Dodo fans unite! We have a new paper out on the brain and sensory abilities of the Dodo and Solitaire showing that the Dodo has several unusual features. #ornithology #birds

@evolsara.bsky.social · 4h ago

🦤 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...

Well-worn wins! Wild capuchin monkeys prefer stones w/ a proven track record of cracking nuts. Study @royalsociety.org #ProcB led by J. Henke-von der Malsburg & L. Luncz. @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social @fbndummerstorf.bsky.social See: tinyurl.com/3xt67uap & royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Well-worn wins: Wild capuchin monkeys prefer stones with a proven track record of cracking nuts

New study reveals that visible traces of past tool use can outweigh material properties when primates select tools

tinyurl.com

Also, the book is really strong on both functional anatomy and on evolution, so there are loads of good diagrams on anatomical details and on variation within groups. I have never seen stuff like this in any book (with one or two exceptions), it's phenomenal. Oh, and...

Our Dispatch "Evolution: Ancient monoamines in a neuron-less animal" out in @currentbiology.bsky.social. Monoamine signaling and behavioral responses in placozoans suggest this system predates bilaterians. authors.elsevier.com/a/1nYJl3QW8S... @annaferraioli.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) paper now in @anatrecord.bsky.social's Feeding Biomechanics Special Issue! Using dissection & diceCT, we show powerful bites aren't just about bigger muscles—muscle architecture, skull mechanics & fascia may be key🐺 anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

squirrel monkey (Saimiri oerstedii) sighting!

Eomyodon volkeri, a terrestrial eomyid rodent of Late Oligocene Europe

Remarkably large mammal-like tracks from the Botucatu Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Paraná Basin, Brazil: implications for the evolution of large size in Mammaliaformes www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Remarkably large mammal-like tracks from the Botucatu Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Paraná Basin, Brazil: implications for the evolution of large size in Mammaliaformes

The Botucatu Formation of the Paraná Basin, southern Brazil, preserves some of the largest mammal-like tracks attributed to Mammaliaformes from the Ea…

sciencedirect.com

!🚨New Paper alert🚨! New evidence for large mammaliforms in the Cretaceous. This time in South Brazil: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

American vultures have long been reported to lack a syrinx (avian vocal organ); a new study suggests that they instead have a highly modified one: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🪶🧪 (📷Ibarra et al.)

New insights into the reproductive strategies of early Mesozoic marine reptiles: At least 11 fetuses discovered in a specimen of Mixosaurus, a small-bodied Triassic ichthyosaur. 🧪 peerj.com/articles/216...

Signing the Royal Society's Charter Book (created in 1663) earlier this month was a very moving experience. It contains the signatures of every other person we have learned about in school science lessons, and there was strong sense of "why on Earth am I here...?" Thank you so much to my team! 🥹

Join us in Vienna! We are looking for a #PhD student and a #Postdoc to investigate #innovation in great #apes: PhD ad: share.eva.mpg.de/index.php/s/... Postdoc ad: share.eva.mpg.de/index.php/s/... Application deadline: August 17th. Please share widely!

New in @biodivlibrary.bsky.social are the chapters of "Vertebrate palaeontology of Australasia", including one of my favourite images, a giant goanna chasing a mihirung (Genyornis) www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39941042

Attending #ICN2026 in Vancouver and interested in #ornithology? - come by Janani's poster on the sensory abilities of the Great Auk - see @evolsara.bsky.social's talk on the Dodo and Solitaire - see @gallinaciega.bsky.social's talk on seed cracking songbirds #neuroethology

Leading big team science as early-career researchers: challenges and solutions. Read more: doi.org/10.1098/rsos... #ECRs #RSOS

Almost the weekend! Georges the caecilian (Herpele squalostoma) is clearly feeling it too! 🪱 #NameItToSaveIt #Caecilian #Amphibians @smnstuttgart.bsky.social

📢 Call for Papers: The Anatomical Record is seeking submissions for a Special Issue on Strepsirrhine Anatomy, Ecology, and Evolution. We welcome original research, reviews & commentaries exploring strepsirrhine functional anatomy, phenotypic plasticity & evolutionary history 🐒 📅 Deadline: November 1

Vulpes mathisoni - extinct species of fox of Pliocene Ethiopia

Parapodemus, a wood mouse of Late Miocene, Europe

Apterodon langebadreae

🦇 Bat tracheal chambers may be key evolutionary innovation behind echolocation diversity by supporting higher-frequency calls & helping drive evolution of specialized echolocation, contributing to bats’ remarkable ecological success Brualla et al anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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.

🎥 Also, check out our video abstract highlighting the main findings: youtu.be/_Csv11XnhoU

The Queen of Snakes: Tametara and the Dawn of Snake Evolution

YouTube video by Di-Poï Evo-Devo LAB Helsinki

youtu.be

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

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 🪶

Interesting study with possible implications for archaeology and human evolution (understanding and appreciation of geometry and stone tools maybe? 🤔) Published in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Continuity in geometric intuition between humans and monkeys | PNAS

Geometric intuition is regarded as a hallmark of human intelligence. Humans hold a unique advantage in recognizing geometric shapes with Euclidean ...

pnas.org

Science X / Phys.org@sciencex.bsky.social · 2w ago

Monkeys matched 2D shapes by geometric similarity alone, and their patterns aligned with children and adults across cultures. The result suggests a shared primate intuition for basic geometry.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

Scientists just discovered a lost branch of Australia’s marsupials

Fossils from Queensland suggest a newly recognized marsupial order may have survived in Australia for around 35 million years, rewriting part of the story of how the continent's unique mammals ev...

sciencedaily.com

Our latest: The timescale of nematode evolution reveals late and convergent radiations of parasitism. Led by Liang Lü, with help from @djbirddanerd.bsky.social Mattia Giacomelli @meleonora-rossi.bsky.social Oleksandr Holovachov, Davide Pisani and myself www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The timescale of nematode evolution reveals late and convergent radiations of parasitism - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Establishing a universal evolutionary timescale of nematodes has been complicated by their patchy fossil record and analytical limitations. Combining genomic data from 156 nematode species with fossil...

nature.com

I was so pleased that so many folks turned out on a very hot and muggy Friday in July to give @jimeloism.bsky.social such a warm welcome to our city. I was also very lucky to get to spend some time with her one on one 🥰 Shes an extremely cool person 😁

ARAA@araa.at · 3w ago

It was our pleasure to have a guest talk on macaw numerical cognition from @jimeloism.bsky.social, visiting us from Uni Buenos Aires. Had a great roundtable after about international differences in academia and then a fun time at Nice Guys pub (they were in fact, nice guys)! Thx UBB for hosting 😊