Dr Andrew Mahon
@andyantarctica.bsky.social
Biologist and molecular ecologist, studying animals in Antarctica, e.g., sea spiders. I also use eDNA to study biodiversity all over the globe.
Web: MahonLab.com
Google Scholar: https://rb.gy/6z3tre
LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/4kvx48s
Web: MahonLab.com
Google Scholar: https://rb.gy/6z3tre
LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/4kvx48s
Legging it in to the weekend. #antarctica. Dodecalopoda mawsoni from east Antarctica in 2023 (nbp23-03 research cruise). So many legs (12 walking legs!!) yes there’s another “normal” pycno there too! 🧪🌎🇦🇶🦑🐧
September 26, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Legging it in to the weekend. #antarctica. Dodecalopoda mawsoni from east Antarctica in 2023 (nbp23-03 research cruise). So many legs (12 walking legs!!) yes there’s another “normal” pycno there too! 🧪🌎🇦🇶🦑🐧
A short time-lapse of the clouds going by as we sat at Davis Station in East #Antarctica in 2023 on the RVIB NBP (NBP23-03 research cruise). 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
September 22, 2025 at 2:52 PM
A short time-lapse of the clouds going by as we sat at Davis Station in East #Antarctica in 2023 on the RVIB NBP (NBP23-03 research cruise). 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
Retiring the only remaining ship in the US arsenal that was dedicated to research in the Southern Ocean....it hurts my soul to know how badly this will impact the science and all (scientists, students, crew, etc) who have worked so hard to advance our knowledge of all things #Antarctica 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
September 18, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Retiring the only remaining ship in the US arsenal that was dedicated to research in the Southern Ocean....it hurts my soul to know how badly this will impact the science and all (scientists, students, crew, etc) who have worked so hard to advance our knowledge of all things #Antarctica 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
Is #fishfriday a thing? Taken in East #Antarctica via our YoYo cam transects in 2023, (NBP23-03)....here are some Antarctic skates (Amblyraja georgiana). 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
September 12, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Is #fishfriday a thing? Taken in East #Antarctica via our YoYo cam transects in 2023, (NBP23-03)....here are some Antarctic skates (Amblyraja georgiana). 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
Don't want to think about politics today. Here's the southern lights over the RVIB NBP (yes, the one currently being decommissioned) taken from Davis Station in East Antarctica (NBP23-03). We had stopped and they were able to capture the greatest photos all night of our ship and the aurora. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
September 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Don't want to think about politics today. Here's the southern lights over the RVIB NBP (yes, the one currently being decommissioned) taken from Davis Station in East Antarctica (NBP23-03). We had stopped and they were able to capture the greatest photos all night of our ship and the aurora. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
With all going on in the world...I needed to post something that makes me smile today. Here, a Colossendeis robusta (Colossendeidae; sea spider) and a Gentoo penguin being followed by a chinstrap penguin. Both taken on the RVIB NBP as a part of our research cruises to #Antarctica. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
September 5, 2025 at 1:18 PM
With all going on in the world...I needed to post something that makes me smile today. Here, a Colossendeis robusta (Colossendeidae; sea spider) and a Gentoo penguin being followed by a chinstrap penguin. Both taken on the RVIB NBP as a part of our research cruises to #Antarctica. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
#Antarctica scenery to help get us through the day....these are from East Antarctica on the research cruise in 2023 (NBP23-03). 🧪🌎
July 22, 2025 at 11:44 AM
#Antarctica scenery to help get us through the day....these are from East Antarctica on the research cruise in 2023 (NBP23-03). 🧪🌎
It's #wormwednesday so here's a Flabelligera sp. collected in 2023 on our research cruise to East #Antarctica. Collected via Blake Trawl and we use these research samples for molecular analyses (genomics, transcriptomics, etc.). NBP23-03 sponsored by USAP NSF. 🧪🌎🇦🇶🐧🦑.
