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Dr Robert Sprackland

@varaniddoc.bsky.social
549 followers 90 following 716 posts

Herpetologist, scientist. Author of 10 books, over 100 herpetology papers. Love dogs!! 🦮Very Scottish 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿, very Blue, & far too busy. 🖖🏼🧪🦎

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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 04/07/2024
MYSTERY PIC: What is this? Hint: lizard anatomy.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 18/06/2024
Want to do something grand today?Here’s your chance!! PLEASE share! Thank you!!! gofund.me/d76859f6
gofund.me
Recovery Fund for Robert's PNG Village, organized by Robert Sprackland
My name is Robert Sprackland. In 2000 I was made part of a family in a small … Robert Sprackland needs your support for Recovery Fund for Robert's PNG Village
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 17/06/2024
ablink.marketing.gofundme.com/ls/click?upn...
ablink.marketing.gofundme.com
Recovery Fund for Robert's PNG Village, organized by Robert Sprackland
My name is Robert Sprackland. In 2000 I was made part of a family in a small … Robert Sprackland needs your support for Recovery Fund for Robert's PNG Village
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 22/05/2024
your regular reminder that Judicial Review is not anywhere written in the Constitution but "participants in an insurrection are automatically barred from holding office" is.
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 13/04/2024
DeSantis signed a law that protects delicate cops from having anyone come within 25 feet of them while they’re “performing their duties” but construction workers have to face the full fury of the goddamn sun
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 13/04/2024
Flytrap has made it into month 4 and looks better than when I got it!
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 06/04/2024
Things may not be looking up (!), but some of us are still in the game. Keep looking for the kindness & beauty in our world, and goodnight,
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 27/03/2024
What is a good way to earn $4500 fast? Suggestions??
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County @nhm.org · 20/03/2024
🦋 Wonder has officially taken flight at #NHMLA! Have you saved your spot for this season’s #ButterflyPavilion? Enjoy our springtime exhibition featuring hundreds of butterflies and colorful native plants, now on view through August 25: nhm.org/butterflies
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Jimmy Bernot 🦐🔬🧬🏳️‍🌈 @jimmybernot.bsky.social · 19/03/2024
March 19th is Taxonomist Appreciation Day! The World Register of Marine Species is celebrating by announcing the Top 10 New Marine Species described in 2023! Check out the list here 👇🧪 lifewatch.be/en/worms-top...
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Gabriel Ugueto @serpenillus.bsky.social · 17/03/2024
Colorful Urocordylids, a full reconstruction of the sketches I showed yesterday. Fossils of two of these taxa (Lepterpeton dobbsii and Urocordylus wandesfordii) were found on Ireland, so I guess it is a timely post for St. Patrick’s Day! 🍀 🐡 🎨 🧪 #paleontology
Full color reconstructions of 5 Urocordylids nectrideans in lateral view. From top to bottom: Sauropleura scalaris, S. pectinata, Lepterpeton dobbsii, Ptyonius marshii and Urocordylus wandesfordii
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Ethan Kocak @ethankocak.com · 13/03/2024
It’s important to keep your newts in a circle at all times
Three green and black marbled newts (Triturus marmoratus) eating food pellets and arranged roughly in a circular shape.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 12/03/2024
I know that many people refuse to learn from the past, but dammit, must they ignore so much at once?
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Justin M. Bernstein @justbernstein.bsky.social · 12/03/2024
And here it is! Our study identifies both inland tectonic and environmental factors as the likely drivers of diversification in rice paddy #snakes. This contrasts from common diversification paradigms of sea-level fluctuations in Asia. Now in Scientific Reports! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Wool-Encased Tea Addict @passeriform.bsky.social · 12/03/2024
Gift link: Cave salamanders get around. This is for you, @blackmudpuppy.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/s...
nytimes.com
Subterranean ‘Baby Dragons’ Are Revealed to Sneak to the Surface
Scientists never imagined that the blind cave salamanders called olms willingly left their caves. But at numerous aboveground springs, there they were.
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 10/03/2024
Dream job for somebody! 🧪🦕🦖 careers.amnh.org/postings/4058
careers.amnh.org
Curatorial Associate
The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world’s preeminent scientific and cultural institutions, and has as its mission to discover, interpret and disseminate information about human cult...
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 10/03/2024
Three days of shirt-sleeve weather, then a cold day with windchill requiring heavy coat & gloves.
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Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County @nhm.org · 08/03/2024
With the 96th #Oscars right around the corner, join us in celebrating film history through movies shot right here in the halls of #NHMLA! How many do you recognize? youtu.be/2mXNFsDjdiE
youtu.be
Did you know the Museum serves as a backdrop in these Hollywood films? #film #history #LA
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is a destination for museum-goers and tourists alike—but did you know it also serves as a backdrop in these ...
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 07/03/2024
These baby amphibians chirp like birds to beg for milk from their mothers 🧪 We had a debate at work about whether these caecilians are adorable or hideous (I say cute but am in the minority) www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
scientificamerican.com
The First Amphibian Known to Beg Its Mother for Milk Is More Bizarre than You Might Imagine
Surprisingly, the young of limbless amphibians called ringed caecilians stimulate their mother by touch and sound to release a milklike substance
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Nnedi Okorafor, PhD @nnedi.bsky.social · 04/03/2024
www.latimes.com/business/tec...
latimes.com
Column: Your boss wants AI to replace you. The writers' strike shows how to fight back
Artists, journalists and screenwriters are leading the fight against employers who would seek to replace them with the products of ChatGPT and other generative AI software.
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CZEdwards @czedwards.bsky.social · 04/03/2024
Also: avoid the plastic Easter grass if you have any smalls or pets at all. First, it’s a single use plastic, it’s going to fuck up your vacuum, and it will absolutely fuck up your baby’s, puppy’s or kitty’s intestines. Go paper, don’t go back. And NO LILIES.
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
plesnercph🇩🇰 @plesnercph.bsky.social · 04/03/2024
🐸Golden poison frog (Phyllobates terribilis). The black colour shining through suggests that this is a young specimen - probably 4 months old at most. Its yellow colour is aposematic, signalling that it is poisonous. It is thought to be the most poisonous animal alive today. 📷by Laurissa Booyse
A yellow frog with a little bit of black shining through. It is sitting on dark brown ground surrounded by tiny plants.
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Ligus @greyauk.bsky.social · 03/03/2024
my little puffer from last week 🐡 #SundayFishSketch
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Nnedi Okorafor, PhD @nnedi.bsky.social · 04/03/2024
This sums it up perfectly. It’s not a conversation.
“There is no ethical way to use the major AI image generators. All of them are trained on stolen images, and all of them are built for the purpose of deskilling, disempowering and replacing real human artists.”
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Ethan Kocak @ethankocak.com · 04/03/2024
Tangential, but there's an Odessa barb popular in the aquarium trade.
An Odessa barb, a black fish with a brilliant red lateral stripe and yellow dorsal fin.
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Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 25/02/2024
Some scaly guys from the zoo. Thats a gray’s monitor, which are primarily fruit-eaters! 🦎🐊
Long speckled monitor lizard walking on conflux of branchesGreen basilisk lizard on branch with dangling lefUnderwater view of dwarf crocodileJamaican iguana snoozing on a branch
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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 24/02/2024
Still jarring to see this just plainly said in a headline www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
NBC NEWS

