Professor Peter Cook publishes groundbreaking new research on how pinniped brains evolved to unlock vocal plasticity in the publication Science. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Love this framing by @biotay.bsky.social - I always lead with vocal learning and then work back to breathing, but the reverse is far less cognitively frictive.

Dolphins washing up on the shores of Patagonia may have been fleeing orcas in the area

By mapping the brains of seals and sea lions, researchers have uncovered specialized neural circuits that have evolved to support the control of complex vocal behavior and learning in the species. Learn more this week in Science: https://scim.ag/4bpsJYU

🧠🧪🧵1/37 Our new paper on how pinniped (seal and sea lion) brains evolved to unlock vocal plasticity is this week's @science.org cover. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

How does the #brain retrieve motor skills? Ali Rezaei, Jason Gallivan &co show that the default mode network actively reinstates past connectivity patterns to accelerate relearning, revealing a neural mechanism for preserving skills over time. 🧪 #NeuroSky plos.io/4cHK1mo

Young magpies learn to combine calls into "sentences" much like human toddlers: through listening to family and friends! Now available to read at @royalsocietypublishing.org @mandyridley.bsky.social @stephanielking.bsky.social @ceb-uwa.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Neonatal auditory input affects vocal development in harbour seals. New paper by Teresa Raimondi & al. with Koen de Reus, Yannick Jadoul, @andrearavignani.bsky.social doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0369

Fantastic opportunity to work with us at Shark Bay Dolphin Research 👇🏻

1/9 Comparison of carnivore brains beyond brain size They compared the brains of 26 carnivore species (including canids, felids, and ursids, among others) using magnetic resonance imaging. (paper) elifesciences.org/articles/100...

A new paper in Science suggests that primates (a bonobo male) can engage in "secondary representation" or "pretense", similar to children drinking pretend tea at a tea party. whyevolutionistrue.com/2026/02/06/c...

Another new paper led by SMRU's @izzylangley.bsky.social: First observations of grey seal cannibalism at Sable Island, inc. a comparison of carcass pathology to cases in Scotland. Collab between SMRU, DFO and @dalhousie.bsky.social with support from @oceanfrontier.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/mms....

New article with some legendary marine mammal research vets - we make the case for opportunistic, developmental studies of naturally occurring maternal exposure to algal neurotoxins in sea lions. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This one was a long time in the making! Written with my great colleagues Heidi Harley and Gordon Bauer, and a host of people game enough to engage with us on cognition and marine mammal conservation at a special 2022 Marine Mammal Society workshop. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

On Friday, Congressional Democrats led members of their party in demanding the Trump administration withdraw their proposed rules that would dismantle the ESA. Over one million comments were submitted before the close of the public comment period on December 22. Read more: https://bit.ly/49uubtd

New paper: New species of sea lion, Otaria josefinae, from the early Pleistocene Pongo Fm. of Peru (1.9-1.4 myo) - extinct ancestor(?) or sister species of the South American sea lion. 🐬🦖🧪Read the paper here: academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

Cow Tools! We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years. We breed them and exploit them It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS Here I describe our study (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social with @auersperga.bsky.social

Here's a fun one - colleagues did formant analysis on a harbor seal before and after he learned to modify one of his vocalizations. A growing body of work suggests Phocinae seals really do have fairly high vocal production plasticity. Wonder why... link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Nature research paper: Predictive coding of reward in the hippocampus go.nature.com/49mB13V

Analyses of hundreds of thousands of papers in the natural sciences reveal a paradox: scientists who use AI tools produce more research but on a more confined set of topics go.nature.com/458k7Ub

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti... Salmon hats may be the closest thing to a non-human animal meme yet documented. Socially spread, no clear link to vital learned behaviors as with most animal play. The stuff about the paralimbic lobe though - we don’t know it’s function yet.

1/2 Ai, the chimpanzee who revolutionized science from Kyoto, has died at the age of 49. She was the first chimpanzee to learn Arabic numerals. Here you can see her in action in Tetsuro Matsuzawa's laboratory.

“There is nothing we can do to this planet…that will make it less habitable than Mars already is.” Mark McCaughrean shares the lessons he’s learnt from a career in space science, on “Babbage”

www.theatlantic.com/science/2026... As a sea lion (cognitive) scientist (pinnipedlab.ucsc.edu/files/2020/0...), I've been thinking about these guys for years. Because sea lions are flexible resource finders but ruthless exploiters, they're hard to deter. A new sea lion is always showing up!

North Atlantic #Orca appear to be expanding from harassing #yachts to going after #commercialvessels North Atlantic warning: orcas now targeting commercial vessels in what experts call coordinated assaults share.google/kwy5wy9eIc33...

