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prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Pretty Spooky Things 🎃
@prettyuglythings.bsky.social
290 followers 1.1K following 130 posts
Amateur naturalist, serious collector, and appreciator of the unusual things our planet is capable of… based out of Tucson!

Purveyor of minerals, succulents, isopods, and information
https://prettyuglythingsaz.com // https://prettyuglythingsaz.etsy.com
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prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Pretty Spooky Things 🎃 @prettyuglythings.bsky.social · Jan 12
Oh hi
A greater roadrunner standing at alert
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Climate change isn’t real, it’s normal for my orange tree to be blooming in *checks notes* the middle of November 👍
A bee visiting a white citrus flower
November 16, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by Pretty Spooky Things 🎃
zzsylvester.bsky.social
Moqui marbles - concretions from the Navajo Sandstone in Utah (images created from a photo taken in the field) 🧪⚒️
November 16, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Pretty Spooky Things 🎃
nadwgab.bsky.social
318 of #365Minerals 🧪⚒️

Scheelite:
- A calcium tungstate mineral
- An important ore of tungsten
- Forms during contact metamorphism and in hydrothermal veins
- Named after Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786), a Swedish chemist #minerals
A fine crust of brown scheelite crystals coating a double terminated smoky quartz crystal. From Horní Slavkov, Karlovy Vary Region, Czech Republic. Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London. Orange bipyramidal crystals of scheelite. From Carrock Mine, Cumbria, England, UK. Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London.
November 14, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Pretty Spooky Things 🎃
dadrummond.art
Ant after tornado (ready for test assembly before patina/polish) 🛠️
A jumble of bronze ant pieces sitting on a gridded cutting mat.
October 31, 2025 at 12:06 PM
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drcraigmc.bsky.social
I don’t think people really understand when I say Giant Isopods can gorge themselves on a meal. Look at how much the stomach of this small male is extended from snacking on raw chicken in my trap.
October 27, 2025 at 11:59 PM
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jasoncheathawks.bsky.social
becoming this lady but for anti-gambling
November 15, 2025 at 3:29 AM
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jopabinia.bsky.social
Truer than you realize (and this one is pumpkin colored lol)
November 14, 2025 at 8:26 PM
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ichnologist.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
Cartoon depicting the black silhouette of a brachiosaur (long-necked dinosaur) vomiting from 14 meters (45 feet) above, and two small theropod dinosaurs fleeing from its impact; the deadly result of the impact velocity is shown in the upper right as a partial theropod skeleton with a splatter pattern around it. The cartoon has the following text: Brachiosaurus projectile vomiting: forces generated and resulting traces "Assuming 50 kg (110 lbs) of regurgitant, impact velocity from 14 m (45 ft) height, and hard-packed sand as impact site," and "Impact velocity = V = V 2gh = 16.6 m/s; kinetic energy before impact = 6,860 J Average impact force = 68,600 N." An original figure by me (Anthony J. Martin) in my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014, Pegasus Books).
November 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
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alexmorss.bsky.social
Nice to hear a wildlife conservation success story.

Over 7,000 ‘glow-in-the-dark' snails have been reintroduced to their French Polynesian island home as part of a zoo breeding programme to save them from extinction.
November 14, 2025 at 8:44 AM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
Stop what you’re doing and look at these peacock spiders

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Web designers: tiny ‘peacock spiders’ depicted in all their glory – in pictures
Artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso has helped create composite images of the Australian arachnids, showing their colourful patterns in incredible detail
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:55 PM
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nadwgab.bsky.social
310 of #365Minerals 🧪⚒️

