

Toothy flatfish face in a jar. The specimen is faded to a yellowish shade.

Happy Friday from Psettodes, the living sister lineage to all other flatfishes. Specimen at Auburn University Museum of Natural History.

Not all cichlid sex chromosome turnover happens at lightning speed!

Omeisaurus, an especially long-necked member of the long-necked dinosaur group, displays his dark skin to an unseen audience. We often show dinosaurs displaying with bright colours, but melanin - which turns skin browns, blacks, greys and earthy-hues, is also widely used as a display colour among living animals. Pigments of any kind are expensive to create or source, so their presence is an honest signal of health and vitality, even if they aren't bright.

It's that time of the week again, folks: TGIO: Thank God it's Omeisaurus.

(Prints of this and my other artworks are available: www.markwitton.co.uk/product-page...)

#FossilFriday #dinosaur #fossil #paleoart #sciart

New large pterosaur tracks from Korea and their implications on terrestrial behavior - Scientific Reports Pterosaurs were important components of Mesozoic ecosystems, occupying diverse ecological niches from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous. Among them, neoazhdarchians have been hypothesized...

New paper: possible track evidence of a small reptile or salamander being pursued by an azhdarchid-like pterosaur. Validation of the Witton and @tetzoo.bsky.social model of azhdarchid foraging? Maybe.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Endromis versicolora Birkenspinner is one of the springtime mothing stars in Berlin and around. Such a large beauty. Love it. #teammoth, #moth, #stadtnatur, #berlinbiodiversity, #berlin, #urbanbiodiversity

Last day for Mayr Award entry, and last day to be considered for inclusion in our sponsored symposium

A few slots remain in the Society-sponsored Imageomics workshop

Low-cost dorm housing nearly at capacity; virtual talks approaching capacity.

Don't wait!

🧪🐟

European red list of freshwater fishes - Publications Office of the EU The European Red List provides a scientifically rigorous and evidence-based assessment of the regional extinction risk of selected European taxa. This includes all vertebrate species - fishes, amphibi...

Happy to share with you the completely updated assessment of the conservation status of Europe’s 559 known freshwater fish species. Not happy to report that nearly 50% of them are threatened.

▶️ Here is the #IUCN report 👇
sohub.io/nvoz

I know.. but you have the reach to share this widely 😉

Research Associate (m/f/x)

jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/6...

The institute for geosciences at Ruhr University Bochum is searching for a curator/research associate. 🧪 @geohenning.bsky.social

The ‘ungrateful lungfish’: study focuses on sustainable food sources for very hungry ancient fish Study aims to restore and reestablish critical aquatic vegetative habitat in the Brisbane River downstream of Wivenhoe Dam for the federally threatened Australian lungfish, while also supporting ...

“Like a naughty pet labrador, the Australian lungfish has little restraint when it comes to food.” www.eurekalert.org/news-release...