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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Night in the intertidal zone, with #crab and #goby

A crab on top of rock and piece of coral

Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I just learned that this broken bridge I saw while walking around is a war memorial. The bridge named Akabashi (lit. Red Bridge) was destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa of WW2, by a teenager guerrilla squad to stop the US military.

The remain of a destroyed bridge in a river mouth area. Plants grow on it. Beside the broken bridge is a functional bridge.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Freshly observed swimming #crab 🦀 molts. Both Portunus pelagicus I think. #iNatTogether

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

A pair of Papilio polytes 🦋. One landing on a beggartick flower, the other hanging behind. They kept flying together before disappearing from my sight. Apparently a courting pair? A newest observation of mine just featured in the #iNatTogether project👇 #butterfly

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

In some way they did (almost) exist 😂 (albeit small and not particularly good flyers)

Fossil of a small theropod dinosaur named Ambopteryx longibrachium. Behind the fossil is the issue of Nature where the paper describing the species was published. The cover features a reconstruction of the dinosaur with bat-like membrane wings.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A windy day. Suddenly felt like seeing waves striking rocks and entered Manzamo. The brutality of nature weirdly let me feel a bit relief this time.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

They can be stealthy and hard to find though

A box crab dwelling in intertidal shadow water. Its color closely resembles the surrounding environment.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Because the first package was lost on the way, it took me a while to finally get my hands on @stevebrusatte.bsky.social’s book, which was received today…

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

More hermit crab congregation…(Coenobita purpureus, I believe?)

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

An #orca 🫍at the Port of #Nagoya Public Aquarium regurgitating food (fish). She didn’t do so in an obviously repetitive manner though. #whale #dolphin

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The nest is gone…Apparently removed by humans.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

A #nest of #Okinawa mud #wasp (Delta esuriens) I've been observing for ~2 weeks. I saw the wasp working on it and it expanding over time. The last photo was taken today; it survived the most recent #typhoon.

A potter wasp is working on a nest on the wall of a building.

A potter wasp nest. The upper left conner has an opening, from which some Lepidoptera larvae can be vaguely seen.

A potter wasp nest, sealed and taller than before.

A potter wasp nest. It has expanded further along the wall.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I was only able to see the animal from a distance. Here’s a specimen displayed in an insect & art exhibition at @oistedu.bsky.social.

Specimen of a large butterfly. It has white wings with black spots and stripes. It’s mounted on a wooden base on which a butterfly’s wing pattern is carved.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Encountered this rice paper #butterfly (Idea leuconoe) today. This is the prefecture butterfly of #Okinawa and the largest butterfly here, with a wingspan of 12-14cm.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

My 1st wild #octopus 🐙 sighting Apparently feeding on a #crab 🦀

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

It's the season of blueberry hermit crab (Coenobita purpureus) now. Today I encountered a shell-less one on the beach. No jettisoned shell 🐚 nearby either. Hope it can find a nice new home soon. #Okinawa #HermitCrab #Crustacean

A blue hermit crab without a snail shell on a sandy beach.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I’m trying to be like this guy lol

A teenager named Ikoma (protagonist Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress) is being infected by a kind of zombie virus after being attacked by a zombie-like creature known as Kabane. Most of his body is transformed into zombie. He is trying to hang himself to stop the virus from passing through his neck and spreading into his brain.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

More! All near the west coast of #Okinawa. Common box crab (Calappa hepatica) Perplexing fiddler crab (Austruca perplexa) Tawny hermit crab (Coenobita rugosus), found in a forest near the sea. Scylla serrata, found near where a water canal joins the sea.

A box crab hiding in shallow water. It’s partially buried in sand. There is seagrass in the surrounding water.

On the right is a male fiddler crab with black-and-white body and a large, brightly colored left claw. On the right, there is another fiddler crab partially hiding in a burrow.

A hermit crab dwelling in a broken snail shell 🐚, held by a hand.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I’m obligated to post some new 🦀 sightings, ain’t I? This time it’s a dimorphic pair of tetragonal fiddler crabs (Gelasimus tetragonon)..,

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

A screenshot, in case you want a closer look at the cute 🦇!

