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  I did not have this find on my bingo card for the year... ...Deep in a cave in Tennessee, thousands of feet underground, as I rounded a bend of the river passage leading a group of biology students and recent graduates in a bioinventory of the cave....I stopped suddenly and definitely swore a little "WTF is that?! GAR!?" Yes my friends, a friggin' Gar, about four feet long, just swimming in one of the pools. Not a single person I know of has ever seen this in a cave before. Cri...

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  Our field crew last week unanimously voted for meeting a bear in the woods over a man. Confirming our choice we saw this beautiful bear this is a cell phone photo I got (no zoom, close!), just wandered out and back in. Later, a dude who showed up, yelled, reported us (not believing we had permission to be there and claimed besties with property manager - also a lie lol) confirmed we chose Bear correctly. #bear #man #BearVsMan #fieldWork #biology

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  Happy #Baturday (hashtag inspired by @mycrowgirl ) A tricolor bat rests in a cave. Don't worry, we didn't disturb it and it is not hibernation season. ...we often call tricolours "flying chicken nuggies" because of their color and size as they are utterly adorable. #bat #bats #biology #nature #ecology #caves

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  A large formation chamber earlier this year. By the way, if you'd like to oppose a huge datacenter being built right next to the Nashville Zoo, where it will adversely affect all the animals who call it home and draw power in ways that will be harmful to the inhabitants as well, maybe go sign this petition, and contact the city council? You don't have to be a Tennessee resident to sign! Please get involved especially if you are local enough where this affects you (eg; traveling...

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  Some tiny red Chanterelles for you to enjoy :) Often too small for many to bother with, they do taste great! And for #juneteenth let me drop some knowledge on you. Are you ever annoyed by lack of ability to forage due to laws, or someone yelling at you to leave no trace? Well guess what, those laws and concepts - that we cannot forage anything and must always attempt to have no impact (*tries to not digress at what a weird idea it is that we can possibly exist and never affect anything ever*)...

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  Some cool rock with cuprite. #geology #rock #science #mineralogy

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  I am happy to announce our latest paper! "Surprising cryptic cavefish diversity in a long-studied karst cave ecosystem of northern Alabama" I absolutely love our name for it too, an entire new genus, not just species: Demogorgonichthys arcanus :OpenAccess: https://rdcu.be/fsgWT Why did it take so long to find, in a highly monitored cave? Well just take a look at the mud with water channels and low ceilings, and we cannot typically even get into the water because of other pr...

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  Text Warning: melancholy (and I cannot figure out how to cw text but not the adorable photo!) . . . . Sometimes I wonder how much longer we will have together... ...some weird medical issues are cropping up and I'm worried it involves her spine. She tries to act like she is two, and she is over a decade beyond that now, but her *body* knows even if her brain doesn't! And lets hope I can afford whatever it is going on...because funding keeps being cut for science for *some reason*...

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  Almost exactly a year ago, I was worried about losing her as medical stuff cropped up. And now she is having medical issues again. Appointment next week. Hopefully new meds will fix it. I took a photo of her by these same flowers last year before her vet appointment too! Ahhh cycles of life, eh? This time I'm not worried about losing her, just, general old dog problems. I wish I could find a light purple harness I liked for her the same color as these flowers...she'd look so goo...

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  Ringlet Butterfly (Aphantopus hyperanthus) I'm too lazy to watermark it, so don't be a jerk and steal my art, ok? Cool. :) #butterfly #lepidoptera #flower #plant #plants #bloomscrolling

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  Just a friendly reminder… Small changes make bigger change.

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  So happy to finally have created an image I've had in mind for a while! This is a composite of four photographs, ranging from a earlier dusk 1/10 sec (because dogs do not stay still for *that* long) and three once the fireflies started en masse which were 10-30 second exposures to keep the general exposure tone of the scene the same between them as the sun set. NO AI - I manually stacked the images on my own :) I don't let computers make my art for me. #photography #longExposure #dog...

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  :boost_requested: Please help us save science and research on literally everything in the United States. No, I am not overstating this. TLDR: Grants can be cancelled for any reason at any time at the whims of essentially one person appointed by the federal govt without much or any oversight. This rule will likely cancel about HALF the clinical trials currently in progress, for example. And that's just the tip. Any and all federal funding for any and everything is affected by this rule. ⚠️ TA...