U.S. NEWS
Nazis mingle openly at CPAC, spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and finding allies
The presence of these extremists has been a persistent issue at CPAC, and in previous years conference organizers have ejected well-known Nazis and white supremacists such as Nick Fuentes.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 24/02/2024
This is 99, a beautiful male Collared Lizard with personality. Active, pugnacious, and has no concept of when to stop eating!
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 24/02/2024
Fred, shortly after I was gifted him in June 2019. The Christmas Cactus pot is 11cm diameter. Today his head is 12cm. The pot and plant are still alive, NOT in a terrarium, not near Fred.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 24/02/2024
Yes, this is a lizard. Limbless. Shorter than a fresh pencil. Scale in mm.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 24/02/2024
To anyone who wants to bake a birthday cake for me in May: something like this, but the 6 will not be needed.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 24/02/2024
Does anyone else draw up architectural-like plans when setting up a vivarium!
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 24/02/2024
When considering how much space a lizard will have in a terrarium, I think we should include square cm of ceiling space. Unless you are housing legless lizards.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 24/02/2024
In all the years I’ve gone looking for lizards, only once—ONCE—have I seen a Fence Lizard on a fence! Not fencing, not receiving stolen property, not fencing something in. Just sitting on a split rail fence. It really was cool!
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 24/02/2024
Collared Lizard’s rock. That sentence also works fine without the apostrophe.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 24/02/2024
Waking up is grossly misunderstood. Waking up is great. The timing usually isn’t. —Bjorn
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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 24/02/2024
WOAH this is the first EVER photo of a yellow-crested helmetshrike! 🤯 Not seen by researchers for two decades, a population of the stunning bird was found living on the side of a remote mountain in the Democratic Republic of Congo! 🎉🦉🧪 (📸 Matt Brady, The University of Texas at El Paso)
A hand holding a large, slate grey bird with a bright yellow crest on its head.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
One of the most skittish, curious, and fast monitor lizards I’ve seen.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
Imagine: It’s 250,000 years in the future. Some post-human palaeontologists dig up a nearly complete skeleton of an ostrich. It has vestigial front limbs, huge backlimbs. “A burrower?” Suggests one.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
Mosasaurs, the biggest lizards ever. Imagine the size of the crickets they ate.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
Some once told me that the human hand is the most difficult thing to draw, so I draw them frequently to get it right.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
Part transparent, part flamboyant. I give you the Indecisive Rainbow Fish.
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
Bjorn giving me chill lesson 5. Aaahhhhhhhhhhh…
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
One of my all-time favourite signs. I wonder what folks did before dunnies…
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
FRIDAY!! By all rights this should be the day that ends with Friday Night Pizza‼️‼️ Thumbs up if you agree!
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Dr Robert Sprackland @varaniddoc.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
Did you ever see anyone so happy during their commute? Bjorn really enjoys it!
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Reposted by Dr Robert Sprackland
Ethan Kocak @ethankocak.com · 21/02/2024
Look at how goofy Neil looks from straight on
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Adam Summers @fishguy.bsky.social · 21/02/2024
Here are a couple of CT scan pieces that I have been noodling with. These data sets are all public and the tools I use are free and open source. Check @slicermorph.bsky.social and MorphoSource for details. 🧪🐡
CT scan of a clingfish skeleton dorsal and ventral viewrepeated pattern of CT scanned Bunocephalus anterior skeleton.Frontal view of the skull of Enophrys taurinadifferent views of teh whole skeleton of a miniature pygmy seahorse.
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