My department at CSU Northridge is hiring a vertebrate functional morphologist! We've got a great EEB group, and we're looking for someone to carry forward a tradition of enriching organismal courses and community-engaged research. App review starts March 15 csucareers.calstate.edu/mob/cw/en-us...

The new computational model for jaw mechanics in piranhas is called PiranhaLever, available for download on my GitHub github.com/mwestneat/Pi.... Along with various other models for biomechanics and morphometrics. All Mac apps, install the dmg and skirt your security demon 😎

Piranha bite force and tooth stress are fantastically high for their size! Check out our new paper on computational modeling of the cranial muscles and bite mechanics of the amazing piranhas. #biomechsky 🐟🧪🌿 link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007...

Remarkable. Report of a Brazilian spiny-rayed fish dating to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous, preceding the oldest known acanthomorphs by ~20 million years. Gondwanacanthus extends the roots of one of today's most prominent vertebrate radiations: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Neil H. Shubin has been elected as the next NAS President! A leading evolutionary biologist and science communicator, Shubin will succeed Marcia McNutt on July 1. The Academy also named Cherry Murray as International Secretary and elected new councilors. Read more: www.nasonline.org/news/2026_pr...

Proud graduate of this awesome course in 2000- Highly recommend!

New @jexpbiol.bsky.social paper alert! The grips of hawks and owls on their often struggling prey are strong! Check out our new paper led by Alex Clark and with @linnealungstrom.bsky.social. Alex with the cover photo 🧪🌿🦉 #Biomechanics #AerialFishes journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

We are doing a food drive across multiple Departments and programs at UChicago. Our box in Culver Hall for Organismal Biology and Anatomy is now greatly overflowing 🤙 To the food pantries soon!

NSF is open again! A few comments: *Please be patient. During a shutdown NSF employees cannot open computers or respond to emails. *Merit review will continue. However panels won’t resume until after Dec 8th. *POs remain excited and committed to advancing science and the scientific workforce.

Happy Halloween! We are THE haunted Harper Ave block in Hyde Park, and will serve candy to thousands of South Side Chicago kids tonight! I have a bunch of cool skulls out in the yard but the baseball graveyard is the most popular. 😆

Seems like the L flag was bad luck. Brewers are now 0-3 after using it to celebrate their opponents loss. Oops.

ICB From the Evan's lab! Developmental and Functional Interactions Structure Patterns of Variational #Modularity in the Lunar #Wrasse Skull by Hugi,& @sternarchella.bsky.social et al doi.org/10.1093/icb/... Evans lab koryevans.weebly.com/people.html

Our killer team of @mfarjo.bsky.social, Ryan Isdonas, Andrew George, and @mwestneat.bsky.social found: 🐠head/body shapes are related to diet 🐠fishes have pairs of high/low aspect ratio propulsive fins (caudal/pectoral) 🐠caudal fins have the highest evolutionary rates & covary with body/pectoral fins

So excited to see our paper on #phylogenetics and #morphometrics integrated with feeding #ecology in the surgeonfishes by @linnealungstrom.bsky.social get posted, her first in a series on their incredibly cool biology. 🐟🦑🧪🌎🌿

No better reason to join Bluesky then to say the first chapter of my PhD is out as a preprint! New surgeonfish phylogeny, ecomorphological relationships, evolutionary shape correlations-with NEW method to accurately account for phylogenetic covariation among shapes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Seems worth noting this award in light of the present circumstances. Get the troops out of our fair city please, perhaps after they enjoy a great Malnati’s pizza!

Science news article about 2nd year grad students being unceremoniously dropped from the GRFP eligibility with no explanation or warning: www.science.org/content/arti...

Join us! We are hiring a new #curator at the #AMNH in #Vertebrate #Zoology careers.amnh.org/postings/4600 #academicjobs #tenuretrack

Drone observations reveal white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) dorsal fins are highly flexible and possible investigatory structures onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🧪🌎🦑🦈🐠

Aren't they lovely? Congratulations to my great colleague Bud Freeman, this is the culmination of over a decade of work! www.mapress.com/zt/article/v...

It’s a start, congrats to our Harvard colleagues! www.cnn.com/2025/09/03/p...

I'm aware that the President likes to go on television and beg me to call him to ask for troops. I find it strange, as Chicago doesn't want troops. I also have experience asking him for assistance – just to have the rug pulled up from underneath me when execution meets reality.