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  :boost_requested: Hey All - I know everything is terrible all at once, but I have a biggie for you to help us keep science not controlled by political state. Please help! https://www.science.org/content/article/white-house-seeks-tighten-political-oversight-grantmaking TLDR; Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time. Political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded. We would no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to...

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  Looking for life in the dark places. It always exists. By the way, if you need a new way to get around blackout words, instead of "biodiversity" try "species richness". Not exactly the same thing but close enough...and talking about getting rich seems to excite these people. :blobupsidedown: #cave #caves #caving #biology #speleology #science #geology #photography

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  No luck this year finding any spotted skunks, but I did spot this! Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa, Common Coral Slime. Also, our vernal pool is back. So. Many. Salamanders! #slime #fungi #nature #macro #bloomscrolling

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  I am so exhausted by not having outdoor gear made for femme body types. I just spent my afternoon shopping (which i hate) in stores (around people, ew, there is a reason I cave!) only to find absolutely nothing that fit. I cant even get my calves into waders as they are cave lass beefy, same as any runner, biker, etc. who has some muscle legs. I needed like a mens 9 before they would fit on my legs, but that meant I had a couple of inches of extra shoe space in front of my toes. I make all my ow...

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  Longshot, but does anyone have a EF, F, or MF 14k nib from a Sailor Slim, Slim Mini, or 1911s they don't need? Ideally rhodium plated but open if price (or trade for photography?) is right... Because I'm not sure I'm ever getting mine back to how it needs to be, and surely someone has broken a pen and thus has a spare nib, right? I just want to get my favorite pen working again :( I don't have $150+ to do it with (and if I did, there are some $140 options for colo...

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  Splashdown success! 7:07::27 (central) Stable 1: they are upright Green 4: all crew members are good :) #artemis2 #artemisII

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  Some beauties from today. #TheWorldIsStillBeautiful Spring is in full force and I am adoring all the widlflowers. Yes the sunlight was extremely green-yellow on the forest floor today. I decided I didn't want to do any "color correction" because, well, this is correct. I suggest peeking at the alt text for info. #flowers #bloomscrolling #forest #nature #photography

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  Documenting life underground...no not the human, although he is practically a troglodyte as well 😜 #cave #caves #caving #waterfall #speleo #speleology #stream #creek #water #photography #explore #nature

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  Getting a small test run on some new stickers...stay tuned... #CopyMoonJoy

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  A day late but happy international bat day! A small early cluster of Gray Bats in a recent cave. Gray Bats are endangered as they have very specific needs and roost together in the tens of thousands or more. This means they are reliant on just a couple of very specific caves, and also susceptible to disease because of the tight clustering in large numbers. Luckily, they have been generally resistant to the fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome. (Photographed with permission, using low light,...

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  So Smol! This is a globular springtail, cave adapted, in Pygmarrhopalites but don't ask for species because I have no clue! But it *is* a lot of fun to say! I'll try to spell it out for you..."pig-mawf-fah-light-ees" uhm that's about the best I got, Give it a whirl! No accuracy promises implied :P #springtail #springtails #Soil #ecology #invertebrates #Collembola

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  Sooo…who wants stickers? Photo from NASA, taken by Artemis II crew. Tiny sliver is Earth. I added the text. 3” How to get one: 1. If you contribute $15 or more to someone’s MA I will send you one for free (us shipping only) 2. $2 each. $3 international. Not looking to make any money just spread good vibes. (Please DM me, very limited number as its a test run) #moon #artemis #copymoonjoy #stickers

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  Morning Thoughts: I have never used cloud backups as it always felt weird to have things not in physical form. Maybe because I grew up using external drives to back up my computer before the days of the Internet. But I do kinda understand the appeal of putting everything somewhere and having it even sort for you, use its AI to catagorise, and more. I have a week of photos I need to get from my phone, camera, and friends share drives of various kinda they took of me, and get them downloaded to...

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  #FungiFriday

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  Milkweeds are starting to bloom. And someone had the audacity to call this “milkweed” and not “marshmallow flowers”. How do we get a common name redo?? #milkweed #plant #garden #bloomscrolling

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  Small cave last week, but still easy to maneuver in. For certain values of easy when that ceiling got a lot lower! #cave #caves #caving #speleology #SIlentSunday #explore #nature #photography

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  As a special treat, have a cave ant beetle :) #invertebrate #beetle #cave #caves #entomology #speleology #biology