Saws, scissors, and more, the oceans used to be full of huge ratfish relatives with amazing teeth. So what happened to them? I dive in over at Smithsonian Magazine. 🧪

Bumping to the Fishes! and Science feeds🐟🧪

Disheartening to learn that after 18 years, founder Ken-ichi Ueda has left iNaturalist, citing irreconcilable differences in the direction of the company. kueda.net/blog/2026/01... He has a Patreon while he figures out his next move: www.patreon.com/cw/kueda

Our new paper in @natrevbiodiv.nature.com highlights the untapped potential of CMS for enhancing the conservation of migratory freshwater fishes, which are currently underrepresented in Appendices I & II of CMS. Check the full text here: rdcu.be/eXOlk

92% of adults view museums as nonpartisan sources of education. This rare level of confidence gives museums both an opportunity and a responsibility to model how people might think and listen together, explains one museum director.

Happy #FossilFriday! Kicking off 2026 with Bonnerichthys, a weird suspension feeder from the Niobrara that @friedmanlab.bsky.social graciously included me in the description of. Art @bobnichollsart.bsky.social We're excavating a ~ complete one that I found last spring, finishing up this year 🧪🧵

Awesome article in @science.org on @danielgeldof.bsky.social Master's thesis on the secret of the rockhead poacher’s (Bothragonus swanii) unusual cranial anatomy. Daniel did some beautiful CT scans on this odd fish's head. www.science.org/content/arti...

Great news article about the Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute's Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection and our recent accessions of specimens from the DEEPEND Consortium and the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

AI slop has made it to the deep sea. That’s not a blobfish: Deep Sea Social Media is Flooded by AI Slop www.southernfriedscience.com/thats-not-a-...

It’s this time of the year again! Merry #fishmas 😍😍😍

Titan Triggerfish are truly the honey badgers of the coral reef.

Better late than never! Titus/SymBio Lab is now official on BlueSky. Our research is focused on understanding how symbiosis generates and maintains marine biodiversity. We integrate systematics, field ecology, and genomics. Get in touch if you’re interested in joining the team!

Bruce Collette is a national treasure!🐟

Eulachon have such a high oil content (15-20% of their entire body weight!) that they burn can like a candle when dried - hence the name “candlefish." Their valuable rendered oil was also historically traded among tribes along the Pacific coast on routes known as grease trails #25DaysofFishmas

I appreciate the people going out of their way to create content for the "what not to do" section of my prion disease lecture. Yum. Prion burger 🦌 (In all seriousness, do not eat deer from CWD positive regions - prion disease is the arguably worst way to die)

Bumping to the Fishes! and Science feeds🐟🧪

Make sure you're on the Gneiss List by visiting the Alabama Museum of Natural History on December 12 for our All Day Holiday Open House! From 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., admission to the Museum will be free all day and we're and giving away bookmarks and festive buttons to take home!

100+ y.o. tractor @ Henry Ford with a fishy connection. Edward Phelps Allis Jr., one of the great comparative anatomists of the last century, enjoyed substantial financial support as the son of E. P. Allis Sr., founder of a manufacturing company specialized in industrial and agricultural equipment.

My students working on our woodpecker project were recently featured in UA's Collegian Magazine! What a nice piece! 🧪

Do striped hyenas have a sweet tooth? Yes, yes they do. Here's the first record of honey consumption by a hyena, caught on a camera trap in Kenya: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 🧪🌍🐾🍯

Wow.... Incredible close-up of spider silk wins science photo prize www.newscientist.com/article/2506...

New project documenting A.I. slop graphics in academic journals neurodojo.blogspot.com/2025/12/new-...

Bumping to the Fishes! and Science feeds. 🐟🧪

Forget Snakes on a Plane; how about Ticks on an Eel? cc @greenleejw.bsky.social entomologytoday.org/2025/12/03/t...

The CVN lab is officially hosting a ~12h educational livestream next Tuesday! It'll be like a data-collection LAN (lamb?) party where we will count as many headbutts as possible! Tune in for goats facts and to learn about our research! We are taking topic suggestions 🧪 nicoleackermans.com/live/

Pathology of stranded blue sharks (Prionace glauca) impaled by swordfish (Xiphias gladius) 🦑🌿🐟🦈 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What’s missing from natural history collections? Maria Dragoi, @ucl.ac.uk Museum Studies alumna and current PhD candidate, discusses her research into our entomology collection and the importance of interpreting collections through a decolonial lens. www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-coll...

