Jacob Tennessen

FABULOUS 😍

My new favorite Bsky account

Biolojical is on Bluesky! Share some emoji-based science!

@jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social
@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social
@stairwaytokevin.bsky.social
@whysharksmatter.bsky.social
@sarahmackattack.bsky.social
@edyong209.bsky.social
@carlbergstrom.com
@jopabinia.bsky.social
@carlzimmer.com
@tetzoo.bsky.social

Biolojical is now on BlueSky!

(not promising anything new, but moved some of my favorite posts over from the other site)

Species:
🦁
Genus:
🦁🐯
Family:
🦁🐯🐱
Order:
🦁🐯🐱🐻
Class:
🦁🐯🐱🐻🐨
Phylum:
🦁🐯🐱🐻🐨🐸
Kingdom:
🦁🐯🐱🐻🐨🐸🦑
Domain:
🦁🐯🐱🐻🐨🐸🦑
🍅🍆🌶️🍠🍑🍌🌲
Kingdom:
🍅🍆🌶️🍠🍑🍌🌲
Phylum:
🍅🍆🌶️🍠🍑🍌
Class:
🍅🍆🌶️🍠🍑
Order:
🍅🍆🌶️🍠
Family:
🍅🍆🌶️
Genus:
🍅🍆
Species:
🍅

°Latitude:
90❄️
80🐺
70🐺🐻
60🐺🐻🐍🐿
50🐺🐻🐍🐿
40🐺🐻🐍🐿🐵🐯
30🐺🐻🐍🐿🐵🐯🦜🐘🐊🐪🦚🐼
20🐺🐍🐿🐵🐯🦜🐘🐊🐪🦚
10🐺🐍🦛🐵🐯🦜🐘🐊🐪🦚🦓
0🐧🦙🐍🦛🐵🐯🦜🐘🐊🐪🦓🦍
10🐧🦙🐍🦛🐵🐯🦜🐘🐊🦓
20🐧🦙🐍🦛🐵🦘🦜🐘🐊🦓🐨
30🐧🦙🐍🦛🐵🦘🦜🐘🐊🦓🐨
40🐧🦙🐍🦘🦜
50🐧🦙🦜
60🐧
70🐧
80🐧
90❄️

Who shares a common ancestor with you __ million years ago?
2⁰👩🏽
2¹👩🏽
2²👩🏽
2³👩🏽🦍
2⁴👩🏽🦍
2⁵👩🏽🦍🐒
2⁶👩🏽🦍🐒
2⁷👩🏽🦍🐒🐮🦊
2⁸👩🏽🦍🐒🐮🦊🐨🦘
2⁹👩🏽🦍🐒🐮🦊🐨🦘🦆🐠
2¹⁰👩🏽🦍🐒🐮🦊🐨🦘🦆🐠🐙🦋
2¹¹👩🏽🦍🐒🐮🦊🐨🦘🦆🐠🐙🦋🍄🌳
2¹²🌎

"The great Tree of Life… with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications"
-C Darwin
  ┌🐯🐼🐺🐷🐳🦓
  ┌|
┌| └🐒🦍🧒🐰🐿️🐹
| |
┌| └🐊🦖🐧🦅🐍🐢
| |
| └🕷️🦀🦗🐞🦋🐝
|
| ┌🌷🌾🌽🍍🍌🥥
| |
└| ┌🌵🥝🥕🌻🌶️🥔
| |
└| ┌🍀🥜🌹🍑🍎🍉
  └|
  └🍁🍊🍋🥦🍫🌺

Calendar of evolution:
Jan 1☣1st life
Nov 2🐚1st animals
Nov 20🐛1st land animals
Nov 23🦈1st sharks
Nov 26🐸1st tetrapods
Dec 3🌲1st seed plants
Dec 9🌋💀
Dec 10🦕1st dinos
Dec 11🐭1st mammals
Dec 19🌼1st flowers
Dec 20🐦1st birds
Dec 25🦖1st T rex
Dec 26☄💀
Dec 31👋1st humans

The 5 evolutionary mechanisms:

Mutation
🐺🐺🐺🐺→☢️🐺→🐺🐺🐺🐕
Selection
🐺🐺🐺🐕→🧔🏿♥️🐕→🐕🐕🐕🐕
Gene flow
🐕🐕🐕🐕→🛶🐩→🐕🐩🐕🐕
Drift
🐕🐩🐕🐕→🌪️→🐩🐩🐕🐕
Non-random mating
🐩×🐕,🚫🐕×🐕→🐩🐩🐩🐩

The Scientific Method:

Question
 📱=❓
Hypothesis
 📱=⛵️
Experiment
 📱+🌊
Result
 📵
Conclusion
 📱≠⛵️

What evolution means for you➡️

1. We’re all one big family⁠—share the❤️:
 🌻🌳🦑🦗🐢🐘

2. A continuous🌈of variation is natural in a species:
 🧑🏼—🧑🏿
 ♂️—♀️
 👬—👫
 …& everything in between…

3. You weren’t created to fill a role, but🆓to be anything:
 👷🏽‍♀️👨‍⚕️👨🏻‍🎤👩🏼‍🎓👨🏾‍🚀👩🏿‍🏭

If🕺came from🐒why do we still have🐒?
If🇺🇸came from🇬🇧why do we still have🇬🇧?
If🏈came from⚽️why do we still have⚽️?
If🚤came from⛵️why do we still have⛵️?
If✝️came from✡️why do we still have✡️?
If💡came from🕯️why do we still have🕯️?
If🥨came from🍞why do we still have🍞?

