Montrose Biology

UPDATE: Ecologies is getting an upgrade! We’re excited to announce that Ecologies titles will soon be packaged in a sturdier, more attractive two-piece box, featuring a larger and more detailed rulebook. We’ve successfully tested this new design with our recent release, “Ancient Areas,” and have received great feedback about its improved durability and shelf presence.
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Additionally, we’re proud to share another long-time goal we’ve achieved: eliminating plastic shrink wrap from our packaging. Our new boxes are made from recycled materials and printed with eco-friendly soy-based inks.
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Please note: the new packaging will be rolled out gradually over the next year, title by title, starting with the main Ecologies game. Some current inventory may still ship with the previous packaging style.
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Because of these changes, we will also be gradually phasing out our organizing items, such as the metal tin and faux book box. Additionally, our Ultimate Educator Collection will soon be sold out and will not be restocked, making way for a new bundle in the future. If you’re interested in these items, we recommend ordering soon, as they will not be available once current inventory is gone.
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Thanks, as always, for your continued support!
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Get out your microscopes, it’s time for a deep dive into everything tiny! For our next game, we take a look at microscopic environments around the world and highlight some of the most marvelous microbes on the planet! (Fall 2025 release) 🔬🧫👾

Students competing in a school wide multi day Ecologies tournament! So cool to see! 🥹

Some photos from our family’s recent trip to the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Natural History Museum. Such beautiful and special places. I could spend a lifetime in these two places and die happy. Nerding out on all things biology, both past and present, was exactly what I needed and I’m thankful these places exist. 🦖🌱🦩

Shopping for a nature nerd this season? 🌿🤓🍄
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Consider our small business 🦋Montrose Biology🦋
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Created by a biology teacher, our goal is to offer products that are both engaging and instructive. That’s why our motto is “fun, inspired by nature.” 🦀🪲🐝

One last small little product to announce this year… ammonite fossils! 🐚🪨🌊
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Ammonites were ancient cephalopods related to squid that made their living in the Paleozoic seas.
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These particular ammonite fossils are from Madagascar. Each one is unique. They lived in the ocean around the same time the dinosaurs lived, and died out about 65 million years ago (same time as the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event).
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They range in color from brown, to orange, to yellow, and have varying degrees of crystal formation inside the chambers.
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Each fossil will have a cut and polished side showing the chambers and a rough unpolished side showing the fossilized shell.
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Many times this shell has a rainbow / iridescent nacre intact. The average length is about 1.5 inches (about 4cm). Because each specimen is so different we can’t guarantee color, size, pattern, etc.
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Please look at the photos to get an idea of the range of specimens. It’s fascinating to observe the perfect logarithmic spiral and mineralization effects in these unique fossils from the time of the dinosaurs! Available at Montrosebiology.com

In keeping with our recent obsession with all things paleo, we collaborated with to create an awesome new puzzle focused on 10 famous fossils! This 1000 piece puzzle is difficult, and large, but when I was putting it together I felt like a paleontologist poring over bone fragments in the field. It was cool to pick up a piece and be like “this is for sure the foot bones of a stegosaurus.” We also used the same artist as our “Ecologies: Ancient Areas” deck so the paleo art is accurate and stunning. A note on scientific accuracy: these fossils are from across the world and different time periods, and have different scales. While each is scientifically accurate, in real life the collection itself would never occur in the same place or at these scales. We bring them together just for this puzzle. Check it out! 🦖🦴⛏️

Also available now, Ecologies Junior: Ocean. This tile game uses the same common back as the Ecologies Junior: Forest game, so you can mix and match tiles from both ecosystems, either as a memory game or food web game. Ecologies Junior takes the same premise as the original game and makes it simpler and more accessible for kids as young as 4. It can be competitive or cooperative. 64 sturdy tiles full of ocean life! 🦀🦑🐠

More “Ecologies: Ancient Areas” cards in the wild! Available now from montrosebiology.com 🦖🦕🦣

We see a ton of these American giant millipedes where we live. I was astounded to learn they can live up to 11 years! The way they dig burrows is also fascinating, they grab a chunk of soil with their mandibles and pass it to their first pair of legs, which then passes it on to the next pair of legs, etc., until the little chunk has been grasped by every little leg and is finally tossed out the back by the last pair. I don’t know why but it seems so cute that they handle the soil this way, slowly and methodically. They eat mostly decaying wood and have few predators because of their foul and irritating secretions. They still look cute though 😂 🐛 🌳

Ecologies: Ancient Areas is available now!
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Build food webs in 7 extinct ecosystems.
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Each ancient biome is based on a real geologic formation and the fossils found there.
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A collaboration between a biology teacher and an award winning paleo artist , this game uses authentic science to imagine food webs from across the globe and throughout Earth’s history.
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We explore the following biomes:
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Cambrian Ocean Biome – CAM (burgess shale fossils) 🦐
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Triassic Monsoon Biome – TRI (Ischigualasto fossils)🪲
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Jurassic Riparian biome – JUR (Portugal fossils)🦕
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Cretaceous Forest Biome – CRF (hell creek fossils)🦖
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Cretaceous Desert Biome – CRD (Gobi desert fossils)🪶
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Paleogene Grassland Biome – PAL (chadron formation)🐆
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Pleistocene Tundra Biome – PLE (Yana River Valley)🦣
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Order today at montrosebiology.com

Apologies to everyone for not being able to launch our new game in September as promised! At the last minute, just before launch, Hurricane Helene devastated our area. We are safe, and many places had it much worse, but we were trapped in our neighborhood due to roads being blocked with multiple trees and power lines, with no safe way out. We do not have internet or power, but we do have water, and just gained the ability to get new food because a brave person with a skid steer pushed a bunch of logs out of one of the roads. Our problems pale in comparison to our neighbors just north in Asheville, but I wanted to explain why the game hasn’t launched and why orders are slow to be processed. We appreciate all your support and will launch as soon as possible! We’re hopeful that in the next week or so the majority of debris will be clear and power will be restored. Thank you as always, stay safe out there! -Matt