Proud to share our latest paper in out in Nature today on the origin of #snakes. We present Tametara mirim, an articulated 3D preserved stem snake from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. Tametara helped us re-tell the story of snake origins in a novel way... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Exceptional brain and ecological diversity in the earliest snakes - Nature

A well-preserved fossil snake from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil shows early ecological and brain shape disparity in the group.

nature.com

How do leading tools compare for reconstructing CT muscle architecture? Xfiber & Goodfibes produce similar fiber length/orientation results in high-quality scans but Goodfibes is more sensitive to lower resolution & curved fascicles Zobek et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

I’m happy to say the first chapter of my dissertation has just gotten published! Here, we compared the results of two prominent tools for measuring muscle architecture from contrast data, Xfiber and Goodfibes, with some recommendations for each. anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Relative performance of automated fiber‐tracking approaches to <fc>3D</fc> muscle architecture and their utility for comparative biomechanics

Muscle architecture is a key determinant of muscle performance, informing the calculation of functional traits such as force production and excursion distance. Due to its importance in understanding ....

anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Second PhD paper is out! We find: 1) aquatic and terrestrial salamanders have different limb bone adaptations, 2) complex life cycles promote different traits, 3) decoupling of external and internal bone traits increase diversity. Thread (1/8) and FREE link below! 🦎🧪 doi.org/10.1111/joa....

Habitat and complex life cycles promote morphological diversity in salamander limb bones

We examined the external shape and cross-sectional morphology of limb bones in 133 salamander species spanning the ecological and phylogenetic breadth of Caudata. We find that adaptations for aquatic...

doi.org

Workshops give me a chance to play with other people's data. In this case Kate Jackson's snake heads. This is Bitis nasicornis. Storing bones in formalin is bad for mineralization. 🧪🐡

#ssSnaketember the 3rd is about #Conservation! So how are #snakes doing? For a start, they need a new PR team! A dislike of snakes by humans can hinder research & preservation projects. Add that to the secretive nature of many snakes & conservation becomes a difficult topic. [1/6] #Herpetology

Excited to share our new paper by @danpaluh.bsky.social out today in @royalsociety.org Open Science; with a great team, including undergraduate researchers! "The metamorphic transition of the frog mouth: from tadpole kertanized mouthparts to adult teeth" 🦷🐸 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

The metamorphic transition of the frog mouth: from tadpole keratinized mouthparts to adult teeth | Royal Society Open Science

Teeth have been a prominent feature of most vertebrates for 400 million years, and the core regulatory network underlying embryonic tooth formation is deeply conserved. In frogs, however, odontogenesi...

royalsocietypublishing.org

I’m proud to announce my first first-author paper of my Ph.D! We described and modeled the muscle architecture of a pangolin’s tongue using DiceCT and 3D modeling approaches. Each model is available on the Holliday lab Sketchfab. academic.oup.com/icb/advance-... sketchfab.com/holliday/col...

3D Muscle Architecture of the Tongue of the White-bellied Pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) Reveals a Muscular Hydrostat

Synopsis. The tongues of pangolins are among the more derived of other mammalian ant-eating specialists, extending nearly a body length to capture food. Pa

academic.oup.com

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated. My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.

Mike Wagner@prowag.bsky.social · last yr.

Friday Night Massacre of accurate information. A devastating day for the USA as tens of millions of dollars of grants seeking to combat the spread of false information were terminated. We have a federal govenrment that does not consider the verifiable truth a priority. www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

🚨New publication alert!🚨 A big one! It might just be my *biggest* one: doi.org/10.1093/iob/... IMPORTANT THREAD! From the moment Dave Blackburn set me loose at the Florida Museum, I had a marvelous time using diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced CT (diceCT) to create anatomical datasets 🧪1/6

When I CT scanned this diamondback rattlesnake specimen, I found a surprise rodent inside 🐍🐁 The #oVertTCN CT data is available for download on MorphoSource here: www.morphosource.org/concern/medi...

Congratulations to our 2025 Class of Fellows! They were recognized at the Fellows reception tonight and received their AAA Fellows pin!🫀🧠 #Anatomy25 #anatomy #education #research #science #aaa #portlandoregon #scientificmeeting #annualmeeting

i’ve never been so obsessed with a video. please turn your sound on

Happy to share this new paper! We explored the relationships of head shape and feeding mechanics in dinosaurs. A cascade of changes from big brains, to reoriented muscles, to a breakdown of linkages resulted in avian powered kinesis, but not until neognathes. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Lab had a great time at the Columbia Young Scientist Expo. Constant parade of families keen on discovery.

For anyone who says, "Canada should hire all of America's displaced scientists."

CAUT/ACPPU@caut.bsky.social · last yr.

Canadian colleges are facing the largest cuts we’ve in a generation. After years of insufficient funding and the introduction of caps on international students, colleges across Canada are seeing massive program cuts, job losses and campus closures.

I am thrilled to announce that I have joined the MOBI (molecular biosciences) faculty at MTSU and am now able to supervise PhD students. Possible projects in southeastern fish ecomorphology, darter cranial anatomy (muscles, brains, skulls), and fish biology/macroevolution in general. #teamfish #MTSU

The breakneck pace and devastating impact of the Trump administration’s policy changes has researchers shocked. https://go.nature.com/4iboVwb

Trump’s siege of science: how the first 30 days unfolded and what’s next

Nature - The breakneck pace and devastating impact of the administration’s policy changes has researchers shocked.

go.nature.com

WHAT. Ecuador's government recently authorized a U.S. military base on the Galápagos Islands. NO. No no no no no no noooooooo NO 🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Military base threatens Galápagos Islands

science.org

The Trump Administration announced massive cuts to NIH indirect costs yesterday. The maximum indirect rate will now be 15%, slashing the rates our universities receive. Most universities are accustomed to receiving 45-65% on each grant. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Decision tree that has been sent to Program Officers at NSF

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

CT folks—has anyone iodine stained an animal specimen and then done clearing/staining/histology on it afterwards? I’m thinking sodium thiosulfate would be necessary to fully recover from the discoloration, but 🤷

BREAKING: A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Trump administration freeze on federal grants and loans. U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked the action Tuesday afternoon, minutes before it was set to go into effect. The administrative stay pauses the freeze until Monday.

Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration freeze on federal grants and loans

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Trump administration freeze on federal grants and loans that could total trillions of dollars. U.S. District Judge Loren L.

apnews.com

WaPo: "The National Science Foundation has halted for at least the rest of the week the work of review panels, in which outside experts rate the merit of proposals for scientific research." www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...

NIH In Your State - United For Medical Research

Select a state on the map to see the impact of NIH funding across America.

unitedformedicalresearch.org