Nic Rawlence
@nicrawlencenz.bsky.social
Associate Professor, palaeoecologist, and science communicator @Otago Palaeogenetics Lab using ancient DNA and palaeontology to reconstruct past ecosystems.
Pinned
Nic Rawlence
@nicrawlencenz.bsky.social
· Nov 26
Prestigious medal for science communicator
www.otago.ac.nz
I’m humbled & on cloud nine to have been awarded the NZ Assoc Scientists Cranwell Medal in Science Communication. I could not have done this level of sci comm without the support of my family & wonderful lab group. This award is as much for you as it is for me www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
Sigh. The #ColossalBio #DeExtinction #DisInformation campaign appears to be kicking into gear again — so too shall my truth telling. It’s a scam. 🧪 🐺 🦣
substack.com/@devoevomed/...
substack.com/@devoevomed/...
The Extinction of Truth
Or, a Colossal Pile of Bullshit
substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Sigh. The #ColossalBio #DeExtinction #DisInformation campaign appears to be kicking into gear again — so too shall my truth telling. It’s a scam. 🧪 🐺 🦣
substack.com/@devoevomed/...
substack.com/@devoevomed/...
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
Hope the conservation efforts for 'little dodo' will get as much funding (if not more) as the claimed 'de-extinction' projects. SCS needs support to expand the invasive species' control to more forests and save the last remaining manumeas from extinction
January 2, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Hope the conservation efforts for 'little dodo' will get as much funding (if not more) as the claimed 'de-extinction' projects. SCS needs support to expand the invasive species' control to more forests and save the last remaining manumeas from extinction
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
This “Biotech” has raised more than half a billion USD. Imagine what real conservation work that could fund.
‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?
‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?
The bioscience startup has attracted billions in investment – and a flurry of criticism, but founder tells the Guardian plans to bring back the woolly mammoth will not be derailed
www.theguardian.com
December 31, 2025 at 4:04 PM
This “Biotech” has raised more than half a billion USD. Imagine what real conservation work that could fund.
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?
“Charles Darwin summed it up when he said, ‘when a group has once wholly disappeared, it does not reappear; for the link of generation has been broken.’
🧪🧬🐺
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
“Charles Darwin summed it up when he said, ‘when a group has once wholly disappeared, it does not reappear; for the link of generation has been broken.’
🧪🧬🐺
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?
The bioscience startup has attracted billions in investment – and a flurry of criticism, but founder tells the Guardian plans to bring back the woolly mammoth will not be derailed
www.theguardian.com
December 31, 2025 at 6:47 PM
‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?
“Charles Darwin summed it up when he said, ‘when a group has once wholly disappeared, it does not reappear; for the link of generation has been broken.’
🧪🧬🐺
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
“Charles Darwin summed it up when he said, ‘when a group has once wholly disappeared, it does not reappear; for the link of generation has been broken.’
🧪🧬🐺
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
Very important distinction between de-extinction and modification.
‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?
‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?
The bioscience startup has attracted billions in investment – and a flurry of criticism, but founder tells the Guardian plans to bring back the woolly mammoth will not be derailed
www.theguardian.com
December 31, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Very important distinction between de-extinction and modification.
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
When biology becomes advanced enough to create animals entirely from the DNA of extinct animals preserved in museums, I would call that de-extinction. Just making a few edits to the DNA of a grey wolf and calling it a dire wolf is an overstatement, falsehood, etc
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com
December 31, 2025 at 6:59 PM
When biology becomes advanced enough to create animals entirely from the DNA of extinct animals preserved in museums, I would call that de-extinction. Just making a few edits to the DNA of a grey wolf and calling it a dire wolf is an overstatement, falsehood, etc
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
Forget this - support LIVE scientists instead I reckon. It is a backwards idea like a magic bullet. >
“Colossal are preying on people’s desire to undo the sins of the past. However, to achieve this, Colossal is spreading misinformation and undermining trust in science by attacking critics.”
“Colossal are preying on people’s desire to undo the sins of the past. However, to achieve this, Colossal is spreading misinformation and undermining trust in science by attacking critics.”
December 31, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Forget this - support LIVE scientists instead I reckon. It is a backwards idea like a magic bullet. >
“Colossal are preying on people’s desire to undo the sins of the past. However, to achieve this, Colossal is spreading misinformation and undermining trust in science by attacking critics.”
“Colossal are preying on people’s desire to undo the sins of the past. However, to achieve this, Colossal is spreading misinformation and undermining trust in science by attacking critics.”
