Jack Ashby
@jackdashby.bsky.social
Award-winning author #PlatypusMatters & #NaturesMemory. Assistant Director of @ZoologyMuseum.bsky.social at Cambridge Uni. President of the Society for the History of Natural History. Australian mammal nerd. He/him. Own views.
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Jack Ashby
@jackdashby.bsky.social
· Nov 13
OK here I go. Expect posts about the wonderful world of Australian mammals, the quirks of natural history museums, and chasing beasts around the place.
What does a snowflake moray eel have in common with an adorable egg-laying, anteating Australian mammal?
They are both #echidnas! The scientific name of the eel is #Echidna. Ékhidna means "viper" in Ancient Greek, which makes sense for a snake-shaped fish, but is more confusing for the mammal.
They are both #echidnas! The scientific name of the eel is #Echidna. Ékhidna means "viper" in Ancient Greek, which makes sense for a snake-shaped fish, but is more confusing for the mammal.
November 11, 2025 at 7:31 AM
ON THURSDAY I'll be at @linneansociety.bsky.social to chat about whether natural history #museums really represent nature, how they talk about their own [sometimes troubling] histories, & how they help save the world: the 3 themes of my book #NaturesMemory. Come!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/natures-me...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/natures-me...
Nature’s Memory | Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums
Get an insider guide to the secrets of natural history museums, as we consider how they shape our society and relationship with nature.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 12:30 PM
ON THURSDAY I'll be at @linneansociety.bsky.social to chat about whether natural history #museums really represent nature, how they talk about their own [sometimes troubling] histories, & how they help save the world: the 3 themes of my book #NaturesMemory. Come!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/natures-me...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/natures-me...
Obviously it's sad when historic #taxidermy cracks, but it can show you how these specimens were converted from flat, treated skins to stand "alive" again. Here, the crack in this rhino at @nhmwien.bsky.social reveals an inner cage of willow beams. 🦏
![A cracked rhino taxidermy surrounded by other taxidermy specimens. The crack shows tightly arranged horizontal wooden branches. [NB the horns are fakes]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ngnzzzao6iyesvlveibvkasg/bafkreia6hh6skcqhftyxzb4hzehn7khaj5hefwvvak7n2ch3zorbqitxo4@jpeg)
November 6, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Obviously it's sad when historic #taxidermy cracks, but it can show you how these specimens were converted from flat, treated skins to stand "alive" again. Here, the crack in this rhino at @nhmwien.bsky.social reveals an inner cage of willow beams. 🦏
Reposted by Jack Ashby
Don’t you want to just scratch that little spot behind thier adorable ears‽
An absolutely stunning #thylacine at @nhmwien.bsky.social, which hasn't been posed to convey the impression that #thylacines were dangerous or threatening in the way that so many other #taxidermy specimens do. That idea was central to the false claim that they threatened #Tasmania's sheep industry.
November 5, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Don’t you want to just scratch that little spot behind thier adorable ears‽
Reposted by Jack Ashby
My gateway thylacine specimen
Aka the first one I ever saw at a museum that unlocked my love of the species
Aka the first one I ever saw at a museum that unlocked my love of the species
An absolutely stunning #thylacine at @nhmwien.bsky.social, which hasn't been posed to convey the impression that #thylacines were dangerous or threatening in the way that so many other #taxidermy specimens do. That idea was central to the false claim that they threatened #Tasmania's sheep industry.
November 5, 2025 at 7:17 PM
My gateway thylacine specimen
Aka the first one I ever saw at a museum that unlocked my love of the species
Aka the first one I ever saw at a museum that unlocked my love of the species
Only four #taxidermy bluebuck are known in #museums (Paris, Leiden, Stockholm, Vienna): the only large mammal species to become extinct in Africa in recent centuries. Bluebuck disappeared in ~1800.
(It feels weird to know I've seen them all - the only physical evidence of what bluebuck looked like)
(It feels weird to know I've seen them all - the only physical evidence of what bluebuck looked like)
November 5, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Only four #taxidermy bluebuck are known in #museums (Paris, Leiden, Stockholm, Vienna): the only large mammal species to become extinct in Africa in recent centuries. Bluebuck disappeared in ~1800.
(It feels weird to know I've seen them all - the only physical evidence of what bluebuck looked like)
(It feels weird to know I've seen them all - the only physical evidence of what bluebuck looked like)
Excited to be at the Haus der Nature in Salzburg today, talking through some of my reflections on what natural history #museums have been up to for the last couple of centuries, and why that's important for how we think of them today.
November 5, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Excited to be at the Haus der Nature in Salzburg today, talking through some of my reflections on what natural history #museums have been up to for the last couple of centuries, and why that's important for how we think of them today.
