iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Hi, I'm someone, I would like to know fewer things please

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Checking which room I'm teaching in tomorrow and realizing I'm gonna see It* from the window again *the secret axolotl on the roof of the nearby lecture hall

Picture of a flat roof. eyes and gills have been painted on a globular skylight (I think it's a skylight?) to make it look like an axolotl

0171

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Mrs. Detective PikaBOO, Esq. @clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 28/09/2026

The snails They escaped their basket Yes YES The snails are out

527159

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, etc etc

My ink-stained hand, some pliers, and the successfully assembled Farpie (fountain sharpie)

610924

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Goooood morning! The 2026 Snail Facts Calendars are OUT! We've got 24 days of scratchable snail fact goodness, designed by Philly artist Kelly Nichols! Advent calendars are cute as hell, a delightful tradition, and keep @skypeascientist.bsky.social funded! Get one at SquidFacts.net Pls repost ❤️

An 11x14 inch poster featuring snails, slugs, nudibranchs, and other snails! There are 24 yellow-green snail shells that you can scratch off. There's a leaf sheep and sea bunny and sea angel and fire snail and banana slug and mystery snail and ramshorn snail and candy cane snail

15372278

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

"First report on the edibility of X" is an incredibly powerful paper title (more so when you see what they're talking about)

"First record of the edibility of Calostoma cinnabarina" by Bautista-Nava and Moreno-Fuentes (2009)

close-up photo of the mature fruiting body of Calosoma cinnabarinum, the "stalked puffball in aspic" that is not actually a gasteromycete, by inat user alan_cruz. It looks like a red, not too threatening fruit of some kind, surrounded by an incredibly suspicious mass of greenish-gray slime wads

2122

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

my former and soon-to-be lab (same one, I'm going back) has something like that and watching students and visitors' faces when telling them that yes this is ground floor, but also floor 2, and then if you go to the end and take one flight of stairs up you're still somehow floor 2, never got old

010

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

This snail's face is physically hurting me as a scientist, but also, ..., it is Very Cute

130

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 01/07/2026

writers everywhere, take heed I need an empty notebook for a new project and *I actually don’t have one* you should buy that extra notebook just in case; learn from my mistakes

1217911

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I have been sitting on this one for a little while: happy to announce that I will soon be starting as Assistant Professor back in Rennes, France!!! Looking forward to more evolutionary ecology and historical ecology in cities, this time focused on soil/litter macrofauna (including molluscs!)

A patchwork of various images of snails, slugs and woodlice on soil and litter background

030

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Sophie W @biologizing.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Sara had just started her PhD and this specific experiment when I started my Masters in the same lab, and I vividly remember walking into the lab my first week there and seeing a notebook ominously placed in the centre of the table that just said "zombie project"

061

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Sophie W @biologizing.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

My incredible friend Sara has published a WILD paper from her soon-to-be-completed PhD, which is about IMMORTAL SEA CUCUMBER BITS www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Natural tissue immortality: Indefinite survival of sea cucumber explants

Biological immortality of marine tissues offers previously unexplored potential for ethically unconstrained biomedical and aging research.

1187

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Paul Fairie @paulisci.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

A List of Things Eaten by Scientists 🧵

34727359

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Katie Collins @spissatella.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Happy pride, mollusc-botherers 🤘

The intersex-inclusive progress pride flag made from a collage of close-ups of photos of molluscs. This flag consists of a yellow triangle with a purple ring on the lefthandmost side, then five nested chevrons in white, pink, pale blue, brown and black which extend to the centre of the flag and then the right hand side consists of six horizontal stripes, from top to bottom red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple

3376125

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 14/05/2026

The academic equivalent of always reblog Tom Holland lip syncing to Umbrella is always reblog The Snake Fight Portion of Your Thesis Defense

222182

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Natee (they/them) @himmapaan.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Another piece from a few years ago whose generally lukewarm reception was rather unequal to my own fondness for it. 🥲Perhaps because of the subject? Garden snail (_Cornu aspersum_), approximately 105 x 60 mm. Watercolour on vintage J Whatman paper from 1940. #Invertefest

Watercolour painting of a garden snail with an especially attractively streaked shell.

