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Sydney McDermott

@sydneymcdermott.bsky.social
845 followers 318 following 32 posts

Deep-sea ecology, McClain Lab phd student, M.S. from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, crab enthusiast, 🏳️‍🌈

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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Fast and frequent public transportation, you will always be famous
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Go off, king
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
My 2025 New Year's resolution was to pet 100 animals. As I am a quantitative ecologist and spreadsheet enthusiast, I tracked my data somewhat obsessively - here are my results: 105 animals petted (85 dogs, 16 cats, 4 stingrays) Best day: August 16 with 18 dogs at the farmers market
Bar plot showing the number of animals petted each month of 2025. Cats are shown in red, dogs in green, and stingrays in blue.Pie chart showing the types of animals petted (cats in red, dogs in green, and stingrays in blue) as well as the different locations the animals were petted.
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Jean-François Cudennec @limpetnerd.eurosky.social · 14/11/2025
Be ungovernable
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Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Brittle star swimming! Love this movement.
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Despite everything we still live in a world where it is possible to see shooting stars and flying fish at the same time and I think that's wonderful (also I need everyone to know I just saw shooting stars and flying fish at the same time)
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Usually, I'm outside a tank looking in at snails. Today, the snails were outside the lab, looking in at me
A small snail stuck to a window, seen from underneath
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Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
🧵New paper + open database drop! The Marine Organismal Body Size ( #MOBS ) Database is now live—85,000+ marine species, from plankton to whales, with standardized size data. A huge leap for biodiversity, conservation, and climate science. #science #marinelife onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
MOBS 1.0: A Database of Interspecific Variation in Marine Organismal Body Sizes
Motivation Body size is a fundamental trait influencing an organism's life history, ecology, physiology and evolutionary dynamics. While extensive body-size databases exist for terrestrial vertebrat...
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Dissertation chapter 1 with @drcraigmc.bsky.social ✅️ Here is a first look at the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon as artificial hard substrate, which hosts a unique community of organisms compared to two other shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico. doi.org/10.3354/meps...
doi.org
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NE Ohio Regional Sewer District @neorsd.org · 08/05/2025
breaking news, white steam emerges from the Autoclave
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
In honor of #invertefest, here are four of my whiteboard drawings from the invertebrate zoology lab this semester
A large squid drawn in blue with green eyes and red and orange chromatophores A hermit crab drawn with a green shell, a red body, and blue eyesA rotifer drawn in green A horseshoe crab drawn in green with blue eyes
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The Mary Rose Museum @maryrosemuseum.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
On the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we thought we'd answer a question that's often asked, "If they raised the Mary Rose, why not raise the Titanic?" Allow our scaled diagram to explain...
A light blue diagram depicting the sea, with the water's surface at the top, and just below it is an outline of the Mary Rose, with the depth (12m, 40ft or 6.7 fathoms). There is a line showing the seabed, which takes a rapid dive into the vertical...
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
I love #SkypeAScientist!!! Nothing brings me more joy than showing a bunch of high schoolers a giant isopod and seeing them lose it over how big they get
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
In the immortal words of Sabrina Carpenter: I can do a lot in 15 minutes. Thanks to everyone who came to my talk at the Benthic Ecology Meeting!
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
People are so ready to help you when they think you're opening a metaphorical can of worms, but when I show up with annelid specimens for class that I can't get open suddenly I'm the weird one
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Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
🌳➡️🌊 Deep-sea wood falls aren’t just debris—they’re entire ecosystems! Endemic species, weird food webs, and nutrient cycling all depend on them. But natural observations are rare. What’s hiding in the abyss? Our new paper dives in. #DeepSea #MarineBiology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The Hidden Forests Below: A Review of the Ecology and Evolution of Wood Falls on the Deep Seafloor
Wood falls—parcels of wood that sink to the deep-sea floor—represent unique and dynamic ecosystems that support a highly diverse and evolutionarily distinct assemblage of faunal communities. The faun...