July 16, 2025 at 12:00 PM
It's #wormwednesday so here's a Flabelligera sp. collected in 2023 on our research cruise to East #Antarctica. Collected via Blake Trawl and we use these research samples for molecular analyses (genomics, transcriptomics, etc.). NBP23-03 sponsored by USAP NSF. 🧪🌎🇦🇶🐧🦑.
Some spectacular scenery from East #Antarctica on the research cruise in 2023 (NBP23-03). 🧪🌎🇦🇶🐧
July 15, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Some spectacular scenery from East #Antarctica on the research cruise in 2023 (NBP23-03). 🧪🌎🇦🇶🐧
An octopus (likely Pareledone sp.) collected in East #Antarctica on NBP23-03. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
July 14, 2025 at 11:57 AM
An octopus (likely Pareledone sp.) collected in East #Antarctica on NBP23-03. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
Starting the week with a yoyo camera benthic image from the western Antarctic Peninsula on NBP20-10...some amazing Astrotoma agassizii brittle stars in there! #Antarctica 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
July 7, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Starting the week with a yoyo camera benthic image from the western Antarctic Peninsula on NBP20-10...some amazing Astrotoma agassizii brittle stars in there! #Antarctica 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
Decided to try and focus on some science this week...Here's a gigantic leech (unknown species) that we collected on NBP 12-10 (2012). From Western regions on our research cruise from the Western Peninsula through the Bellinghsausen/Amundson to the Ross Sea. #Antarctica 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
June 30, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Decided to try and focus on some science this week...Here's a gigantic leech (unknown species) that we collected on NBP 12-10 (2012). From Western regions on our research cruise from the Western Peninsula through the Bellinghsausen/Amundson to the Ross Sea. #Antarctica 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
It's been a bit and with all going on....don't really know what to post anymore. Here are some sea spiders from #Antarctica. NBP20-10. Weddell Sea and Peninsula region. 🧪🌎🦑🐧🇦🇶
June 13, 2025 at 1:06 PM
It's been a bit and with all going on....don't really know what to post anymore. Here are some sea spiders from #Antarctica. NBP20-10. Weddell Sea and Peninsula region. 🧪🌎🦑🐧🇦🇶
August 20, 2020, we left San Francisco (USA) during the COVID-19 pandemic to get to #Antarctica (~60 day trip south before we could start science). Under the Golden Gate bridge and you see Alcatraz on the right. Fantastic moment on the NBP (NBP20-10) research cruise. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧 (GoPro vid by C. Grimes).
May 27, 2025 at 11:53 AM
August 20, 2020, we left San Francisco (USA) during the COVID-19 pandemic to get to #Antarctica (~60 day trip south before we could start science). Under the Golden Gate bridge and you see Alcatraz on the right. Fantastic moment on the NBP (NBP20-10) research cruise. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧 (GoPro vid by C. Grimes).
