iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

May the teeth haunt your nightmares the way they haunt mine! Between this and the Frilled Shark last year, apparently my narrator specialty is dental horror? #2025MMM

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March Mammal Madness @mmmletsgo.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

ELITE TRAIT #2026MMM WINNERS: Aurochs, Humpback Whale, Honey Badger and Nile Crocodile! Please join us on MONDAY March 31st at 8PM EST for the FINAL ROAR!

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Jess Popescu @jesspopescu.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

#2026MMM ELITE TR8️⃣ EMOJI BATTLE 🦡🆚📿: 🪄🌳/🦡🙄🌳/🦡💥📿/ 📿🙂‍↔️🔊/📿🫦🦡/🦡🤷🏻‍♂️🍽️📿/🏆🦡 🐮🆚🐂: 🚣🏼🏹🐮/🪄🏜️/🐮🐂🥵/ 🏹🫀🩸/🐂➡️👥🐮/🐮☁️👀/🏆🐂 🐋🆚🦛: 🪄🪸/🦛🏊🏾🪨/🐟✂️🦛/ 🐋🔊👶🏻/🦈🔜🦛🩸/🦈🍽️🦛/🏆🐋 🐊🆚🦁: 🪄🇺🇬/🦁🦁🏊‍♂️/🐊👂🦁/ 🦁😱↩️/🐊🍽️🦵🏻🧫/🦁🦁👋🏻/🏆🐊

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

2017 was the second year I played, and this year I got to narrate a rematch in the Elite Traits... #MMMagic for real... #2026MMM

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Jess Popescu @jesspopescu.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

"Why did you burn down that Arby's, ma'am?" "Dylan told me to." #2026MMM

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Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

CROCODILE DE-FEETS LION!!!! #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Doing that math was a highlight of my life.

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Thanks I hate it. I perhaps hate the fact that 2011 is 15 YEARS AGO most of all...

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Rick Moore @prairiedogking.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

it would be so hard going through the day if I were venomous the temptation to bite others would be so great #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

This made me spit out my drink with laughter.

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Anne Stone @acstone.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

The group who originally generated the draft Gila monster genome is now working a complete genome sequence for this wonderful creature, sequencing every base from telomere to telomere. #2026MMM #RIP

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John Hayden ❌👑🌊 @jhayden.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

uh, THATS SO METAL #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

With a crushing neck bite, Honey Badger slays Gila Monster, and chows down to finish the lizard entirely! (Begg et al 2003) #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

HONEY BADGER STILL DON'T CARE because Gila Monster CAN NOT inject venom!!!! Gila Monster's venom oozes slowly down tooth grooves during prolonged feeding, this is why it 'hunts easy pickings' nestlings!!! (Mackessy 2022; Beck 2005) #2026MMM

A close up of the lower jaw of a Gila monster showing replacement teeth growing in behind current teeth. There is a narrow groove visible on the surface of the tooth

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

BUT GILA MONSTER LATCH BITES ONTO HONEY BADGER'S PAW!!!! Is Honey Badger resistant to the venom of the Gila Monster evolving 160 Million years since the last common ancestor with cape cobra?!?!!? #2026MMM

A chart illustrating the evolutionary distance between Gila Monster and Cape Cobra, indicating that they last shared a common ancertor 161 million years ago

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

And this is the biggest "gecko" Honey Badger has ever encountered! With his fossorial claws Honey Badger prepares to DIG IN to dinner, flipping the lizard! #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

BUT HONEY BADGER DON'T CARE, HE IS ADAPTED WITH REPTILE VENOM RESISTENCE!!!! #IBeenTanglingCobraSinceYouWereAnEggBoi (Drabeck et al. 2015) #2026MMM

A honey badger bares its teeth standing on bare rocky and sandy soil

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Gila Monster's "phfhist" the open mouth teeth display, & the bright colors (aposematic coloration) warn that this lizard is locked & loaded with death-dealing venom! #2026MMM askabiologist.asu.edu/gila-monster...

A gila monster stands amongst dead branches against red soil. It has a vibrant orange body and black splotches. Its mouth is slightly open, showing sharp teeth

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Gila Monster whips his head toward Honey Badger with a threatening lizard hiss! #2026MMM (Sidebar: don't pester wildlife, if your presence is clearly disrupting them BACK OFF! youtu.be/OHPs_PdY65g?...

youtu.be

An angry Gila Monster

YouTube video by TheCrotalusfreak

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Honey Badger looking up to the tree, nose NOT to the ground TRIPS OVER GILA MONSTER IN THE LEAF LITTER!! #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Honey Badger considers the loose bark of the nearby gumtree... that could be a likley location for a delicious gecko, the Mighty Mustelid trots toward the tree trunk to begin a CLIMBING HUNT (Begg et al. 2003) #2026MMM

A honey badger scales the rough-textured bark of a tree, digging in with long claws

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

... and one out of place orange & black lizard... GILA MONSTER!!! #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Trees continued to die from fire-damage for 2 years after the megafires, but the forest is recovering with eucalypt & acacia, coarse woody debris & leaf-litter again blanket the forest floor providing shade & concealment for Australia's spiders, snakes, & small mammals (Volkova et al 2025) #2026MMM

