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/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/3mufsf5r2c22uhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mufrntuajs2uNew in PNAS today: we projected how climate change will reshape the body size of marine life across the entire ocean. 23,329 mollusc species, every ocean basin. The headline everyone expects is "life shrinks." The real answer is far stranger. 🧪 #marinelife https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.260609912331 Aug 2026 20:47 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mufrntuajs2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3muaalpj34s2yMore potential destruction of our national parks https://mountainjournal.org/old-rift-reopens-as-trump-administration-amends-grand-teton-pathway-decision/29 Aug 2026 15:58 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3muaalpj34s2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mu5mpoixbs2lAmerica's national parks are being quietly taken apart: mass layoffs, record budget cuts, monuments shrunk by millions of acres, protected land reopened to drilling. None of this is speculation. Ten sourced examples, one at a time. 🧪28 Aug 2026 14:57 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu5mpoixbs2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mu5mjwf3ak2lThe heaviest living thing on Earth isn't a whale or a tree, it's a fungus in Oregon spread across 2,000+ acres and thousands of years old, most of it underground. We picture giants as tall. Some of the biggest just quietly went wide, out of sight. 🧪 #HowToBuildAGiant #plants28 Aug 2026 14:54 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu5mjwf3ak2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mu5mheiwjc2lGodzilla could never actually stand. Scale a body up and weight climbs faster than bones can bear, so a lizard the size of a building would collapse under itself. The only place to be that big is the ocean, where water carries the weight. Kaiju would all need to be marine. #HowToBuildAGiant #Kaiju28 Aug 2026 14:52 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu5mheiwjc2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mu5mehcaa22lThe largest arthropod ever was a sea scorpion. Jaekelopterus stretched about 2.5 meters, longer than a person is tall, hunting the seas 400 million years ago with claws half a meter long. Nothing with an exoskeleton has come close since. 🦂 🧪 #FossilFriday #HowToBuildAGiant Artwork by Dani Navarro28 Aug 2026 14:51 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu5mehcaa22lhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mu34mxgk622vKentro-saurus? More like Kentro-glaze-us. Those spikes were once for defense. Now, strictly pastry. [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Aug 2026 15:04 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu34mxgk622vhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mu32huv2kk2iAt 7,200 m in the Java Trench, most scavenging amphipods swarm the bait. But one kind ignored it, clinging to worm tubes and the camera lander for hours and shoving off any neighbor that tried to muscle in. First time this is seen in a hadal scavenger. #marinelife https://doi.org/10.1093/jcbiol/ruag05827 Aug 2026 14:25 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu32huv2kk2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mu32dukyys2iThe bigfin squid was first hauled up in 1883 and not formally described until 1998, 115 years later. A new paper compiling every sighting shows it lives across three oceans and down past 6,000 m, yet it's still known only to genus, identified from grainy deep-sea video. 🦑 🧪 #marinelife https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-026-04927-127 Aug 2026 14:23 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu32dukyys2i