Jack Ashby

A platypus lower jaw and upper jaw, showing one remaining horny pad and three empty sockets where the pads have fallen out. From the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge

The #platypus has solved the key flaw of mammal teeth - that they can't be replaced*: #platypuses got rid of teeth. Instead they have horny pads to smash the crayfish & larvae they eat. As they wear down, they just regrow like fingernails.
*Unless you're a nabarlek, a rock-wallaby with endless teeth

"Wild" by Jack Ashby, illustrated by Sara Boccaccini-Meadows, depicting many drawings of animals in forest background. The book is photographed among some leaves

A spread from Wild showing "The Hero of Endless Teeth": the great white shark." The book is photographed among some daffodils.

A spread from Wild showing "The Hero of Lurking in Water": the American alligator. The book is photographed among some daffodils.

A spread from Wild showing "The Hero of Being Prickly": the eastern long-beaked echidna. The book is photographed among some daffodils.

Happy #WorldBookDay!
My children's book WILD encourages kids to spot similar features in completely different groups of animals, and to wonder why. Why are so many animals spiky?🦔🦔 Or have white bellies and black backs?🐧🐳Or paddles?🦭🦆 Or eyes on tops of their heads?🐊🦫🦛 @worldbookdayuk.bsky.social!

loving this #wombat 🤸‍♂️ thanks @jackdashby.bsky.social

A large root, covered in a patchy layer of moss, emerges above ground. It is surrounded with broken acorn shells.

Found a natural anvil in the woods: a root that's being used as a hard surface to smash open acorns against. I'm guessing this is a Jay's dinner table, unless anyone knows different?
#NoticeNature #UKwildlife #birds

It’s Wednesday. Here’s your wombat.

A baby wombat grazing on a tussock, shaped like a potato.

Baby #wombats (wombatlets) are particularly adorable when they're still in their shaped-like-a-potato phase.
#WombatWednesday #fieldwork #Tasmania #wombat #MammalWatching #WildOz

Take my word for this - don't try playing poker with a wombat.

No, not today (I post #WombatWednesday pics or vids each week, but I'm typically only in Tasmania for a month or so each year so I have to rely on my stored wombat collection for the rest of the time)

Just a #wombat clearing away the snow to chomp on the grass below.
#WombatWednesday #fieldwork #Tasmania #MammalWatching #WildOz #wombats

Two of the UK's great #conservation success stories: both #birds in this video were extinct in England.
White storks are now breeding here at @kneppwilding.bsky.social, and red kites are so common that I see them everyday (and I get told off by @flygirlnhm.bsky.social for being blasé about them).

It was incredible to see the white storks bickering over a giant nest at @kneppwilding.bsky.social with @flygirlnhm.bsky.social. This patch of English farmland is being converted into a genuine haven for returning wildlife, including these mega-birds. #rewilding #UKwildlife #birds #birding

Fantastic footage !! Go the #platypus …
Thanks @jackdashby.bsky.social for sharing

#TimelineCleanse

Wish I was there

A large wombat stood on grass, staring blankly into the mid-distance

Wombats have the largest brain of any #marsupial. Their blank expressions are just a reflection of the fact that they know they can outsmart you.🧠
#WombatWednesday #fieldwork #Tasmania #wombats #MammalWatching #WildOz #wombat

It's a bloomin' outrage.

The white Outback Chess pieces laid out on a board, with the box behind

The Outback Chess pieces laid out on a board

Close-up of the Outback Chess pieces: emu, kangaroo, platypus, frilled lizard, koala, cockatoos

Close-up of the Outback Chess pieces: emu, kangaroo, platypus, frilled lizard, koala, cockatoos

Possibly the coolest chess set that ever existed: the bishop's a #platypus, the rook's a #koala, the queen's an emu, the king's a kangaroo, the knight's a frilled lizard, and the pawns are cockatoos. All solid hand-painted pieces. G'day [check] mate. 🇦🇺♟️🐨🦘♟️🇦🇺 #WildOz

A side view of an echidna - a brown, spiky rounded animal the size and shape of a loaf of bread, with a long naked pointy snout sticking horizontally from its almost-flat face

Not many animals are the shape of an #echidna, which is a shame.
#Tasmania #MammalWatching #WildOz #echidnas

This is tomorrow (Thursday) 📅
For any museum nerds (and museum-sceptics), do come along.

