Kannon Pearson 🏳️‍⚧️

Had an awesome time doing work on Taricha granulosa (Rough-skinned Newt) and Taricha torosa (California Newt) last Sunday.

Thank you to the ever amazing Kannon Pearson @taricha-rivularis.bsky.social for leading this and having me on to work on this research. The world is an amazing place.

Tragic Slip and Recumbent Bliss for my orzhov babes 🖤🤍

somehow, fire lizard also works!
🦎🔥

Yearning always for salamander emoji. The best I can do is lizard-shaped-amphibian: 🦎🐸

Newts With Kannon Pearson

I am doing a Q&A with @skypeascientist.bsky.social tomorrow at 10am PST! RSVP here if you want to interrogate me about newts and their poisons 🦎🐸🧪☠️: givebutter.com/2yhDvr

A red marker drawing of a northern hawk owl. The caption says “resting branch face”

Green market drawing of a Great Horned Owl. The caption says “Birdie Sanders”

Drew some owls at the @mvzucb.bsky.social art night!

#art #museum #specimen

MYEHP

i'm thinking water/grass dual type

myeep

You need newt squeaks today. Refusing them is not an option.

Mandatory squeakage

The authors think the squeaks are to startle predators. They whistle (quietly) when touched on the back. And they click when exploring or defending a nice rock from other newts who might try to sit there instead 😠

There isn't much research in this area, but newts are thought to make three sounds: squeaks, whistles, and chirps!

I highly recommend this adorable article on their sounds: www.jstor.org/stable/38915...

It's pretty rare to hear, but newts can vocalize. Listen to this lil guy squeak at me!

the award would automatically go to whoever applied closest to the deadline

I would love for there to be a real Gay and Struggling Fellowship for travel to herpetology conferences. The application would have two yes/no questions:
1. Are you gay?
2. Are you struggling?

The bottom corner of Kannon's presentation slide showing the autogenerated caption "I'd like to thank my funding sources"

The bottom corner of Kannon's presentation slide showing the autogenerated caption "in particular, the gay and struggling fellowship"

At the end of my #JMIH25 presentation, I thanked the Carl Gans Travelling Fellowship for funding my attendance. The auto-generated caption software heard something VERY different ☠️🏳️‍🌈

All I want is a cute in-situ photo, is that too much to ask?? 😩

I put him there for a pic and he was not having it. He plodded off unharmed (it was only a 5in fall) and I decided he wasn’t worth the trouble to photograph. Silly lad

A blurry image of a rough skinned newt falling off a log a log

A rough skinned newt falling off a log. He did Not want to stay for a photo

A desert tortoise shell sits on a cardboard box on a table. There is a colored pencil illustration of it in the foregrou d

I drew a desert tortoise shell for the @mvzucb.bsky.social specimen art night! You can see the accession number on some of the scutes and exposed bones

#sciart #illustration #art #museum

Aw thanks!

A colored-pencil and ink illustration of a large mouse standing on its hind limbs. It is wearing a green cloak. In one hand is a long halberd and in the other is the tooth of a Falanouc — a Malagasy carnivore. A Falanouc skull and mandible are in the background, along with some Malagasy plants and fungi

Some #art for a friend inspired by @mouseguard.bsky.social! They requested a giant mouse barbarian. I based the character on Petter's mouse, a very big species from Madagascar known from just one specimen! I also included an eastern falanouc teeth and skull, tho the species ranges don't rly overlap

A long yellow snake with orangey saddle patches rests in the dappled sun atop a rock

A long (5ft) and lovely Sonoran gopher #snake (Pituophis catenifer affinis) that I saw in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument last week!

#photography #herpetology

Kannon holding a newt during a field expedition in San Mateo

Kannon dressed up for a night out: red dragon tshirt, makeup, and ripped jeans

Kannon giving a talk on queerness and herpetology. The slide shows a meme that says: “Inside of you are two frogs. One wants long flowing hair. One wants a shaved head. You are nonbinary.”

A bit belated, but happy trans day of visibility to those who celebrate! I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to exist and be visible as a trans person in professional, personal, and fieldwork settings. Thought it would be fun to share a pic of each!

Precisely! California newts lay eggs in clusters. They have the texture of crystal boba imo, tho much deadlier! The newt mothers likely transfer some of their toxin into the eggs before laying, which protects the babies until they start accumulating their own after metamorphosis

Omg lil babies! These look to me like two California newts (they tend to have eyelids that are lighter than their dorsal color). Rough skinned newts are also found in that pond! And the real tea is that the species are almost impossible to tell apart in the Bay Area, even by herpetologists like me

Know Your Newts - UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley The peaceful waters of the Japanese Pool–a haven for amphibian mating season–also house a deadly surprise!

The newts are lingering at the Japanese Pool along with hundreds (thousands?) of egg clusters, & ICYMI: we've just posted a recent video to our website: Know Your Newts, with Kannon Pearson. Don't miss this fascinating talk: botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/learn/garden...

YouTube video by UC Botanical Garden Know Your Newts with Kannon Pearson

My presentation for the @ucbgarden.bsky.social is online! In it, I talk about deadly coffeepots, intrepid newt journeys, and radical scientific experiments! Here's the link :D

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltty...

MVZ Professor Jim McGuire and Former MVZ Postdoc Simon Scarpetta find that Fiji iguanas are most closely related to the North American desert iguana — evidence of the longest known transoceanic dispersal of any land animal. bit.ly/3DMIAUD