Danna Staaf

I love cooloola monsters but let’s be honest this is an antipodean stenopelmatid. Ninos de la Terra Nullius en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammopel...

I wish I could re-follow you just for this

Black pen on paper drawing of a journal cover in the style of the European Space Agency bulletin. Text reads "number 7, October '25, bulletin" and "Ocean Space Agency." There is a little OSA logo like the ESA logo but with a wave. The picture is of two astronauts floating in orbit around an earth-like planet. One astronaut is a starfish and the other is a scaly foot gastropod. Text next to the magazine lists the prompts for October 7: starfish, scaly foot gastropod, space agency, magazine cover.

Per my daughter's request, the #Inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge mashup now includes #OC_tober 😁
I'm actually ridiculously proud of this one 🌊🧑‍🚀

it's baby 🥹

Small pen on paper drawing of a moth with its wings folded. The left wing has two piercings. The dark parts of both wings are decorated with patterns like constellations in a night sky. You know, if you squint.

A quick doodle mashup today for #Inktober #Invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge

Hehe thank you

This is most definitely *not* the lesser of any two weevils

😂🤣

Black pen on paper drawing of a deer and a lobster riding in the dish of the Voyager spacecraft. The lobster's antennae are tangled with the antlers of the deer, who looks disgruntled.

Sometimes the prompts are unexpectedly compatible. I'd never realized before that lobsters, spacecraft, and deer ALL have antennae! #Inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge

Sure we've all seen the man, and the rabbit...but have you ever seen the palmetto weevil in the moon? It's kind of murky 😆 #invertober2025 #inktober #SpacetoberChallenge

Black pen on paper drawing of a bedazzled anemone with swirling streaks in the background. Prompts are written below: "crown/giant green anemone/space weather."

Catch-up day 3 of #Inktober #invertober2025 #SpacetoberChallenge

Ah that's so cool! Thank you!!

A simple ink-on-paper drawing of a leafhopper weaving string into a ring around a planet. The prompts "weave/red-banded leafhopper/planet" are written below the drawing.

good news, if you're stuck on the prompts you can just add another one! #Inktober #Invertober #SpacetoberChallenge

I just couldn't stop thinking about how weird sperm whale mouths are and yet how perfectly shaped for inserting giant squid into

this is a beautiful observation, made even more beautiful by the near-vindictive joy of your announcement 😆🎉

Photo of a page of THE RADIANT SEA, with a beautiful photograph of a sharp-eared enope squid, Ancistrocheirus lesueurii. It's a juvenile with just a few chromatophores and very cute. The caption includes the quotation in the skeet.

Promise I won't take pictures of ALL the cephs, but this baby enope is a delight. "They have a couple of years before they have to take on their adult responsibilities, like avoiding being eaten by sperm whales." 🤣 (and now I am distracted because I remembered I drew a sperm whale recently...)

Photo of a page of THE RADIANT SEA with a beautiful image of a Cranchiid, or glass squid, and accompanying text. The squid is mostly transparent, with small stomach and gills visible inside its mantle and a brain visible inside its head. Its two eyes stick out on long stalks and its arms are very tiny, maybe a quarter the length of the eyestalks. Its two feeding tentacles are a reasonable length.

Photo of a page of THE RADIANT SEA with a lovely photograph of a glass octopus, Vitreledonella richardi. It is translucent, with a single row of suckers on its rather thick arms.

The introduction also encourages readers to look at all the pictures first, so naturally I'm going for cephalopods. In Chapter 1, glass squids AND glass octopuses get well-deserved mentions.
I can't handle it when squid arms are shorter than their eyestalks...like WHAT even are those. Decorations.

Photo of the cover of THE RADIANT SEA: COLOR AND LIGHT IN THE UNDERWATER WORLD by Steven Haddock and Sonke Johnsen, Foreword by Helen Scales.

So keen to read THE RADIANT SEA by @stevehaddock.bsky.social & Sönke Johnsen! In the introduction, @helenscales.bsky.social says it's like having the authors "looking over your shoulder and telling stories," an experience I've been lucky enough to get with Steve. Also, COVER CEPHALOPOD 🐙🦑🌊

Simple black ink drawing of a sea nettle jelly, except the bell is shaped like a mustache. I tried to draw this four times before it finally came out acceptable.

It's a mustache medusa! I'm mashing up the #inktober and #invertober prompts this year 😁 #invertober2025

I love the way you created it in this medium!!

Me encanta esa medusa y no sabía lo del colagen!

My least favorite part of freelance life has been a) learning about indemnity clauses, b) pushing back against them, and c) hearing "no one else has a problem with it" 😩
Very soothing to spend an hour with folks in the same boat. Thanks to speaker Dawn Fallik and organizer @ellenkuwana.bsky.social!

This marine worm is called the Sand Striker | Deep Sea News TRIGGER WARNING This article or section, or pages it links to, contains information about sexual assault and/or violence which may be triggering to survivors. Marine scientists, we have made a mistake...

Thank you so much for putting this together! It's a delight! Would you be willing to change #14 to "Sand striker"? I learned from this blog that it's a preferable name (plus more informative about the nature of the worm itself):
deepseanews.com/2019/02/this...

SO excited for this! My daughter asked me to do Inktober with her this year, so I decided I'll combine the two prompt lists. 😁

I'll check with the hosts and share a link if possible!

I will be sharing my favorite spermatophore video and I'm SO excited

Alas no 😂

Cephalopod Life Cycles: From Alien Larvae to World's Most Patient Moms When it comes to finding a partner, cephalopods pull out all the stops. Pygmy squid squirt inky backdrops to highlight their dazzling courtship displays. Cuttlefish multitask, decorating one half of t...

Tomorrow I get to give a brand-new talk about my favorite things: cephalopod sex and babies! Come giggle with me about explosive spermatophores and sniffle with me about octopus moms 🐙🦑🧪
Tuesday Sept 30 at 3:45pm PT / ​6:45pm ET on zoom
Tickets here: smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/pr...

I am the gar
I long and thin
I have a jaw
things fit within

Yet sometimes shapes
are wrong for head
so do my best
& lik the bread

On some level, it's only a children's book because it's too short to be a typical adult-length biography. It's very much the book about Jeanne that I, an adult marine biologist, wanted to read 😄 And a number of other adults have enjoyed it too! I hope your mom is one of them! 🐙