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Gwen!!! @poodlewool.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Party tip: When throwing a deep sea tea party, it's generally recommended that you invite the colossal squid.
a painting of a pelican eel, giant isopod, sea pig, and vampire squid enjoying a tea party, while a colossal squid looks on; so large it nearly obscures the entire background.
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
I didn't know about them either, but now that I do, I love them
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
I highly recommend judging a science fair. These kids with their enthusiasm and trifold boards made being a scientist under the current administration SO much more bearable today
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Daniel Colón-Ramos @dacolon.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
I have not seen a crisis of this magnitude since yesterday
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Do you think people can tell that I'm teaching #cnidarians today
Sydney standing in front of a screen with various cnidarians on it. She is wearing comically large orange jellyfish earrings in her lobes and an orange coral earring in her cartilage
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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 04/02/2025
how your email finds me
Photo of a possum on a desk next to a keyboard and a phone, with its mouth wide open as if it’s screamIng
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Joseph Yaroch @jcyaroch.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
Today is Retraction Day, when we observe the anniversary of the retraction (Feb. 2, 2010) of the fraudulent paper that purported to show a link between vaccines and autism. 🧪#medsky
This is the front page of a fraudulent research article that purported to show a link between vaccines and autism. The word "RETRACTED" is written across it in large red letters. 

Wikipedia: On 28th February 1998, a fraudulent research paper by physician Andrew Wakefield and twelve coauthors, titled "Ileal-Lymphoid-Nodular Hyperplasia, Non-Specific Colitis, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder in Children", was published in the British medical journal The Lancet.[1] The paper falsely claimed causative links between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and colitis and between colitis and autism. The fraud involved data selection, data manipulation, and two undisclosed conflicts of interest.
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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Just making sure that everyone is aware of this crab that NOAA scientists found
Photo of a small crab from NOAA’s social media. It’s covered in spikes
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
I don't, but maybe I should! They're easy if you want to make them yourself, I use printer safe shrink plastic and print whatever it is I want as an earring, cut it out, then pop them in the oven on a baking sheet at 325f to shrink. Then it's just getting creative with how I get them on my ears!
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Lesson planning, aka making sure I have earrings for every phylum I will be teaching in my invertebrate zoology lab this semester
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
The aromatherapy candle I bought because it promised peace and relaxation just exploded at midnight the night before the new semester begins. An omen of only good things, I'm sure.
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👻 Dead Chachra 💀 @debcha.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Occasional reminder that there’s no, “it’s too late, its over” for anthropogenic climate change. Every molecule of CO2 that doesn’t go into the atmosphere makes a difference. Preventing 0.1 degree of warming makes a difference. Every bit of climate resilience we build together makes a difference.
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Yes!
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Deeply enamored with the sea turtles on Kauai
A Hawaiian sea turtle in the water; only its head and the top of its shell are visibleA Hawaiian sea turtle seen from the side as a small wave breaks against itThe head of a Hawaiian sea turtle peeking above the waterTwo Hawaiian sea turtles resting in shallow water at the edge of a beach
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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Here’s my post about public misunderstanding of the deep sea 🦑🧪🌎 www.southernfriedscience.com/the-wrongest...
southernfriedscience.com
The wrongest belief about the deep sea is wronger than you know
More people care about marine biodiversity and saving the ocean than ever before. But progress towards evidence-based conservation is hindered by widespread public misunderstanding of the key issue…
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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
How to translate the most common 30 words used in scientific names for fish (expanded, corrected) (Data: rfishbase)
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Christina Belanger, Ph.D @belaforams.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
Had to look up “sleeze of sponges”… “Like a crash of rhinos or a gaggle of geese, an aggregation of sponges has its own collective name: a sleeze. About one person in the world knows of this term: the student who coined it in 1978.” deepseanews.com/2009/05/slee...
deepseanews.com
“Sleezy” sponge sexuality
Post by Amanda “not a sponge” Kahn. Amanda Kahn is currently a masters student at well-known Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, considered to be one of the west coast's premier marine stations.  Despite ...