Pyrolusite:
- Mineral form of manganese dioxide
- A very common manganese mineral
- An important manganese ore
- Used as a pigment in ancient cave paintings
- Forms in oxidised manganese-bearing hydrothermal deposits #minerals
Radiating groups of jet black to shiny grey acicular pyrolusite crystals. From Tennycape, Nova Scotia, Canada. Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London. Radiating groups of jet black to shiny grey acicular pyrolusite crystals. From Eigersburg, Thuringia, Germany Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London.
November 6, 2025 at 10:14 AM
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dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social
“So it was, on that misty morning, that Brenda set off for the capital. She knew not what she would find there, only that the time had come to move on - away from small-minded rural attitudes and people who called her ‘Oreo’ and ‘the wide panda’ - to seek a more fulfilling life.”
A Belted Galloway walks through the mist towards the Hardy Monument, in Dorset.
November 11, 2025 at 9:36 AM
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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
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andersonmineral.bsky.social
The metamorphic mineral staurolite with its distinctive penetration twinning forming a cross. It’s positively delightful!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪
Brown crystals forming a cross in white matrix. It sits on a black background. At the Sorbonne.
November 10, 2025 at 12:23 PM
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franzanth.bsky.social
we're snailposting, post your snails
drandrewthaler.bsky.social Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 7d
Do you ever just stop and take a moment to think just how weird it is that we live on the same planet as snails?
November 9, 2025 at 6:42 AM
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dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social
Isn't lichen brilliant?
Some lichen stuck to the branch of a tree. This will also happen to your face, if you stand on the top bit of Dartmoor long enough. Look at this fucking amazing lichen on a much smaller tree branch. It's like tinsel for people who like acid folk. The furry lichen on this footpath sign has obscured the lettering on it which tells people where they are going. Oh well. Walks are way better when you get lost anyway. It's absolutely normal, well-adjusted behaviour to come back from walks with a lichen-coated stick, and I will not hear otherwise.
November 6, 2025 at 7:29 AM
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afroherper.bsky.social
The #FindThatLizard Scholarship is accepting applications until 12/10.

We fund girls, women, and gender non conforming persons pursuing herpetology🦎🐍🐸🐢

I can’t wait to read your application! earynmcgee.com/findthatliza...
November 5, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Pretty Spooky Things 🎃
nielsjdewinter.bsky.social
Biomineralization is so cool!
www.science.org/content/arti...
How one of the world’s rarest and most valuable gemstones gets its vivid colors
Scientists finally solve mystery of ammolite’s brilliant reds, greens, and blues
www.science.org
November 3, 2025 at 6:54 PM
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petrathepostdoc.bsky.social
it is DONE my dudes, 32 goobers for #Invertober2025

now I REST because 3 drawing challenges in 3 months is A TAD BIT TOO MUCH

#SciArt #invertebrates
7x5 grid on a black background of 32 invertebrates, from jellyfish, leafhoppers, anemones, weevils, lobsters, moths, snails, flies, cuttlefish, worms, spiders, clams, spiders, caterpillars, isopods, flatworms, nudibranch, dragonflies, ticks, centipedes, sea urchins, lacewings, squid, mosquitoes in the middle are their latin names in white text: INVERTOBER 2025 1 | Chrysaora pacifica 2 | Graphocephala coccinea 3 | Anthopleura xanthogrammica 4 | Rhynchophorus cruentatus 5 | Panulirus versicolor 6 | Phalera bucephala 7 | Chrysomallon squamiferum 8 | Mallophora fautrix 9 | Ascarosepion pfefferi 10 | Lumbricus terrestris 11 | Dolomedes tenebrosus 12 | Siliqua patula 13 | Camponotus consobrinus 14 | Eunice aphroditois 15 | Ornithoptera alexandrae 16 | Bathynomus giganteus 17 | Pseudoceros concinnus 18 | Sceliphron caementarium 19 | Vampyroteuthis infernalis 20 | Velella velella 21 | Libellula saturata 22 | Clione limacina 23 | Cicindela albissima 24 | Perna canaliculus 25 | Scutigera coleoptrata 26 | Jorunna parva 27 | Dermacentor variabilis 28 | Chrysopa perla 29 | Mesocentrotus franciscanus 30 | Anoplognathus pallidicollis 31 | Acherontia atropos extra | Aedes aegypti 7x5 grid on a white background of 32 invertebrates, from jellyfish, leafhoppers, anemones, weevils, lobsters, moths, snails, flies, cuttlefish, worms, spiders, clams, spiders, caterpillars, isopods, flatworms, nudibranch, dragonflies, ticks, centipedes, sea urchins, lacewings, squid, mosquitoes in the middle are their latin names in white text: INVERTOBER 2025 1 | Chrysaora pacifica 2 | Graphocephala coccinea 3 | Anthopleura xanthogrammica 4 | Rhynchophorus cruentatus 5 | Panulirus versicolor 6 | Phalera bucephala 7 | Chrysomallon squamiferum 8 | Mallophora fautrix 9 | Ascarosepion pfefferi 10 | Lumbricus terrestris 11 | Dolomedes tenebrosus 12 | Siliqua patula 13 | Camponotus consobrinus 14 | Eunice aphroditois 15 | Ornithoptera alexandrae 16 | Bathynomus giganteus 17 | Pseudoceros concinnus 18 | Sceliphron caementarium 19 | Vampyroteuthis infernalis 20 | Velella velella 21 | Libellula saturata 22 | Clione limacina 23 | Cicindela albissima 24 | Perna canaliculus 25 | Scutigera coleoptrata 26 | Jorunna parva 27 | Dermacentor variabilis 28 | Chrysopa perla 29 | Mesocentrotus franciscanus 30 | Anoplognathus pallidicollis 31 | Acherontia atropos extra | Aedes aegypti
October 31, 2025 at 9:21 AM
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nadwgab.bsky.social
302 of #365Minerals 🧪⚒️

