Water anoles take a bubble of air down when they submerge, which they breathe like a tiny scuba tank, and now @lindseyswierk.bsky.social & co reveal that the reptiles may also be using the bubble like a gill, to breathe oxygen directly from the water journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

I was collecting #quail #embryos this morning and found an individual with albinism! Look at the lack of pigment in the retinal epithelium! Reminds me of finding a leopard #gecko embryo with the same condition during my PhD.

New from #SCIMaP - analysis of the White House’s Proposed FY 2026 National Science Foundation Budget. Take-home: Slashing NSF by >50% will lead to ~$11 billion in economic loss and extensive job loss and reduced training opportunities in communities nationwide. Report: osf.io/e8rnc a 🧵

@a-weberling.bsky.social & I characterize oogenesis from initiation in the germinal bed to ovulatory follicles for the first time in the brown anole, a powerful reptile model for evo-devo & functional genetics! Full preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Read ICB's latest #editorial on #Communicating #Science with New Purpose @thomsanger.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/icb/... "The #scientific enterprise of the United States is facing challenges on a scale that many living #scientists have never encountered..." #communication #scicomm #PhD

I am one of a growing number of voices encouraging the scientific community to engage with people and policymakers outside of our typical professional circles. Our professional organizations, including @sicb.bsky.social, also need to engage with new audiences by making their science accessible.

A student told her professor “President Trump’s laws state that there are two genders,” and that the lesson was “illegal” for contradicting that. It’s not. Executive orders are not laws. Compliance with authoritarianism will not protect universities. Either we stand up for our missions or we fall.

Issue 16 is complete! On the cover: Embryonic eye of an anole lizard stained for nuclei and F-actin. The image was acquired at the 2025 MBL Embryology course by Arthur Boutillon and was the Editor's choice from the Node image competition. thenode.biologists.com/vote-for-you...

Come and be our new Chair of Biology at @gtsciences.bsky.social! We are growing an incredibly exciting ecology and evolution group here at GT and would love a visionary eco-evo minded person at the helm to help us do that. Please spread the word! biosciences.gatech.edu/chair-search

Our new paper is out in Royal Society Open Science! The metamorphic transition of the frog mouth: from tadpole keratinized mouthparts to adult teeth doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Our EEB department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is hiring an assistant professor in evo-devo. See go.illinois.edu/EEBAsstProf for details. Please share!

@agunderson.bsky.social Awesome stuff! From the paper: - Brown anole lizards are the most lead-tolerant vertebrates known to science. Field-collected animals have the highest blood lead levels ever recorded for a free-ranging vertebrate. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...?

My new @science.org editorial on the role of scientists in defending democracy is out today. As authoritarianism takes hold in the US, we must fight for the democratic principles that enable a free society and scientists have a key role. I hope you'll join us. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Yesterday I discovered that ChatGPT's PhD-level expertise didn't extend to bird anatomy. This morning I thought, perhaps I was being too hard on the half-trillion-dollar company. Birds are a little weird, anatomically speaking. Let's try something more familiar. A mammal. Behold.

Amazing lizard development coming from @a-weberling.bsky.social . Antonia continues to expand our knowledge on basic developmental processes by studying non-traditional organisms.

12 examples of how developmental biology research led to fundamental discoveries for biomedical research. There are many more! Download ppt & jpg versions on @socdevbio.bsky.social website. Use & modify as needed. Poster formats are also posted to print & hang in your lab!

The Tucker group @ccrb27.bsky.social is looking for a new postdoc to look at the interplay between the microbiome and the developing vomeralnasal organ. www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/121845-...

“More than 140 employees of the National Science Foundation have signed a letter denouncing what they described as efforts to undermine one of the country’s main science funding agencies. … Out of fear of retaliation, all but one of the employees’ signatures are redacted.”

Letter to Representative Lofgren - Appeal to Defend Civil Service Protections and the Mission of the NSF

EvoDevotees, if you are at #PASEDB2025 and interested in either of these job opportunities for Fish Facility Manager or Presidential Postdoc at Michigan State U, let’s grab a coffee and chat #EndlessFishMostBeautiful @evodevopanam.bsky.social

New paper today about the evolution of the wrist along the dinosaur to bird transition: a bird-like configuration appeared in predatory dinosaurs first, as suggested by new exceptionally preserved hands of oviraptors and troodontids www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Amazing symposium on Sex and Gender at #Evol2025 So grateful to all the speakers for bringing us together to think about how to teach and communicate these complex topics @jacanamama.bsky.social Thomas Sanger @bio-eddy.bsky.social @cissyballen.bsky.social

Excited to share a new #OA paper in @journalofanatomy.bsky.social detailing evolution and development of hemibacula: bizarre mineralized elements in hemipenes of croaking geckos. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #GeckoEvoDevo #Aristelliger

Fun night of comedy and science focused on sex/gender. Thom Sanger @thomsanger.bsky.social and Greg Matthews @statsinthewild.bsky.social rocked it!