37765190

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

More #Invertefest: this hemiptera-on-hemiptera scene at the botanical garden yesterday

A dead green winged aphid fell in some pond water, and a bunch of backswimmers are rushing for the free food

082

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Damselflies and dragonflies are starting to show up here, right in time for #Invertefest

Two Large Red Damselflies (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) on some vegetation. They're thin red damselflies with thin black bands at the end of every segment, and also some black/iridescent? sections on the thorax. The male is nearly vertical on top of the female, holding behind her head with his abdomen claspers

A Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) on some green vegetation (nettle?). It's a green iridescent damselfly with transparent wings.

A Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) resting on some plant (nettle?) stem, I think a female. It's a brown dragonfly, with a black stripe running along the dorsal part of its abdomen. The veins at the front of the wings are yellow-ish, and there's black spots at the base of the wing, a bit hard to see withour zooming

A Common Winter Damselfly (Sympecma fusca) on a branch. It's a very brown damselfly with some darker brown on the dorsal side, but! there's some very striking blue spots on the top of its eyes

071

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

We present: The Art of #InverteFest - April 2026 Edition A digital art book showcasing the work of 100 artists from around the world, in celebration of overlooked invertebrate fauna. Thank you to the artists who contributed to our book! Download: drive.google.com/file/d/1RJ5m... #Art #SciArt

a promo image showing various pages from the book, each page showcasing different animals like a moth, jellyfish, octopus, shrimp, beetle, among others. the art featured shows a range of different medium, including digital, watercolor, oil, and so on.

20324168

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Lio🌿@MCM Londong AA H-02 @kroovv.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

The best thing ive ever found in a garadge sale, a snail that is also a mesuring tape

6657801029

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

The wagtails were at it* again (* being photo friendly)

A grey wagtail (a small grey bird with a long tail and a very flashy yellow belly) perched on a branch. In the wagtail's beak it's holding a big mouthful of insects it caught, while flying around are dozens of other insects

010

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Forced myself to get some outside air in the couple rain-free hours we're going to get this weekend, was Rewarded with Very Cooperative Bird, 10/10

A grey wagtail on a wall. It's a cute bird with a long tail (which it keeps wagging while walking around, hence the name), a generally grey back and head (with some white on the throat and around the eye), and a strikingly yellow breast and belly

The same bird, looking down the wall at something

A bird that might or might not be the same grey wagtail (there were two flying around), on some tree stakes

150

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

No idea why that bittern decided to spend part of winter in one of the most urban wetlands we have around (10-15 min walk from international train station, barely longer by public transport from home), but finally managed to catch it, only took 5 tries

A reed bed covering the entire photo. In there there is (I promise) one brown heron-like bird that's well-camouflaged

A crop of the previous photograph, you can see the bittern though it's still hidden behind reeds

020

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

This is somehow the most birb wasp I've ever seen

100

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 05/02/2026

The greatest joy in my life as an academic is being asked this type of question

1449142

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Following up on a reply from @stephenbheard.bsky.social: the highest scoring 7-tiles names (so you can play them from the first round) are: genus: Zyxmyia (31, another bee fly!) www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/64795382 species: Poa fax (only 18, already mentioned in the post)

162

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Because why not, I finally wrote it up: "What’s the highest score we could get in Scrabble if we play a taxonomically valid genus/species name?" mdahirel.github.io/posts/2026-0...

A footnote: "And by “useless”, I do mean “useless”. This is not even the kind of biology trivia you can use to wow/gross out people at parties, for instance."

Another footnote: "Zaptyx jamesi (a snail) feels more like Zaphod Beeblebrox, somehow"

55015

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

I'm not drawing much rn so I'm not doing #birbfest or anything but apparently today's birb is the common kingfisher and I love them, so here's an old drawing I already recycled a few weeks ago

A quick digital sketch of a common kingfisher, on a messy green background meant to evoke leaves

030

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

I've been using 19th century landscape paintings of London (vs 21st century photographs) a lot in my urban ecology talks when discussing the last couple centuries of urbanization, but this works too

010

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

if i saw a fish i thought was a catfish but apparently not a catfish would that be considered reverse catfishing

4455

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

For no reason whatsoever remembering the time @franzanth.bsky.social made me try to find out what would be the highest scoring valid genus and genus+species names in scrabble