Oh to live the life of a wombat!

SHNH Early Career Researcher Symposium 2026 - Society for the History of Natural History For this symposium we have welcomed papers from across the field which speak to any aspects of the history of natural history. The speakers have been drawn from individuals registered for PhD…

We're excited to be supporting the Early Career Researcher Symposium from @sochistnathist.bsky.social.

Taking place on 19 February, the programme showcases research into the study of natural history through time, done by early career researchers across the globe.

Book:

The glorious realm where #wombats reign.

#WombatWednesday #Tasmania #MammalWatching #WildOz #wombat

A print of two platypuses from Dictionnaire pittoresque d'histoire naturelle et des phenomenes de la nature (volume 6, 1838) by Felix-Edouard Guerin

A new addition to the #platypus art collection: a gorgeous 1838 French print showing a burrow, a little chap frolicking on the bank with a curiously pink hindfoot (with his venom spur out), an eagle overhead that appears to be the same size as the platypus, & a newly hatched platypup (baby platypus)

A flier for the talk, with an image of the book cover for Nature's Memory, a photo of a museum storehouse containing massive whale skulls and skeletons, and the text for the talk: Nature’s Memory, Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums Thursday 29th Jan 645-8pm Main Seminar Room, David Attenborough Building Jack’s book Nature's Memory shares hidden stories behind the world’s iconic natural history museums, from enormous mounted whale skeletons to cabinets of impossibly tiny insects. In this talk, Jack will share stories from the three main themes of the book: How well do natural history museums really represent nature, how did they really come together, and how can they help save the world? At the top is the logo and title of the Cambridge Natural History Society

Folks near #Cambridge, on Thursday I'm chatting about my book #NaturesMemory: Behind the Scenes at the World's Natural History Museums, asking how well these #museums truly represent nature, how did they really come together, & how can they help save the world.
Come! www.cnhs.org.uk/diary-of-eve...

A #platypus waddles her way upstream, constantly foraging. As well as using touch to find food, platypus bills can detect the electrical impulses given off by their prey's muscular contractions.
#Tasmania #MammalWatching #WildOz #platypuses #fieldwork

Wetland. Wilderness. Wombatlet.
#WombatWednesday #Tasmania #wombats #MammalWatching #WildOz #wombat

A bunch of species here - particularly the #bandicoots - were recently described as new species, based on historic museum specimens, but they were driven to #extinction decades ago. Lost before western science even knew they existed. We are both richer and poorer for that knowledge.

A large tree partially chewed by beavers, with a load of woodchips below

A freshly chewed tree alongside a beavers canal

A large fallen tree and stump, with beaver bite-marks and the tell-tale conical shape on either side

A beaver lodge (a huge pile of logs and sticks) on a bank under a tree, with reeds behind

So cool to see #beavers making themselves very much at home in an urban nature reserve in West London. These epic #rodents were extinct in Britain 400 years ago, and know they're back in our cities. 🦫🌃 #rewilding #UrbanWildlife

This is a great book about a fascinating topic - what do specimens on display in #museums use to tell us the story of #extinction? If you're around #Cambridge, come along and hear @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social talking about Ghosts Behind Glass.🦤 (I'm really looking forward to introducing the event!)

Australia's Main Battle Tank!

A wombat grazing, stood in a bed of short grasses and coral fern, but even these short plants come up above the wombat's belly

Wombats: big head, big body, tiny legs.

#WombatWednesday #Tasmania #wombats #MammalWatching #WildOz #wombat