Peter Moonlight

No evidence for the niche breadth – range size hypothesis in big plant genera

🌿🌍 Join us to learn about the newly published “No evidence for the niche breadth – range size hypothesis in big plant genera” in @annbot.bsky.social by Ludwig Baldaszti and co-authors. (1/9)

👉 doi.org/qnrq

@baldasztil.bsky.social
@caroaceae.bsky.social
@petermoonlight.bsky.social

#PlantScience

Adding a barcode to a historic specimen in Trinity College Dublin herbarium.

We are looking for a dedicated and passionate digitisation assistant to help us image the historic herbarium collections in Trinity College Dublin. If that sounds like you, please get in touch and apply!

my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...

Two mudskippers (brown fish with large google eyes and large front fins used for "walking"), one on the mud on the ground, the other up a tree root.

BHL's new chapter has begun! 🌱

Our latest #BHLTransition Update shares where BHL is now: stable, fully operational, and nearing completion of its transition. BHL has retained its people, its expertise, and its ability to operate effectively. 🔗 blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/01/tran... #ILoveBHL

Adding a barcode to a historic specimen in Trinity College Dublin herbarium.

We are looking for a dedicated and passionate digitisation assistant to help us image the historic herbarium collections in Trinity College Dublin. If that sounds like you, please get in touch and apply!

my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...

Aberdeenshire fossil dating back 410 million years joins museum collection Researchers say the fossil found in Aberdeenshire is neither plant nor fungus as previously thought.

Really exciting to get some press coverage on our Prototaxites paper @instmolplantsci.bsky.social @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Looking down on the river Dee

A frozen Loch Etchachan

Looking west from Derry Cairngorm

The devil's point.. I think

A proper day out in the Cairngorms on this day 7 years ago.

Hi Siobhan, it certainly isn't Fred Schultz (he first collected after Harvey's death!) Interesting - I couldn't find her either. I will have a look in Harvey's correspondence and see if I can find any clues.

@siobhanleachman.bsky.social A challenge for you! Who was Miss Schultz? She was collecting in Norfolk Island, probably in the 1840-60s. This writing is in William Henry Harvey's hand in TCD. I think specimens by Miss Schultz are attributed to various male Schultz botanists in Kew.

Scaffolding for Scientific Knowledge - the Nomenclatural Checklist A checklist of the plant family Putranjivaceae has just been published in the Edinburgh Journal of Botany (Quintanar et al. 2025). It’s a list of all the species accepted in the family. But it is more...

Scaffolding for Scientific Knowledge – the Nomenclatural Checklist
stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/40823

A terrible, out of focus phone photo of a wood printed, hand coloured Queen of Diamonds playing card.

Is anyone on BlueSky hot on their late 17th to early 18th century European playing cards? I turned this one up in Trinity College Dublin Herbarium today, with a herbarium collection of a similar age.

We have a new Dr in #paleobotany! Congratulations to @thibault-durieux.bsky.social who successfully passed his viva. It was a great journey & he made the advising job very easy for
@petermoonlight.bsky.social, Carla Harper and I. Big thanks to the examiners Jenny McElwain & @sandyheth.bsky.social!

The UW Herbarium @ Burke Museum is hiring a Research Mycologist! 🍄
Focus: fungal systematics & evolution, collections-based research, and outreach.
Initial 3-year appointment, renewable pending funding.

Apply here! wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...

Please share widely!

It takes a special level of incompetance from @deltaairways.bsky.social to drop their passengers in one terminal in the busiest airport in the world and send the luggage to a different terminal entirely, only connected by bus.

Just over three weeks left if you are thinking of applying for this amazing job!

The first European animal declared extinct in my lifetime will not be the last.

Botanical espionage, from page 35 of the Hilary 2025 edition of Trinity Today

Botanical espionage, from page 36 of the Hilary 2025 edition of Trinity Today

A new article on the recently uncovered specimens of 18th century botanist/spy for Louis the 16th of France, Joseph Dombey in Trinity College Dublin herbarium, out in #TrinityToday

Congratulations Norbert! That is a huge amount of work. Remind me to chat to you about this next time I'm over.

Trinity College Dublin Herbarium

Calling botanical researchers, the School of Natural Science at Trinity College Dublin is hiring a tenure track Assistant Professor in Plant Biodiversity and Conservation.

I know this is someone's dream job, so let me know if that is you and you want to chat!

my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...

Fellow creatures: the new GCSE in natural history The new GCSE in natural history is a vital step toward restoring our knowledge of and respect for the natural world

🔥 Britain is about to launch a new GCSE in natural history – a vital step toward restoring our knowledge of and respect for the natural world.

Trinity College Dublin Herbarium

Calling botanical researchers, the School of Natural Science at Trinity College Dublin is hiring a tenure track Assistant Professor in Plant Biodiversity and Conservation.

I know this is someone's dream job, so let me know if that is you and you want to chat!

my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...

My thoughts exactly! A lock also speaks against that.

The issue with any anaysis is I am unsure what it has been used for for the last 80 years... we may find "resedue of umbrellas" or similar, but worth a try!

Very plausible! Harvey travelled in both mapped and unmapped areas. This was my first thought too.

That is our best guess so far, but a very unorthodox shape. Perhaps specifically a watertight vasculum for seaweed?

It does! It is Harvey's name, nothing more.

A metal tube, around 120 x 25 cm. Hollow with a lost locking lid. Once belonged to William Henry Harvey.

A metal tube, around 120 x 25 cm. Hollow with a lost locking lid. Once belonged to William Henry Harvey.

Curators and botanists, does anyone know what this could be?

It belonged to William Henry Harvey, botanist, collector, and former curator of TCD herbarium (1844-66). It is a 1.2m high, 25cm wide metal tube that once had a locking lid. Perhaps watertight.

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

My daughter had the MMR vaccine today. This was based on science.

Why do queen bumblebees emerge from hibernation during weekends? - Apidologie Climate-driven shifts in bumblebee emergence and flowering time can disrupt plant reproduction and affect pollinator health. To study such mismatches, accurate phenological data is crucial but challen...

"Why do queen bumblebees emerge from hibernation during weekends?"

I love this framing about bias in hobbyist-collected data.

Thanks Siobhan!! We will be CC0 by our next data update (hopefully this week).

Trinity College Dublin herbarium are now on @gbif.org! We have just 52k records for now and mostly minimal data with full data and images to follow, but its a big step forward.

www.gbif.org/dataset/5ec4...