iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 6h

I think annelids are the coolest animals next to fishes.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Many spiders in outdoor lab today

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Walking by the lab and seeing my students doing science (I’m so proud of them)

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Just a harmless piece of grass. Come land and take a load off spotted lanternflies.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I used to think I had it rough doing fish phylogenetics, then I read stuff from people working on single celled organisms. Bacteria had people flat giving up in the 60's, eukaryotes don't seem to be much better. Talk about polytomies!

Eukaryote tree from Adl et al. (2013), so many polytomies

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Bayesian when the uniform prior that treats fish the size of the sun and electrons as the same likelihood leads to an inconclusive result.

Admiral Trench: the algorithm has never been wrong before

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

In the nicest possible way I hope this guy finds bugs in his food.

Guy calling me fat in the nicest possible way

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Expanding my library for vet med students. Excited to expand my anatomy knowledge, which outside of the lateral part obscure Paleozoic fishes isn’t that great.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

They’re doing this to me at work tomorrow

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Just learned that Tanyrhinichthys, a fish I re-described (with Lauren Sallan, JP Hodnett, and Spencer Lucas) is available in Minecraft with the Prehistoric Nature mod. This is perhaps the greatest honor of my career.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

When someone publishes a paper re-inventing taxonomic practice that has existed since the 1940’s.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Black widow that has caught a horsefly in her web. #invertefest

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Was working with my Devonian invert student and came across this monstrosity while trying to explain crinoids. @daveyfwright.bsky.social I’m so sorry.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Highlights were several Chinese mantis and black widows that are gorging themselves on spotted lanternflies.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Wife told me that the Field Museum has a picture of me up.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

"Leviathans are real" is always a fun topic when we get to the evolution of giant size.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The point is…you are under a misconception that we, a university, are in the education business. What we are, really, is a fee company. And you, dear teaching faculty, are not our most valuable asset.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Amazing how a beetle is nature’s perfect living tank.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I think they are trying to spell something.

Spotted lanternflies in the rough shape of the letters b and t

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Taught an undergrad to take photo stacks in 10 minutes. This specimen is about the size of my fingernail and I can see individual encrusted animals on it. Greatest machine ever built.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I’m pretty sure this is a black widow, it had a red spot on its abdomen.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Hydra take the crown of coolest animal for me. Freshwater relative of coral and jellyfish that stings its prey, can bud to make clones of itself, is practically immortal, and some species have symbiotic algae! Photograph by Peter J Bryant.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

In other news, time to expand my invertebrate zoology knowledge base. Any other titles recommended by my invert friends would be greatly appreciated!

Cover of “Bryozoans” a book by JS Ryland

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

The Philly house sparrows when I didn’t want to share my lunch

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I mean just look at this nonsense. This isn’t necessary, be normal and just make your premaxilla longer!

Skull drawing of a gar in lateral view trust me it has too many upper jaw bones

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Gar deciding they need a million extra bones in their snout.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Saw a dragonfly the size of a small bird while looking for spotted lanternflies today

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Any invertebrate zoologists: looking for resources to store and properly curate extant specimens. Anything from boxes to advice. Have a teaching collection that needs love, because this type of thing makes me sad. I want to teach this part of the animal kingdom as best I can!

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Visited the Air and Space and was happy to see Louis Purnell honored. Sadly no mention of his work in paleontology, where he published work on fossil invertebrates at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately, he was forced out due to racism from his colleagues.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Saurichthys by me, after Carlo Romano and Ilya Kogan’s restoration of an early Triassic species from Madagascar.

Drawing of a long nosed fish in lateral view

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

My favorite part of measuring was learning there are freshwater halfbeaks. This looks a lot like freshwater Saurichthys, the subject of this award-winning paper (with my amazing coauthors Michelle Stocker, Sterling Nesbitt, and Maranda Stricklin). par.nsf.gov/servlets/pur...