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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

@joshlukedavis.com

11K followers 790 following 3.3K posts

Science writer, editor and author @ the Natural History Museum, London | Queer animals, birds and embroidery | he/him | ✏️🏛🦦 | joshlukedavis.com

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · Nov 8

I guess it's probably time to re-introduce myself!

Hi everyone! I'm Josh, and I work at the Natural History Museum, London 🎉 where I write about natural history and badger curators into letting me nose about their collections.

I also wrote an entire book on ✨queer✨ nature! 🙌🌈🦆

A picture of me stood behind a bench. I'm staring at the camera smiling, with one arm out to the side in a relaxed pose. I'm wearing glasses and a sweater with a stags head on it. In front of me are various animal eye balls in jars.

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 8h

scream

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 8h

WELL THEN IT'S NOT MEANINGFUL IS IT, NICK www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

dona 🍤🥔 @aldonanana.bsky.social · Aug 18

Grammar selling an AI writing agent to students and an “AI detector agent” to teachers… 🫩

An Al detector agent is also available that provides a score to indicate the likelihood of the text being written by a human or Al-generated.

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 1d

oh this is a great idea

Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Rocky Rex @rockyrex.bsky.social · 1d

This is Australia, but you could apply it anywhere.

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 1d

oh I reckon that depends! I don't find them too bad because I'm not usually making a set so they don't have to match 😌 (I imagine it's much different if doing commissions though!)

Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 1d

my professional opinion is that no one should ever bother making plates because it is stupid and takes ages

(check back on me in six months when I've forgotten the pain and suddenly think making plates is a great idea and why don't I do this more often etc)

A view down onto a hand thrown plate on a potter's wheel, surrounded by a tray full of clay trimmings.

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Biodiversity Pics @biodiversitypix.bsky.social · 1d

🥚 The birds of the British Isles and their eggs.
London ;F. Warne, 1920.

[Source]

Historical illustration from 1920 titled "The birds of the British Isles and their eggs," featuring two species. The top depicts two Razorbills with dark brown upperparts and white underparts, resting among grass and cotton-like flowers. The bottom shows a Richardson's Skua standing on a rock, dark brown with white belly, and a group of similar birds in the background on cliffs. Both birds are detailed with natural coloring and realistic postures, highlighting their typical habitats. The image serves as an educational depiction related to British bird species and their eggs.

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 1d

This is true and they are super endangered by poachers who shovel them up by the hundreds and sell them at flea markets and shit. You should not buy the plants and if you happen to kick the poacher in the shins on accident, no one will hear about it from me.

mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 1d

still amazing to me the number of movies, games, etc. which have Venus Flytrap-based creatures in some form compared to the actual native range of Venus Flytrap, which is like, the great untamed jungles of a few wet pine savannas in North Carolina

map illustrating the native range of Venus Flytrap plants, just a little half circle around coastal North and South Carolina in USA

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Wildwestcats @wildwestcats.bsky.social · 2d

I can't doodle worth a darn but I can cross stitch! I finished this earlier this year. Pattern from London's Natural History Museum: www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/cro...

Cross stitch of a Giant Squid. Squid is in shades of orange. The two longest tentacles are held up in a semicircle while the rest dangle below. There is some white detailing on the ends of the longest tentacles and top of the fins. Stitched on navy blue Aida fabric.

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 2d

yesss! this was a design I made for the NHM during lockdown to keep people entertained 🥰

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Prof Susie Maidment @tweetisaurus.bsky.social · 2d

After we published the new specimen of #Spicomellus a few weeks ago, we were contacted by George Blasing, who said he'd bought some on the commercial market, and wanted to return it to Morocco. It arrived last week. Thanks George for doing the right thing in the name of science!

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 2d

I am not an expert but I have seen the inside of a greenland shark mouth and it does not look like this

(I have a pic but it is a bit gruesome and not sure would be appreciated by most on here lol)

Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 2d

White fruits are relatively rare in plants. Birds don’t detect them very well because they have low chromatic contrast with background vegetation. Mammals can more easily detect white fruits if they are aromatic, like this stinky Morinda citrifolia #dispersal #Rubiaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of the foliage and fruits of noni. The fruits are multiple fruits and are white when ripe. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 2d

All my comics have happy endings!

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

James Harding-Morris @bsbicountries.bsky.social · 2d

The Little Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail - one of a series of photographs I commissioned whilst working on the Back from the Brink project so that people could actually *see* some of our most threatened and beautiful species.

📷: Alex Hyde/Back from the Brink

Little Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail on a fingertip

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 2d

with the official IUCN listing for the slender-billed curlew now being Extinct here is the rather sad piece I wrote about what went into this decision

I tried to include everything we know about their behaviour and biology, which is tragically little 🪶🧪
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

A picture of two slender-billed curlews in the Natural History Museum's collections.

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social · 2d

Devastating news: the Slender-billed Curlew has just been declared extinct. This Slender-billed Curlew is from "A history of the birds of Europe, not observed in the British Isles" (1863). #SciArt by Benjamin Fawcett #ExtinctionIsForever www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42530095

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 2d

oh gosh

Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 2d

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Jane Duke @janeduke.com · 2d

*bangs drum*
There is absolutely a need for art that shocks, disturbs and challenges, but THIS is why I unashamedly continue to create 'pretty pictures' of natural scenes. The lovely messages I get from people who have felt better after looking at them tell me I'm doing something worthwhile.

From BBC article:
Research shows that looking at pictures of nature on your laptop or simply gazing out at something green can trigger the same calming brainwave changes and reduce stress.

"Every bit seems to help," says Prof Ming Kuo.

From BBC article:

Of course, not everyone can head into the woods on a whim but the good news is, you don't have to.

Even small touches of nature at home can make a difference, according to Willis.

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 2d

yeppp 🫠

Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 2d

this is gorgeous!

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Nicole 🪲 @fossilforager.bsky.social · 3d

Whale Fall pin 🦀🐋🦑

A photo of a large gold-plated enamel pin photographed on top of a lichen-covered rock. The enamel pin features a whale skeleton covered with various deep sea creatures, such as octopuses, hagfish, a giant isopod, a crab, and chimaeras.

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 2d

I would love to know at what point the right wingers will finally accept that fossil fuels are dying, but never underestimate the power of obstinance I guess lol
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity

Developing countries lead the historic clean energy charge but the US and EU rely more on fossil fuels than before, a think tank study shows.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 2d

More evidence of bats chasing down and eating migratory birds at night 🦇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Greater noctule bats prey on and consume passerines in flight

Despite billions of passerines seasonally migrating during the night at high altitudes, only three bat species have been found to consistently tap into this rich prey resource. However, it remains unk...

www.science.org

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