iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 8h

Unironically, this is a great display of human creativity. I also really liked "John Pork"

mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 8h

I am really enjoying seeing everyone's totally legit Gator Create / UF genAI art contest entries. Someone on Tumblr listed one of their research associates as "My Sharona" and I spilled soda on myself laughing

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 8h

yeah those guys are everywhere lol

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 8h

Different ones have vastly different eye situations, like some of them have a lot of teeny micro eyes instead of two big ones

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 10h

oh, I thought you were asking about the China thing. the genAI art contest is because the NVIDIA guy gave them 100 million dollars to lick his boots forever

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 11h

side note: all of you UF students out there still have ten days to apply to their official AI art contest ai.ufl.edu/ai-universit...

ai.ufl.edu

Gator Create | AI | University of Florida

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 11h

that the process of species description and taxonomy in general tends to break down entirely if you can't collab. it's part of the point.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 11h

earlier today I was complaining about how University of Florida disrupts science by not allowing certain collaboration with scientists in China (yeah) and the Cretodorus noonoo paper I just reblogged was...ding ding ding! A collaboration between Tev Aviv University and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Reposted by @mossworm.bsky.social

🌻OK MR. SUNSHINE!🌻 @entobiologist.bsky.social · 11h

they named it cretodorus noonoo. they named it after the vacuum from teletubbies

The new species' unusual appearance also inspired its name: Cretodorus noonoo. The epithet "Noo-Noo" was chosen after the friendly vacuum cleaner from the children's television series Teletubbies, whose long, flexible hose resembles the mouthpart of the ancient insect.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 15h

I think it is very stupid and annoying that international politics and AI slop investment both directly impact the ability of people like me to study literal worms. I cannot stop thinking about how uncool that is.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 15h

They come out and start moving around in the garden when it rains at night, and they leave shiny trails around like snails.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 15h

The funny thing is that even if I still worked at Florida Museum of Natural History, I still probably could not get the resources to describe this worm. Last I heard, University of Florida does not approve of scientific collaboration with certain countries.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 15h

The genus is "Anisorhynchodemus", (literally 'another rhynchodemus') which is openly described by its authors as only existing to contain lots of unrelated worms that we don't actually have a genus for yet. So, this particular worm probably needs a new genus, too. Anyway, I found it under the hose.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 15h

I don't have the proper resources anymore, and that's on purpose. I'm difficult and uninformed, you see.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 16h

Here is an example of an entire visually distinctive species (and about 5 cm long) that casually lives all over the world but has not actually been named yet. Welcome to invertebrate taxonomy in 2026

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 16h

I've been trying to figure out the name of these flatworms in my yard, which have a black body but a tan face. Today, I think I have finally found the answer: the species doesn't have a name yet. It's just called Genus Name sp. "red head", and one knows where they came from. Cool.

Possibly Anisorhynchodemus flatworm is black with a tan colored face

Close up of the flatworm's face with two black dot eyes

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

These videos get more hits than my art timelapses so far. I guess it's that sort of year, huh

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

feral hogs don't really come this far into the city; biggest possibility is a coyote, but I doubt they would care enough

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

of course I was eventually planning on letting it rot and then hiding it in the shrubs and using it to attract cool flies, but right now it was a normal pumpkin with I guess a non-zero value. stole my pumpkin? just the one?

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I actually thought briefly about what the largest animal could be that would reasonably be in my yard and eat a pumpkin. Like, I guess a coyote would chew on one, but I can't imagine them bothering to transport it

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

my three dollar pumpkin. they took it

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

hey, uh, I had some pumpkins along the driveway just for fun, not rotting or anything, just regular human fall decor, and now one is gone. like, regular jack-o-lantern sized, too big for a rat or something. who took my pumpkin

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

this firebush is like a dive bar where this poor lonesome piece of paper comes at night to drown his sorrows. plant Aristolochia

Likely the same pipevine swallowtail feeding on the same plant

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I put them into the hugelkultur and they shoved themselves headfirst into the ground and disappeared. They don't have a lot of obvious digging adaptations, I think they just use brute force

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

they live in wet leaves and eat wet leaves

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

entered my home in secret without permission

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Is the money flowing back into the sciences yet? I'm sure it's on the way, just keep licking

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I hope everyone who got upset with me for pushing back against genAI adoption in natural history collections is having the reality of the situation shoved into their faces as often as possible. I hope their bosses are making them do zoom webinars for various low-level trump appointees

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I put old reality TV on while doing yard work. the ridiculousness and over the top music soothes me

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

chefs: "if I screw up this meal for sugar ray, he might get so mad he beats me up" sugar ray watching everything fall apart:

former boxing champion sugar ray leonard laughing out loud

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

love that thing they do on hell's kitchen where they invite a celebrity to be served at a chef table, and everyone is screaming and freaking out about disappointing them, but then it cuts to the celebrity sitting there having a blast watching people get yelled at and Gordon Ramsay punching the food

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I find them in my shrimp ponds often enough

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

people know you can get coffee already brewed and in a can, yeah? and then you can recycle the can instead of supporting the styrofoam industry too

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

"the people saying it's wrong to like Harry Potter are probably the same people who own iPhones, shop on Amazon, or go to Starbucks" I know this isn't the point at all, but it's also possible to not do those things either

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

there should be pet lobsters that you can hold in your lap like a cat

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Yeah, you're right. I humanely euthanized and preserved them for research.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

dolicho = long and plana = flat, they really named that animal a longflat huh

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

It rained, so I went looking for landworms. I think the first three are Bipalium, Rhyncodemus, and Dolichoplana, but who is the last one with that sweet little face?

Bipalium flatworm is tan with a dark stripe down the middle and a hammer shaped head

Rhyncodemus flatworm is tiny and brown with a dark spot around its pharynx

Another flatworm is tan colored like the Bipalium, but has a thin head like the Rhyncodemus. Maybe Dolichoplana

Another flatworm is mostly black with a tan face, making its tiny eyes very obvious

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

the dot in the very center is one of his eyes, the dots on either side of it are bits of food in his mouth

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

my major contribution to science so far has been documenting with photo and video evidence that male fairy shrimp actively fight each other in their puddles like tiny dinosaurs. it's important to remember this

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

it's the uhhhhh tube thing. I think manifold just means one big thing that connects a bunch of smaller things

car engine air manifold is four little metal tubes connecting into one big tube

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

*sad music* with your cultivation of native Aristolochia, we can get this living piece of tissue paper some ass

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

the singular Pipevine Swallowtail hanging around my yard appears to be a male, so he just eats nectar and looks longingly at other butterflies. but, as you see, he looks cool as hell. please cultivate your area's native Aristolochia so he can find a gf.

Eastern Pipevine Swallowtail has black forewings and deep blue hindwings

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