Meet the Sea Muppets! Don't let the common name fool you. These are, in fact, a new genus of syngnathid fish that have independently evolved morphology strikingly similar to that of their famous Seahorse cousins.🐟🧪 journaloflostspecies.org/index.php/jl...

Australyichthys gen. nov. (Teleostei, Syngnathidae), a lost mesophotic lineage from southern Australia, with description of A. aegis sp. nov. and reclassification of Hippocampus minotaur and H. parado...

Australyichthys gen. nov. is described as a new genus of Syngnathidae (seahorses, pipefishes, seadragons, pipehorses and pygmy pipehorses) endemic to temperate mesophotic habitats of southern Australi...

journaloflostspecies.org

To celebrate another semester starting at The University of Alabama, we are excited to announce the student-only Fossil Excursion on Saturday, August 29! This opportunity is $25 per person and for currently enrolled UA students who are 18 or older. Register: → bit.ly/456DbkJ

Our latest: Xinyuan Meng @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social describes Bataspis crux, expanding galeaspid (jawless fish) disparity with a bat-like head adapted for dynamic lift. Xinyuan's study was aided by @ferronhg.bsky.social Davide Pisani, Zhikun Gai and myself. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I'm excited to announce the first episode of @technicaltea.show is up today! Technical Tea is a podcast by women in STEM, for everyone! We hope to build a vibrant community, so have a listen then share & leave a review so we can spread the word! 🧪

New publication from @dradriansmith.bsky.social on media-based storytelling becoming a prominent application for natural history museum research.

Natural History Collections and Museomics@nhcm.pensoft.net · 2d ago

🏛️ In the following article, an opportunity for media-based storytelling to become a prominent application of natural history museum research is proposed, following a field-wide survey revealing that these stories are underrepresented on institutional social media: doi.org/10.3897/nhcm.3.176227

Looking for a K-12 insect, spider, or other arthropod teaching resource? We have > 200 rated lessons, books, and more. lessonhive.org/all-inventor...

Happy #FossilFriday from the special surprise found inside the last stupid Xiphactinus that i discovered this spring: a complete Micropycnodon! This poor little guy was eaten right before the Xiphactinus (nicknamed Brown Sugar) died, and is forever trapped in fish rib jail. 🧪🐟

Tired: Orcas attacking boats off the Iberian Peninsula. Wired: Orcas pulverizing Molas off the Mexican coast. 😲

David Grimm@david-grimm.bsky.social · 5d ago

Orcas are ramming sunfish so hard they explode. Check out the stunning video at the link. Nice story by @annieroth.bsky.social for @science.org

This was more complicated than even I thought when I set out to make the video, but I'm glad I did! It was a lot of fun, and the reality of this is really cool. youtu.be/djfoUWZbLn8?...

How Spiders REALLY Eat their Prey (and it isn't by just sucking blood)

YouTube video by Travis McEnery

youtu.be

*watches new Spiderman* Hmmm, is that architecture from red Permian sandstone of Dumfriesshire? That's not New York, that's Glasgow! Fossiliferous masonry prevents suspension of disbelief.

Spiny turbots are a small family of flatfishes whose eyes don’t completely migrate to the other side of their heads. At the right angle they look like cyclopses

Bigger ≠ Better. Some of the smallest fishes on Earth have some of the most outstanding biology and beauty. I had an absolute blast writing this one... 👇🎏🤯 Five Tiny Fishes That Will Blow Your Mind tnature.substack.com/p/five-tiny-... #Nature #Science #Evolution #Biodiversity #Fishes #Wildlife

Five Tiny Fishes That Will Blow Your Mind

Little species. Enormous wonder.

tnature.substack.com

See fossil shark teeth, post fossil shark teeth for #SharkWeek. Behold this pile of Goblin Shark (Scapanorhynchus texanus) teeth from the Eutaw Formation of Alabama. I collect these each summer to be giveaways at museum outreach events.

Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️@coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 6d ago

#sharkweek A gorgeous tooth of the extinct megatoothed shark Carcharocles angustidens that I found on a South Carolina riverbank in summer 2020 with @tetrameryx.bsky.social - likely from the Oligocene Ashley Formation. 🦖🧪🦑🦈

Scientists have developed a model to predict the age of zebra sharks - an epigenetic clock - a useful tool for protecting endangered sharks and restoring wild populations. 🦈 Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/scie... Study: doi.org/10.1111/mec.... 📸: @aquariumpacific.bsky.social

Rejected headlines for this include: "2 tiny ptarmigan carvings unearthed from prehistoric cave in Germany" and "Two birds, one Stone Age cave." 🧪🏺

40,000-year-old bird figurines the size of a thumbnail discovered in German cave

Two newly discovered bird carvings reveal early humans' keen eye for artistry in the ice age world 40,000 years ago.

livescience.com

Dunkleosteus on the carousel at the Ohio State Fair! www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/ar...

