Deep-sea biologist. Two obsessions: the biodiversity of Earth's largest habitat, and why body size varies across all of life. Science communicator, ocean's weirdest animals daily.https://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mxz7tdvv2223Great short read! [contains quote post or other embedded content]16 Oct 2026 18:36 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mxz7tdvv2223https://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mxk4dhriys2w10 Oct 2026 18:24 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mxk4dhriys2whttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mxempdizns25Most animals change proportions as they grow. A coiled shell doesn't have to. Add one turn and the whole shell is just 2.2x bigger, same shape. Watch this one grow forever without changing at all. 🧪🐌 #HowToBuildAGiant #MarineLife08 Oct 2026 14:01 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mxempdizns25https://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mx7orfjao225Snail architecture runs on a surprisingly short list of decisions. Here's one of them: how far to slide down your own axis while you grow. Barely at all gets you a flat coil. A lot gets you a tower. 🧪🐌 #SciArt #marinelife06 Oct 2026 14:54 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx7orfjao225https://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mx7noyhec22fThere are only about 20 species of whip-lash squid. Each keeps two very long tentacles tucked in sheaths on its biggest pair of arms, then unrolls them to hover head-down and fish the seafloor like flypaper. The name comes from those whip-like tentacles. 🦑 🧪 #marinelife [contains quote post or other embedded content]06 Oct 2026 14:35 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx7noyhec22fhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mx5boow7bk2pIn 1962 David Raup used an IBM 7090 and a plotter to turn four numbers into snails. Turn one dial, translation, and a flat ramshorn coil becomes a planospiral snail becomes a tower shell. 🧪🐌 #MolluscMonday #SciArt05 Oct 2026 15:55 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx5boow7bk2phttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mwsz5fitds2tA Louisiana regent says UL Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, and ULM should drop to FCS football. Yes, please. UL's athletics deficit is $20 million. Meanwhile our budget crisis is threatening classes, research, and staff. Twenty million is a lot to those who care about education. 🧪 #academia https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/2026/09/30/regents-say-louisiana-tech-and-university-of-louisiana-and-ulm-should-drop-to-fcs-football-division/92011705007/01 Oct 2026 13:56 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwsz5fitds2thttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mwrqk7azxc24More geekery tonight. Trying to make sure my code worked as intended and generating Raup's Figure 2 from his 1962 paper "Computer as Aid in Describing Form in Gastropod Shells" #marinelife #SciArt #paleobiology #MolluscMonday #paleontology01 Oct 2026 01:49 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwrqk7azxc24https://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mwoj2u4l322jFinally got around to making Raup's mollusk shell model work in R. Also spent too much time trying to give a retro look. #marinelife #molluscmonday29 Sep 2026 18:57 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwoj2u4l322jhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mw36ej7fxk2rExpectation versus reality22 Sep 2026 02:25 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mw36ej7fxk2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mvq6cizdk22sFor no particular reason at all, Ed Sheeran is on my mind. Anyway: the gulper eel is almost all mouth, unhinging its jaw to swallow prey larger than itself before deflating to a thin whip. A whole animal built around the shape of you. 🐟 🧪 #marinelife https://youtu.be/ph6R0yY2WzI?t=2717 Sep 2026 17:25 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvq6cizdk22shttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mvq5unchbs2sSome glass sponges may be the oldest animals on Earth. Individuals of Monorhaphis chuni are estimated at over 11,000 years old, and they build a single skeletal spike up to 3m long, the largest natural glass structure any animal makes. 🧪 #SpongeThursday #HowToBuildAGiant #marinelife17 Sep 2026 17:17 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvq5unchbs2shttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mvptnwg3l22wTalking about this paper today in my undergraduate ecology course. [contains quote post or other embedded content]17 Sep 2026 14:14 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvptnwg3l22whttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3muzksdn2jc2pWhen your postdoc @isaacpesca.bsky.social is so awesome they give him the cover of PNAS! Excellent photo by @sethf.bsky.social! And excellent coauthors of @pedromonarrez.bsky.social @tomjwebb.bsky.social among others.08 Sep 2026 17:37 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3muzksdn2jc2phttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mumll7vo6s2cUL Lafayette-led study finds climate change won’t simply shrink marine life https://louisiana.edu/news/ul-lafayette-led-study-finds-climate-change-wont-simply-shrink-marine-life03 Sep 2026 13:46 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mumll7vo6s2chttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mujxgu4ygc2iYour taxonomic post of the day [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Sep 2026 12:41 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mujxgu4ygc2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3muhk7zpcws2jA company got EPA approval to sink 20 tons of sugarcane waste into the Gulf's Orca Basin to "store carbon." Even if they blanketed the entire basin, it would offset less than a week of human emissions, while risking one of the rarest ecosystems on Earth. I wrote for @mongabay on why. 🧪 #marinelife https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/gulf-of-mexicos-unique-orca-basin-shouldnt-become-a-carbon-dump-commentary/01 Sep 2026 13:39 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3muhk7zpcws2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mufsf5r2c22uA very on-theme #MolluscMonday: our new PNAS paper projects how 23,000+ mollusc species will change size as the ocean warms. Most shrink, some grow, and which happens comes down to body plan. Clams downsize. Squid may bulk up. 🦑 🧪 #MolluscMonday #HowToBuildAGiant #marinelife https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.260609912331 Aug 2026 21:00 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mufsf5r2c22u