Daohan "Rex" Jiang

A goby, likely a frillfin goby (genus Bathygobius), in shallow water of intertidal zone.

A Black Sea cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota) in shallow water of intertidal zone. Oral tentacles are extended.

Sunset at a beach in Okinawa.

Some cool intertidal zone animals seen yesterday, before sunset. #goby #SeaCucumber #Okinawa

I hope I hadn't been aspired by this many people as a kid/teenager. Who knows how morally impeded they could turn out to be. It doesn't feel good to know each of these incidents, one after another.

Kaiyodo T. rex gacha figures over two decades (no, I haven’t got all of them yet) #dinosaur #tyrannosaurus #gacha

A thread of MAGA protesting with guns and not getting murdered for it...

Arizona, November 2020

😢

To those American academics out there who have chosen to remain silent/mostly silent about the horror going on in the USA these days at every corner of the federal government, please start speaking out and fighting back.

Six gacha figures of Cretaceous animals, each with a display base. Top row: Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex. Middle row: Triceratops and a different T. rex. Bottom row: Elasmosaurus and Velociraptor.

Seven gacha figures of Cretaceous animals, each with a display base. Top row: two T. rex figures. Middle row: Fukuivenator and Deinonychus. Bottom row: Lambeosaurus, Triceratops, and a spinosaurid (the manufacturer didn’t specify the genus).

Some trophies from my recent #paleo #gacha figure hunt…

By no means can this shock be absorbed.

Dorsal view of a blueberry hermit crab (Coenobita purpureus) without a snail shell.

A blueberry hermit crab (Coenobita purpureus) in a small and damaged snail shell. Its 4th left limb, which is much shorter than the walking limbs, is visible from the broken side of the shell. The shell is grabbed by a human hand.

Just realized I forgot to share this here--a 'naked' hermit crab! This blueberry hermit (Coenobita purpureus) was in an undersized 🐚 shell, which it jettisoned upon being grabbed. Hopefully it could find a better shell nearby soon.
And thanks to @jopabinia.bsky.social for reminding me of this!

An oriental magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) feeding on meat meant for birds of prey in a big cage.

An azure-winged magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) feeding on meat meant for birds of prey in a big cage.

The cage for birds of prey (eagles, kites, vultures) at #ShanghaiZoo has also become a buffet place for wild birds. I was there at feeding time, and the little birds 🐦 were the first to take a bite… #magpie #magpie-robin

When visiting #ShanghaiZoo near the very end of 2025, I spent a lot of time looking at wild birds that adapted to this zoo ecosystem. Among them are the night herons. This one was having a meal in the space for otters. It took a while to devour the fish, and this clip is the final moment.

New paper from our unit! 🎉
This one isn't focused specifically on Sacabambaspis (cover image), but there will be more Sacabambaspis work coming out in the future...

Evolutionary convergence that has taken place many times (assuming dimorphic tail wasn’t the ancestral state)

Saw this bottle covered with gooseneck barnacles on the beach. It’s a Chinese brand and I didn’t see any Japanese text on the label. Can’t help wondering if it drifted here from China…It’s the west coast of #Okinawa so it sounds plausible.
(This post also makes up for my missed #Crustmas)

Find a local anti-ICE protest this weekend.

Their sign for the Chinese alligator, however, appeared to be using a photo of an American alligator…I guess it’s because there’re many more American alligator photos on the internet?
#alligator #ShanghaiZoo

Five years ago, a violent mob incited by Donald Trump attacked our democratic process and endangered the Capitol Police and the workers who keep this institution running.

That was not a protest. It was an assault on the Constitution.

(1/2)

They also had (non-tetrapod) fishes in this building, including these sturgeons. Weirdly, the sign only referred to them as “Acipenseriformes” without saying what species they were. It’s said to be Protection Class I in China, so maybe Acipenser sinensis or A. dabryanus??

A juvenile reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus). Also very active then. It was inside the enclosure for adult pythons but isolated from them.

Chinese cobra (Naja atra), a cobra species that’s mostly distributed in China. This one was also active when I visited (hands in the video weren’t mine).

Komodo dragon, resting in the enclosure.

Komodo dragon crawling through the rocky area in the enclosure.

Komodo dragon facing the visitors.

This time there was also a Komodo dragon—a new resident who came after my last visit. Was quite active when I was there.

A Chinese alligator resting on a little island in a pool. There are two more alligators in the water.

A Chinese alligator is resting on the shore, and three more are in the water.

Now, threads about the Shanghai Zoo…I had been here before but this was the first time I visited as an adult. The experience felt quite different. Needless to say my favorite part is the herps, and this 🧵 is for them. I’m starting with Chinese alligators (Alligator sinensis)...

They're both azhdarchoids with the left looking Sinopterus-like. The right looks to have a fabricated skull, prohibiting quick-fire identification.

The left one looks like Sinopterus to me (among the limited number of pterosaurs I can recall, that’s the closest). No intuition for the other.
Would love to hear from experts like @markwitton.bsky.social, @tetzoo.bsky.social and @davehone.bsky.social…
#pterosaur #JeholBiota

Fossils of two pterosaurs. Both are toothless and short-tailed. The one on the left has a deeper skull whereas the other has relatively slender snout.

These pterosaurs weren’t labeled to genus level but only referred to as “pterosaurs”. Really a pity given how beautiful they are…

Mounted skeleton of a plesiosaur, likely a member of the family Elasmosauridae. Behind it is the skeleton of a Polycotylus. Beneath it is the head of a Tsintaosaurus mount.

This skeleton was labeled as a “Plesiosaurus” from 190mya “Cretaceous” North America…what a mess. Genus Plesiosaurus isn’t found in NA and 190mya wasn’t Cretaceous. The skeleton looks more like a elasmosaur. The sign had information amalgamated…

A life sized model of a Spinosaurus. It is based on an outdated reconstruction, bearing long hind limbs.

The Spinosaurus silhouette in the above picture was for this model. The museum opened at this new location in 2015, and the exhibition was likely prepared shortly before the neotype was published. I can’t blame them for this; the timing was awkward…

After complementing the Shanghai Natural History Museum, now it’s time for some complaints. This one, as I remember, is a mistake that existed at least a decade ago when I first visited but it’s never corrected: silhouette for Lufengosaurus on this sign is wrong and is obviously a theropod.