Glutamate is the primary molecule that neurons use to communicate with each other. Previously, scientists have mostly recorded when neurons fire output signals, but now with a new glutamate indicator, they can record the many inputs that causes cells to fire. 🧵 #neuroskyence

Really interesting research showing that while ultra-specialization in a single discipline might lead to better results early in one’s career, multi-discipline training and practice pays off big time in the long run. This applies to a range of professions from scientists to athletes and more

The newest episode of the pod dives into how scientists are learning to decode the calls of the endangered Hawaiian monk seals

Greek tragedy: the rare seals hiding in caves to escape tourists Greece is hoping that protected areas will help keep daytrippers away and allow vulnerable monk seals to return to their island habitats www.theguardian.com/environment/...

From the new issue: Meet the scientists (and a very good dog named Eba) rushing to save southern resident killer whales off the coast of Washington State

1/2 Collaboration between killer whales and dolphins on Canada's Pacific coast Killer whales follow dolphins in search of salmon. They alternate their echolocation to avoid overlap. The killer whales catch the salmon (too large for the dolphins) and the dolphins get the scraps.

Polar bears are adapting to climate change at a genetic level - and it could help them avoid extinction ->The Conversation | #extinction #climate change #polar bear | More from Lil Dr Glen EcoChat at BigEarthData.ai

We are so back, y'all.

Scientists searching for new ways to combat cancer think they may have uncovered a promising new lead in the DNA of the bowhead whale. n.pr/4ocq6xG

Blink to the beat! Human movements are known to synchronize with rhythmic patterns in #music. This study reveals that spontaneous #EyeBlinks also align with musical beats, linking this to brain activity, #WhiteMatter structure & dynamic attention @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/44gYBMi

Why do whales and elephants have much lower rates of cancer than expected? "Species with a lower cancer prevalence and mortality risk are those with a higher presence of cooperative and caring habits, while the opposite is found....:" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"Upland forests are like natural rainmakers," Jiang said. "Protecting these ecosystems isn't just about biodiversity—it's about sustaining agriculture." #ClimateEmergency and #NatureCrisis intimately interlinked phys.org/news/2025-11...

The intelligence of slime mold is that of its materials All of Physarum's intelligent behaviors can be explained by physics, as in non-living materials (e.g., water following the path of least resistance), and do not require a representation of the problem. (preprint) arxiv.org/pdf/2511.08531

Honoring James A. Estes, a pioneering ecologist whose research on sea otters in Alaska revealed how predators shape entire ecosystems. His work helped define the concept of trophic cascades and inspired generations of ecologists. Read the PNAS Retrospective: https://ow.ly/leKs50XrKBH

🐬 New study reveals rare insights into the anatomy of the hourglass dolphin (Cephalorhynchus cruciger) & spectacled porpoise (Phocoena dioptrica). Researchers detail organs, skeletons & unique traits. Graïc et al: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A new technique called ‘mind captioning’ generates descriptive sentences of what a person is seeing or picturing in their mind using a read-out of their brain activity, with impressive accuracy. go.nature.com/3XbnxB1

On Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island, gray wolves have been observed hunting sea otters, a rare and surprising behavior. Researchers are now working to learn more about how these wolves are adapting to marine prey, using methods such as wolf teeth analysis and trail cameras. Read more: bit.ly/4qofVsr

Absolutely amazing thread on fossil walruses 🦭 which are a surpisingly large group considering there is only one walrus species alive today!

160 scientists, 23 countries, 1 report: The Global Tipping Points Report 2025, together with @exeter.ac.uk, highlights mounting risks across Earth’s systems, from melting glaciers & ice fields to slowing ocean currents, ice sheets & rainforests under pressure. Watch now👇 👉global-tipping-points.org

Goodall transcribes field notes by lamplight in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park c.1960

Was happy to write a commentary for this very cool opportunistic study of long-term neural effects of partner loss in coyotes (which are the rare sexually monogamous species). Naturalistic studies of non-model species are a great complement to lab models. authors.elsevier.com/a/1lkyT15hTu...

⚠️ House Republicans’ new FY26 bill would slash EPA & Fish & Wildlife funding and gut the Endangered Species Act, stripping protections from gray wolves, grizzlies, wolverines & more. This is a direct attack on wildlife, ecosystems, and public health. We must speak out. 🔗Read more: bit.ly/4mgexFx

Donald Trump’s signature legislation would menace the American economy for at least a decade. It is a showcase of fiscal incontinence and ideological exhaustion https://econ.st/4kvmdT2 Illustration: Ricardo Tomás

1/4 Use of tools (for allogrooming) in orcas They have been recorded (Salish Sea) using kelp, cutting it (technically the first documentation of toolmaking in cetaceans) and using it to groom others. (paper) www.cell.com/current-biol...