🧵 BREAKING: Gene therapy shows promise in slowing Huntington’s disease progression. A major milestone in neurodegenerative disease research. @uclqsion.bsky.social @ucl-hd.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

City-life changes the social behaviour of wall lizards 🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Remingtoncetid protowhales #sciart

“Who me? As a tripod fish, I deal with stress and fear by transforming into an eyeless abyssal predatory elder god. What about you?” 🎥 Huge thanks to @frida.yolotzin for letting me use the baby tripod fish video, and @schmidtocean for permission to share the adult video.

Yesterday was the 130th anniversary of the #ICZN, the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature. It was founded during the zoology congress in Leiden, organized by the then director the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Frederik Jentink.

Super happy to share the first chapter of my PhD, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface ✨🐀 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... Iridescence in mammals is not as rare as we thought, but it’s all created in the same way!

People who know reptiles well say they don't only experience fleeting pains and pleasures, but also lasting emotional states: happiness & sadness, or at least good & bad moods. But how do you show this in a scientific way? My latest for @nytimes.com on a clever @coldbloodedcog.bsky.social study:

Interested in doing your PhD in Spain on 🧠 ? Contact me to discuss projects and apply for this position! www.icp.cat/index.php/en...

Análise quantitativa das capacidades de voo de paleognatas basais esclarece a dispersão e a perda de voo das ratitas royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Updating my mammal lectures for the winter semester to cover truly ancient enamel proteins from Eastern Africa, water loss causing reversible brain shrinkage in shrews, rodent thumbnail evolution, and more ... Lots of progress in mammalogy last year!

A Thylacoleo and Her Joey

Very excited to present the first ornithomimosaurs from Early Cretaceous of Germany. Artwork by @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social and the paper is OA: www.app.pan.pl/article/item... Enjoy! More is to be described from this place

Really interesting study showing learning of tool use in carrion crows! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Favourite echinoderm ⭐

Mini marsupial bounces back from the brink! Once listed as Endangered, the crest-tailed mulgara expanded its range by more than 48,000 km² between 2015 and 2021, lifting its status to Least Concern. Biocontrol contributed to the heartwarming bounce-back. https://f.mtr.cool/afllseseeb

Kinematic and *multi-force-plate* analysis of walking in giant pandas! Quite a technical achievement in biomechanics, and certainly cute as all hell. Scientifically, no shocking findings but it's a useful study with lots of data. 18 pandas (6 = juvenile), 120 trials link.springer.com/article/10.1...

ganges river dolphin #sciart

Academic authors, here's a peek into the black box of journal publishing from an journal editor if you can bear it:

Protowhales #sciart

A couple of snapshots from Plzen Zoo today

Journal of Comparative Neurology | Systems Neuroscience Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

"endothermy-like physiology and rapid growth challenge previous interpretations which assumed marine reptiles preferred warmer conditions. All the large-sized Early Triassic ichthyosaurs are found in non-Tethys seas." Very interesting work in many regards! 🧪

Sad day for peope who still believe brain areas are the primary organizational units of function in the brain. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Incidentally thumbnails are also thought to be an early adaptation in Primates linked to dexterity for (if you agree with cartmill and I do) catching insects! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Excited for the upcoming TIBBE online talks &discussions with the amazing @matosches.bsky.social & @pkatz.bsky.social around How can we define homologous cell types across vertebrates and invertebrates? Next Wednesday, September 10, 2pm UTC, 4pm Paris 🧠🦎🐣🐭🌊 Join us www.crowdcast.io/c/evolution-...

Look at this crazy thing! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧠🦈Excited to present our latest work🧠🦈Interested in brain evolution? And shark embryos? Then read on… Our work sheds light on the deep origins of our brain’s most complex regions.

New DNA test could help preserve endangered gibbon populations - a genetic test to reliably determine the species of an individual gibbon. phys.org/news/2025-09...

Scientists discover the secret behind the shrew’s amazing ability to shrink their brains 🧠 The clever trick sheds unwanted weight without compromising too much on cognition. Find the 5-letter word 👇 Study by @cecibaldoni.bsky.social Dechmann Lab #shrewcrew et al www.ab.mpg.de/743885/news_...

when I'm supposed to care that bsky is 'dying' again:

Just visited Lucy and the Dikika child in Prague. Icons.

Join us tomorrow, Sept 1st!

"He is broken and tired, but free"

Result of the Jialingjiang Formation #paleostream! This might be one of my favorite Triassic formations, although I might be biased because I love hupehsuchians and this formation just manages to hold all fot them.

Most of the animals living here were rather small by marine reptile standards, probably because of the conditions they lived in, and yet this formation gave us, in my eyes, one of the most charming collections of Triassic goofballs. Size chart by me this time, did this a while ago.

Renesto, S., Ragni, C. & Magnani, F. The first specimen with skin preserved of Lariosaurus (Eusauropterygia) from the Middle Triassic of Monte San Giorgio (Switzerland) allows inferences about its swimming method. Swiss J Palaeontol 144, 56 (2025). doi.org/10.1186/s133...

Great talk by @yoonjungyi.bsky.social on using playback experiments to assess competition in providing sential behaviour as a signal of quality in littermate meerkats. 📢 @behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org

Most-viewed Guardian articles last night. Editors shouldn’t think that the public doesn’t want to know more about climate change. Or about ocean science 🌊! Read the article about our paper: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

🚨🧪We’ve just published a new paper!🚨 We peered inside the bones of duck-billed dinosaurs from Patagonia to uncover secrets of their physiology. And they are VERY distinct from both carnivorous and long-necked dinosaurs 🦕🔬 [+] anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

How does the alvinellid worm Paralvinella hessleri survive the toxic extremes of deep-sea #HydrothermalVents? A new study shows that it detoxifies its environment by forming orpiment minerals inside cells; this unique #biomineralization is a novel adaptation to toxic environments.🧪 plos.io/3HtVCZ6

Shoshonius

If you don't have access to Nature, but would like to read our paper on the new specimen of #Spicomellus, you can read it online at this link with no subscription: rdcu.be/eCJK3

Just in: insect application to wounds happens also in East African chimpanzees: share.google/WwKqxSy4t0e2...

Comparative neuroimaging of the carnivoran brain: Neocortical sulcal anatomy | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Some of the primate residents of the Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau 🇬🇼 spotted together during the field yesterday. Temminck’s Red Colobus (Piliocolobus badius temminckii), King Colobus (Colobus polykomos) and Campbell’s Monkey (Cercopithecus campbelli) #primates 🐵 #Guinea-Bissau #primatology

Six years ago - the stone guardians of London’s Natural History Museum. Seen from the members lounge/Anning Rooms 🧪🏺🦕🌱💎🐋🌏 @nhm-london.bsky.social

We simply cannot lose Biodiversity Heritage Library. Please consider helping if you can. 🙏

Broad in scope but strikingly concise, highly accessible, and nuanced - go get this book if you have even the slightest interest in birds and/or vertebrate brain evolution. I will use it a lot. Congrats @evoneuro.bsky.social! #neuroskyence 🧪