Reposted by Jack Ashby
Here's another Bernissart Iguanodon 'sibling' in the Senckenberg Museum, #Frankfurt, this time remounted to show its more correct life quadripedal position
#dinosaur
#dinosaur
November 4, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Here's another Bernissart Iguanodon 'sibling' in the Senckenberg Museum, #Frankfurt, this time remounted to show its more correct life quadripedal position
#dinosaur
#dinosaur
Reposted by Jack Ashby
I particularly enjoy thinking about this with bats and whales - cousins who have evolved in completely "opposite directions" of scale and habitat, yet both independently arrived at echolocation.
Little and large.
I really like this display at @nhmwien.bsky.social showing the size difference between the biggest and smallest #mammals, with a single #whale vertebra alongside a tiny shrew.
I really like this display at @nhmwien.bsky.social showing the size difference between the biggest and smallest #mammals, with a single #whale vertebra alongside a tiny shrew.
November 4, 2025 at 10:19 AM
I particularly enjoy thinking about this with bats and whales - cousins who have evolved in completely "opposite directions" of scale and habitat, yet both independently arrived at echolocation.
The largest ever turtle - 74-million-year-old Archelon - really was quite large. (@themuseumofliz.bsky.social for scale) 🐢
On display at @nhmwien.bsky.social
On display at @nhmwien.bsky.social
November 4, 2025 at 1:30 PM
The largest ever turtle - 74-million-year-old Archelon - really was quite large. (@themuseumofliz.bsky.social for scale) 🐢
On display at @nhmwien.bsky.social
On display at @nhmwien.bsky.social
Stellar's sea cows are fascinating for many reasons, not least because they were giant marine mammals that were first encountered by Europeans in 1741, & were driven to #extinction by 1768. I recently learnt they didn't have any finger bones (it's not just that they're missing from museum skeletons)
November 4, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Stellar's sea cows are fascinating for many reasons, not least because they were giant marine mammals that were first encountered by Europeans in 1741, & were driven to #extinction by 1768. I recently learnt they didn't have any finger bones (it's not just that they're missing from museum skeletons)
Little and large.
I really like this display at @nhmwien.bsky.social showing the size difference between the biggest and smallest #mammals, with a single #whale vertebra alongside a tiny shrew.
I really like this display at @nhmwien.bsky.social showing the size difference between the biggest and smallest #mammals, with a single #whale vertebra alongside a tiny shrew.
November 4, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Little and large.
I really like this display at @nhmwien.bsky.social showing the size difference between the biggest and smallest #mammals, with a single #whale vertebra alongside a tiny shrew.
I really like this display at @nhmwien.bsky.social showing the size difference between the biggest and smallest #mammals, with a single #whale vertebra alongside a tiny shrew.
You don't often see a #taxidermy echidna that is actually shaped like a live #echidna.
✅️ Correctly backwards-pointing feet.
✅️ Belly correctly not flattened on the ground.
✅️ Smoothly graded neck.
@nhmwien.bsky.social
✅️ Correctly backwards-pointing feet.
✅️ Belly correctly not flattened on the ground.
✅️ Smoothly graded neck.
@nhmwien.bsky.social
November 4, 2025 at 8:15 AM
You don't often see a #taxidermy echidna that is actually shaped like a live #echidna.
✅️ Correctly backwards-pointing feet.
✅️ Belly correctly not flattened on the ground.
✅️ Smoothly graded neck.
@nhmwien.bsky.social
✅️ Correctly backwards-pointing feet.
✅️ Belly correctly not flattened on the ground.
✅️ Smoothly graded neck.
@nhmwien.bsky.social
November 4, 2025 at 7:15 AM
An absolutely stunning #thylacine at @nhmwien.bsky.social, which hasn't been posed to convey the impression that #thylacines were dangerous or threatening in the way that so many other #taxidermy specimens do. That idea was central to the false claim that they threatened #Tasmania's sheep industry.
November 4, 2025 at 6:29 AM
An absolutely stunning #thylacine at @nhmwien.bsky.social, which hasn't been posed to convey the impression that #thylacines were dangerous or threatening in the way that so many other #taxidermy specimens do. That idea was central to the false claim that they threatened #Tasmania's sheep industry.
I like the idea of museum specimens having "siblings", like casts of the same original #fossils that were sent to different #museums around the world. @themuseumofliz.bsky.social and I have been "collecting" siblings of the Iguanodon in Cambridge - here's one in @nhmwien.bsky.social in #Vienna. 🦖
November 3, 2025 at 4:31 PM
I like the idea of museum specimens having "siblings", like casts of the same original #fossils that were sent to different #museums around the world. @themuseumofliz.bsky.social and I have been "collecting" siblings of the Iguanodon in Cambridge - here's one in @nhmwien.bsky.social in #Vienna. 🦖
November 3, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Jack Ashby
November 3, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I FOUND THE FEMALE!