New benchmark for AI slop just dropped. 🤦

Edmund Lee@edmundlee.bsky.social · 6d ago

my god www.reuters.com/world/africa...

Brazil has listed the tambaqui, an Amazon fish, as vulnerable after projections indicated a 43.4% decline in its population. Without a recovery plan, a fishing ban could be imposed, raising economic concerns for small-scale fishers who rely on the species. @bykarlamendes.bsky.social reports.

Fishers fight for solutions as Brazil lists tambaqui as threatened

Amazon fishers fear a total ban on their most iconic catch could favor industrial farms over local communities.

mongabay.cc

Of course I had to start searching for more Malm Whale images and found this one. Now I want to start a rumor that this whale was also the inspiration for the Kool-Aid Man "Wall Burst" ad campaign. Oh yeah!

jordan@jordantyranny.bsky.social · 7d ago

The only taxidermied blue whale in the world, 1865 CE, now housed at the Natural History Museum in Sweden. The public was allowed to enter the whale up until a couple was found having sex inside it. Now the whale’s jaws are opened only for special occasions, such as Swedish election days.

#Sharkweek video thread - all about a fossil shark nursery from Oligocene marine rocks in Charleston, SC. I initially made this for someone else, but they never bothered paying me, so you get to enjoy it for free! Split into 1 min segments. 1/7 🦖🧪🦑🦈

I did some fishing at the British Museum. A short, fishy thread (5 posts) This a vessel with the shape of a berbel, arguably Luciobarbus conocephalus, becauae the piece was produces in the Amu Darya (Oxus River) Some 2500 years old @sibic.bsky.social

From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museums The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation iucn.org/news/202607/...

From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museums

The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation: a formal acknowledgement that natural history museums,...

iucn.org

Dear @mosasaurologist.bsky.social, I am so very sorry. 😂

🧵1/6 New paper from #NearLab dropped! Wood et al. (2026) tackle a long-standing mystery: how did freshwater perches, walleyes, and darters (Percidae) end up on BOTH sides of the Atlantic? Spoiler: they may have swum there. 🐟🌊 #Ichthyology #Evolution #Systematics

🦈 In honor of #SharkWeek, get a rare look at the megamouth on view at NHM—the second ever discovered of this species! Get a sense of the preparation required when we eventually rehouse it in a brand-new tank later this year.

🧵1/6 New anglerfish paper dropped! A new evolutionary model by Satow & Takimoto in Proc. R. Soc. B tackles one of the ocean's wildest mysteries: why do some male anglerfishes permanently fuse their bodies to females and become literal parasites? 🐟🔦 doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

We're still looking for a Fish Collection Manager at the Sam Noble Museum in Oklahoma! Apply by August 1st. #MuseumJobs #TeamFish jobs.ou.edu/jobs/curator...

Curator Archivist - Norman, Oklahoma, United States

Pay Range: Targeted salary $18.99 per hour, based on experience Benefits Eligible: Yes Work Schedule: Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (may include some weekends) Travel: May be required For Be...

jobs.ou.edu

#sharkweek 🦖🧪🦈🦑 Not only do we know that the giant shark Carcharocles megalodon IS extinct, we also have a pretty good idea of *when*. An analysis of non-reworked fossil teeth we published in 2019 revealed that the fossil record of the "meg" ends around 3.6 MYA - shortly before the ice age.

Nanjing Paleontological Museum has an in-house traditional Chinese artist, Li Chen, creating paintings of famous Chinese dinosaurs. These are from 2022 exhibition "From Dragon to Bird" and can be purchased in the museum as postcards or book《从龙到鸟系列 科学艺术化石复原图》

#fossilfriday A rare example of a well-preserved gill raker of a basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus), ~6myo, from the Purisima Formation of Santa Cruz, CA - typically broken up into tiny bits. Used for filter feeding, basking shark rakers are uniquely formed from enameloid dermal denticles. 🦈🦖🧪