Jo Wolfe, PhD
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jopabinia.bsky.social
Jo Wolfe, PhD
@jopabinia.bsky.social
16K followers 2.9K following 15K posts
Why things evolve into crabs. Evolutionary biologist (species alive today AND fossils, and how to study them together). Canadian at UCSB and Harvard (she/her)

My science: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CKqoVjEAAAAJ&hl=en
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jopabinia.bsky.social
Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · Aug 1
Our paper on convergent evolution of land crabs is out in its final final form. The journal didn't pick my image as the cover, so I'm sharing it here because it must be seen!

academic.oup.com/sysbio/artic...

🦀🦑🧪
Circular timetree of crabs with pie slices colored by superfamily (Figure 2 in the paper). Simplified version with no text/labels. Line drawings of crabs arranged around the perimeter like a zodiac, with colors matching the superfamily pie slice. Figure by me, drawings by Harrison Mancke and Javi Luque
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
saimihanma.bsky.social
My first third of #Nudivember paintings, all done in watercolor and ink and a touch of white gauche.

#TradArt
A collage of five watercolor illustrations of various nudibranchs, from white and curly to sleek black and yellow A collage of 5 different types of nudibranchs in watercolor and ink
November 10, 2025 at 11:17 PM
jopabinia.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
jopabinia.bsky.social
Okay I am getting creative. Snails are everywhere 🐌

2350m up in the Alps, under da sea, and in between. Heliciniae indet, Doriprismatica atromarginata, Aplysia californica
Heliciniae crawling on a plant in a rock fissure, Gemmipass, Switzerland. The snail is maybe 1-2cm, light colored shell with slight striations in the direction of growth. Mantle is yellowish brown. Eyestalks are out! Doriprismatica atromarginata in Tulamben, Bali. It's a white nudibranch with ruffled mantle edges that are edged in black Aplysia, a sea hare, cruising a tidepool filled with coralline algae. It's mostly dark pink/purple, the color it will ink if you make it upset
November 9, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
lhardingwrites.bsky.social
We're snail-posting, post your snails

(Well... @liminalitea.bsky.social's in this case)
An ink drawing of an enormous snail. A rope ladder leads up its back, to a network of platforms, walkways and booths across the shell. The snail is looking back as if too its pilot. Streamers are tied to the shell and its eyestalks, and are blowing in the wind.
November 10, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
anserdelira.bsky.social
My kid’s conch.
November 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
emilyjaneart.bsky.social
We're snailposting, post your snails 🐌🐡
A photograph of a black and white ink illustration of a steampunk snail kitted out with a tiny top hat, monocle and cogs attached to its shell to help it go faster! An exhaust pipe lets out smoke behind it. A Staedtler pigment liner rests on the paper. Art by Emily Jane Foster. A photograph of a Staedtler 0.05mm pigment liner pen resting on an ACEO sized black and white illustration of a steampunk snail in a top hat. A cup of tea is just visible by the pen. The shell is striped and has pipes, cogs and rivets visible. Signed by Emily Jane Foster.
November 10, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
jopabinia.bsky.social
OMG I did not realize I had a photo of this and wish it had been my FIRST snailpost! 🐌🦑

See the big wacky black thing at the top? It's Scutus antipodes, a keyhole limpet!! A weirdo more closely related to abalone than true limpets (quoted) or slugs.

(Chitons and tubeworms photobombing)
Orange tidepool rock covered with life. The largest is a big black sluglike creature, several inches long, and it looks kind of like black Aplysia but if you cut off the top and the whitish internal shell was on display. Its anterior tentacles are also visible just within the water. All over the rest of the rock are at least 5 chitons, a number of barnacles, an unidentified black object (I don't think another Scutus antipodes), and what I'm pretty sure are serpulid worm tubes. Yeah, the worms that have eyes
November 10, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
k-hermit.com
Real...!?
November 10, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
mapcenter.com
Look at this beautiful keyhole limpet! Saw this one off Anacapa a few weeks ago
Round, cream colored blob underwater with splotchy brown striations that get closer together and denser nearer a dark hole or opening on its surface.
November 10, 2025 at 3:50 PM
jopabinia.bsky.social
OMG I did not realize I had a photo of this and wish it had been my FIRST snailpost! 🐌🦑

See the big wacky black thing at the top? It's Scutus antipodes, a keyhole limpet!! A weirdo more closely related to abalone than true limpets (quoted) or slugs.

(Chitons and tubeworms photobombing)
Orange tidepool rock covered with life. The largest is a big black sluglike creature, several inches long, and it looks kind of like black Aplysia but if you cut off the top and the whitish internal shell was on display. Its anterior tentacles are also visible just within the water. All over the rest of the rock are at least 5 chitons, a number of barnacles, an unidentified black object (I don't think another Scutus antipodes), and what I'm pretty sure are serpulid worm tubes. Yeah, the worms that have eyes
November 10, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
gettoknownature.bsky.social
We’re snail posting, post your snails!

