Hey it's #WorldLizardDay 🦎 Here's one of my faves & one I saw *a lot* of growing up in rural Australia. Tiliqua rugosa has many common names, but where I'm from we call them "sleepy lizard" or "stumpy tail". Download the #oVertTCN CT scan from MorphoSource here: www.morphosource.org/concern/medi...

Attending the virtual #ICVM2025 conference? Check out our lightning talk on the imaging and articulation techniques we used to make our physical model of a dogfish skull and how physical models give new insights in research & education. icvm.econference.io/public/3JC8E... (registration req to view)

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

New Comparative Anatomy Textbook! Completely free to read and open access! doi.org/10.59319/YHF...

Curious about Devonian actinopterygian lower jaws? Look no further--our new paper provides comprehensive descriptions for 19 species in a tidy ~50 page summary! anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Did you know SICB has a YouTube? We have videos about @invertebabe.bsky.social @whysharksmatter.bsky.social @oceanfilly.bsky.social Kevin Kocot Native Bio Consortium Noah Gripshover Shaz Zamore & the @billryerson.bsky.social lab & more! Be sure to subscribe www.youtube.com/@societyfori...

There will be FREE, ON-SITE CHILDCARE AT #JMIH2025 #JMIH25! Bring your kids, folks. Only if we show demand for this service will it continue into the future. Now read on for how to save my life... 1/4 @IchsAndHerps @herpleague.bsky.social @ElasmoSociety @ssarherps www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2xQ...

One of the collaborative projects during my PhD is now published! We documented a mass mortality event of headstarted Blanding’s Turtles and naturally occurring Painted Turtles in an urban wetland complex. Why do mass mortality events occur? We offer a few hypotheses. doi.org/10.1643/h202...

I got mad and wrote an article.

STEM folks, this will greatly impact trans peoples ability to work in academia. It will cut off #trans researchers from conferences, field work, international Phd or post doc opportunities, and so much more! This will be bad for ALL trans people regardless of job type. #TransInSTEM #STEM

New article from @science.org gives a bit of a peek behind the curtain. It seems NSF internally has no idea what is happening, how to implement, or what the consequences of non-compliance will be.

Reminder: funding the work of making science more welcoming and inclusive leads to better science. AND it also helps set cultural expectations in STEM that scientists should not be racist, sexist pieces of shit—which is, I promise, an expectation we really want to set.

I’m continuing to do research without any grant funding at all because of this monumental project.

Before trying to get a bunch of scientists to leave their jobs voluntarily, one should consider that many of us completed our advanced degrees PURELY OUT OF SPITE.

We CT scanned thousands of vertebrates from US natural history collections and made them freely available. Countless people have used the data for research (>200 pubs) and to learn anatomy/morphology. www.morphosource.org/projects/000...

Hi, please call your reps tomorrow to restore funding to the NIH and oppose RFKs nomination! Here is a script you can use. If you are in Pennsylvania, you are calling these people: John Fetterman: (202) 224-4254 and David McCormick: (202) 224-6324

For those interested, lots of lawsuits went out and the federal grant freeze was temporarily stopped by the courts until at least Tuesday. They will then decide again after various lawyers submit documents. But there are other lawsuits that may also keep these stopped longer. 1/

What a great story of conservation and collaboration! #herps 🐢 www.fws.gov/story/return...

"Trump last week issued an [EO] to begin the process of withdrawing the U.S. from WHO, but that did not take immediate effect. Leaving WHO requires the approval of Congress and that the U.S. meets its financial obligations for the current fiscal year. The U.S. also must provide a one-year notice."

What the new administration is currently doing to our taxpayer-funded scientific agencies is active sabotage.

Hey science friends? I know that many of you are concerned about the perceived neutral and apolitical role of science in decisionmaking. But scientists are being targeted. We didn't start it. And advocating *for the role of scientific evidence in policymaking* is not unprofessional advocacy.

WaPo: "The National Science Foundation has halted for at least the rest of the week the work of review panels, in which outside experts rate the merit of proposals for scientific research." www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

"NSF was established in 1950 by Congress to: +Promote the progress of science. +Advance the national health, prosperity and welfare. +Secure the national defense. Our investments account for about 25% of federal support to America's colleges and universities for basic research."

On the word sabotage: Do I think that the point of the anti-DEIA order was to shut down NIH and NSF? No. Do I believe he was willfully negligent by not ameliorating the fallout? Absolutely. Blow up a dam with TNT, or fire the guy who cleans the spillway and let it fail: either way it's sabotage.