Smoky Quartz:
- A grey to black variety of quartz
- Its colour is due to a combination of Al3+ replacing Si in the crystal lattice and gamma irradiation
- Its colour fades when exposed to UV light and heat
- Forms in igneous rocks #minerals
Double terminated "morion" quartz, which is super black and opaque. From Invercauld, Scotland, UK. Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London. Double terminated smoky quartz, dark greyish black in colour and translucent. On a bed of hematite. From Frizington, Cumbria, England, UK. Specimen on display in the Natural History Museum, London.
October 29, 2025 at 10:54 AM
prettyuglythings.bsky.social
The passion flower variety Passiflora foetida is native to the US southwest. It is typically only open for a few hours, closing before the heat of the day. This is the first flower I’ve spotted on my vine!
A passion flower with white outer leaves, frilly light purple corona filaments, and a mobile-like structure raised above with yellow anthers and light green stigma. The flower is beginning to close, the petals and filaments curling in. The passion flower in the background, focus on a bud in the foreground covered with a network of fine hairy stems.
November 2, 2025 at 11:47 PM
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peterbraubach.bsky.social
Fossils and #lichen on a Hannover playground. I think this is likely Protoblastenia rupestris and Polyozosia albescens.
Imprints of former marine life in stone covered by lichen crusts. One grey with white apothecia, the other grey with orange apothecia.
November 2, 2025 at 8:40 PM
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aplante.com
THIS year we did cupcakes again. Matt mostly did these. I helped some but I had to go get work done in me office so I didn't see the final product until this morning. they're so good ahahaha there is blood icing inside the cockroach that oozes out when you bite into em
a tray of cupcakes with sickly green icing, and dates with brown icing legs/antennae on top to look UNSETTLINGLY like cockroaches.
October 31, 2025 at 5:17 PM
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publicdomainrev.bsky.social
"There is Death in the Pot" — front cover for an early 19th-century book on culinary poisoning. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-treatise-on-adulteration-of-food-and-culinary-poisons-1820?utm_content=buffer71cce&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
October 31, 2025 at 5:46 PM
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ajblake05.bsky.social
This one is for the Children of Time fans (scale should be about right)! Enjoy this jumping spider (Pancorius sp.) Jack-O'-lantern!! Thanks to @nickybay.bsky.social for the reference image (www.flickr.com/photos/nicka...).

#halloween #jackolantern #arachtober #jumpingspiders #salticidae
A lit jack-o'-lantern with a jumping spider design in a dark room with an orange glow. Adam holding the a lit jack-o'-lantern with a jumping spider design A unlit jack-o'-lantern with a jumping spider design. A lit jack-o'-lantern with a jumping spider design in a dark room with an orange glow from a string of pumpkin lights.
October 31, 2025 at 4:07 PM