Madeleine Geiger

The tiny skull of a ruby-throated hummingbird (OUVC 10851) sits on the tip of a finger. The even tinier humerus of this bird sits in front of the skull.

T. rex is more closely related to this little dinosaur (a hummingbird) than T. rex is to Allosaurus. Also, a hummingbird's humerus is way smaller than it's eyeball. Go home, evolution, you're drunk! 🦖

A taxidermy stoat posed leaning on one arm and licking its groin

A taxidermy stoat posed upright, jumping, catching a small feather

A taxidermy stoat lying down hugging a white egg

Licking their bits, dancing with a feather, and cuddling an egg: some very curious curatorial decisions have been made with these #taxidermy stoats in Birmingham #Museums stores. 🤔

Kererū?

A life-sized, ca. half-meter long, model of an Anomalocaris, a arthropod hunter from the Cambrian, is seen in a museum setting. Underneath, a group of three Pikaia (also models, under glass) tries to escape. In the background, more objects can be seen, among them, trolobites and a dinosaur skeletton mount.

The Natural History Museum of St. Gallen has now officially become an Anomalocaris hunting ground! 👀😊🤘🌍

A black background decorated with gold illustrations of branches, stars, swords, ravens, and tiny ghost shapes. In the centre, bold text reads: “BIRDS BUT THEY GET SPOOKIER EACH TIME.” Two ravens perch on bare branches at the bottom, with candles glowing beside them.

Birds but they get spookier each time. 🎃👻

Enter if you dare...🚪

This is why museum documentation matters! Without, it's very easy to misplaced an entire buffalo for decades

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.

super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉

Actually my favorite bird etymology is that in 1400s England they gave human nicknames to birds (Jenny Wren, Tom Tit) but some of them stuck. Jack Daw became Jackdaw, Maggie Pie became Magpie. With Robin Redbreast they just dropped the original name of the bird entirely.

Comic. [3-column table with headers Period, My Favorite Part, and My Biggest Complaint] [Row 1] P: *Precambrian*, MFP: Life develops, MBC: Snowball Earth episodes [Row 2] P: Cambrian, MFP: Trilobites!, MBC: Evolution could stand to calm down a little [Row 3] P: Ordovician, MFP: Earth might have had rings, MBC: Scary volcanic eruption in North America [Row 4] P: Silurian, MFP: First land animals, MBC: Earth’s newfound mold problem [Row 5] P: Devonian, MFP: Big mountains in Boston, MBC: Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was *armor* [Row 6] P: Carboniferous, MFP: Cool forests, MBC: Bugs too big [Row 7] P: Permian, MFP: Pangea, MBC: Google “The Great Dying” [Row 8] P: Triassic, MFP: Tanystropheus [dinosaur with extremely long neck next to tiny person for scale], MBC: Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan [Row 9] P: Jurassic, MFP: Birds, MBC: Parasitoid wasps [Row 10] P: Cretaceous, MFP: Raptors, MBC: Raptors [Row 11] P: Paleogene, MFP: Pretty horseys!!!, MBC: Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum [Row 12] P: Neogene, MFP: Forests of *Dracaena* Dragonblood Trees, MBC: Zanclean Flood [Row 13] P: Quaternary, MFP: Burrito invented, MBC: Whoever picked this name for the third period of the Cenozoic

Geologic Periods

xkcd.com/3120/

A feral European rabbit is chilling among acacias and eucalypts in Australia. Its fur is a mixture of mainly brown tones, with some orange and white, and it looks very fluffy. The rabbit is sitting fairly close to the camera with its ears erect, looking at it with its large, dark eyes.

🐇 Very happy to announce our new paper in #ProcB on rabbit #domestication and feralization and what that does to the skulls of these animals. That's #evolution going on in (almost) real time.

@royalsocietypublishing.org

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

Photo credit: Mike SY Lee

A Jackdaw perches on a wire, feathers wildly fluffed in all directions, staring straight ahead with wide, piercing eyes. Its intense expression and dishevelled appearance give off strong chaotic energy, completely at odds with any suggestion of calm or composure.

Monday. I'm calm. I'm composed.

I'm absolutely fine.

📷 @carlbovisnature.bsky.social

#MondayMotivation

paleozoic menagerie
#paleoart #prehistoric #art #aquatic

A complete inventory of institutional and public meteorite collections in Switzerland Museums and universities are important for collecting, maintaining, and curating meteorites. To make specimens known and available for research, inventorying and optimal curation are important. Howev...

New OA paper out! This doesn't happen very often anymore but I am very happy about this one! In 2023, Jolantha Eschrig (@jolantha.bsky.social) came to St.Gallen to create what is now the first complete inventory of meteorite specimens in Switzerlands public collections. Thread! ☄️🪐🔭 (1/6)

Das Team des Naturmuseums St.Gallen sucht Verstärkung! Per 1. August 2025 oder nach Vereinbarung suchen wir eine:n Leiter:in Vermlittung / Museumspädagogik. Interessiert? Alle Details im Link. Gerne teilen und weitersagen!

