Dr Dave
@ecosystemunraveller.com
Professor of Ecology, educator, maker | birds, mistletoe, acoustics, conservation | updates on research, family & other beasts. Living on unceded Wiradjuri country
More at https://ecosystemunraveller.com
More at https://ecosystemunraveller.com
Pinned
Dr Dave
@ecosystemunraveller.com
· Jan 24
Oh, and welcome new followers, welcome aboard. Ecologist here, parasitic plants and birds, biogeography and acoustics, connectivity conservation and evolutionary ecology. Also Amazonia and aquaria, wood working and smoked meats. Welcome
Aboard.
Aboard.
Reposted by Dr Dave
'She Breathes' by Fiona Almeleh—an exquisite hand embroidery on raw nettle and flax, adorned with resin, perle cotton, and gold relief. Created organically, it pulses with life, texture, and quiet radiance. ❤️
IG @fionaalmelehartist
IG @fionaalmelehartist
November 11, 2025 at 7:01 AM
'She Breathes' by Fiona Almeleh—an exquisite hand embroidery on raw nettle and flax, adorned with resin, perle cotton, and gold relief. Created organically, it pulses with life, texture, and quiet radiance. ❤️
IG @fionaalmelehartist
IG @fionaalmelehartist
Reposted by Dr Dave
Reposted by Dr Dave
Was this giant, mysterious collection of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru the world's first spreadsheet?
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Mysterious holes in Andean mountain may be an Inca spreadsheet
Thousands of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru could have been a monumental accounting device for trade and tax
www.newscientist.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Was this giant, mysterious collection of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru the world's first spreadsheet?
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Reposted by Dr Dave
Ape discovered from offerings in the tomb of Lady Xia, the grandmother of the first Chinese emperor, turn out to be a kind of crested gibbon.
A new phylogenetic analysis of living gibbons and the mysterious subfossil taxon "Junzi", which is found to be a crested gibbon (Nomascus) and not distinct at genus level.
This tree topology of recent forms has now been repeatedly recovered 💪🏻
www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
This tree topology of recent forms has now been repeatedly recovered 💪🏻
www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
Genome sequences of extant and extinct gibbons reveal their phylogeny, demographic history, and conservation status
This study presents a comprehensive evolutionary history of gibbons by resolving their
contentious phylogeny, reclassifying an extinct species with ancient DNA, and identifying
a structural variant po...
www.cell.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:33 AM
Ape discovered from offerings in the tomb of Lady Xia, the grandmother of the first Chinese emperor, turn out to be a kind of crested gibbon.
Reposted by Dr Dave
Exciting!
Endangered, cryptic eastern ground parrot found well outside known areas of occurrence in Narawntapu National Park
Endangered, cryptic eastern ground parrot found well outside known areas of occurrence in Narawntapu National Park
Endangered parrot found in northern Tasmania for first time in decades
The presence of an endangered and "cryptic" parrot species at a northern Tasmanian national park has been hailed as "very good news" by a bird expert.
www.abc.net.au
November 10, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Exciting!
Endangered, cryptic eastern ground parrot found well outside known areas of occurrence in Narawntapu National Park
Endangered, cryptic eastern ground parrot found well outside known areas of occurrence in Narawntapu National Park
Reposted by Dr Dave
Red-footed Booby carrying nesting material at Christmas Island. #SuperSeabirdSunday #seabirds #WildOz
November 9, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Red-footed Booby carrying nesting material at Christmas Island. #SuperSeabirdSunday #seabirds #WildOz
Reposted by Dr Dave
The path toward a unified trait space: synthesizing plant functional diversity - Carmona - 2025 - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The path toward a unified trait space: synthesizing plant functional diversity
Plant traits capture the remarkable diversity of ecological strategies, yet synthesizing this complexity into coherent frameworks remains challenging. Trait spaces have significantly advanced this ef....
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 9, 2025 at 5:10 AM
The path toward a unified trait space: synthesizing plant functional diversity - Carmona - 2025 - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Dr Dave
So stoked for the bird representation in this! Pleistocene documentaries tend to be very mammal-focused (because Pleistocene mammals were super cool), so I'm excited to see some variety.
