👏 Huge congratulations to Cheshire West for becoming the 35th UK council to pass a #Motion4theOcean! Shout out to Cllrs Waddelove & Eardley for their leadership – a great example of local Conservative action for our oceans 🌊 Kudos to Emily G Cunningham MBE for her leadership 💙

Neural crest cells doing their pigment thing. 🤩 #DevBio

🦈 Earlier this week was #WorldSharkAwarenessDay. Sharks are often villainized, but are actually under threat from overfishing and other human activities. One way we can protect sharks: Connecting our marine protected areas. pewtrsts.org/40UcTAS 📸 Jeff Rotman/Getty Images

I finally got the picture. After 99 attempts trying to get a photo of Durdle door & our Milky Way !! I got it!!! 😮yay!!! Was it worth it 🤔 I hope you like it!!! In fact,I hope you love it, let me know

#Finfact: #Sharks are threatened by humans, not the other way around. Millions are killed each year due to overfishing, finning, and bycatch, yet sharks kill fewer than 10 humans annually worldwide.

#Finfact: #Sharks don’t have bones. Instead, their skeletons are made of cartilage (psst, that's the same flexible material in your nose and ears!).

#Finfact: Did you know... sharks continuously replace their teeth. Some species can go through 30,000 teeth in their lifetime! Woah!

#Finfact: When flipped upside down, many sharks enter "tonic immobility" — a temporary, and thought to be harmless frozen state. More research has to be done into this state.

#Finfact: Some sharks can “walk.” I'm not kidding - epaulette sharks use their fins to "walk" along reefs and tide pools. Don't worry, you won't see them wandering the seafood aisle of your local grocery story any time soon.

Another cool #finfact about #sharks: some species are highly migratory. Great whites, tiger sharks, and other species travel thousands of kilometers for feeding, mating, or giving birth.

#Finfact: Some #shark species lay eggs (called oviparous, like horn sharks), while others give live birth (viviparous, like great whites). But some are ovoviviparous/aplacental viviparity, meaning the eggs hatch inside the mom & gives birth to live young (ie sand tiger sharks).

#Finfact: Shark pregnancies are no joke - some sharks are pregnant for over a year. The frilled shark may have the longest known gestation period of any vertebrate (source: fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/3… although I've read it can get up to 3.5 years)!

Do Sharks Really ‘Play Dead’? The Complicated Truth About Tonic Immobility. forbes.com/sites/melissac… New research suggests tonic immobility in sharks might be a leftover behavior with no clear modern-day function, lost by some species but not others.

#Finfact: Sharks can be found in freshwater. lyphis sharks are rare river-dwelling sharks found in freshwater & coastal rivers of Asia & Australia. And bull sharks can survive in both salt and freshwater and have been found in rivers like the Amazon and Mississippi.

#Finfact: Hammerhead sharks have 360-degree vision. Their wide-set eyes give them a nearly complete view of their surroundings. You can read about that study here: saveourseas.com/binocular-visi…

Final #finfact of the month: Whale #sharks are the largest fish in the world. They can grow up to 18 metres (59 feet) and are gentle filter feeders.

August doesn’t have an official nature or wildlife theme (that I know of), so this wildlife educator is taking a little breather before diving right back in! Rest, recharge, and get ready for more ocean and animal magic coming soon!

Ocean Warming Throws Angelshark Mating Out Of Sync forbes.com/sites/melissac… As ocean temperatures rise, female angelsharks are skipping breeding grounds to avoid heat stress, disrupting reproduction in an already Critically Endangered species.

To Save Sharks, We Need Smarter Fishing Rules forbes.com/sites/melissac… A new study shows retention bans help, but smarter, more targeted conservation measures are needed.

Tracking Sharks Around A South Pacific Island forbes.com/sites/melissac… Even in a small area like Norfolk Island, sharks sort out who goes where and when, showing us just how complex and flexible their ecological roles really are.