Here’s your reminder to go on a little weekend adventure every so often.

#FishADay Albatrossia pectoralis Giant Grenadier. Deep (usually 400 to 1,000 m) benthic North Pacific, up to 2m long. Juveniles seem to be pelagic, settling to the bottom as they mature. Glorious video by NOAA Ocean Exploration youtu.be/yuLDm3mXvas

#February11 is International Day of Women and Girls in Science 🔬 We are privileged to have a wide variety of books in our collection by, or about, women in science and marine biology. So to celebrate we've set up a display of a small selection of them in our Reading Room @thembauk.bsky.social

#FishADay Parupeneus barberinus Dotdash goatfish. Indo-Pacific reef flats and lagoons down to 100m. Names for caudal peduncle dot and prominent stripe; stripe is black in shallower fishes, red in deeper ones. Enjoy some classic barbel snuffling through sand for tasty morsels. youtu.be/YxK9lrHQbYw

#FishADay Eleotris sandwicensis O'opu 'akupa aka Sandwich Island Sleeper. Hawai'i's only endemic sleeper goby. Hatch in lower streams, move down to marine waters to mature, then return to freshwater. Increasingly frequent droughts on the islands could be a problem. www.nps.gov/articles/pac...

#FishADay Enneacanthus chaetodon Blackbanded Sunfish. Thrives in tannic, vegetated waters from New Jersey to Florida. Range decreasing and fragmenting with drying of wetlands; extirpated or endangered in some parts of Eastern US. Pet trade also a problem in some places. www.fws.gov/rivers/story...

#FishADay Icichthys lockingtoni Medusafish. N. Pacific Ocean, pelagic. Young seen offshore sheltering in jellyfish (time code 0:29 in this video from @mbarinews.bsky.social, although really, you should watch the whole thing; there are juvy king crabs riding a sea pig). youtu.be/VhG7LNUcvYc

#FishADay Mitsukurina owstoni Goblin Shark. Benthopelagic, mostly near continental slopes and seamounts. Known from < 250 captured individuals, so a recent well-documented recreational rod-and-reel capture (and release!) off the Canaries is very exciting. oceanographicmagazine.com/news/rare-de...

#FishADay Neocyttus helgae False Boarfish. North Atlantic below 900m. 2009 submersible study documented territorial displays, including raising dorsal fin spine and trying to bite the vehicle. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhD3...

#FishADay Sphyraena barracuda Great Barracuda. Global tropical and warm temperate oceans. Ambush prey in open water, swimming them down at up to 58 km/h (36 mph). Attacks on humans do happen (read on), but ciguatera seems to be biggest barracuda-associated danger. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOsA...

#FishADay Atherina presbyter Sand Smelt. Northeastern Atlantic, shallow estuarine and coastal. Spawn from January to June. Important food fish for humans and other fishes, but enjoy a juvenile sand smelt eating a juvenile flatfish youtu.be/-mHSbsBnNpw

#FishADay Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides Harlequin Sweetlips. Found on Indo-Pacific reefs. Adults are pretty standard fish-shaped fish with big lips (hence the name). Juveniles are spectacular Batesian mimics of toxic flatworms. www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0hd...

#FishADay Typhlonus nasus Faceless Cusk Eel. Deep (below 4k m) IndoPacific. Monotypic genus. "Faceless" because mouth is located below bulbous head and snout with large nostrils, eyes are greatly reduced. youtu.be/d3nCVWfqEK0

#FishADay Nimbochromis venustus Giraffe Hap. A cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi; prefers deeper parts of the lake, where it plays dead and waits to snap up smaller, juvenile cichlids. youtu.be/-XyVW3HXu7Q

#FishADay Chrysophrys auratus Silver Seabream. Amphitropical West Pacific, mostly over rocky bottoms and reefs. Prized as a food fish, sustainable in some places, but careful where they're from. Notorious for getting so hungry during spawning they'll bite your sinker. fish.gov.au/reportstock?...

#FishADay Carcharhinus brachyurus Bronze Whaler. Global, mostly temperate, from surf zone to continental margins. Give live birth, then use shallow, inshore waters as nurseries. Oldest nursery from early miocene Pisco Basin in Peru! youtu.be/6F_ijXskNDA?...