1/2 Very excited to announce the publication of our study on early anole embryogenesis @devdynamics.bsky.social Read the full article here! anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @stowersinstitute.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk @oxfordwomenshealth.bsky.social @loyolachicago.bsky.social

Join us in the evolution tri-societies Week of Action for NSF! Call/write congress, engage with colleagues, friends and family about the importance of NSF funding! Scan the QR code on the attached image for instructions and scripts. We must make noise! Pls RT!!!! #WithoutNSF #SaveNSF #SupportNSF

SaveNSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the NSF. The mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation. Join: www.savensf.com

🚨🚨🚨🚨 NOT A FUCKING DRILL!!! NSF just announced slashing its indirect rate down to 15%, using the same previous fuckery at NIH. Applies to new awards made to institutions of higher education on or after May 5 or after. Demand to talk with your rep about reversing these cuts!!

#WithoutNSF I couldn’t be doing innovative, experimental work on tooth wear. Science helps our communities!

Great talk by @thomsanger.bsky.social yesterday (and the other panelists) on the societal and scientific aspects of sex and gender. I'm looking forward to his presentation at #Evol2025 for the @sse-evolution.bsky.social education and outreach symposium.

Today, a broad coalition of scientific professional societies who represent over 92,000 scientists are speaking out against the politicization and demonization of Federally funded science and government scientist jobs. It was an honor to help the Union of Concerned Scientists with this! 🧪🌎

The National Science Foundation benefits communities in every state.

Please help spread the word. Open tech position. My lab at Loyola University Chicago. www.careers.luc.edu/postings/31037 A project to improve eDNA resources and use eDNA to study fish diversity in Illinois's Fox River. @danielbolnick.bsky.social @ambikamath.bsky.social @ericrlarson.bsky.social

I got mad and wrote an article.

Seen elsewhere: “The response of the science community to the last month is not about one statement or action.” And THAT’S how you lose a battle of mass communication. Make ONE point and hammer it over and over. When you’re sick of it, that’s when someone is ready to hear it for the first time.

Briefly putting on my hat as @asn-amnat.bsky.social President: The ASN Council has just distributed an updated message to the American Society of Naturalists members with information about actions that can be undertaken to advocate for science, and scientists, within the US:

ICONIC: Yosemite National Park workers just hung an upside-down American flag—THOUSANDS of feet up on El Capitan. That’s not decoration. That’s a distress signal. They’re telling us the country is in danger. Are you paying attention? www.sfchronicle.com/outdoors/art...

I'm watching alongside Illinoisans what's happening in our country right now with dread. The authoritarian playbook is laid bare: they point to a group of people who don't look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems. What comes next?

Some brief thoughts from someone who studies public opinion. The federal firing spree can be made unpopular because it is being done in a haphazard way, there will be huge economic effects not just in DC but also across country & it's also likely illegal in many cases. But how to make that argument?

Firings happening right now at the NSF.

They’re firing NIH scientists and replacing them with people with this level of crappy chart-making? Sounds like the DOGE kids would benefit from going through the NIH postbac program. 🧪

It is natural to want to sink into nihilism. To say “well there’s nothing we can do” and put full trust in the courts, or just shrink into a small bubble and ignore the news and the outside world. Sometimes, that’s necessary. If you need to do it now, do it. But optimism is a choice you can make.

Happy Valentine's day from all the lizards who love you from the bottom of their obturator foramina! (lizard hip bones)🦎🧪💚

Ted Cruz "investigated" NSF and released a database of over 3,400 grants that promoted "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) or advanced neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda." 110 of the grants listed are funded through IOS or DEB programs. www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/2/cruz-...

Wel, no surprise that Coyne used his blog (whyevolutionistrue) to argue with the SSE/SSB/ASN letter about definitions of sex. I'm not going to engage deeply with the letter here. Like any committee-drafted text it reflects compromises; I agree with some phrasing but some could have been clearer 1/N

Getting the word out about Trump attacks in science is very important now. We keep talking to people who don’t know what is happening. Bluesky is a great platform, but it isn’t reaching everyone. When you read this, can you please make a commitment to tell two colleagues to get on Bluesky?

"The economy, stupid" stated strategist James Carville during the 1992 presidential campaign for Bill Clinton. This was a winning strategy for Clinton. A lesson we can all take from this: to win, focus on an effective, impactful message that resonates with a wide swath of American people.

If you are preparing to talk to people about the economic impacts that the budget cuts to NSF will have on your states, consider reading through the relevant NSF fact sheets first. new.nsf.gov/about/fact-s...

Earth & Life Sciences Academics communicating the new EO about indirect rates, imma need you to improve yer messaging- maybe don't say "If I get a million dollar grant, my uni gets another $700k to keep the lights on & water running" bc isn't going to get the traction you think it is-

Over the past 12 years I have felt seen and supported by #SICB. And they have provided the space, support, and funding for @wrong-whale.bsky.social and I to develop LGBTQI+ programming. ❤️