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Encountered a Ryukyu flying fox 🦇 (Pteropus dasymallus) today and luckily managed to film it this time #bat #flyingfox

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Greetings from Eriphia sebana (Well, just an excuse to share new crab 🦀 clip)

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I walked back home today, which is much slower than the shuttle bus but allowed me to encounter some cool creatures, like this colorful #beetle. Probably Sophiodela okinawana (I didn’t find its English common name), a tiger beetle #endemic to #Okinawa.

A beetle with a vibrant color scheme consisting of green, red, dark blue, and white areas.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Of course, adorable intertidal creatures as well…

A goby, likely an ornate sandgoby (Istigobius ornatus) in an intertidal pond.

Brittle stars in an intertidal pond. Their body disks are hidden in little holes on the rock, with ringed tentacles stretching out.

A black sea cucumber in an intertidal pond. Part of its body is stretched out, and its mouth is slightly unfolded.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Reward after a depressingly rainy golden week in #Okinawa: double rainbow 🌈 🌈

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Barbary lions were from Africa, but Smilodon did have their own buddy lion Panthera atrox

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

I happen to have some nice Argiope photos too… An A. aemula just caught a Syntomoides imaon (a moth w/ partially transparent wings). Taken in Okinawa, Japan.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Thank you for your insight! Here are some more photos of #1.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Another goose barnacle bottle that appears to have drifted from China: it’s a kind of liquor that’s popular in China.

Goose barnacles attached to a glass bottle on a beach.

Label on a glass bottle to which goose barnacles are attached. The label indicates that the bottle was for erguotou (二锅头) wine, a popular kind of wine in China, with 56% alcohol by volume.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Just received the new articulated T. rex 🦖 from #PNSO. This time a reconstruction with lip. Looking forward to more 1:35 scale action figures from this line…

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Our model explains various types of evolutionary convergence characterized by different degrees of difference between ancestral states of different lineages & between genetic bases of their convergent phenotypes. Hopefully this study could help us better think about convergence & predictability! 7/7

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

The constraint on expression program diversification is conditioned on conservation of the phenotypic effects of the regulators. If their effect can change (e.g., origin of new cis-elements), the decline of expression program diversity with complexity dampens. 6/n

Variance in regulator expression across species at the end of the
simulation, plotted against d_selection (blue), compared to the corresponding curve from simulations with constant C (black curve and dots; the same as those in Fig. 1C).

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

A key factor is the optimal phenotype's complexity (dimensionality): a very complex optimum can only be produced by a limited range of expression programs, so selection forces lineages toward the same solution; otherwise, each lineage evolves a solution that's close to the ancestral state. 4/n

Figure 1: (A-B) Schematic illustrations for the evolution of novel regulator expression programs in response to selection on the phenotypic state. Axes represent two principal components of regulator expression. Red curves with arrows represent trajectories of evolution in different lineages. (A) The optimal state can be produced by various regulator expression programs, which fall along the gray line. Independent lineages (species) that evolved under the same regime of selection ended up at different points along the line, resulting in variation in regulator expression across lineages. (B) The optimal state can only be produced by a specific regulator expression program, which is represented by the gray dot. Different species evolved towards the only solution and there is little variation in expression programs among them. (C-D) Relationship between evolution of the regulator expression program and complexity of the optimal phenotypic state (quantified by
the number of traits subject to selection, d_selection). (C) Variance in regulator expression across species at the end of the simulation, plotted against d_selection. (D) Divergence from the ancestral expression program at the end of the simulation, averaged across species and plotted against d_selection. Each data point in (C) and (D) corresponds to a simulated scenario where a unique set of traits were under selection. Each curve in (C) and (D) is a locally estimated scatterplot smoothing (LOESS) curve, with the gray area representing the 95% confidence interval (CI). Cell images representing optimal phenotypes in (A) and (B) are from Irasutoya (https://www.irasutoya.com/.)