Years of work and collab with an incredible team at #BBCStudios #AppleTV @framestore.bsky.social ... involving so many camera operators, writers, producers, effects people, artists and others, #PrehistoricPlanetaIceAge is out on #AppleTV Nov 26th. A definitive vision of Ice Age wildlife worldwide.
November 7, 2025 at 4:24 PM
So stoked for the bird representation in this! Pleistocene documentaries tend to be very mammal-focused (because Pleistocene mammals were super cool), so I'm excited to see some variety.
One of my favorite things about the tropical dry forests of Guanacaste are the winter visiting Scissor-tailed Flycatchers. They're later than a lot of other N American migrants, but they're starting to show up in good numbers now. When it gets too wet in Bijagua, I just head down to the sun. #birds
November 9, 2025 at 5:08 AM
Reposted by Dr Dave
It's Australian Pollinator Week!
8-16 November
Our native pollinators provide key ecosystem services, which contributes to maintaining our unique biodiversity.
I photographed this little pollinator, a male 𝘏𝘺𝘭𝘢𝘦𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘴, this week on Wangal Land.
#australianpollinatorweek
#ozpollinators
8-16 November
Our native pollinators provide key ecosystem services, which contributes to maintaining our unique biodiversity.
I photographed this little pollinator, a male 𝘏𝘺𝘭𝘢𝘦𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘴, this week on Wangal Land.
#australianpollinatorweek
#ozpollinators
November 8, 2025 at 4:27 AM
It's Australian Pollinator Week!
8-16 November
Our native pollinators provide key ecosystem services, which contributes to maintaining our unique biodiversity.
I photographed this little pollinator, a male 𝘏𝘺𝘭𝘢𝘦𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘴, this week on Wangal Land.
#australianpollinatorweek
#ozpollinators
8-16 November
Our native pollinators provide key ecosystem services, which contributes to maintaining our unique biodiversity.
I photographed this little pollinator, a male 𝘏𝘺𝘭𝘢𝘦𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘴, this week on Wangal Land.
#australianpollinatorweek
#ozpollinators
Golden-browed Euphonia was one of the reasons we came back to #bird Costa Rica again. Saw one this morning and it did not dissappoint.
November 9, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Xolo One. Xolo two.
November 9, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Xolo One. Xolo two.
Reposted by Dr Dave
The premier, the poet and the fight to save an extraordinary Australian frog
The premier, the poet and the fight to save an extraordinary Australian frog
As amphibian enthusiasts get ready to hop into FrogID Week, hope persists that one of Australia’s most bizarre creatures may survive
*
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It’s a story almost too preposterous to believe, starring a group of young uni students, an infamous state premier, a legendary Australian poet and an extinct frog which gave birth by vomiting its young – all at the dawn of the Australian conservation movement.
Yet the tale of the southern gastric-brooding frog, which once inhabited the rainforest streams of the Conondale and Blackall ranges in south-east Queensland, continues to perplex and inspire a new generation of citizen scientists as they hop into FrogID Week. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 8, 2025 at 8:36 AM
The premier, the poet and the fight to save an extraordinary Australian frog
I’ve seen more snakes in jars than I’ve had hot breakfasts, but these Bulgarian bad boys are far and away the fanciest dern snakes in jars I ever did see.
There were 52 species of Bulgarian herpetofauna (one is now thought extinct) & you can see them all exquisitely displayed, as @waspwoman.bsky.social would say at the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia, Bulgaria
I’m loving the wiggle of the displays
#museums #displays
I’m loving the wiggle of the displays
#museums #displays
November 8, 2025 at 7:10 AM
I’ve seen more snakes in jars than I’ve had hot breakfasts, but these Bulgarian bad boys are far and away the fanciest dern snakes in jars I ever did see.