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
At the height of the Earth's 6th great extinction - in reality its first great extermination - we still have to put up with this drivel
Use your wads of cash to save the thousands of species threatened with extinction every year - you idiots
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Use your wads of cash to save the thousands of species threatened with extinction every year - you idiots
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?
The bioscience startup has attracted billions in investment – and a flurry of criticism, but founder tells the Guardian plans to bring back the woolly mammoth will not be derailed
www.theguardian.com
December 31, 2025 at 12:12 PM
At the height of the Earth's 6th great extinction - in reality its first great extermination - we still have to put up with this drivel
Use your wads of cash to save the thousands of species threatened with extinction every year - you idiots
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Use your wads of cash to save the thousands of species threatened with extinction every year - you idiots
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
What happens when corporate hype (neé lies‽), gullible media, and media malpractice combine? A #Deextinctiom #Misinformation malstrom 🧪 🐺
No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction – and I even got Colossal’s chief scientist to admit as much in interview with me. In response, the company put out a statement reiterating its claims 3/
www.newscientist.com/article/2481...
www.newscientist.com/article/2481...
Colossal scientist now admits they haven’t really made dire wolves
Despite a huge media fanfare in which Colossal Biosciences claimed to have resurrected the extinct dire wolf, the company's chief scientist now concedes that the animals are merely modified grey wolve...
www.newscientist.com
December 31, 2025 at 1:41 PM
What happens when corporate hype (neé lies‽), gullible media, and media malpractice combine? A #Deextinctiom #Misinformation malstrom 🧪 🐺
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction – and I even got Colossal’s chief scientist to admit as much in interview with me. In response, the company put out a statement reiterating its claims 3/
www.newscientist.com/article/2481...
www.newscientist.com/article/2481...
Colossal scientist now admits they haven’t really made dire wolves
Despite a huge media fanfare in which Colossal Biosciences claimed to have resurrected the extinct dire wolf, the company's chief scientist now concedes that the animals are merely modified grey wolve...
www.newscientist.com
December 31, 2025 at 1:04 PM
No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction – and I even got Colossal’s chief scientist to admit as much in interview with me. In response, the company put out a statement reiterating its claims 3/
www.newscientist.com/article/2481...
www.newscientist.com/article/2481...
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
Colossal Biosciences wins 2025 The Screamers Award for science hype on incorrect dire wolf de-extinction claim ipscell.com/2025/12/colo... #genetics #stemcells #scicomm
Colossal Biosciences wins 2025 The Screamers Award for science hype on dire wolf de-extinction claim - The Niche
Biologist awards Colossal Biosciences as the winner of the 2025 The Screamers science hype award for their dire wolf de-extinction claims.
ipscell.com
December 30, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Colossal Biosciences wins 2025 The Screamers Award for science hype on incorrect dire wolf de-extinction claim ipscell.com/2025/12/colo... #genetics #stemcells #scicomm
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
I don't think what you do is "mainstream" if you're running ads on twitter
December 24, 2025 at 3:42 PM
I don't think what you do is "mainstream" if you're running ads on twitter
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
Extinction is forever. If we’re to have any hope for the future of nature, we have to learn to grieve. Experience, knowledge, culture, ways of being we can only now touch through tooth and bone, they cannot be replaced.
My @slate.com essay on de-extinction is one of their top stories of the year.
My @slate.com essay on de-extinction is one of their top stories of the year.
Those Dire Wolves Aren’t an Amazing Scientific Breakthrough. They’re a Disturbing Symbol of Where We’re Heading.
We shouldn’t be celebrating “de-extinction.” We should be focused on the species that are currently in danger.
slate.com
December 29, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Extinction is forever. If we’re to have any hope for the future of nature, we have to learn to grieve. Experience, knowledge, culture, ways of being we can only now touch through tooth and bone, they cannot be replaced.
My @slate.com essay on de-extinction is one of their top stories of the year.
My @slate.com essay on de-extinction is one of their top stories of the year.
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
“Without any exaggeration, this is one of the most important finds in the Pacific.
There’s so much here, and the preservation is extraordinary.
It dates to the heyday of Pacific voyaging.”
#moana
There’s so much here, and the preservation is extraordinary.
It dates to the heyday of Pacific voyaging.”
#moana
Ancient waka discovery reveals hundreds of extraordinary artefacts
When 23-year-old Nikau Dix set out for a beach walk last year, he wasn’t expecting to stumble upon one of the most significant archaeological finds in the Pacific.
www.1news.co.nz
December 27, 2025 at 5:14 AM
“Without any exaggeration, this is one of the most important finds in the Pacific.