There is a single female specimen in this gallery at @nhmwien.bsky.social. For some groups of #mammals, males are almost always used as the representatives of their species in museum displays, and females rarely get a look in. It's one way that #taxidermy props up the #patriarchy
There is a single female specimen in this gallery at @nhmwien.bsky.social. For some groups of #mammals, males are almost always used as the representatives of their species in museum displays, and females rarely get a look in. It's one way that #taxidermy props up the #patriarchy
November 3, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I FOUND THE FEMALE!
There is a single female specimen in this gallery at @nhmwien.bsky.social. For some groups of #mammals, males are almost always used as the representatives of their species in museum displays, and females rarely get a look in. It's one way that #taxidermy props up the #patriarchy
There is a single female specimen in this gallery at @nhmwien.bsky.social. For some groups of #mammals, males are almost always used as the representatives of their species in museum displays, and females rarely get a look in. It's one way that #taxidermy props up the #patriarchy
Even though it's such a fundamental mammalian behaviour, it's rare to find #taxidermy posed suckling - presumably because of nineteenth-century prudishness. But here's some lovely #badgers at @nhmwien.bsky.social. 🦡🍼
November 3, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Even though it's such a fundamental mammalian behaviour, it's rare to find #taxidermy posed suckling - presumably because of nineteenth-century prudishness. But here's some lovely #badgers at @nhmwien.bsky.social. 🦡🍼
Some #taxidermy highlights from @nhmwien.bsky.social:
- aye-ayes are one of those animals that taxidermists usually do REALLY BADLY. But not this time!
- an absolute whopper of a walrus.
- some stunning big cats - that puma is gorgeous!
- a hooded seal, with its bonkers nose fully inflated.
- aye-ayes are one of those animals that taxidermists usually do REALLY BADLY. But not this time!
- an absolute whopper of a walrus.
- some stunning big cats - that puma is gorgeous!
- a hooded seal, with its bonkers nose fully inflated.
November 3, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Some #taxidermy highlights from @nhmwien.bsky.social:
- aye-ayes are one of those animals that taxidermists usually do REALLY BADLY. But not this time!
- an absolute whopper of a walrus.
- some stunning big cats - that puma is gorgeous!
- a hooded seal, with its bonkers nose fully inflated.
- aye-ayes are one of those animals that taxidermists usually do REALLY BADLY. But not this time!
- an absolute whopper of a walrus.
- some stunning big cats - that puma is gorgeous!
- a hooded seal, with its bonkers nose fully inflated.
So often when you see #amphibians and #reptiles preserved in jars in #museums, they are bleached into bland beige blobs, but at @nhmwien.bsky.social many retain much of their colours. Check out this tomato #frog!
November 3, 2025 at 12:31 PM
So often when you see #amphibians and #reptiles preserved in jars in #museums, they are bleached into bland beige blobs, but at @nhmwien.bsky.social many retain much of their colours. Check out this tomato #frog!
There's amazing interplay between the architecture and specimens at @nhmwien.bsky.social - here's a #python and whale jaw around the doorways. #Vienna
November 3, 2025 at 12:13 PM
There's amazing interplay between the architecture and specimens at @nhmwien.bsky.social - here's a #python and whale jaw around the doorways. #Vienna
Literally the first specimen you see in @nhmwien.bsky.social is a model mosquito (in a parasite display - it's really common that #museums highlight the unhelpful notion that #insects are "pests"), but soon after there's a great display showcasing insect diversity. For you @flygirlnhm.bsky.social
November 3, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Literally the first specimen you see in @nhmwien.bsky.social is a model mosquito (in a parasite display - it's really common that #museums highlight the unhelpful notion that #insects are "pests"), but soon after there's a great display showcasing insect diversity. For you @flygirlnhm.bsky.social
There are few #museums I've wanted to visit more than @nhmwien.bsky.social and boy oh boy it doesn't disappoint 🤓.
This is one of the Biggies when it comes to classical majestic displays of nature. It's oozing imperial vibes. #Vienna
This is one of the Biggies when it comes to classical majestic displays of nature. It's oozing imperial vibes. #Vienna
November 3, 2025 at 9:24 AM
There are few #museums I've wanted to visit more than @nhmwien.bsky.social and boy oh boy it doesn't disappoint 🤓.
This is one of the Biggies when it comes to classical majestic displays of nature. It's oozing imperial vibes. #Vienna
This is one of the Biggies when it comes to classical majestic displays of nature. It's oozing imperial vibes. #Vienna