220

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Extended lunch break in the forest to enjoy the fresh snow before the temperatures climb back up a bit

A black woodpecker is attacking a dead tree on a snowy day. There's been a lot of big holes done in that tree already, woodpeckers seem to like it

A blue tit perched on a shrub. It's a small blue and yellow bird with black and white face markings. Almost all of the image except the bird is snow-white: snow in the background, snow on the branches

A treecreeper on snow covered tree branch. It's a small brown bird, with a thin curved beak and a really straight tail

A path in a forest, covered in fresh snow, with only a few tracks in it

020

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

It's a bit too cold here for #InverteFest this time, barely anything showing even under logs, so here are a couple photos I found going through my folders, from when I visited the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco 6+ years ago

A blueish-tinted photo of the sandy looking bottom of an aquarium tank. There's a sea anemone with long pale tentacles, and beneath some rock (?) there is some crustacean hiding, you can only see its claws popping out

A classical looking museum room with very high ceiling, tall decorated or stained glass windows and very red walls. Hanging from the ceiling is a life-size model of a giant squid. On one of the walls there is also a model of an octopus

0153

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

posting just so I don't forget the name of this fantastic animal again: the land snail genus Whittenia is doing the horrible (said with deep and pure love) Nipponites heteromorph thing with its shell. maybe the worst shell on a currently living thing I've ever seen (I love it)

drawing of an extinct Nipponites ammonite, with a highly irregular shell shaped like a knot

photos of Whittenia vermicularis snail shells by Foon et al 2017. they are irregularly coiled and worm-like in their shape

1330766

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

I thought we were good at it when we were doing that to each other in our shared office during my PhD, but this is truly next level

010

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

we're at 31 submissions out of the 100 available slots already, damn

46326

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Never not be snailposting 🐌 Amphissa versicolor, Montana de Oro state park, CA

Bright pink snail with elongated/quite spired shell. Pale foot slightly visible. On light colored rocks in a tidepool

0345

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

If you see this, post your bird art

A clean digital doodle of a northern cardinal perched on a fence, with a grey-green square as background

A messier digital sketch of a blue tit, interrogative

151

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Petra Korlević @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

We're snailposting, post your snails! #invertebrates #SciArt

grid of 3x2 white square, each one having either a single or a pair of snails, scaly foot snail in black, two banana slugs intertwined, two sea snails in a cream stripey shell poking underneath, two suspicious leopard slugs, two bright green very long shell snails, one lava looking slug with a black and red shell and a red foot.

113537

Maxime Dahirel @mdahirel.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Apparently there are Birds outside?

A bunch of Northern Lapwings flying towards the left of the frame on a grey sky. These are blue/black and white birds with quite large wings

A Goldcrest on a tree branch. It's a small bird with a black spot around its eye making it look bigger, and a big yellow stripe on its forehead. The background behind it is very orange, very fall colours

020

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Kym Deyn @kymdeyn.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Reposting this poem here for @thelabandfield.bsky.social who retweets it every winter. Yet again, I'm wondering where *is* my soup and hibernation?

No Talk, I’m Sleepy
Unfortunately, the spotted garden eel.
With regret, the lark. My apologies,
the dark bleating of winter, the vice-like
grip of my heart. How language deserts
me, its most faithful engineer, its very best
silly sod. There is altogether too much
of everything. The light is only pretending
to get out of bed. Where is my soup
and hibernation? Why am I expected to be?
I have become a dormouse. Undisturbed
until spring.

48023

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

lil sticker design for ECN this year, trying to retain design consistency with last year's stickers but also needed to add little gumboots and a tiny oatmilk latte

sticker design for a bug professionals conference, featuring an iconic beetle of the PNW (a rain beetle, Pleocomidae) in front of a generically Portland-like backdrop. I know that's not a perfect Mt Hood but at least I didn't just draw Mt Rainier like I always do

photo of last year's sticker, an Eleodes in front of a generically Sonoran desert landscape (for the same conference but in Phoenix)

97114

Reposted by Maxime Dahirel

Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Most Nighthawk Most Pauraque Most Seedsnipe Most Sandpiper Most Auklet Most Tern Most Grebe Most Storm-Petrel Most Bittern Most Pygmy-Owl Most Boobook Most Honeyguide Most Flycatcher

10569