Pawpaw Papa

Chicken mushrooms having swaIIowed up a goIdenrod that’s sprouting from an oak tree that the chicken mushroom is eating. Boston 9/7/19

Dog day cicada (Neotibicen sp.) on the hammock in my yard

August 28, 2019

After two years of work, the first paper from my PhD has been released! We combined evidence from fossils and genetics to study the phylogeny and evolutionary history of some of the most remarkable theropod dinosaurs, the members of Strisores (hummingbirds, swifts, nightjars, and more). The interrelationships of this group have been very challenging to resolve, but our study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that nightjars are most distantly related to the rest, and that the last common ancestor of these birds likely fed by snapping up insects in flight.

Nope he was right! Their fruit is actually the reason they're called Monstera deliciosa. And also why they have the common name "Mexican Breadfruit". They aren't likely to fruit as a houseplant but it's supposedly very tasty.

Here's an unripe fruit I saw at a botanical garden:

Meet “Sparklemuffin” (Maratus jactatus) and “Skeletorus” (Maratus sceletus)- I think you can probably work out which is which.

While these guys may sound like My Little Pony characters, they are actually two newly discovered species of Peacock Spiders. Discovered by Madeline Girard in Queensland Australia (where else!), these vibrant arachnids measure only about five millimetres in size. Peacock spiders are a type of jumping spider; they don’t weave silken webs to catch prey, but instead hunt and stalk their prey.

Super Gourmet Mushrooms:

King Bolete, Morels, Golden Chanterelles, Matsutake, Blue-footed and Black Truffles. 

Pawpaw sphinx moth (Dolba hyloeus) feeding from knapweed flowers

r u gonna scare ppl abt sharks?                  … mebbe {\__/}      {\__/} ( • . •)     (• ∪ • ) / >🦈      🎥< \

_/}       {\__/} • )       (• . • ) < \      🎥< \

      {\__/}       (• . • )       🎥< \