Figure 2: (A-B) Schematic illustrations for two-stage evolution of novel regulator expression programs. Blue curves with arrows represent trajectories of neutral evolution in stage 1 (before phenotypic traits of interest are subjected to selection), whereas red curves with arrows represent trajectories of evolution in stage 2 (after selection is imposed). (A) The optimal state can be produced by various regulator expression programs (gray line). (B) The optimal state can only be produced by a specific regulator expression program (gray dot). (C-D) Relationship between evolution of the regulator expression program and complexity of the optimal phenotypic state (d_selection). Notations are the same as Fig. 1C-D, unless stated otherwise. (C) Variance in regulator expression across species at the end of stage 2, plotted against d_selection. Red dashed line represents expression variance right before selection is imposed (at the end of stage 1 and the beginning of stage 2). (D) Divergence from the expression program at the end of stage 1, averaged across species and plotted against d_selection.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Finally received the Spinosaurus book by @davehone.bsky.social & @markwitton.bsky.social. It arrived shortly after S. mirabilis was, kinda like how the T. rex 🦖 book narrowly “missed” the revival of Nanotyrannus. It’s hard to keep up with new work 😂

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

A comparison of the spiky beetle Acantholophus and the ankylosaur Borealopelta, the latter represented by a Kaiyodo gacha figure. Part of the insect art exhibition at @oistedu.bsky.social. Weirdly, the sign only refers to Zuul. Perhaps a different gacha should have been used.

Specimen of a beetle of genus Acantholophus and a miniature figure of a Borealopelta.

The sign with Japanese and English descriptions of the displayed item.

Two ankylosaur mini figures on my shelf. On the right is Borealopelta. The left one is Zuul, which the sign in the last picture referred to.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Some cool intertidal zone animals seen yesterday, before sunset. #goby #SeaCucumber #Okinawa

A goby, likely a frillfin goby (genus Bathygobius), in shallow water of intertidal zone.

A Black Sea cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota) in shallow water of intertidal zone. Oral tentacles are extended.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Some trophies from my recent #paleo #gacha figure hunt…

Six gacha figures of Cretaceous animals, each with a display base.
Top row: Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex.
Middle row: Triceratops and a different T. rex.
Bottom row: Elasmosaurus and Velociraptor.

Seven gacha figures of Cretaceous animals, each with a display base.
Top row: two T. rex figures.
Middle row: Fukuivenator and Deinonychus.
Bottom row: Lambeosaurus, Triceratops, and a spinosaurid (the manufacturer didn’t specify the genus).

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Just realized I forgot to share this here--a 'naked' hermit crab! This blueberry hermit (Coenobita purpureus) was in an undersized 🐚 shell, which it jettisoned upon being grabbed. Hopefully it could find a better shell nearby soon. And thanks to @jopabinia.bsky.social for reminding me of this!

Dorsal view of a blueberry hermit crab (Coenobita purpureus) without a snail shell.

A blueberry hermit crab (Coenobita purpureus) in a small and damaged snail shell. Its 4th left limb, which is much shorter than the walking limbs, is visible from the broken side of the shell. The shell is grabbed by a human hand.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

The cage for birds of prey (eagles, kites, vultures) at #ShanghaiZoo has also become a buffet place for wild birds. I was there at feeding time, and the little birds 🐦 were the first to take a bite… #magpie #magpie-robin

An oriental magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) feeding on meat meant for birds of prey in a big cage.

An azure-winged magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) feeding on meat meant for birds of prey in a big cage.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

When visiting #ShanghaiZoo near the very end of 2025, I spent a lot of time looking at wild birds that adapted to this zoo ecosystem. Among them are the night herons. This one was having a meal in the space for otters. It took a while to devour the fish, and this clip is the final moment.

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Saw this bottle covered with gooseneck barnacles on the beach. It’s a Chinese brand and I didn’t see any Japanese text on the label. Can’t help wondering if it drifted here from China…It’s the west coast of #Okinawa so it sounds plausible. (This post also makes up for my missed #Crustmas)

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Daohan "Rex" Jiang @rexjiang.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Their sign for the Chinese alligator, however, appeared to be using a photo of an American alligator…I guess it’s because there’re many more American alligator photos on the internet? #alligator #ShanghaiZoo

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