In the Year of Our Lord 2026, I've just had a peer reviewer recommend that we change our methods from active voice to passive voice. Good thing I know something I can cite to establish why We. Are. Not. Doing. That. scientistseessquirre... 1/2

The Scientist’s Guide to Writing

While running experiments and collecting data are important things, they don’t contribute to science unless we write up the results and share them with our colleagues and the world.  This means tha…

scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com

Fun bird news: Scans of the internal contours of dodos's skulls hint at the sensory abilities of these famous extinct birds. (Via Nautilus.) nautil.us/inside-the-n...

Inside the Not-So-Dumb Head of the Dodo Bird

Inside the Not-So-Dumb Head of the Dodo Bird: Cranial scans reveal a brain with clever sensory adaptations

nautil.us

youtu.be/fePMss-T2sA?...

New Research Reveals the Dodo Was Nocturnal

YouTube video by 7 Days of Science

youtu.be

Great interview on CBC with @evolsara.bsky.social on Dodo brains today #yql #Canada 🦤 🧠 🧪 @weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social @aub-birdy.bsky.social www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Dodo birds were actually smart?

In the three-and-a-half centuries since the flightless Dodo bird was wiped out, the word “dodo” has become synonymous with dim-witted and dumb. But now, new research studying their skulls is showing t...

cbc.ca

A new #palaeohistology paper out from Sophie Sanchez & other great colleagues on the "Ossification of the #pectoral fin of Glyptolepis: implications for the evolution of the #lungfish appendicular skeleton". Happy to have played a very small part in this cool study link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Ossification of the pectoral fin of Glyptolepis groenlandica: implications for the evolution of the lungfish appendicular skeleton - Developmental Biology Advances

Lungfishes are commonly considered to be the sister group to tetrapods. They appeared around 415 million years ago, then rapidly evolved, diversified and spread. Although many morphological characteri...

link.springer.com

Palaeo in the Pub is back Aug 27th with a fishy bonanza! Featuring a fabulous line up of fishy Flinders students. Get your tickets here: campus.hellorubric.com?eid=72577

Check out what the dodo was up to in @theconversation.com article by @weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social, @evolsara.bsky.social and @evoneuro.bsky.social! theconversation.com/dodos-probab...

Nocturnal and not that silly? New paper headed by @evolsara.bsky.social with @evoneuro.bsky.social , @aub-birdy.bsky.social and many others about the dodo's sensory world! See links to Sara's YouTube video and our The Conversation article below 👇. doi.org/10.1093/zool...

Research by @evolsara.bsky.social and @evoneuro.bsky.social has revealed the Dodo was the Kākāpō of pigeons - large, flightless and nocturnal! Sara has peeked into the lives of these birds in her latest paper: doi.org/10.1093/zool... Dodo artwork: Adel Lee @sykonebabblin, Kākāpō Photo: Don Merton

🦤 What do we really know about the Dodo? The dodo was likely nocturnal and, less surprisingly, its telencephalon was perfectly normal for a pigeon of its size. This paints a very different picture of one of history's most misunderstood birds. @evoneuro.bsky.social Paper: doi.org/10.1093/zool...

New Brain Scans Suggest the Dodo Was Active at Night

YouTube video by People Are Fish

youtu.be

Here’s a great overview of our Dodo paper in @theconversation.com, authored by @weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social @evolsara.bsky.social and myself #ornithology #birds theconversation.com/dodos-probab...

Dodos probably weren’t as stupid as historians made them out to be: new research

Dodo skull scans show the famously extinct birds were no less brainy than their surviving relatives – and may have roamed at dusk and dawn.

theconversation.com

Mononykus. Brown pencils on ivory cartridge paper, approximately 150 × 100 mm. From 2022.