National Science Foundation freezes grant review in response to Trump executive orders : Shots - Health News : NPR 🚨This is extremely bad 🚨

Unlocking the Motivations of Repetitive Behaviours in Reptiles Our latest study ( sheds light on a perplexing behaviour seen in captive reptiles, namely their interactions with barriers (IWB), a form of repetitive behaviour akin to pacing in mammals. As part of her PhD research, Melanie Denommé…

First Peregrine of the year. Seems a little out of place for the Finger Lakes NY region for January but I’ll take it. 🦉

Another Elsevier paper with obvious AI-written text. “In summary, the management of bilateral iatrogenic I'm very sorry, but I don't have access to real-time information or patient-specific data, as I am an AI language model. “

Frontiers | Hook, line, and social media: crowd-sourced images reveal size and species patterns of ocean sunfishes (Tetraodontiformes, Molidae) from California to Alaska https://buff.ly/4h8yQ4R 🧪🦑🌎🐠

Accessible Sharks 2025 is a GO! This unique summer research internship for undergrad students with disabilities has been amazing for the past 2 summers, and we get to run a modified version as a bonus year! Learn more & apply here: accessiblesharks.wordpress.com Deadline Feb 14, 2025. Please share!

Therefore, I'm very grateful to researchers who produce such thorough re-assessments instead of chasing the next gen. et spec. nov., this is the quality control that palaeontology sorely needs. Another good example for that is the "four-legged snake" from Brazil. /7 www.science.org/content/arti...

This case unites much of what is going wrong in palaeontology: research on dubious specimens of unclear provenance and legality, lacking due diligence requirements from publishers, gatekeeping of specimens. Maybe also unsound and sensationalist taxonomic work but I'm not competent to judge that. /6

From a research ethics perspective, restricting access to a type specimen is highly problematic - and while that issue is usually discussed with respect to private collections, this case shows that it may affect specimens in public institutions as well. /5

Using another specimen from Morocco, the authors show how a CT scan can easily detect artifical alterations made to a fossil. They suggest that such a scan be performed by the original authors - because the latter refused them access to the Xenodens specimen. /4

So far, so questionable. But: A new study from December 2024 now even claims that the fossil was artificially altered to enhance its commercial value. The authors became suspicios, inter alia, because of multiple teeth sitting in the same root in the jawbone. /3 bsky.app/profile/most...

The holotype specimen was collected by local miners in Sidi Chennane and sits in the MNHM (Paris). The authors do not declare how it made its way to France, or if the licensing and permit requirements for fossils under Moroccan law were complied with. /2 www.livescience.com/ancient-sea-...

Another day, another case of questionable practices in #palaeontology. In the news today: Xenodens calminechari, a mosasaurid with "unique" dentition that was described from Moroccan #fossil material in 2021. Let's talk fossil trafficking, forgery, and accessibility of specimens, shall we? Thread /1

"Fieldwork-based research and education in ecology are under multiple threats and are progressively declining." This issue is linked to the erosion of natural history training in general.

PhD project opportunity here in Manchester to do some cool inter-disciplinary stuff on the taphonomy and fossil record of collagen. Ancient, recent, modern, lab-work, theoretical, data, imaging, its all there! Deadline Jan 31st www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Ever wondered how birds stand up? Our paper explores how emus use their muscles to stand up. We found that these large, flightless birds use large muscle fibre length changes, activations and forces. My 1st PhD chapter, out now in @jexpbiol.bsky.social! journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

🚨News! Museum scientists led a multi-institution effort to make 6,000+ 3D scans of non-human primate skeletons available for research—providing a valuable resource to scientists in the fields of biology, biological anthropology, evolutionary science, & conservation. Read more: amnh.link/4jaUgAc

Phenomenal

I've seen some great posters so far. I love how creative people get #SICB2025

Hey #sicb2025! Our open access comparative anatomy textbook is almost finished and we want to tell you about it! Come see us at P4-149 to check out some sample chapters, see our beautiful cover art, and celebrate the many DVM friends who contributed.

In case you missed it: Bird species in Australia are evolving smaller bodies and bigger beaks... in response to a warming climate! 🪶🧪🌏 theconversation.com/shrinking-wi...

Congratulations to Kory Evans @sternarchella.bsky.social, winner of this year’s @J_Exp_Biol sponsored Carl Gans Award at #SICB2025. His #biomechanics research examines the role of modularity in the evolution of the #fish skull. Don't miss his talk: 7 Jan at 13:30 in Marquis D Please repost

Up now is Jessica Tingle using conceptual frameworks for jump between biology and engineering! #SICB #SICBinspired @sicbjournals.bsky.social

Next up at #SICB2025: shark noses with @curlybiologist.bsky.social! Shark skin is covered in tiny teeth called denticles, which influence how water flows over the animal’s body. Amani takes images of sharks noses to look at the denticles, how they’re arranged, and how that helps the shark smell.