Ray-finned fishes are famously diverse, but we know little about their brains or cranial endocasts. @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social opens this black box with a dice-CT survey of 86 species across the actinopt tree of life. #OA in @royalsocietypublishing.org 🐟🧠 royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

With my co-authors, I am excited to share our recent publication! Morphological Relationships of Pectoral and Dorsal Spines of Invasive Blue Catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, Over Ontogeny. Let me know if you me to send you a free pdf! 🐟🧪 academic.oup.com/icb/article-... (1/3)

Morphological Relationships of Pectoral and Dorsal Spines of Invasive Blue Catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, Over Ontogeny

Synopsis. Blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, are an invasive species in the Chesapeake Bay region, known to be opportunistic predators that overlap in habit

academic.oup.com

For reef fishes, benthic feeding is where it’s at! Our new paper in PNAS shows that diversification rates for reef fishes increased through time, likely caused by the rise of benthic-feeding groups like surgeonfish, rabbitfish, butterflyfish, and parrotfish! Read here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New paper out with @cichlidnick.bsky.social and Peter C. Wainwright. We show that different habitats impact fish diversification. Habitats with a complex benthos show increased diversification rates across ray-finned fishes. www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

A new study on iNaturalist users: Highly and casually active citizen scientists contribute equally valuable data www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/high...

Highly and casually active citizen scientists contribute equally valuable data

T he word “nemotia”1 is a neologism, a newly coined term that, in this case, describes the sense of overwhelm and disconnect accompanying the thought that nothing you do will ever make a difference. ...

floridamuseum.ufl.edu

Hey y'all. I'm a month late to this, but I wanted to share that one of my PhD chapters was published in Systematic Biology with my advisor, Frank Burbrink. Here, we explore how ecological opportunity influences phenotypic evolution in North American natricid snakes. 🧵/8

New barracudina just dropped 🎉 We see a LOT of these long, toothy deep sea fishes in our swordfish stomachs - exciting to be able to ID them more accurately in the future! www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-stor...

Ferocious Predator and Important Prey: New Barracudina Species Named for Smithsonian Biologist

Fisheries biologists recently described a new species of barracudina found in U.S. waters in the North Atlantic. Although understudied, these small fish may play a big role in their ecosystems.

fisheries.noaa.gov

Hi all. I am very excited that after 6 years I finally got my phylogenetic comparative methods book and online exercises online. Feel free to use and share. The book is here: nhcooper123.github.io/pcm-primer/. Note that it is not finished, we had to abandon it before the sunk costs fallacy broke us

Statistical Rethinking 2026 is done: 20 new lectures emphasizing logical and critical statistical workflow, from basics of probability theory to causal inference to reliable computation to sensitivity. It's all free, made just for you. Lecture list and links: github.com/rmcelreath/s...

ICB Sensory-Skeletal Integration Underlies Diverse Bone Fusion Patterns in a Complex #Demography of #Cavefish Alyssa R Hamm et al doi.org/10.1093/icb/... This study showcases the integrated nature of sensory-skeletal development, a poorly understood phenomenon. #scientists #fish #Biologists

Rapid and repeated evolution of pigmentation patterns in reef fishes #ichthyology link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Rapid and repeated evolution of pigmentation patterns in reef fishes - BMC Biology

Background Pigmentation patterns are central to animal biology—shaping camouflage, signaling, and mate selection—and uncovering the mechanisms driving their diversification is key to understanding the...

link.springer.com

Piranha bite force and tooth stress are fantastically high for their size! Check out our new paper on computational modeling of the cranial muscles and bite mechanics of the amazing piranhas. #biomechsky 🐟🧪🌿 link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007...

My first PhD dissertation chapter has been published! Let me know if you need a copy. Complete species-level phylogeny of Madagascar’s tufted-tailed rats, Eliurus (Rodentia: Nesomyidae) reveals hidden diversity doi.org/10.1093/zool... And please enjoy this sonnet I wrote to summarize it:

Every other summer we run a fish biomechanics course at Friday Harbor Labs. It is an awesome opportunity to learn the tools of biovisualization while experiencing the rich fish diversity of the Salish Sea. Come join us! 🧪

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

🧪🐠 I am hiring a postdoc! Work will be on patterns of biodiversity across phylogenetic scales using teleost fishes as a model. Apply by end of Jan 2026 for full consideration apply.interfolio.com/179070 I encourage folks to reach out with any questions. Please Share!