There’s so much here, and the preservation is extraordinary.
It dates to the heyday of Pacific voyaging.”
#moana
There’s so much here, and the preservation is extraordinary.
It dates to the heyday of Pacific voyaging.”
#moana
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
And with land plants, when you start relating sexuality to life cycle stages it can really do your head in.
It is absolutely wild and a few other plants do the same or similar things. Avocados are hermaphrodites with bisexual protogynous flowers. The dimorphism is in the timing of flower opening so some plants present pollen in the morning and receive it in the afternoon; the others vice versa.
December 25, 2025 at 10:27 PM
And with land plants, when you start relating sexuality to life cycle stages it can really do your head in.
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
It is absolutely wild and a few other plants do the same or similar things. Avocados are hermaphrodites with bisexual protogynous flowers. The dimorphism is in the timing of flower opening so some plants present pollen in the morning and receive it in the afternoon; the others vice versa.
December 25, 2025 at 9:52 PM
It is absolutely wild and a few other plants do the same or similar things. Avocados are hermaphrodites with bisexual protogynous flowers. The dimorphism is in the timing of flower opening so some plants present pollen in the morning and receive it in the afternoon; the others vice versa.
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
A new #ScienceAdvances study shows that commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean over the past century reduced the genetic diversity—and possibly the evolutionary fitness—of the region’s humpback whales. https://scim.ag/4anxPpM
Humpback whale genomes reflect the increased efficiency of commercial whaling
Humpback whale genomes reflect shifts in whaling practices and their potential impact on the animals’ adaptive capacity.
scim.ag
December 24, 2025 at 7:12 PM
A new #ScienceAdvances study shows that commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean over the past century reduced the genetic diversity—and possibly the evolutionary fitness—of the region’s humpback whales. https://scim.ag/4anxPpM
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
This story is absolutely wild. Did you know that avocados change sex over the course of a day? And that it's controlled by a single ancient balanced polymorphism? This is flat our crazy
Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies an ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.22.695989v1
December 25, 2025 at 6:33 AM
This story is absolutely wild. Did you know that avocados change sex over the course of a day? And that it's controlled by a single ancient balanced polymorphism? This is flat our crazy
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight,
Walking in a #wombat wonderland.
Happy Wombatmas on this #WombatWednesday.
#Tasmania #mammalwatching #WildOz #wombats
Walking in a #wombat wonderland.
Happy Wombatmas on this #WombatWednesday.
#Tasmania #mammalwatching #WildOz #wombats
December 24, 2025 at 11:35 AM
A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight,
Walking in a #wombat wonderland.
Happy Wombatmas on this #WombatWednesday.
#Tasmania #mammalwatching #WildOz #wombats
Walking in a #wombat wonderland.
Happy Wombatmas on this #WombatWednesday.
#Tasmania #mammalwatching #WildOz #wombats
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
Co-founder of Colossal Biosciences Ben Lamm has a history of hyping up “world-changing” ventures that ultimately lead nowhere. Cheerleading false techno-fixes like de-extinction in the media distracts from real attempts to address biodiversity loss and climate change.
Faking it without making it: The de-extinction disinfo campaign manager’s history of hype
How Colossal Biosciences’ CEO Ben Lamm keeps the hype cycle going. By Jonathan Matthews
gmwatch.org
December 23, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Co-founder of Colossal Biosciences Ben Lamm has a history of hyping up “world-changing” ventures that ultimately lead nowhere. Cheerleading false techno-fixes like de-extinction in the media distracts from real attempts to address biodiversity loss and climate change.
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
I stole a peek at my mum’s xmas cake. Yes the speech bubble says “bugger” 😂
December 24, 2025 at 8:52 AM
I stole a peek at my mum’s xmas cake. Yes the speech bubble says “bugger” 😂
Reposted by Nic Rawlence
I’ll be at Cambridge Museum of Zoology @zoologymuseum.bsky.social on Wednesday, 11 February, 19:00-20:00, to talk about encountering #extinction in museums with lots of reference to their exhibitions!
Book your free place:
www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/events/talk-...
Book your free place:
www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/events/talk-...
December 20, 2025 at 10:49 AM
I’ll be at Cambridge Museum of Zoology @zoologymuseum.bsky.social on Wednesday, 11 February, 19:00-20:00, to talk about encountering #extinction in museums with lots of reference to their exhibitions!
Book your free place:
www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/events/talk-...
Book your free place:
www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/events/talk-...