Songbirds such as finches perform a surprisingly skilled task when feeding: they remove the hard husk of seeds using precise movements of the beak and tongue. This #ProcB study examines whether this behaviour is associated with changes in the brain. doi.org/10.1098/rspb... | #Evolution #Neuroscience

1/ The world's songbirds sing in just 8 basic sounds. And where a bird lives decides which ones it uses. My first PhD paper is out now in @science.org (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee6239) Here is what we found:

Both long-eared (left) and short-eared (right) owls can find prey using only sound. Both have facial discs to help capture sound, enlarged brain nuclei to compare sounds between L and R, and asymmetrical ears with one higher than the other. #owls #Alberta #birds #ornithology 🪶

Delighted that we have just published a new profile for the regent parrot with @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social - check it out for a nice read about a fabulous bird birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/...

Regent Parrot - Polytelis anthopeplus - Birds of the World

Species accounts for all the birds of the world.

birdsoftheworld.org

Neural correlates of seed-eating in songbirds royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article... Our new paper showing that songbirds that dehusk seeds with the beak and tongue have an enlarged trigeminal nucleus in the brainstem, particularly the part where the tongue is represented.

#neuroethology #ornithology

Cristian Gutierrez-Ibañez@gallinaciega.bsky.social · 4w ago

Neural correlates of seed-eating in songbirds royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article... Our new paper showing that songbirds that dehusk seeds with the beak and tongue have an enlarged trigeminal nucleus in the brainstem, particularly the part where the tongue is represented.

New paper out today led by @gallinaciega.bsky.social We show that seed-eating songbirds have enlarged a somatosensory nucleus, especially the part associated with the tongue, suggesting that seed-cracking is dependent on a fine sense of touch. #ornithology #neuroethology doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

⭐⭐⭐

Weisbecker B&B Lab@weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social · 4w ago

I'm so bowled over by an amazing vote of PhD student confidence in my supervision! Thanks for the chocolate and swearwords @aub-birdy.bsky.social and @maddicrandall.bsky.social 🥰!

How did seals evolve to hear on land and underwater? This #ProcB study found a specialised ear tissue enables amphibious hearing in pinnipeds, revealing this unique adaptation evolved more than 26 million years ago. doi.org/10.1098/rspb... | #Evolution #Palaeontology

Two threatened bettong species possess distinct jaw adaptations that enable them to crack open tough sandalwood and quandong seeds, offering insights for targeted conservation efforts. doi.org/hbb24p

Little bettongs' dramatic nut-cracker performance

Native Australian animals range from high-hopping kangaroos to fast-running emus—but clever little bettongs also have a special ability to find and eat the food they love.

phys.org

Shared ancestry can strongly shape how species’ traits evolve, making it difficult to separate the effects of #Evolution from factors such as body size. A new #OpenAccess study of 370 Australian #RockWallabies explores how these influences interact. 1/3

New paper out from our lab today! @evolsara.bsky.social shows that harriers have expanded their auditory nuclei in a similar way to owls to enable them to calculate the position of prey by sound. #birds #ornithology #neuroskyence 🧠🧪🇨🇦🇦🇺 doi.org/10.1111/joa....

Bearded vulture, pencils on paper 🦅🪶 #bird #art #drawing #science #volture

For anyone interested, here is a link to a CBC Radio interview this morning about our new book on bird brains and behaviour: www.cbc.ca/listen/live-... And the open access link can be found in my bio. #birds #neuroskyence #neuroethology #Canada 🪶🇨🇦🧪🧠

A little chubby Quetzal 🎨

Excited to see this #OA article ably led by Federico "Dino" Degrange come out today in @royalsocietypublishing.org Open Science on the brain endocast & feeding strategies of the Early Paleocene stem-anseriform Conflicto: doi.org/10.1098/rsos.... Proud to be on this team & work with Dino again!

Opportunity to pursue a doctoral thesis in the Goffin Lab and the Kea Lab The research will focus on play, exploration, and problem-solving abilities in cockatoos and kea. If exploring the minds of other species fascinates you, I highly recommend this opportunity.

Algae which caused brevetoxins in SA algal bloom most toxic species studied of its kind

Algae which caused brevetoxins in SA algal bloom most toxic of its kind studied

The dominant species in the algal bloom which devastated SA's coastline, Karenia cristata, is the most toxic of its kind studied, according to newly published research.

abc.net.au