Our new paper, based on data from 1,705 studies, shows that pesticides are toxic to organisms they are not intended to harm, including fungi, microbes, plants, insects, & vertebrates such as ourselves. Questions the wisdom of applying over 3 million tonnes of them every year...

Fakten statt Falschinformationen: Für einen starken Wissenschaftsjournalismus! - Online-Petition Offener Brief aus der Wissenschaft an SRF Sehr geehrte Direktion der SRG, sehr geehrte Geschäftsleitung von SRF, sehr geehrte Medien- und Wissenschaftspolitiker:innen Mit grosser Besorgnis haben wir z...

📺 📻 🗞️ Petition: SRF Wissensjournalismus stärken!

Innovation, KI, Medizin, Klima, Energie... In einer immer komplexeren Welt mit mehr Fakenews ist eine starke SRF Wissenschaftsredaktion unverzichtbar.

Offener Brief aus der Wissenschaft unterschreiben und teilen!

openpetition.eu/!sciencejour...

T. Rex Evolution xkcd.com/3042

Amazing! Congratulations Jack 🎓🥳

@mmmmeier.bsky.social have you seen - and heard! - this yet?

The iconic railway tracks leading into the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, framed under a vibrant orange and blue sunset sky. The tracks converge at the main entrance gate with the guard tower silhouetted against the fiery hues of the setting sun.

We expect that some 50 Auschwitz Survivors will come to the Memorial for the 80th anniversary of the liberation.

The eyes and ears of the world should rest upon them.

We must safeguard their voices from silence, distortion, or being overshadowed.

(Photo: https://buff.ly/4jd1BiU)

Fische, Krebse und Libellen - Fast ein Viertel der bekannten Süsswassertierarten ist gefährdet Weltweit nimmt die Artenvielfalt in Flüssen, Seen oder Tümpeln massiv ab. In der Schweiz ist es sogar noch dramatischer.

Fast ein Viertel der bekannten Süsswassertierarten ist gefährdet 🐟💧

Eawag-Forscher @florianaltermatt.bsky.social im Interview mit dem #SRF über den Schwund der Biodiversität bei Süsswassertieren

👉 www.srf.ch/wissen/natur...

The late-Quaternary megafauna extinctions: Patterns, causes, ecological consequences and implications for ecosystem management in the Anthropocene | Cambridge Prisms: Extinction | Cambridge Core The late-Quaternary megafauna extinctions: Patterns, causes, ecological consequences and implications for ecosystem management in the Anthropocene - Volume 2

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Killer Smiles: Why Saber-Toothed Teeth Were Evolution’s Masterpiece Researchers have uncovered why the formidable teeth of saber-toothed predators like Smilodon were evolutionarily advantageous, using innovative techniques like 3D-printed tooth replicas and computer s...

Killer Smiles: Why Saber-Toothed Teeth Were Evolution’s Masterpiece scitechdaily.com/killer-smile...

Two scientists share an office. The first, whose half of the room is neat and tidy, says “My new year's resolutions are to jog to work every day, choose the healthy option at lunch, and run a pleasant, well-ordered workspace.” The second, working in a total mess, replies “In the interests of scientific rigour, I'll be the control, and change absolutely nothing.”

Happy New Year!
(my cartoon for @newscientist.bsky.social)

Colourful drawings of five fishes on a blue-green background.

And done. I feel people would appreciate fishes more if they could see them face to face more often. Such beautiful creatures.

From top to bottom: European perch (Perca fluviatilis), dace (Leuciscus leuciscus), northern pike (Esox lucius), roach (Rutilus rutilus) and gudgeon (Gobio gobio). #Sciart

Illustration of a Jurassic forest in evening sunlight, set in ancient Scotland. In the foreground, there are two small mammals on a dead tree branch covered in moss and fungi. One is adult, the other about a third on its size and playfully snapping at a beetle flying past. In the background, a stegosaur is walking among the trees. There's a small body of water with a turtle swimming past.

Under the feet of the dinosaurs, our own ancestors lived... surprisingly slowly.

One of the work highlights of last year: a press release illustration I painted for @elsa-panciroli.bsky.social for her and colleague's paper on a fascinating fossil find.

Article: www.nature.com/articles/s415...

The thing they don't tell you about biology is WATCH OUT bc secretly it's math

Picard honesty tip: Don't let anyone else tell you how many lights you see.

Einstein - Invasive Quagga-Muscheln: Kollabierende Seen und Millionenschäden - Play SRF In den Seen tickt eine Zeitbombe, die jahrelang unterschätzt wurde: Die rasante Ausbreitung der invasiven Quagga-Muscheln. Sie bedrohen das ökologische Gleichgewicht und verursachen Millionenschäden i...

Great Swiss TV science documentary (in German) featuring the research of Alex Anh-Thu Weber and @eawag.bsky.social about the invasion of Quagga mussels in Switzerland! Nice to see so many early career folks highlighted, which do a fantastic SciComm job. www.srf.ch/play/tv/redi...

That these kinds of experiences can form core memories absolutely warms my heart as a museum scientist and educator. Museums are an essential public good!