Precambrian:
🦠
🦠
🦠
🦠
Paleozoic:
🦠🐚
🦠🐚🌱
🦠🐚🌱🦂
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈
Mesozoic:
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼🦆
Cenozoic:
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼🦆🍒
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼🦆🍒🐋
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼🦆🍒🐋🐎
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼🦆🍒🐋🐎👶🏾

DNA translation:
dogcabcandewegg → 🐕🚕🥫💧🥚

Missense mutation:
dogcabmandewegg → 🐕🚕🕴️💧🥚

Synonymous mutation:
dogcarmandewegg → 🐕🚕🕴️💧🥚

Frameshift mutation:
dogcodarmandewegg → 🐕🐟💪🏽&🐑

Nonsense mutation:
dogcodarmendewegg → 🐕🐟💪🏽🛑

Where science happens:
🐭in vivo
🧪in vitro
🏞️in situ
🤰in utero
🥚in ovo
🖥️in silico
🧠in cerebro
📻in stereo
🔇in silencio
🥼in vestimento
👙in indusia
🏛️in institutione
🏡in domo
🌳in saltu
👩🏿‍🔬👨🏼‍🔬👩🏽‍🔬👩🏻‍🔬👨🏾‍🔬in omnio

Chromosome #
2🐜
6🦟
14🥒
16🐨🍑🍒
18🍋🥕🥦🥬
20🦘🌽
22🦗🍉
24🌷🌶️🥑🍅
26🍁
28🌹
30🦒
32🐝🍀🥥
33🍌
34🦊🐊🍎🌻
36🐌🦛
38🦁🦝🐷🍇
40🐭🥜🥭
42🐼🐀🐡
44🐬🐹🐰🦡
46👥🦓
48🦍🥔
50🐃🍍
54🐏
56🐘🍓
60🐮🐐
64🐴
66🦅🦜
70🦌
74🐻🐪🦙
76🕊️
78🐔🐶🐺
80🦃🦆🦢
82🦏🦈
84🌺
88🦔
90🍠
110🦞
174🥝

Biolojical is now on BlueSky!

(not promising anything new, but moved some of my favorite posts over from the other site)

Raccoons: Domesticated by a nose? Are raccoons headed toward pet-dom?

Listen, I want a cute pet raccoon as much as the next person (ok I don't, you don't want to live a life with a chaos gremlin with HANDS).

But if you've seen the paper about how raccoons are on their way to domestication... brookshire-team-trash.beehiiv.com/p/raccoons-d...

Black and White and Read All Over Some millennia ago, not too far from the Yukon River, a black dog and a pale wolf had sex. We know the wolf had light fur — grey or white — because there were no black wolves yet. We know the dog h…

I wanted to use this framework to talk about how we should and shouldn't think about genetic diversity and how it evolves. Plus these are just amazing histories of two charismatic species, if I do say so myself.

Check it out:

adaptivediversity.wordpress.com/2025/12/04/b...

Cover of Hedrick population genetics textbook featuring multicolored wovles

Plate from an old biology book that gives a false picture of sharp differences among human races

Wolf coat color is an iconic case study in pop gen, but the whole wild story — that it comes from domestic dogs via an antimicrobial peptide gene — isn't widely known. And the parallels with human color polymorphism — both the truth and our ugly misperceptions of it — are striking.

Black and White and Read All Over Some millennia ago, not too far from the Yukon River, a black dog and a pale wolf had sex. We know the wolf had light fur — grey or white — because there were no black wolves yet. We know the dog h…

Black and White and Read All Over: pigment evolution in humans and wolves, and our oft-misguided perceptions of genetic variation

adaptivediversity.wordpress.com/2025/12/04/b...

Cows, sheep, and goats are cladistically antelopes. I often hear how chicken nuggets are dinosaur meat, but rarely about the ubiquity of antelope burgers.

Herb Robert aka Stinky Bob

Please, Herb Robert was my father. Call me Stinky Bob.

Cookie Monster doing his thing

Cookie Monster is a good model of a catabolic enzyme.

•specific substrate
•globular shape
•does not remove anything, but simply breaks large reactants into smaller products
•notable release of energy

His-Ala-Pro-Pro-Tyr

Thr-His-Ala-Asn-Lys-Ser-Gly-Ile-Val-Ile-Asn-Gly

Conversation in my mentions about homology between heme and chlorophyll

tetrapyrrole biosynthetic pathway from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2883787/

They did not arise independently. They are both synthesized from protoporphyrin IX, sometimes in the same organism. However, there is no evidence that our microbial ancestors were ever photosynthetic. Plants have heme, but animals do not have chlorophyll. So heme probably came first.

Frankenstein’s monster, having hidden immortal in the Arctic for 200 years, learns of modern biotechnology and re-enters civilization seeking a path to true humanity. But neither reactionary prejudice nor scientific hubris has changed much in two centuries.

Why isn’t this a movie or graphic novel?

A painful truth all dads must learn: if you wear a baseball cap while running around on playground equipment designed for children, the brim will block your upper view and you will bonk your head.