#invertebrates 🌿
A snail peeks over a blurry brown leaf in the foreground. Its shell is orange and its fleshy antennae are translucent.
November 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
nudibranch.bsky.social
Today's #Nudivember species has also had a name change and is now Felimida luteorosea.

Info: www.seaslugforum.net/showall/chro...
More info: slugsite.us/bow/nudwk476...
Photos: www.inaturalist.org/taxa/469622-...
November 10, 2025 at 2:59 PM
jopabinia.bsky.social
Never not be snailposting 🐌

Amphissa versicolor, Montana de Oro state park, CA
Bright pink snail with elongated/quite spired shell. Pale foot slightly visible. On light colored rocks in a tidepool
November 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
whistberry.bsky.social
I dunno if folks in general are still snailposting, but looks like I am! 😂

When I sat down to draw yesterday, my head was full of snails, so here's an outlandishly colorful one. Hope it brightens your day!

#art
Digital drawing of a fanciful snail. Its spiral shell has a basket weave like pattern in vaguely primary colors. Its body is red with yellow, white, and turquoise spots. Its foot is spread wide with turquoise, yellow, and white stripes. The abstract background is an orange red at the bottom, transitioning to golden yellow at the top.
November 10, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
crazychipkali.bsky.social
Happy to share this collaborative paper! It is an outcome of our collective experience studying Indian biodiversity & realisations about the need of having accessible natural history collections & data for the future of Indian biodiversity science. #biodiversity academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...
Linking eras and data: natural history collections as the foundation of India’s biodiversity science
Abstract. India, one of the world’s most biodiverse countries and now the most populous, stands at a critical intersection of ecological wealth and intense
academic.oup.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
luxomancer.bsky.social
Rosy Wolfsnails ( Euglandina rosea ) makin babies from last year. 😁

#Molluscs
#invertebrates
#snails
Two brown shelled snails with grayish tan bodies are entwined in a mating embrace.
November 9, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
delightmonster.bsky.social
we're snailposting!?!?!!! post your snails
Cartoon illustration of two sorcerer snails on an intrepid magical voyage through a dreamy pink land
November 9, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
johnlechner.bsky.social
We’re snailposting, post your snails!

I've never photographed one, sadly, but here's a drawing I made of an emerald snail. 🐌
Ink and watercolor drawing of a bright green emerald snail sitting happily on a branch amid blue-green foliage.
November 9, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
danospv.bsky.social
We’re snailposting, post your snails.

This one was found on a jungle floor in Borneo
#snail #macro
Dark Snail on yellow leaves
November 9, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
jencross.bsky.social
We’re snailposting, post your snails.

This particular snail with its long tail caused a stir in the snail community on iNat a few years ago.
Family Proserpinellidae
Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve, Ecuador
A golden colored snail with a long tail and eye spots at the base of the antennae. It is on a damp leaf.
November 9, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
xenomatt.bsky.social
I'm not sure *why* we're snailposting, but... okay! Here's a veliger of I know not what species. Pic from a blackwater dive in Balayan Bay, Anilao

#MarineLife #Invertebrates 🌿
A snail veliger. The familiar-looking orange shell points towards the camera; three translucent tentacle-like structures protrude from the mouth of the shell (there are actually four, but one is hidden in this pic) #UnderwaterPhotography #Macro #Nature #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography
November 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
deepwatermike.bsky.social
A flamingo tongue snail I shot in Key Largo.

#snailposting
A critter with a shell that looks more like a leopard than a flamingo on a fan coral.
November 9, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
monstrousmollusc.bsky.social
I think these guys are 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘢, common periwinkles. I have photos elsewhere of 𝘌𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘴𝘱. zebra periwinkles (there are at least three species and you can't tell them apart by sight). I also have a nice shot of a 𝘕. 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳 and I think a 𝘕. 𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢. I'll try to find those.
All images are snails hanging out in the seaweed and mussel covered rocks on a NE Atlantic coast in the US. They range from brown to black, they have unornamented shells with rounded spires, and the biggest ones are about as long across as an almond. Snail among mussels and sea lettuce I think Hiding in crevices on a barnacle-encrusted bouldee. No idea what seaweed that is but it's bright yellow green with rounded false leaves. Or maybe that's a vascular plant and those are real leaves. I don't know my northern Atlantic shore vegetation. Snail, mussels, granite, sand
November 9, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
ichnologist.bsky.social
One of my favorite marine snails on the Georgia coast, the knobbed whelk (Busycon carica), a bivalve-killing predator that lives in sandy shallow-marine environments, but is occasionally seen buried (by its burrowing) in intertidal zones. 🧪🌊🐌
Very large and very much alive knobbed whelk, a marine snail with a bright orange lip to its shell framing its extruded fleshy foot, which has its brown oval "trapdoor" operculum attached to it. A person's hand is holding it above a gray sandy beach surface, where it had buried itself during low tide.
November 9, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Jo Wolfe, PhD
megarnson.bsky.social
Chonk indeed! We meet this moon snail (held by a naturalist from the Seattle aquarium) at low low tide a few years ago. 🐌😍
A large light brown moon snail being held by a volunteer naturalist during low low tide
November 9, 2025 at 5:10 PM