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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲

@swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
454 followers 599 following 652 posts

German/ Ukrainian Entomologist, at ‪@ebdonana.bsky.social‬, Fossils, climate change studies using Diptera fossils, insect decline and microplastic pollution - once @swarmofthoughts/ Investigador Ramon y Cajal en EBD-CSIC, Entomologo y Paleontologo

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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I think we, as a species, don't grief enough collectively over all the species we lost just in last 500 years, from Moas, to golden toads, and to think that I was born just as last slender-billed curlew went extinct. As a palaeontologitst I grief all the time how much poorer we made the world
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Reminder for palaeo collegaues , Russia is very willing to conduct genocide (including cultural) against Ukraine, killing scientists and artists, but my suggestions to maybe not allow publish fossils stolen from Crimea in western publishing houses, still seen as strange. #fossils #Ukraine 🦖⚒️
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
yes, but he never considered country with "Vkusno y tochka" tha also imposed "DonMac" on Donetsk, attacking country with mcDonalds :) (sad smile). Great thread, as always!
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Not even Canary islands, oldest of which are late Miocene, as I demonstrated last week
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
that will be amazing, I have found your email at Uni manchester, and will mail you, if thats ok. Thanks again!
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Hi @russellgarwood.co.uk , would it be ok to use the infographics in my tenure presentation (with the credit of course). Thanks!
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
@mosasaurologist.bsky.social - I have found a replica of your nemesis - Xiphactinus, lurking in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria aquarium
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
It says "inspired by starship troopers uniform" - got to be Paul Werhoven´s 1997 movie, not R. Heinlein´s book. While milage on what Heinlein was saying varies (prob. study on conservativism, and citizen-military-state relationships), movie is explicitly a fascism satire - saying "Federation BAD"
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
For today's #fossilfriday post, not a #fossil but equipment, a sediment corer used to extract sediments with microfossils from the lakes. This corner is a workhorse for climate and environmental reconstruction for ice ages and beyond. @gilromera.bsky.social @cesar-morales.bsky.social 🦣🦖
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
so whenewher russians are using moscow for any point, they should be asked "cool, what about rest of your country (St Petersburg does not counts, although its famous for its high muder rate anyway)"
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
She fails to mention that a) homocide is quite high even in Moscow, and astronomically high in provinces; and b) moscow is so pumped with resources incl. for policing, that rest of their country is left dry. Moscow is a comical example of colonial metropoly in its own country.
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Does Australia has a good fossil record of turtles? I have seen lots of Meiolania from Lord Howe (bias - that's what I wanted to see) in the Australian Museum Sydney collection, but not much else. Fantastic mount of Diprotodon!
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
ah, I see, cool!
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Kishenehn formation from Eocene of Montana, is famous for #fossil Culiseta mosquito with preserved haemoglobine, discovered by my friend Dale Greenwalt. Less famous are water skating midges - Hintelmaniella noncatafractata, we discovered with Dale doi.org/10.26879/1165 #fossilfriday 🦖🪰⚒️
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Is it Kishinehn formation by any chance? Matrix looks similar and there were suckers as I remember...
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Reposted by Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲
Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Made an attempt to throw some cold water on the fears that a Russian escalation is imminent. Not all war is hybrid, and escalation is almost always - and especially under the current circumstances - hard to control. That applies to Russia, too.
minnalander.substack.com
To Escalate Or Not To Escalate
Russia’s war is increasingly spilling over into Europe. But does it indicate an imminent willingness to escalate further?
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
It seems @joniaskola.bsky.social we might yet get our wish just in time, and see russian frozen assets to be used for defense of Ukraine and Europe
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
eh, solenhofen, boring small plates, here is a good-sized Plattenkalck slab
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
That will probably be one PhD student leading some of the panels/ giving plenaries at the meetings
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
people are missing the real news story - Gen. Syrski is embarking on his Phd journey. @anderspucknielsen.dk I am pretty sure that Doctorands from Academy of command staff of UA, doing their English and Philosphy exam same place I did in 2012 - Institute of Humanities NANU 😄 nv.ua/ukr/ukraine/...
nv.ua
«Від цивільних посад відмовився». Сирський вступив до докторантури Національного університету оборони — ЗМІ
Ексголовнокомандувач ЗСУ Олександр Сирський вступив до докторантури Національного університету оборони України (НУОУ).
