Danna Staaf
banner
dannastaaf.bsky.social
Danna Staaf
@dannastaaf.bsky.social
https://www.dannastaaf.com/
Author, artist, speaker with a fondness for cephalopods. Books:
🦑 Monarchs of the Sea
👩‍🔬 The Lady and the Octopus
🐣 Nursery Earth
🐙 The Lives of Octopuses and Their Relatives
Newsletter: https://buttondown.com/dannastaaf
Pinned
this may be the pinnacle of my science communication career
My cousin saw the trumpet-playing squid and requested a baritone-saxophone-playing squid, and I was happy to oblige! (My understanding of orchestral anatomy is not on par with that of biological anatomy; please forgive errors)
February 3, 2026 at 1:45 AM
Did you know there's a searchable library of science stories about failure? It was truly an honor to contribute my story to Fail-Safe Science, "an initiative designed to normalize experiencing and overcoming challenges in science graduate programs." risecenter.asu.edu/fail-safe 🧪
Fail Safe Science | RISE Center
risecenter.asu.edu
January 30, 2026 at 11:54 PM
I can't overrecommend this incredible paper about water skaters (genus Halobates). No one knows how they evolved. No one knows what they eat. They are superhydrophobic, which means water LITERALLY CANNOT WET THEM. Perhaps we should call them anti-water skaters? 🌊🧪
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Why did only one genus of insects, Halobates, take to the high seas?
Oceans cover over 70% of the earth’s surface and house a dizzying array of organisms, including five species of the peppercorn-sized ocean-skater Halobates, which live exclusively at the ocean surface...
journals.plos.org
January 30, 2026 at 10:17 PM
In this liminal time between the gregorian new year and the lunar new year, I thought I'd share two old sketches of my blended zodiac sign (Pisces + Year of the Pig).
Which is best?
January 26, 2026 at 7:16 PM
In these trying times, may I offer squid emoji to express key emotional states:
- pretending to be happy so effectively it might manifest as truth
- trying your hardest to camouflage against an unnatural background
- fabricating a friend, enemy, or decoy from your own secretions
- sploosh. ink
January 12, 2026 at 7:26 PM
Doodled at the request of a musician/scientist friend
January 9, 2026 at 5:06 AM
In addition to making new art this year, I'm going to dust off and share old art! This one was inspired by the interesting colors of marine invertebrate eggs. Drawn during the Embryology course at Friday Harbor Lab in 2008--15 years before the publication of NURSERY EARTH! 🐡🦑
January 5, 2026 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by Danna Staaf
I’ve had the words ‘POLLY WANNA KRAKEN’ running round my head for the last week and today I was finally able to exorcise them.
December 28, 2025 at 5:13 PM
At last, the dicyemid life cycle for #InverteFest! These absolute weirdos infect ONLY cephalopod kidneys; they are worms of discerning taste. 🦑🌊🐙🧪🐡
December 27, 2025 at 7:22 PM
My daughter made me an octopus who's upset about being anatomically incorrect 😭
December 25, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Danna Staaf
Hand pluteus drawn per @dannastaaf.bsky.social ’s instructions in _Nursery Earth_
December 19, 2025 at 8:36 PM
For a second I thought this was a book cover, and got all hyped to read it. Fabulous design for a fascinating topic! (And maybe a future book...?)
Be sure to catch the symposium: Needle in the haystack: Finding tools to study puncture and injection mechanisms across biology on Wednesday Jan 7!