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
Conversations my parents probably didn't anticipate having with me at both age 5 and age 25: "What do you have?" "A CRAB!" Anyways, Merry #Crustmas to those who celebrate
A very small crab, held between the index finger and thumb of the photographer
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Every time I try to use the Merlin app to figure out what birds are here I get chickens
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
I introduced a non-science friend to #inaturalist and she just asked about all the cool observations I must be making on vacation. How do I tell her I have only made one and it's this
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
My ideal road trip is now a bunch of scientists of different specialties, all giving impromptu lectures
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Everyone is excited to have the marine biologist along on a family beach vacation until they remember that I don't know much about marine mammals, and I keep trying to show them the cool worms I find 😔
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invertebrate @crevicedwelling.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
I changed my mind, checkbot chatgpt replies are actually a thing of beauty
Ah yes, the classic worm bisque-chef's special.A bold reminder that life is full of surprises—and sometimes, they're wiggly.""Full of soup, full of surprises. The surprise is worms.Oh, is this true? I don't know if insects really exist.
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Esther van Hulsen wildlife art @esthervanhulsen.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
40 WAYS TO DIE IN THE PREHISTORIC. Enjoy! These illustrations were made as scale drawing for a book about prehistoric creatures. Thought it would be fun to have a bit more interaction between the animals and human figures
A standing illustration showing 40 scale drawings of different prehistoric creatures with a human figure. The human is stomped on, eaten, ripped to pieces, smacked, stabbed and many other ways to come to an end. The drawings are all black silhouettes, spread over a white background
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Cnidarians like anemones and hydroids LOVE shipwrecks, and some hydroids seem to prefer wrecks with toxins!
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
I feel like I have to say 2️⃣ considering the paper we have in prep ⚓️
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
No males, no problems: The marbled crayfish is one of a handful of crustaceans that reproduces by parthenogenesis, a type of asexual reproduction without males. As a result, every single marbled crayfish is a female and clone of her mother #25DaysofFishmas #Crustmas
An image of a marbled crayfish carrying eggs under the tail; a text bubble says "Don't talk to me or my daughters ever again"
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
It's Worm Wednesday! This is my favorite worm to find in the wood fall samples
The face of a polychaete under a microscope. It's large mouth and eyes make it look like it is smiling
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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
What can government scientists do now to minimize the damage that’s coming over the next four years, and what can we do to help them? I spoke to several experts to write this story for The Revelator Please share widely. 🧪🌎 therevelator.org/scientists-m...
therevelator.org
Advice for U.S. Government Scientists: Lessons Learned From the ‘Muzzling’ of Their Canadian Counterparts • The Revelator
The next four years will be awful for the science and conservation community. By learning from past experiences, we can minimize the damage.
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Dr Andrew Mahon @andyantarctica.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
I hear a lot about people being scared or creeped out by the giant sea spiders....my normal response is a) they don't bite, and b) they are SLOW! Here's some proof....Colossendeis robusta and an Ammothea sp. walking in a tank on our research cruise in 2020 (NBP20-10). 🧪🐧🦑🌎🇦🇶🧬
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Yes!
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Sydney McDermott @sydneymcdermott.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Fun fact: if you accidentally fall down an embankment next to a nest of baby alligators, they will make adorable noises to summon their mom. A second fun fact: the mom will be SO much faster than you anticipate, and you will have to sprint back up the embankment. Don't ask me how I know this.
A baby alligator facing to the right, surrounded by leavesTwo baby alligators hiding in the roots of a tree. The top one is facing left, the bottom one is facing right. A baby alligator swimming in the lake, facing right. The tail of another baby alligator is visible above the head of the first. A large adult alligator in the lake. Only her face is visible above the water as she approaches the photographer.
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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
To help get a sense of scale here, Craig has large hands. Picture Craig's hands. WRONG. They're bigger than that.
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