#FishADay Scolopsis affinis Bridled monocle bream. Western Pacific; prefer sandy or muddy bottoms near reefs. Cooperatively mob predatory worms that rely on stealth to catch prey. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY21...

#FishADay Hopliancistrus wolverine Wolverine Pleco. Described in 2021. As with others in the genus, males have several extensible, stout dermal "teeth" under its gills. Unlike other members of the genus, they use these teeth to jab unwitting ichthyologists. shoalconservation.org/wp-content/u...

#FishADay Oxylebius pictus Painted Greenling. NE Pacific; shallow rocky areas. Has bounced around a bit taxonomically thanks to its weird pointy head, but (according to Eschmeyer's Catalog) it's currently found with the rest of the greenlings in Hexagrammidae. youtu.be/Gk3FMfx-2KQ

If you want to know a little more about my (cover!) article in Journal of Biogeography, "Depth matters for biodiversity", there's a blog post here: hannahlowens.weebly.com/blog-and-new...

⏩️❓️‼️ If you have your biogeography research to be published, there is the perfect journal with an impact factor of 2.5 & being led & driven by a great society @biogeography.bsky.social🎉‼️⏪️ ❤️FRONTIERS OF BIOGEOGRAPHY❤️ biogeography.pensoft.net #tibs2026 #macroecology @tibsaarhus2026.bsky.social

I’m giving my talk on deep fish in deep time this afternoon at #tibs2026, so I’m wearing my best deep fish earrings.

Hey #TIBS26 folks! I'm giving a talk tomorrow on 3D distribution modeling, deep time, and the amphitropical distribution puzzle. There will be a ton of maps, and a .gif!

Next stop, Århus for #TIBS26. Looking forward to an exciting week hearing about all the biogeographic research being done by my colleagues in @biogeography.bsky.social!!

Oh hey! There are fishes on the cover of Journal of Biogeography this month! Digital painting by Kendra Mojica of Black Fern Studio. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/13652699...

#FishADay Cetorhinus maximus Basking shark. Second-largest fish after whale shark, averaging over 7m in length. Global temperate open oceans. Name refers to their habit of cruising along the surface of the ocean scooping up zooplankton. youtu.be/c0JvVT5IE7I

#FishADay Chiasmodon niger Black swallower. North Atlantic deep sea. When your chances of finding a prey item are low, it pays to be able to house things much larger than you are. www.texassaltwaterfishingmagazine.com/fishing/blac...

#FishADay Champsocephalus gunnari Mackerel Icefish. Southern and Southern Atlantic oceans. In family of fish whose blood lacks hemoglobin, hence common name, White-Blooded Fish, and one of few Southern Ocean fishery species, off Heard and MacDonald islands. fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species...

#FishADay Sphyrna media Scoophead. Tropical Atlantic and East Pacific over continental shelf. Formerly abundant, now critically endangered, likely due to intense fishing pressure. Most recent record WAS in 2010, but one was just caught last year off Guatemala. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Oh boy. hadley.github.io/genzplyr/

Anyone in this space apply for and/or receive an ERC Consolidator or know someone who has? Or has served on a panel? I think I have a great idea, but I'm trying to figure out the landscape. #ERC #ERCCoG

Last major paper of my #MSCA is finally out!! I modeled and mapped over 300 fish species in three orders in 3D to demonstrate how incorporating a depth perspective may offer a view of open-ocean biodiversity patterns that differs from a typical 2D approach. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Happy #Halloween 🎃Since this fellow was so popular we are once again sharing spooktacular illustrations of Vampyroteuthis. The 'vampire squid from hell' is neither squid nor vampire, using sticky filaments to feed on marine snow 📖 Reports from the German Deep-Sea Expedition 'Valdivia' 1898-1899

#FishADay Varicus lacerta Godzilla Goby. Known from mesophotic reef off Curaçao, only known from one specimen. Recent explorations of deep reefs worldwide by submersibles and technical divers have shown there is still LOTS of work for marine fish taxonomists to do. blog.pensoft.net/2016/06/08/t...

Very happy to see another paper out in which I had a small part to play. Big congrats to Erika Páez V., et al.! doi.org/10.1111/syen...