My pet gar that I donated to Shedd Aquarium would recognize me and swim over to say hi when I visited her exhibit ❤️🐠 A rare hybrid gar, I raised her since she was 2 inches long, and had to re-home her when I moved to Chicago. I was happy I could visit her in her new home! TO BE CONTINUED…

A new analysis of Dunkleosteus terrelli reveals its massive jaws were far more cartilage-rich than once thought, reshaping ideas about muscle layout, bite mechanics & feeding style. Time to rethink this Devonian apex predator. Engelman et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

I’ve released a tool to sketch and edit phylogenetic trees! yawak.jp/PhyloWeaver/ Load a Newick file and intuitively add/remove/resize branches. Useful for quick conceptual trees, extracting subtrees, or turning ideas into Newick.

PhyloWeaver – Interactive phylogenetic tree editor

Edit and visualize phylogenetic trees directly in your browser. PhyloWeaver lets you interactively rearrange tree topologies and export high-quality figures for publications and presentations.

yawak.jp

Very excited to share my exploration of the phylogenetics of early ray-finned fishes, out today in the Anatomical Record! Really busy day but I’ll have more info shortly. anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

An ontological morphological phylogenetic framework for living and extinct ray‐finned fishes (Actinopterygii)

The ray-finned fishes include one out of every two species of living vertebrates on Earth and have an abundant fossil record stretching 380 million years into the past. The division of systematic kno...

anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Hey, if you’re thinking about comparative anatomy textbooks for the Spring semester, you should check out ours! Free, open access, and peer-reviewed!

Lisa Whitenack, PhD@whitenacklab.bsky.social · last yr.

Y’all!!! Our comparative anatomy textbook is out!!! Free, open access, and just in time for the fall semester!

New phylogeny and family-level classification of Stomiiformes (viperfishes, hatchetfishes, bristlemouths) bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Genome-wide phylogeny reshapes our understanding of the evolution of deep-sea dragonfishes, bristlemouths, viperfishes, and allies (Stomiiformes) - BMC Ecology and Evolution

Background The evolutionary relationships within Stomiiformes, a diverse order of deep-sea fishes dominating the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones, remain contentious due to conflicting morphological...

bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com

@omgitsmejenny.bsky.social talks about her masters thesis on the effects of flower temperature on pollinator visitation and behavior

Functional Ecology@funecology.bsky.social · 11mo ago

🎧Podcast out now!🎧 👂Listen to author @omgitsmejenny.bsky.social chat to us about her research article "Isolating the effects of floral temperature on visitation and behaviour of wild bee and fly pollinators"🌡️ Soundcloud🟧: buff.ly/zfVnsGC Spotify🟢: buff.ly/LCvSq2N 🧪🌍

Love how fish will just evolve a truly horrifying number of teeth to crush shelled creatures. Absolute nightmare, my students love seeing this stuff. From Cynthia Worcester's master's thesis (2012; linked below). digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1215/

Our paper on perceptions of punctuated equilibrium - including suggestions for how to teach about this essential evolutionary concept - is now available online! doi.org/10.1017/pab....

I'm delighted that the first publication from a National Science Foundation-funded study I led studying the development and implementation of teaching resources on human and non-human evolution in Alabama high school biology classrooms was published a few days ago! (1/2)

Teaching human evolution in Alabama high school biology classrooms: the LUDA project - Evolution: Education and Outreach

Background Multiple factors, including the context (human or non-human) in which evolution is learned and whether explicit efforts are made to try to reduce the conflict between evolution and religion...

evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com

I finally did it. My first chapter is FINALLY written and out for all to see. If you’ve attended my talks you 100% know what this is about. If you haven’t attended my talks, shark nostrils are more interesting than we thought. Enjoy! academic.oup.com/icb/advance-...

Who Nose What Flows: Shark Narial Denticle Morphology and Hydrodynamic Implications

Synopsis. Dermal denticles (scales) are important in influencing the movement of water around a shark’s body. To date, most of the research on denticle mor

academic.oup.com

These are the most challenging times for early-career scientists and engineers. My team is doing its bit to help by maintaining and even expanding our database of funding opportunities for early-career researchers. We found 437 of them. Download it freely here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

Fun news: I'm hiring a postdoc in ichthyology! Please spread the word #TeamFish, and message me if you have questions. (Job requisition id is R00107333 if LSU link below takes you elsewhere.) lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/LSU/de...

Postdoctoral Researcher

All Job Postings will close at 12:01a.m. CST (1:01a.m. EST) on the specified Closing Date (if designated). If you close the browser or exit your application prior to submitting, the application progre...

lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

I'm so excited to share my master's research! Do pollinators change their foraging behavior depending on floral and ambient temperatures? Do flowers that thermoregulate experience higher rates of pollinator visitation? Check it out below! 🏵️

Functional Ecology@funecology.bsky.social · last yr.

📰Published📰 Modifying floral infrared reflectance reveals how flower temperature impacts pollinator visitation🌼 buff.ly/GRWUhzZ 🧪🌍