New post by me on #MITPressReader @mitpress.bsky.social On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’). thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...

On this day in 1954, a meteorite blew a hole in Ann Hodges' roof, ricocheted off a large Philco radio, and struck her in the side (she survived). It contains fragments of the first things to make up our solar system. See it at the Alabama Museum of Natural History. → bit.ly/3F92ky9

🐈 What's TikTok good for? Examining which arthropods are hunted by cats. 🌍 Social media have become an increasingly useful resource in ecological research. 🪲 We now know that cats kill arthropods from 14 different orders. 🧪 Study: resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Happy #FossilFriday! This tooth plate is from a giant fossil lungfish called Ceratodus. This specimen is thought to be from the Mesozoic Era and is estimated to be up to 13 feet long! Lungfish have been around for nearly 400 million years, and are one of the closest living relatives to tetrapods!🦎

A new analysis of Dunkleosteus terrelli reveals its massive jaws were far more cartilage-rich than once thought, reshaping ideas about muscle layout, bite mechanics & feeding style. Time to rethink this Devonian apex predator. Engelman et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Great video highlighting the value of natural history collections and the importance of preserving them for generations to come

Great "behind the paper with @royalsocietypublishing.org" seminar - lead author of "Evidence of active sound production by a shark" discusses how she came to discover that New Zealand rig sharks can make strange noises @cassyni.bsky.social cassyni.com/events/NRzSF...

Basking sharks visit Tipperary! A new exhibition by Irish artist Tom Meskell opened last weekend in Tipperary Town. In 'Basking - the Nursery', the focal points are two juvenile sharks, each about 2.5 metres in length, suspended in blue-green light amidst the sounds of the ocean.

What does representation in natural history look like? Mark your calendars for Giving Tuesday (Dec 2) — we’re excited to share how you can support #BlackinNHMs.” #GivingTuesday Donation link: www.blackinnhms.org/donate

In preparation for this upcoming panel at @sicb.bsky.social, I filmed an Editing 101 for scientists looking to make longer form science outreach videos using Premiere Pro. You can check it out here! youtu.be/pBLuY9ScjEI

UW-Madison is hiring a Professor of History who work in the history of science with a focus on water For full consideration, all materials must be received no later than 11:59pm on December 31, 2025. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/profess...

I'm delighted to share the latest publication involving my lab - out now in PNAS: Geochemists & Paleontologists across the globe joined forces to confirm the preservation of molecular #biosignatures in #fossil organic matter - and explore signals associated with photosynthesis.

NEW episode of MeatEater Podcast chatting gars & native fish conservation! Grateful for the opportunity to chat stewardship of freshwater natural resources with Steve Rinella and the hunting & fishing crew! youtu.be/xLDSV5qbyzw?...

Ichthyologist Fang Fang Kullander would have been 63 years old today. She travelled the globe for her taxonomical studies of freshwater fish and her work with Fishbase, but passed away at the age of 47 in 2010 from gall duct cancer. #WomenInSTEM #Ichthyology #FishSky #BioSky 🧪🐟

For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨

Ohio State news piece on our deep-sea fish body shape study: news.osu.edu/how-fishes-o...

By the mid-1970s, only 200 American crocodiles remained, their habitat largely gobbled up by sunseekers. But hope lurked in the shadows of a nuclear power plant—the same facility built to air-condition the homes that had led to the reptiles’ demise. Read more about this unlikely partnership:

Large-eyed animals like owls 🦉 have a trade-off between large eyes & short optic nerves, which lowers eye mobility (to compensate they evolved swivelly necks) But chameleons 🦎 have long, coiled optic nerves with extra slack for eye mobility, allowing them to use their famous large swivelly eyes 👀🧪🌏

A flatfish of some sort (I have no idea what sort) in Anilao #MarineLife 🌿🐟

Here is a quick read to enjoy along with your morning coffee. ☕

#Museums had a rough 2025: New AAM Report shows lower attendance, lost grants, and less money. 🙁

Did you know. That the meme-explosion that was the wooden model of Sacabambaspis (an Ordovician jawless fish) held at a Museum in Helsinki, was created by a pioneering Estonian fish paleontologist and palaeoartist, Elga Mark-Kurik. 🧵

For anyone who can live in Flordia, a great opportunity in an amazing collection: FMNH is looking for an experienced full-time Collections Manager II or III as Director of Invertebrate Paleontology Collections within the Department of Natural History. 🧪⚒️🦑 explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...