#FishADay Parupeneus cyclostomus Yellow-saddle Goatfish. Indo-Pacific Reefs. Chemosensory barbels snuffle through substrate to detect prey, but have also been observed hunting cooperatively with other goatfish or even octopuses, such as this Day Octopus. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpQ_...

I'm hiring!⭐ As part of the DFF Sapere Aude-funded project MiddleEarth, I am looking for 1 postdoctoral researcher and 1 research assistant.

Got up super early on Saturday to virtually attend a #CIAC2025 workshop in Okinawa as an invited speaker on 3D species distribution modeling. Looking forward to seeing these tools used to help recognize cryptic cephalopod biodiversity!! #voluModel

#FishADay Opasanus phoebotron Scarecrow Toadfish. Near-shore Caribbean, but seemingly absent from Florida, 7-16 cm total length. While there is not a lot out there about the species, the original description from 1961 makes for a fun read (see below). digitallibrary.amnh.org/server/api/c...

#FishADay Hypophthalmichthys molitrix Silver Carp. Threatened in natural habitat (rivers of continental eastern Asia); widely aquacultured and introduced for food production and water quality control. Breed quickly, grow large, and in some places jump when startled. youtu.be/LEAc1C48Yo4

#FishADay Coryphaenoides armatus Abyssal Grenadier. Abyssal and cosmopolitan, generally between 800 and 5,493 m. Evidence from brain development suggests juveniles hunt by sight, adults by smell. Enjoy this supercut of C. armatus and friends, care of @mbarinews.bsky.social youtu.be/O7CXprStVdo?...

Please pass along, I’m recruiting PhD students to join our Macroecology Lab @uofa-eeb.bsky.social We study phys ecology, macroecology, biodiversity - spanning scaling, trait-based ecology, theory, comparative biology & ecoinformatics. Several avenues for funding. Please reach out if interested🧪🌐🌾

#FishADay Isurus paucus Longfin Mako Shark. Cosmopolitan in tropical and temperate pelagic waters, but distribution not well documented. Reproduce via aplacental viviparity--hatch inside uterus, young continue to develop prior to birth, sustained by nonviable eggs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXs2...

#FishADay Prionotus miles Galapagos Sea Robin. Sand rubble bottoms off rocky reefs in the Galapagos Islands. As with other sea robins, first three pectoral fin rays highly modified into little spider legs it uses to creep along the seafloor, probing for goodies. youtu.be/h_UVOW5pcAw?...

#FishADay Liparis mucosus Slimy Snailfish. NW Pacific coast. Up to 13cm, color varies from brown to red. Not to be confused w/ widespread orchid genus of same name, from Liparos, "oily" or "shiny"--leaves in orchid's case, whole critter in snailfish's case. www.inaturalist.org/taxa/223898-...

#FishADay Ethadophis byrnei Ordinary Eel. A snake eel originally known from a single specimen collected from the Gulf of California in 1967. A second specimen was reported from the Gulf of Tehuantepec in 2019. I guess it's not so ordinary... aiep.pensoft.net/article/26915/

New notebook day! I've been keeping hard-copy research notes since I was an undergrad research assistant. My PI at the time told me, "You need to take good enough notes that if you are hit by a bus, someone can take over for you."

#FishADay Ogcocephalus radiatus, Polka-Dot Batfish. Subtropical NW Atlantic coast. Highly modified to creep along seafloor, tricking prey into checking out a small, wiggly thing. "Hind legs" = pectoral fins, "front legs" = pelvic fins, lure over mouth = first dorsal fin spine. youtu.be/ubPOE4XJ85g

#FishADay Stenodus nelma Inconnu aka Nelma. Arctic Ocean basin, mostly anadromous. Prefers waters under 16 C, gets up to 150 cm long. Prized sport fish (sometimes called "Arctic Tarpon") and subsistence food for native peoples of northwest Canada, Alaska, and Siberia. youtu.be/8rBHYE4pB4I

#FishADay Pagrus major Red Seabream. Western Pacific, mostly near reef bottoms. Highly-valued in several East Asian culinary traditions. In Japan, it's associated w/ luck & abundance; inspired street snack, taiyaki--basically a stuffed, fish-shaped waffle. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...