Excited to share the first paper from my PhD! We looked at what traits help Aneides salamanders excel at climbing using museum specimens, CT scans, SEM, and more! No claws or toe pads, so how do they do it? In short, with long limbs, big feet and grippy toes! 🦎🧪 DM for PDF doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

#OceanOptimism newsroom.wcs.org/News-Release...

Ever wonder how the axial locomotor system is arranged into segmented myomeres of red and white muscle in a large pelagic surgeonfish? Well, now you know! 🐟🧪🦑

I’m proud to announce my first first-author paper of my Ph.D! We described and modeled the muscle architecture of a pangolin’s tongue using DiceCT and 3D modeling approaches. Each model is available on the Holliday lab Sketchfab. academic.oup.com/icb/advance-... sketchfab.com/holliday/col...

Naso! Great genus of surgeonfishes, sporting the vicious cutting scalpel blades at the base of their tail. Here is a better color photo of that bignose where you can see the tail blades. 🐟🦑🧪🌎

Bignose Unicornfish! Yep, Naso vlamingii, a very nice specimen for our research, collected with permit. They have 2 wicked sharp scalpel blades on each side of their tail base, but are they venomous? We will know soon! 🐟🦑🌿🧪🌎

Acanthuriform fishes! Research goals on Moorea are focused on morphology and evolution of defensive spines and backbones of surgeonfishes, angelfishes, and butterflyfishes. We have a scientific permit to collect specimens, and here are 2 beauties, Acanthurus lineatus and Pygoplites diacanthus. 🐟🦑🧪

Local Moorea fish markets are interesting, with stringers hung (and often taxonomically sorted!) on the side of the road. Gotta get there early- these were mostly gone by about 5:30 am. Some good specimens for Linnea and Olivia’s research! 🐟🧪🦑🌎

The Red-Vented Bulbul stopped by my cottage on Moorea. You can just see his red ass! 🧪🌿🐦‍⬛

Shark’s Tooth Peak, the dramatic volcanic backdrop to our research on marine fishes here at the CRIOBE marine lab. 🧪🐟🦑

Doing some work at the CRIOBE marine lab on Moorea with some students. This place is fantastic, the staff are so great, efficient and helpful, and the access to the water is easy and fun. A few posts from Opunohu Bay to come!

Our new REU student Darla found something interesting in one of her CT scans! Looks like this fish was halfway through eating a big snail and some coral rubble when @mwestneat.bsky.social caught it last summer in Okinawa!

Pretty pleased with this mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) in the Keys today. What a great fish! This little one was released but we did get a couple that were keepers for dinner. #CatchAndRelease 🐟

New species of sucker just dropped👍 mapress.com/zt/article/v...

Hello ground hog, please stop digging under my deck? 😃 🦊 🌿 😎

Florida: 100% of the iconic Caribbean elkhorn coral died in Dry Tortugas National Park in 2023 due to global heating. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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

Coelacanths illuminate deep-time evolution of cranial musculature in jawed vertebrates. By Aléssio Datovo & G. David Johnson Sci. Adv. 2025 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Woohoo! Another PhD candidate successfully presents their dissertation proposal! Olivia Guerra, working on backbone #biomechanics, #morphometrics and #evolution in the lab. Fishes, of course. 🐟🧪🌎🎣

Bowfin feeding mechanics! Check out our new paper on feeding mechanics in Amia ocellicauda using XROMM x-ray video technology. Led by Katie Whitlow #Biomechanics 🐟🧪🎣🌎 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

We are now inserting jaw genes from Epibulus insidiator into the wolf genome in order to create the Sling-Jaw Wolf, Canis insidiator

Oh damn, there is a new heptapterid catfish in the world too! 🐟🌿🌎🧪👍 bioone.org/journals/ich...

Sorry Shakespeare, new Hamlet just dropped! www.mapress.com/zt/article/v...

Scientists Record First Known Shark Sounds 🦑🧪🐟🦈 www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...

With over 2.8 million anglers in the provinces and states surrounding the Great Lakes, we know how important the water is to our fisheries. #WorldWaterDay

Crystal caves! with Jamaican fruit eating bats, cute, brown and upside down. Grand Cayman Island. 🌎🦊🌿🧪

The beautiful Centropyge nahackyi is a very rare angelfish found only on deep reefs of Johnston Atoll and occasionally Hawaii. When I went to Johnston back in 2006 they were quite common below 35m depth, and, unlike other pygmy angelfishes, surprisingly easy to photograph!

Blue iguana! The endangered and really quite blue native iguanas (Cyclura lewisi) of Grand Cayman are amazing. Great #conservation and recovery story. 🌎🧪🦎