Reposted by Dr Dave
All subject areas are of interest (so long as the focus is #ornithology & #conservation); however, we’re particularly keen to hear from folks with expertise in:
- climate change
- bushfire
- habitat loss
- species distribution models
- invasive species
- ecotox
- quantitative & movement ecology
- climate change
- bushfire
- habitat loss
- species distribution models
- invasive species
- ecotox
- quantitative & movement ecology
November 8, 2025 at 4:53 AM
All subject areas are of interest (so long as the focus is #ornithology & #conservation); however, we’re particularly keen to hear from folks with expertise in:
- climate change
- bushfire
- habitat loss
- species distribution models
- invasive species
- ecotox
- quantitative & movement ecology
- climate change
- bushfire
- habitat loss
- species distribution models
- invasive species
- ecotox
- quantitative & movement ecology
Reposted by Dr Dave
Are you an #ECR working with #birds and looking to put your critical writing skills to use? Consider joining our team at ‘Avian Conservation & Ecology’ as a Subject Editor ace-eco.org/our-editors/
Avian Conservation and Ecology: Our Editors
ace-eco.org
November 8, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Are you an #ECR working with #birds and looking to put your critical writing skills to use? Consider joining our team at ‘Avian Conservation & Ecology’ as a Subject Editor ace-eco.org/our-editors/
Reposted by Dr Dave
This little bird survived a volcanic eruption!
Buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, this Roman fresco of a little bird pecking at fruit re-emerged looking as delightful as it did some 2,000 years ago!
Villa Poppaea, ancient Oplontis, Italy
📷 by me
#FrescoFriday
#Archaeology
Buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, this Roman fresco of a little bird pecking at fruit re-emerged looking as delightful as it did some 2,000 years ago!
Villa Poppaea, ancient Oplontis, Italy
📷 by me
#FrescoFriday
#Archaeology
November 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
This little bird survived a volcanic eruption!
Buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, this Roman fresco of a little bird pecking at fruit re-emerged looking as delightful as it did some 2,000 years ago!
Villa Poppaea, ancient Oplontis, Italy
📷 by me
#FrescoFriday
#Archaeology
Buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, this Roman fresco of a little bird pecking at fruit re-emerged looking as delightful as it did some 2,000 years ago!
Villa Poppaea, ancient Oplontis, Italy
📷 by me
#FrescoFriday
#Archaeology
Reposted by Dr Dave
Phylogeny of tinamous based on whole-genomes and fossils: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... 🪶🧪 (📷Musher et al.)
November 7, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Phylogeny of tinamous based on whole-genomes and fossils: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... 🪶🧪 (📷Musher et al.)
Reposted by Dr Dave
Her sister wrote my favorite essay about her. She points out that RF would have been famous even if she'd never looked at DNA
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Remembering my sister Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958 aged 37 years. Sympathy and feminism
have combined to give us her familiar image as a downtrodden woman scientist, brilliant
but neglected, a heroine t...
www.thelancet.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Her sister wrote my favorite essay about her. She points out that RF would have been famous even if she'd never looked at DNA
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Reposted by Dr Dave
I love that you can just casually stroll along a path and discover the homes of sea creatures that lived & strived on Earth before Saturn had its rings.
Deep time is even more intriguing (in some ways) than deep space.
Deep time is even more intriguing (in some ways) than deep space.
These dark patches on the limestone are ancient animal (shrimp-like creatures, we think!) burrows, made when this was a muddy sea floor. It is believed that a storm washed the the animals from these burrows and filled them in with gravel or sand (in this case Crinoid segments).
November 7, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I love that you can just casually stroll along a path and discover the homes of sea creatures that lived & strived on Earth before Saturn had its rings.
Deep time is even more intriguing (in some ways) than deep space.
Deep time is even more intriguing (in some ways) than deep space.
This pair of Long-tailed Silky-flycatchers are never far apart as they roam the grounds of Paraiso Quetzal in Costa Rica's highlands. #birding I took these pictures les than an hour ago. I can hear a Lesser Violetear Hummingbird chirping constantlyu as I type this. Pura Vida.
November 7, 2025 at 10:16 PM