As SICB 2026 is getting closer, tune into DCB/DVM social media (here and @sicb.dcb.dvm on Instagram).
@sicbjournals.bsky.social @sicb.bsky.social
December 19, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Danna Staaf
I wrote a piece about translation earlier in the year, talking about how a good translation isn't, and can't be, just matching words one-for-one:

whatever.scalzi.com/2025/02/03/h...
How Translation Works, Book Title Edition
As any translator will tell you, translating a piece of fiction isn’t about simply transcribing words one-to-one from one language to another. It’s about capturing a vibe — making…
whatever.scalzi.com
December 18, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Danna Staaf
People who aspire to be academics: I wish to live a life of the mind

Actual academics:
I have a weird question for the #bird people on here. Do you think someone could tell that a book was pooped on specifically by a sparrowhawk (or perhaps hawks generally) just from the feces? I'm looking at a 16th c. case where witnesses claim books were pooped on specifically by sparrowhawks!
December 18, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Danna Staaf
Reading _Nursery Earth_ by @dannastaaf.bsky.social about baby animals and its incredible—every chapter not only has WTF moment after wild WTF moment, but also insights that have changed my whole understanding of biology. Truly one of the great science communicators of this century.
December 17, 2025 at 7:14 PM
🙌
Are we not all, at one time or another, just a very smol squid looking out at the big wide world
December 16, 2025 at 10:57 PM
A cool thing I learned at the cephalopod conference is that squid embryos actually look out of their capsules while they're developing and learn what prey will be available to hunt after they hatch. 🧪🐡🦑
December 16, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Some of the cutest images at the cephalopod conference were the dwarf cuttlefish of @tessamontague.bsky.social. I just had to try a quick sketch of one photo in which I swear the cuttlefish was doing this 👉👈
December 15, 2025 at 7:58 PM
One of my fave cephalopod conference talks was Erica Vidal on baby squids and octos. Reminded me that everyone needs to see this 2023 paper from Erica and Liz Shea that shows how utterly unbothered hatchlings are about any preconceived notions of Correct Shape 🐙🧪: www.frontiersin.org/journals/mar...
Frontiers | Cephalopod ontogeny and life cycle patterns
Life cycle definitions provide the background for conceptualizing meaningful questions to address the mechanisms that generate different life cycle patterns....
www.frontiersin.org
December 15, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Danna Staaf
I made a 4 page comic for Root & Stem about Gen-AI which is pretty funny, if I do say so.

The whole magazine is very cool, with a goal of making STEM available to remote and Indigenous communities.

Read the whole thing here:
rootandstem.ca/learn/always...
December 15, 2025 at 4:21 PM
In Japanese, the common name for vampire squid is koumori-dako, or bat octopus. I illustrated it for this month's OctoPost: Bats and Jellies. 🐙🦑🐡
buttondown.com/dannastaaf/a...
December 8, 2025 at 10:32 PM
the typo in this is killing me, but on the bright side "gelantious" is fun to say
My new proposed common name for Haliphron atlanticus is the JELLY OCTOPUS (thx to @motthepaladin.bsky.social for asking!) because this species
✅ is very gelantious
✅ eats jellyfish
✅ may even use jellyfish as tools to capture other prey
However, it
❌ does not make tasty preserves
December 4, 2025 at 11:09 PM
My new proposed common name for Haliphron atlanticus is the JELLY OCTOPUS (thx to @motthepaladin.bsky.social for asking!) because this species
✅ is very gelantious
✅ eats jellyfish
✅ may even use jellyfish as tools to capture other prey
However, it
❌ does not make tasty preserves
December 4, 2025 at 10:17 PM
One of the least-appreciated giant cephalopods, Haliphron atlanticus, is in the news! (thx @scsmith4.bsky.social for the heads up)
Unfortunately the common name seven-arm octopus
- only describes males
- actually doesn't even describe males
Can we think of a better one??
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Mystery as remains of seven-arm deep-sea octopus wash up on beach
Arms from the rarely-seen species were discovered at an Aberdeenshire national nature reserve.
www.bbc.com
December 4, 2025 at 3:42 AM
me: I'm so happy about Scrivener's commitment not to include or train AI! I wonder how I can support them
spouse: you could buy their product
me: NOT MY FAULT IT'S FREE ON MY OS
December 1, 2025 at 4:32 PM