Another lifer for me! This massive Regal Horned Lizard happened to be on the road right at sunset. This was definitely one of my top lizard species to find in Arizona after failing to do so last year, and what an unexpected way to come across one. #herps 🦎

Tom Collett’s new book “Insects and How They Navigate Their World” is out and seemingly the pdf is free 👀 (for me anyway) link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Insects and How They Navigate Their World

Discover how insects navigate using vision, memory and cues from nature. A clear, engaging look at ants, bees, and the remarkable abilities of tiny brains.

link.springer.com

Very proud of the special issue of Animal Behaviour I worked on with @wascherclaudia.bsky.social and @nicolakoyama.bsky.social on addressing biases in animal behaviour. Thanks to all authors- plenty of cool papers to read. Here's our editorial: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @asab.org

Do you find mutualisms fascinating? Work on behavior, neurobiology, or sensory biology in mutualistic animals? Join us at our symposium or complementary session on the neuroethology of mutualisms at SICB 2027! @sicb.bsky.social @biologists.bsky.social

Very happy to share our new review on visual computation in the cephalopod brain, with @vangeliqueallen.bsky.social, out now! We discuss exciting recent advances in understanding how the radically different brain of cephalopods processes the visual scene. 🐙🔬👀 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Very pleased to finally share the main story from my PhD, now published in @natcomms.nature.com ! 🎉 Using a sea anemone we discovered and characterised epithelial cell extrusion as the mechanism underlying starvation-induced cell loss. 🔗 Open-access article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Epithelial cell extrusion underlies starvation-induced cell loss in a sea anemone - Nature Communications

Epithelial cell extrusion in a sea anemone shares key hallmarks with bilaterians and is dynamically regulated by nutritional status. During starvation-induced body shrinkage, extrusion likely contribu...

nature.com

1/8 Breathing seems automatic. But it's a finely tuned motor behavior that has to be controlled. In this preprint, I map the circuits that match a fly's respiration to the metabolic demands of flight and mitigate the risk of dehydration. 🧵🪰 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Jeeze, flies are so freaking amazing, but can someone please point out that this is truly breath-taking research (ba-dum!)

Yichen Luo 骆奕辰@camellyc.bsky.social · 2d ago

1/8 Breathing seems automatic. But it's a finely tuned motor behavior that has to be controlled. In this preprint, I map the circuits that match a fly's respiration to the metabolic demands of flight and mitigate the risk of dehydration. 🧵🪰 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Marco Gallio talks about how snow flies adapted to cold temperatures. Through comparative genomics he discovers a high abundance of Zinc-fingers in snow flies. Can snow flies produce heat through mitochondria thermogenesis to buffer cold temperatures for a short time?

Another round of my favorite meeting ♥️ Until next time! #ICN2026

International Society for Neuroethology@neuroethology.org · 5d ago

We had an excellent week full of fascinating research on neuroethology. We met colleagues and friends. We thank all the organizers, funders @jexpbiol.bsky.social @kavlifoundation.org @thorlabs.bsky.social and wish everyone a safe trip back home. 🇨🇦 #ICN2026. See you at ICN2028 🇹🇼

Dear neuroethologists, please take Eric Warrant's plea seriously and become a member of our society @neuroethology.org. There are many advantages, e.g. 🧠 Eligibility for awards and prizes 🧠 Receive newsletter with news, fun facts and job ads 🧠 Right to vote and organise symposia #icn2026vancouver

Perils of having a South Asian plenary speaker: dealing with all the people who think it was me 😁

Rickesh Patel from @lundvision.bsky.social shares his research showing that bees use vector maps for navigation.

Final version out! Now with amazing illustrations from the very talented Lily Soucy :) www.cell.com/current-biol...

Nicholas Bellono@nbellono.bsky.social · 4w ago

How did octopuses evolve novel traits? Rishav Mitra, Richard Han, Trey Scott, et al serendipitously discover a unique ribosome adaptation that increases the accuracy of protein synthesis and evolved alongside their elaborate nervous systems vs deep sea relatives. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Here’s me bothering a looped flutter fly. #ICN2026

New preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Nearly a decade after starting the project, the first major results from our comparative connectomics work is online! Comparing the head direction circuits of the central complex in bees, ants and flies, recapitulating >300million years of evolution.

Scientists warned us about climate change for decades, and their predictions have proved remarkably accurate. Knowledge was never the problem The failure is structural. Political and economic systems reward those who defend the status quo and punish those who challenge it.

A new #ICN2026 day starts with a plenary funded by @jexpbiol.bsky.social: Dr. Lisa Fenk @fleyes.bsky.social presents their work on "Spontaneous and reflexive eyemovements in flies" 👀🪰 #insectvision #pseudopupil #Drosophila

Snapping shrimps paralyze prey with shock waves. But how do the shrimps protect themselves from the shock waves? They have orbital hoods that damp shock waves. Removing orbital hoods results in deficits in homing behavior. Fantastic talk by Alexandra Kingston. #ICN2026

Happy to share that this paper led by @caberger.bsky.social with @stoilovamarina.bsky.social @rebeccavarney.bsky.social @pcart.bsky.social Sam Abrams and Maria Pia is published -- Unexpectedly predictable molecular evolution with diverse ecologies 🧪 🧬 🌊 #Molevol #EvoBio www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Todd Oakley@ostratodd.bsky.social · 3mo ago

We started by studying gene reuse in eyes over deep time -- but were astonished to find adaptive molecular convergence to be rampant and not directly related to important traits, including eyes. Led by PD Cory Berger www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We started by studying gene reuse in eyes over deep time -- but were astonished to find adaptive molecular convergence to be rampant and not directly related to important traits, including eyes. Led by PD Cory Berger www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Bullfrog of the day! Monday, 27 July 2026

We had a fantastic opening ceremony today for the #ICN2026. We are thankful for all sponsors that make this meeting possible. Special thanks to @jexpbiol.bsky.social

Absolutely fascinating plenary by @roesslerdaniela.bsky.social about the diversity of sleep in spiders, the challenges of fieldwork, and much more! 🕷️💤 #ISBE2026

Eye movements reveal representational geometry https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.21.739743v1

If you’re at #ICN2026 come drop by my poster (#84) on Tuesday!

If you’re at SDB! Definitely check this out 📣

Amartya Tashi Mitra@binturong98.bsky.social · 2w ago

At SDB and into Evo‑Devo, eyes or optics? Come to my talk to see how @shubhamtr.bsky.social and I uncover how some insect larvae have evolved eyes that are morphological novelties! Graduate Research Network Symposium, 10:15 AM - 7/23, Celebrity Ballroom 3. #SDB2026

Such a magnificent and magical world… 🦋✨🫶 www.sunnyskyz.com/blog/4101/Ch...

Given the “AI is conscious” claims are getting attention and this is my field, I’ll comment again. No, Anthropic didn’t show some magic human-like consciousness feature. And it’s not because brains are made of special “meat.” Brains compute. 🧪#neuroscience

Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts | Anil Seth

Despite Anthropic’s claims, Claude is no more likely to achieve sentience than a simulation of a weather system is likely to generate a real hurricane, says Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and compu...

theguardian.com