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/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/3mu32dukyys2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mu323jfsrs2hAn online exhibit worth your time: artists paired with deep-sea biologists to turn real research into art. Bigfin squid in linocut, carnivorous sponges in wire, vent octopus in watercolor. Run by the Deep-Sea Biology Society, and gloriously full of overlooked invertebrates. 🧪 #SciArt #marinelife https://www.artseamatchmaking.com/art/all-artworks27 Aug 2026 14:18 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu323jfsrs2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mtwdgoahok2hA giant clam can top 200 kg and live over a century, but it barely feeds. It farms algae in its colorful mantle, living on the sugar they make in sunlight. Its blue-green cells act like lenses, aiming light at the captive gardens inside. Sunlight built this giant. 🧪 #HowToBuildAGiant #marinelife25 Aug 2026 17:22 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtwdgoahok2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mtouqepflk2fThe Guardian's Invert of the Year is a solar-powered seaslug the size of a grain of rice. The leaf sheep eats algae, keeps the chloroplasts alive inside its own body, and then runs partly on sunlight. And it is unfairly adorable. 🐑 🧪 #marinelife https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/20/winner-invertebrate-of-the-year-2026-crowned-leaf-sheep22 Aug 2026 18:10 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtouqepflk2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mtk5hoeemc2jMy university wrote up our new $2M NSF project, and I got to say the thing I believe: the deep sea isn't empty, it's just unread. We're using DNA to read it at a resolution nobody has tried, sampling the abyssal plain to find who really lives there. 🧪 #marinelife https://louisiana.edu/news/ul-lafayette-biologist-receives-nsf-award-investigate-deep-sea-biodiversity20 Aug 2026 21:03 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtk5hoeemc2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mtcwlxalws2bBut my big passion project is taking all my time! Can someone create one for me? [contains quote post or other embedded content]18 Aug 2026 00:12 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtcwlxalws2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mtcwhkumrk2y13mya in Colombia, the top predator wasn't a big cat or a bear. Probably Purussaurus, a caiman relative bigger than a bus. Bite marks found on the skulls & bones of massive hoofed mammals. South America was short on large mammal predators, so a crocodile filled the gap. #HowToBuildAGiant18 Aug 2026 00:09 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtcwhkumrk2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mtcsjxogi22cFor #molluscmonday enjoy this video of a Magnapinna (bigfin) squid. That "Elbow" Joint? A sharp, right-angle bend forms where their thick upper arms transition into ultra-thin dangling filaments. We think this bend keeps their long threads from tangling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z72Sji4sykE17 Aug 2026 22:59 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtcsjxogi22chttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mtcidsy4qk2pThe female blanket octopus trails meters of iridescent webbing. The male is the size of a walnut, one of the widest size gaps between sexes of any animal. He hangs out in man o' war tentacles sometimes tearing them off and using them as weapons. #MolluscMonday #HowToBuildAGiant #marinelife17 Aug 2026 19:57 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtcidsy4qk2phttps://bsky.app/profile/drcraigmc.bsky.social/post/3mt7wrdv3ak2xThe 2026 Ocean Photographer of the Year finalists are stunning. Also: of 20 photos, 2 feature invertebrates. Invertebrates are roughly 95% of all animal species in the ocean. Respect to the crab and the snail carrying 34 invert phyla on their backs.🧪 #marinelife https://www.popsci.com/environment/2026-ocean-photographer-of-the-year-awards-finalists/16 Aug 2026 19:37 +0000at://did:plc:3le6war5fza7fe27pvrumcms/app.bsky.feed.post/3mt7wrdv3ak2x