Madeleine Geiger

In the vast expanse of geologic time, every geologist dies. Not every geologist really lives

T. rex is more closely related to this little dinosaur (a hummingbird) than T. rex is to Allosaurus. Also, a hummingbird's humerus is way smaller than it's eyeball. Go home, evolution, you're drunk! 🦖

Licking their bits, dancing with a feather, and cuddling an egg: some very curious curatorial decisions have been made with these #taxidermy stoats in Birmingham #Museums stores. 🤔

The Natural History Museum of St. Gallen has now officially become an Anomalocaris hunting ground! 👀😊🤘🌍

Birds but they get spookier each time. 🎃👻 Enter if you dare...🚪

This is why museum documentation matters! Without, it's very easy to misplaced an entire buffalo for decades

super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉

Actually my favorite bird etymology is that in 1400s England they gave human nicknames to birds (Jenny Wren, Tom Tit) but some of them stuck. Jack Daw became Jackdaw, Maggie Pie became Magpie. With Robin Redbreast they just dropped the original name of the bird entirely.

Geologic Periods xkcd.com/3120/

🐇 Very happy to announce our new paper in #ProcB on rabbit #domestication and feralization and what that does to the skulls of these animals. That's #evolution going on in (almost) real time. @royalsocietypublishing.org royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.... Photo credit: Mike SY Lee

Monday. I'm calm. I'm composed. I'm absolutely fine. 📷 @carlbovisnature.bsky.social #MondayMotivation

paleozoic menagerie #paleoart #prehistoric #art #aquatic

New OA paper out! This doesn't happen very often anymore but I am very happy about this one! In 2023, Jolantha Eschrig (@jolantha.bsky.social) came to St.Gallen to create what is now the first complete inventory of meteorite specimens in Switzerlands public collections. Thread! ☄️🪐🔭 (1/6)

Das Team des Naturmuseums St.Gallen sucht Verstärkung! Per 1. August 2025 oder nach Vereinbarung suchen wir eine:n Leiter:in Vermlittung / Museumspädagogik. Interessiert? Alle Details im Link. Gerne teilen und weitersagen!

Our new paper, based on data from 1,705 studies, shows that pesticides are toxic to organisms they are not intended to harm, including fungi, microbes, plants, insects, & vertebrates such as ourselves. Questions the wisdom of applying over 3 million tonnes of them every year...

📺 📻 🗞️ Petition: SRF Wissensjournalismus stärken! Innovation, KI, Medizin, Klima, Energie... In einer immer komplexeren Welt mit mehr Fakenews ist eine starke SRF Wissenschaftsredaktion unverzichtbar. Offener Brief aus der Wissenschaft unterschreiben und teilen! openpetition.eu/!sciencejour...

T. Rex Evolution xkcd.com/3042

We expect that some 50 Auschwitz Survivors will come to the Memorial for the 80th anniversary of the liberation. The eyes and ears of the world should rest upon them. We must safeguard their voices from silence, distortion, or being overshadowed. (Photo: https://buff.ly/4jd1BiU)

Fast ein Viertel der bekannten Süsswassertierarten ist gefährdet 🐟💧 Eawag-Forscher @florianaltermatt.bsky.social im Interview mit dem #SRF über den Schwund der Biodiversität bei Süsswassertieren 👉 www.srf.ch/wissen/natur...

Happy New Year! (my cartoon for @newscientist.bsky.social)

And done. I feel people would appreciate fishes more if they could see them face to face more often. Such beautiful creatures. From top to bottom: European perch (Perca fluviatilis), dace (Leuciscus leuciscus), northern pike (Esox lucius), roach (Rutilus rutilus) and gudgeon (Gobio gobio). #Sciart

Under the feet of the dinosaurs, our own ancestors lived... surprisingly slowly. One of the work highlights of last year: a press release illustration I painted for @elsa-panciroli.bsky.social for her and colleague's paper on a fascinating fossil find. Article: www.nature.com/articles/s415...

Picard honesty tip: Don't let anyone else tell you how many lights you see.

Great Swiss TV science documentary (in German) featuring the research of Alex Anh-Thu Weber and @eawag.bsky.social about the invasion of Quagga mussels in Switzerland! Nice to see so many early career folks highlighted, which do a fantastic SciComm job. www.srf.ch/play/tv/redi...

That these kinds of experiences can form core memories absolutely warms my heart as a museum scientist and educator. Museums are an essential public good!

I went long on the sack creature without an anus whose visage has haunted me since Aug. 2022

A careful dose of ignorance — a story of how my not reading two papers, many years ago, was vital to my career's path. waynemaddison.wordpress.com/2024/12/05/a...

We are advertising two fabulous jobs at the Cambridge University Herbarium. Collection Manager: jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49404/ Collections & Digitisation Assistant: jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49378/ Incredible collection of 1.1 million specimens including most of Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle material.

Atoms are binary. They are either intended to be hydrogen or helium. We can't just scrap this worldview just because of a handful of exceptions

Abundant Eocene fossils of plants and animals are found in the Green River Formation of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. This fossil Pseudosalix Hanleyi, with stems, leaves and flowers preserved, is harder to find than a T-rex tooth!

if you like the TRUE FACTS videos? Their famous creator/narrator is now HERE!!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y4D...

📢The Guardian is now officially on Bluesky @theguardian.com

Small dog = small brain, big dog = big brain?🐕‍🦺 It's not that simple! Our new study shows that toy dogs have relatively larger brains than working dogs, even though the latter have been bred to perform complex tasks to assist humans: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... photo: (c) Ana Balcarcel

Proterozoic Rocks xkcd.com/3008

Am 24. November entscheidet die Schweizer Stimmbevölkerung über einen Autobahnausbau. Sinnvoller wäre, ganz grundsätzlich über unsere Mobilität nachzudenken, sagt ETH-Forscher Kay Axhausen. Ein Interview von @lukashaeuptli.bsky.social.

#DearAmericans 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸: you took it upon you to save the world from itself, multiple times. Coming Tuesday, you have to do it again. It doesn't involve winning a world war or a moon race. Just a simple vote, for her, not him. Save the most powerful democracy in the history of humanity. Thank you. 🗽🌎

Staatlich geförderte Fleischwerbung und andere Agrarsubventionen schaden der Biodiversität. Doch trotz knapper Kassen und interner Kritik will der Bund daran nichts ändern. Eine Recherche.

Einst gehörte die Strasse dem Velo. Heute sorgen ein paar Umleitungen für Autofahrer während der Rad-WM in Zürich für Empörung. Unser Lesetipp dazu: ein Essay über das Politikum auf zwei Rädern.

Biodiversitatsinitiative: Wie der Bauern­verband und Bundesrat Albert Rösti die Stimmbevölkerung hinters Licht führen. Eine Analyse von @eis.bsky.social und @imboden.bsky.social.

Shorebirds!

The Alpstein - the most beautiful mountains currently in existence. Change my mind.

Honig­bienen sind nicht vom Aussterben bedroht. Warum uns unser Gefühl täuscht und um welche Insekten wir stattdessen bangen sollten. www.republik.ch/2024...

Meteor Shower PSA xkcd.com/2970