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Sorry to hear it Natalia, you made palaeontology better, but I understand, its can be hard in the exclusive spaces for anyone who does not resemble core demographics toa nail. Its clearly a loss for palaeo but not for you. All the success with whatewher you will do next!
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Today is #Ukraine ´s 35th #independanceday (really a restoration of 1921 UNR statehood), and I remmbering and hoping to see all the places that war has stolen from Ukrainians and friends of our country, like steppes of Askania Nova where I photographed this Eucera longicornis 🐝in 2013
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Kurgan stellae (6ct. BC-11 ct AC) are pervasive part of Ukrainian steppe. Part history stretching back into the Pleistocene, that gathered land and people that make #Ukraine. Today is Ukraine´s 35th #independanceday. Thanks to all friends standing with Ukraine, in fight for this history to continue
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Reposted by Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲
Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
The fact that Trump has reduced the US-Canada relationship to a zero-sum competition in the eyes of his supporters is in itself a catastrophic development. The relationship always thrived because it was seen from a mutually beneficial point of view. That’s now over and it’s a tragedy.
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Reposted by Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲
Fabian Hoffmann, PhD @frhoffmann.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
🚀 New Mildly Alarmed episode out. @alanderminna.bsky.social and I discuss one of the key topics of my recently defended PhD: How does the proliferation of long-range strike weapons to small and medium-sized states affect strategic stability? 1/3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRLD...
youtube.com
When small states get long range missiles | Mildly Alarmed
YouTube video by Mildly Alarmed
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
ah, thats right, I should rewatch it.
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
was not it Ornithocheirus from the "Giants of the sky" episode?
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Head of the #fossil Valeseguya, male from Dominican #amber - Valeseguyidae are weird flies, there are number of fossils, maybe several dozens, from ambers, but family was described based on a SINGLE extant fly from Victoria, Australia, making them rarest extant flies #fossilfriday
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Thanks for keeping them going! I am impressed by @frhoffmann.bsky.social - after my phd defence I refused to engage with cognition for a months. Much luck on your phd journey @alanderminna.bsky.social - it can be mildly rewarding!
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
listening to @alanderminna.bsky.social and @frhoffmann.bsky.social, on "Mildly alarmed" on deterrence by punishment and missiles. Its a bummer, my phd was not on anything that impactful.. (does cat dads allowed dad jokes?)
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This is currently mine most frequent thought - whenewher my dream of being a paleontologist, materialized itself in fighting for equipment procurement, corrected for rate of inflation and calculating "daily subsistence rate" when I move on my business trip from one German federal land to another
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Dominican republic mines, so it would have been Miocene, ca 13 MYA. So only dinosaur you are cloning from those mosquitos (lets be clear DNA does not survive in amber), will be hummingbirds or palmchats. Also, mosquito in Hammond´s cane a Tipulidae, adults does not feed (besides occasional nectar)
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
37 MYA #fossil Culicidae mosquito female from Baltic #amber. True mosquitos are fairly rare in amber, unlike biting midges, because unlike latter, they have no strong association with tree bark, or tree-dwelling invertebrates. Btw mosquito in Jurassi Park was from... #fossilfriday #fossils🦖⚒️ 1/2
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
This paper here provides a good summary on the taphonomy of the deposit link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
The soda lake—mesosaline halite lake transition in the Ries impact crater basin (drilling Löpsingen 2012, Miocene, southern Germany) - Facies
Lacustrine sediments of impact craters form valuable climate archives, although chemical evolution and changes in the catchment area potentially superimpose, distort, or obliterate primary climate sig...