That time in 2013 when this crabeater seal decided to see what this noisy orange menace was doing in its territory....In 2013 near Peter I Island in #Antarctica on our research cruise (LMG 13-12). Bonus (the 'wait for it' at the end): amazing sunset/sunrise around 1am that night :) 🧪🌎🦑🐧🇦🇶
May 22, 2025 at 11:22 AM
That time in 2013 when this crabeater seal decided to see what this noisy orange menace was doing in its territory....In 2013 near Peter I Island in #Antarctica on our research cruise (LMG 13-12). Bonus (the 'wait for it' at the end): amazing sunset/sunrise around 1am that night :) 🧪🌎🦑🐧🇦🇶
Throwback to our 2013 research cruise (LMG 13-12) where we found this gigantic ctenophore in a plankton tow near Margaurite Bay on the Peninsula in #Antarctica. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
May 21, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Throwback to our 2013 research cruise (LMG 13-12) where we found this gigantic ctenophore in a plankton tow near Margaurite Bay on the Peninsula in #Antarctica. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
Panoramic shot of some mountains and their reflections in #Antarctica in 2020 (NBP20-10 research cruise). Somewhere along the Antarctic Peninsula. Taking students to work here as a part of their program is the science I fight for....🧪🌎🇦🇶🐧
May 20, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Panoramic shot of some mountains and their reflections in #Antarctica in 2020 (NBP20-10 research cruise). Somewhere along the Antarctic Peninsula. Taking students to work here as a part of their program is the science I fight for....🧪🌎🇦🇶🐧
Because penguins seem to make folks happy...Taken in #Antarctica on NBP20-10 (2020)....a Gentoo being chased around by a chinstrap. I have to admit they are pretty adorable...even though they aren't sea spiders. 🧪🌎🦑🐧🇦🇶
May 14, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Because penguins seem to make folks happy...Taken in #Antarctica on NBP20-10 (2020)....a Gentoo being chased around by a chinstrap. I have to admit they are pretty adorable...even though they aren't sea spiders. 🧪🌎🦑🐧🇦🇶
One of my amazing undergrads is graduating today! Congrats to Mady Gott, who is leaving to enter the PhD program at UN-Lincoln in the Varney Lab! Mady still has a paper coming from my lab describing a new species of sea spider! Her second from my lab!! @rebeccavarney.bsky.social 🧪🦑🌎🇦🇶🐧
May 10, 2025 at 2:40 PM
One of my amazing undergrads is graduating today! Congrats to Mady Gott, who is leaving to enter the PhD program at UN-Lincoln in the Varney Lab! Mady still has a paper coming from my lab describing a new species of sea spider! Her second from my lab!! @rebeccavarney.bsky.social 🧪🦑🌎🇦🇶🐧
Some East #Antarctica scenery for today....missing these views after 2 years away on NBP23-03! 🧪🦑🌎🇦🇶🐧
May 8, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Some East #Antarctica scenery for today....missing these views after 2 years away on NBP23-03! 🧪🦑🌎🇦🇶🐧
I'm not an economist...but I am a career scientist who has benefited from local, state, and federal funding....this is not leading us to prosperity. It is destroying the scientific process and scientific future of the US...not to mention economic impact. 🧪
aura.american.edu/articles/rep...
aura.american.edu/articles/rep...
May 2, 2025 at 11:24 AM
I'm not an economist...but I am a career scientist who has benefited from local, state, and federal funding....this is not leading us to prosperity. It is destroying the scientific process and scientific future of the US...not to mention economic impact. 🧪
aura.american.edu/articles/rep...
aura.american.edu/articles/rep...
...so here's a new one: Pycnogonum sp. (ventral view)...a new species from East #Antarctica collected on NBP23-03. My undergrad Mady Gott (headed to Nebraska for her PhD! YAY!) and I are working up the mitogenome, description, and 3D scan...hoping to finish this early summer! 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧🧬
May 1, 2025 at 11:38 AM
...so here's a new one: Pycnogonum sp. (ventral view)...a new species from East #Antarctica collected on NBP23-03. My undergrad Mady Gott (headed to Nebraska for her PhD! YAY!) and I are working up the mitogenome, description, and 3D scan...hoping to finish this early summer! 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧🧬
Penguins, mountains, and ice. Taken in 2020 on the Palmer (research cruise NBP20-10) in the NW Weddell Sea/Antarctic Peninsula #Antarctica Good vibes to keep us going. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
April 22, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Penguins, mountains, and ice. Taken in 2020 on the Palmer (research cruise NBP20-10) in the NW Weddell Sea/Antarctic Peninsula #Antarctica Good vibes to keep us going. 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
🧪🌎🦑🐧🇦🇶 Sunrise/set over the back of the NBP in 2023 (NBP23-03) in East #Antarctica. Happy Monday everyone!
April 21, 2025 at 2:04 PM
🧪🌎🦑🐧🇦🇶 Sunrise/set over the back of the NBP in 2023 (NBP23-03) in East #Antarctica. Happy Monday everyone!