A eucalypt forest recovering from a fiew. The treest are dry and somewhat bare, with new green growth emerging from the ground

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Honey Badger slows his trot, assailed by the scents of the dry Eucalypt forest dominated by Eucalyptus sieberi, this sclerophyll vegetation is adapted for periods of prolonged dryness and heat, but looks LUSH relative to Honey Badgers home habitat. #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

SPECIFICALLY, the Eucalypt Forests of Murramarang Nat'l Park, Australia, site of one of the 10,000 wildfires that burned across Australia during the 2019-2020 Black Summer, scorching 59 million acres (93,000 square miles; 2 TRILLION square stoats #StoatsAsMeasurement) (Volkova et al 2025) #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

when both combatants are MMMagically translocated to the randomly determined habitat of... EUCALYPT FOREST!!! #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

TONIGHT, Honey Badger is ON THE HUNT on the sandy thornveld of the Kalahari Desert (Begg 2001) while Gila Monster is RESTING amongst the saguaro of the Sonoran Desert (Gienger et al . 2014) after her HARROWING cliff experience in the Pyrennes in the Sweet Sixteen... #2026MMM

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Anne Stone @acstone.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

The first draft of the Gila monster genome was used to study whether there is equal expression of genes on the Z chromosome between males (who have two Z chromosomes) and females (who have a single Z chromosome). academic.oup.com/gbe/article/... #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Gila Monster, well adapted to desert life, will feel the heat; hotter, drier patterns in the Mojave affects plants- essential microhabitats for Gila Monster & the primary producers for the primary consumers this carnivore hunts. (Hromada et al. 2025) #2026MMM

An orange and black Gila Mosnter walks along reddish sandy soil. Its tongue is extended

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Rapid climate changes, faster than mutations can be favored by selection, will increase mismatches between species adaptive traits & their environment with consequences for species going extinct,breakdowns in ecosystem processes in ways that impact wildlife AND humans (Hromada et al. 2025) #2026MMM

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Anne Stone @acstone.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Honey badger is one of the species sequenced as part of the Zoonomia project, in an effort to better understand evolutionary constraint, and novel evolutionary genetics. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #2026MMM

Comparing genomes from 240 species to explore the evolution of placental mammals. The new phylogeny (black lines) has alternating gray and white shading, which distinguishes mammalian orders (labeled around the perimeter). Rings around the phylogeny annotate species phenotypes. Seven species with diverse traits are illustrated, with black lines marking their branch in the phylogeny. Sequence conservation across species is described at the top left. IMAGE CREDIT: K. MORRILL

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Honey Badger's flexibility about food- they will eat A LOT of different species, allows them to adjust their travel depending on who's about. Honey Badger is less detected where leopards are active, but more detected when spotted hyena are active on a landscape. (Kheswa et al. 2018) #2026MMM

A honey badger eats the tail of a yellow and brown snake

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

FIRST UP: 1-seed Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis) vs. 3-seed Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum). Tonight's battle is a collaboration with @mammalssuck.bsky.social #2026MMM

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Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

And one LAST warning... #2026MMM

TONIGHT is rated C for Carnage: for empirically accurate descriptions of inter-species dynamics, anatomical realities, & historical legacies.

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Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Tonight begins the randomization of encounter ecosystems as combatants are #MMMagically translocated into the Desert, the Swamp, the Ocean Reef, or the Eucalpyt Forest! WHO will fortune favor TONIGHT? #2026MMM

media.tenor.com

a man in a suit and tie stands in the desert holding a bottle

ALT: a man in a suit and tie stands in the desert holding a bottle

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Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Home Habitat Advantage, like the combatants from the Extinction is Forever Division… is now lost to the past! #2026MMM

media.tenor.com

a person running in a field with trees in the background

ALT: a person running in a field with trees in the background

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Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

“Plant blindness” was the term introduced in 1999 by the botanists and educators JH Wandersee (GREAT NAME) & EE Schussler to describe what they saw as a pervasive insensitivity to the green environment & a general neglect of plants on the part of biology education"(Thomas et al. 2022) #2026MMM

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Honestly, me after the battles tonight - teaching and narrating in one day is too much for me!

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Erin Rowland-Schaefer @docrowschaef.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

I endorse this use of my spare #MMMagic. @mammalssuck.bsky.social, bring our squirrel home!

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Carlos Chavez Ramirez @carloschalicothere.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Wildlife officials combat illegal hunting of chital deer, but their meat is not easy to recognize. Scientists created a fast DNA test that only fluoresces when chital DNA is present, which helps identify meat in the field to prevent illegal trading. #2026MMM #RIP doi.org/10.1007/s126...

Fluorescence over time of reactions amplifying Cytochrome B DNA. This genetics test uses primers (short DNA fragments) that only bind to chital DNA. A fluorescence signal is reported only in meat samples from chital deer. This test is fast (under 30 minutes), and requires minimal equipment that can be used in the field.

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