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Inspired by @nataliajagielska.bsky.social post on high density bone-beds of bats- I present you "bone breccia" of Noerdlingen Ries soda lake. Formed in the middle-Miocene asteroid impact crater in Bavaria, lake became a trap for thousands of small vertebrates, forming meters thick #fossil layer 🦖
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
94.6% #solareclipse in Mairena de Aljarafe, Seville, Spain. Lighting during the peak of the eclipse was quite special, although no darkness happened as during total eclipse, it was also cooler quite a bit, due to blockage of IR radiation
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Reposted by Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲
Harriet E. Nuttall @whosyourmammal.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
#Yourpalaeolife The ECR survey is published @ecol-evol.bsky.social! Early career palaeontologists from all over the world have talked about their experience with fieldwork - how could you change your working practices to get more early career researchers into the field? doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
doi.org
#Yourpalaeolife: Interrogating the Status of Fieldwork Among Early Career Palaeontology Researchers
This global survey of early career palaeontologists provides the first quantitative data regarding the prevalence of field skills training and field work among junior researchers of the discipline. T....
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Juan Sebastián Elcano, lowborn navigator, who actually brought about Magellan's circumnavigation (due to M pathetic excuse of being dead), what interests me though is the role of this seagull in the circumnavigation, as it clearly was important, immortalized at Glorieta de Marineras, Sevilla. #birds
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
its also intersting to find solitary dead bats deep into caves, clearly that tiny brain had some drive to explore - found this one about 9 km from the entrance of Planina cave in Slovenia, long past you see any other bats, or proteus salamanders, or isopods - just water dripping and a lone bat
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
So I did not meant to be hostile at all, I guess I just should have followed a golden rule of internet - and not to reply anything, when I had visceral urge to write something
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
very well, I can not argue with that, in fact I partially disengaged from working in collection based palaeo because of how toxic reaction to Raja et al was in Germany, and later due to my inability to achieve german journals to stop publishing stolen fossils from Ukraine
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Just to make sure I dont look to good, I did not rejected position JUST because of crato
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
And we did some numbers for Ukrainian fossils in the collections of powers formally colonizing it, but its preprint, feel free to ignore it www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) Impact of policy, colonialism and conflicts on science development (as exemplified by Ukrainian palaeontology)
PDF | Science is influenced by its political and social context, and palaeontology is no exception. Social forces such as colonialism and the resource... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee...
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Then there is Macário et al 2025 for Crato formation in foreign collections palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025...
palaeo-electronica.org
Macroinvertebrates from the Santana Group
The study of fossil macroinvertebrates from the Santana Group, Brazil: Legal and ethical challenges and neocolonial legacies in paleontology
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Then there are some numbers for Mexico and Brazil from @cisneros.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Digging deeper into colonial palaeontological practices in modern day Mexico and Brazil
Abstract. Scientific practices stemming from colonialism, whereby middle- and low-income countries supply data for high-income countries and the contributi
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I du not know what is general ration @emmadnn.bsky.social crunched some numbers in Raja et al., 2020 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Colonial history and global economics distort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Analysing the global distribution, source and authorship of fossil research over the past 30 years, the authors find that researchers in high- or upper-middle-income countries hold a monopoly over pal...
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I am not, repatriation is good. I am against transferring public collections to wealthy private individuals
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
so I just stopped working on Myanmar amber untill it can be done ethically
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
There was a concerted push of some working groups to return Burmese amber to Myanmar, when "Blood amber" situation became clear, but a lot of Myanmar's geoscientist also remind us that we would be trying to return amber to the country controlled by military dictatorship oppressing them
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Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
That is what I meant, any institution in say EU can be persuaded to give up fossils , either due to internal pressure from staff, and it does exist - I refuse to take up curatorial position attached to a lot of Crato fossils, or because its a toxic asset, like in case with #UribajarabelongstoBrazil
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