I'm continuously amazed by glowing creatures and glad to be contributing to our knowledge about them along with @luminescent_labs . These copepods are so cool. They are impressively abundant and are one of the few animals now confirmed to make their own luciferin. Thanks @oolivia.g for the amazing drawing! https://peerj.com/articles/5506/ #peerj #copepods #naturenerd #bioluminescence #bioluminescent #metridia #invertebrate #seacritters #scientificpaper #scienceisfun

Thanks NY Times for covering my work with @leechguy @sebastian.kvist and others on anticoagulants in marine leeches! Some of these worms feed on sharks! The Stuff That Helps Leeches Get Their Fill of Blood https://nyti.ms/2Lw0oCU #sciencetimes #nytimes #sciencemedia #amnh #anticoagulant #leech #piscicolidae #ozobranchidae #marineleech #sharkleech #scienceisfun #naturenerd

One of my favorite papers I've worked up just came out in MPE. @de_carle and I masterminded this and maybe a bit too much fun with the title. The science was also pretty great: we had success determining relationships between leeches and their closest relatives and redid leech higher classifications. Couldn't have done it without my co-authors, including @leechguy Mark and my two wonderful high school students @oolivia.g and @the_magda_carta . These two did the drawings. You can download the paper for free: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1X6~43m3nMqWfZ @srmp4life #srmp #highschool #highschoolresearch #highschoolscience #sciencementor #scientificpaper #scienceiscool #molecularphylogeneticsandevolution #scientificillustration #leech #acanthobdella #branchiobdellidans #naturenerd

NYC flies are surprisingly pleasant when you get up close to them! This one is a blow fly (family Calliphoridae), likely the common greenbottle (Lucilia sericata). There were a few of these hanging enjoying moments of sun yesterday afternoon along the Hudson River Greenway. - - #diptera #lucilia #luciliasericata #calliphoridae #commongreenbottle #blowfly #nyc #hudsonriver #hudsonrivergreenway #insects #bugstagram #nycwildlife #inaturalist #nycparks #macroworld #macro #ilikeflies #nofilter

This tiny beast was patiently waiting on a blade of grass for a naive insect to munch on. So much small scale drama can occur in the backyard meadow. It appears to me on iNaturalist to be in the genus Oxyopes in the lynx spider family Oxyopidae. - - #lynxspider #oxyopes #oxyopidae #spidermacro #spidergram #arachnids #patientpredator #backyardmeadow #njwildlife #bugstagram #inaturalist #tinybeast #biodiversity #spider