Octopuses abound in my latest OctoPost, from the depths off the Galápagos to the shores of Cornwall! Featuring art by @octopolis.bsky.social and not one but TWO special guest appearances: buttondown.com/dannastaaf/a...
As an invertebrate-lover, this sign is how you know you've come to the right part of the museum
Also this is not really related to anything (certainly not the secret secret backup lab) (haha) (perish the thought) but MONARCHS OF THE SEA by @dannastaaf.bsky.social was one of my favourite pop-sci reads of the past few years, highly do endorse
The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods
I went to the Turners Falls Fishway and saw the Least Understood Fish! It passed too quickly for me to get a photo, but I did get this great educational handout.
Resharing old Meowmay art for the beginning of Pride Month! (the rest of my meowmays: bsky.app/profile/dann...)
I'd introduce my two friends, but you probably know them already!
While I was on the east coast, I met an amazing seven-year-old who's been devouring The Lives of Octopuses and Their Relatives! He'd drawn a giant squid poster for me and written down a list of questions 🥹 (my favorite species of cephalopod is Octopus micropyrsus, the California Lilliput octopus)
The wonderful malacology curator at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Jennifer Trimble, showed me around last week! I saw a model of the biggest Giant Pacific Octopus, a drawer full of argonaut shells, and a box of squid beaks found in the stomach of a dead whale in 1869 🤯 I LOVE MUSEUMS
These argonauts are made of GLASS! I was so thrilled to visit the Blaschka exhibit today, with all its mind-blowing biological detail rendered in glass, and the argonaut was an especial favorite.
I also tried to sketch a specimen, but was too distracted by all the other interesting jars to get very far
