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adventuroussnail.bsky.social
Ari
@adventuroussnail.bsky.social
93 followers 550 following 3 posts
Masters student at SIUC 🐌
Invertebrate zoology nerd, malacologist, doing my best
Land snail ecologist/enthusiast
she/her 🏳️‍🌈
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adventuroussnail.bsky.social
One last post in honor of #Nudivember!

Last Halloween, I made myself into Costasiella kuroshimae, one of my favorite nudibranchs. They undego kleptoplasty, in which they kidnap the chloroplasts out of algae!

They store these chloroplasts within their gills so that they can undergo photosynthesis!
The leaf sheep! Approximately the size of a grain of rice, these are found in the oceans by Japan and Indonesia. The cloak was bought many years ago from a thrift store and is covered in ~27 felt "leaves" stuffed with stuffing to serve as their gills (cerata). Full costume from the front. I wore a green jumpsuit under the cloak with numerous leaf-shaped gills. My costume from the front, showing off my smelling and tasting receptors (rhinophores).
November 13, 2024 at 8:12 PM
adventuroussnail.bsky.social
I've had experience with land snail ecology, genetics (COI and 16S) with octopuses and snails!

I've trapped eastern woodrats under a doctoral student!

I worked with the U of Iowa's historic mussel collection, and utilized geometric morphometrics to aid in identification of three similar species!
I (Ari) holding a collected woodrat in the field with his new ear tags. Any rats were appropriately handled through IACUC protocols. A microsnail (approx. 3 mm long) found in the soil samples I've taken for my masters. I believe this is Carychium exiguum. An image of a large Megalonaias nervosa specimen that I took from the University of Iowa's Museum of Natural History. Etched inside of this specimen, and many others, was information on species, locality, and collector's name(s).
November 13, 2024 at 7:48 PM