ウミヘビツツガムシ Vatacarus ipoides 幼虫 ある方からお借りした標本。 エ国内ではラブウミヘビ属の種の肺に寄生し、満腹になったのち条件が整うと1週間かけてイボが消失し、外皮が破れてちゃんと脚が4対ある成虫になる（写真は3対）。陸に上がったウミヘビの気管から出る（飼育下条件を見ると幼虫で…？）らしい。成虫が陸で産卵し、孵化した幼虫がみウミヘビの肺に…を繰り返すというウミヘビに特化した種。とてもツツガムシとは思えない姿。

Happy new year!🎍✨️

👶🎂

Mount Fuji in perfect winter clarity this morning, viewed from RCIES, SOKENDAI.

In this month's Creature Column, we feature the ascidian tunicate Ciona, a model for marine systems life sciences. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The “Ancient Fish Kingdom” poster I had carefully hidden was quickly spotted by my one-year-old. Such a diligent little student.

澄江化石地世界自然遗产博物馆(Chengjiang Science Museum). Perched on a hill overlooking Fuxian Lake and located near the Chengjiang biota, the museum’s most iconic exhibits are, fittingly, these two species that bear the local name: Myllokunmingia (昆明魚) and Yunnanozoon (云南虫)! #FossilFriday

Hot minnow news! @akpinion.bsky.social and team have FOUR new sand shiners. Tour de force combining morphology and molecules. 56 pages of dense cyprinid science! 🧪 vertebrate-zoology.arphahub.com/article/1560...

"有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎" 4th AsiaEvo Conference, Kunming (昆明). These were wonderful days. I was continually captivated by the profound cultural richness of Yunnan, China, and the warmth and kindness of its people!

"The 4th AsiaEvo Conference" has brought me to Kunming in China. How huge and clean city, and (of course) the foods are all delicious!　中国の昆明に来ています。雲南省に来るのは初めて。街は大きくて綺麗だし、食べ物は何でも美味いね！ "第四届亚洲进化大会" 让我来到了中国昆明。这是我第一次来云南省。城市又大又漂亮，而且食物样样都好吃！

上海浦東国際機場。说到上海菜，就是小笼包。我最喜欢！😋

Devonion fishies Elpistostege (close relative of the famous Tiktaalik) and couple of bothriolepis swimming by. Needs updating but still thinking this is one of my better paintings I have done

Very excited to share my exploration of the phylogenetics of early ray-finned fishes, out today in the Anatomical Record! Really busy day but I’ll have more info shortly. anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Birmingham is the city where J.R.R. Tolkien spent his childhood. I had a really nice morning walk. I’ll take a short break and then check out and head Japan. Bye-bye! #SVP2025

I’m currently at SVP in Birmingham! On the final day, in the skull symposium, I’ll be giving a talk showing that the mammalian face is an evolutionary novelty that arose by overriding the ancestral jaw framework — and that the mammalian premaxilla is the septomaxilla. #SVP2025 #2025SVP

#2025SVP attendees: did you know you can get a 30% discount on entry to the Sea Life Centre and/or Lego Discovery, both a few minutes walk from the ICC? More info here: www.meetbirmingham.com/svp-2025/

I’m currently at SVP in Birmingham! On the final day, in the skull symposium, I’ll be giving a talk showing that the mammalian face is an evolutionary novelty that arose by overriding the ancestral jaw framework — and that the mammalian premaxilla is the septomaxilla. #SVP2025 #2025SVP

We are thrilled to share our new preprint entitled “The origin and molecular evolution of the mammalian liver cell architecture” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

NeuroSC is a new #OpenAccess tool that lets researchers interactively explore neuronal morphology, membrane contacts and synaptic connectivity across #CElegans development. buff.ly/Dd9Kqvs

For centuries, anatomists debated true origin of levator veli palatini—vital for speech & swallowing. Researchers found it arises from cartilaginous Eustachian tube not petrous bone, reshaping understanding of vocal tract evolution Pagano et al: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

【フェア】誠品生活日本橋にて、今月から「みすず書房 在庫僅少本フェア」が始まりました。入口付近で、ふだん店頭に並ぶことの少ない書籍を中心に約90点を展開中です。10/19まで。ぜひお早めにお立ち寄りください。

17歳の時に描いた絵。 My drawing from when I was 17.

オオミズアオ♂Japanese Luna Moth “Actias aliena” Material: Colored pencil. Kent paper(Post card)

エゾシマリス Tamias sibiricus lineatus colored pencil, kent paper. #SciArt

『第15回 自然の生命を描く12人展』 来月10月8日より、2年に一度開催される生物画家と科学イラストレーター達によるグループ展・「第15回 自然の生命を描く12人展」に私も参加いたします。 図鑑や絵本などでお馴染みの作家の皆さまによる作品は、どれも圧巻です。ご都合のつく方は、ぜひお立ち寄りください。 2025年10月8日(水)〜14日(日) 10:00〜18:30 会場: 文房堂ギャラリー 千代田神田神保町1-21-1 文房堂ビル4F 出展者: 梅村有美・大片忠明・大田黒摩利・川崎映・菊谷詩子・小島由利子・小堀文彦・杉浦千里・田中豊美・地本義信・箕輪義隆・渡辺のり子

I’ll be giving my talk “A Tale of Two Premaxillae: From Ancestral Jaw Tip to Mammalian Nose” at the #SVP2025 symposium Multidisciplinary Approaches to Skull Function & Evolution. It’s scheduled for the final afternoon (Nov 15)… hope everyone sticks around till then 😅

A reminder about the #SVP2025 workshop "Palaeoart Past and Present: the view from the UK" for those last-minute early-bird [=cheap] conference registrants! It's shaping up to be a great one-day pre-conference event: please come along if you're a #paleoart fan attending SVP!

At Tsukuba again this year—mentoring “Vertebrate Precision Anatomy” and working on dissection + sketches of the Arctic lamprey (Lethenteron camtschaticum).

Teaching “Animal Morphology and Evolution” at Musashino Art University 武蔵野美術大学 again this year. …Wait, it starts next week already?😵

Birthday present from my wife. Ex Libris of Fáfnir, Guardian of the Hoard.📔🐉✨️

📢 Call for Papers! AR Special Issue: Evolution of Birth Difficulties ✨ Focus: Obstetrical dilemma, pelvic anatomy, neonatal & primate adaptations 📅 LOI: Sept 1 | 📝 Manuscript: Dec 1 Guest Editors: Nicole Torres Tamayo & Cédric Cordey anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/pb-assets/as...

Huge thanks to everyone who joined our symposium at the Society of Evolutionary Studies, Japan! Nagahama was such a charming city — classic streets and great food. Next up: I’ll be speaking at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) symposium. See you in Birmingham this November! #SVP2025

CT-scanning a rare perinatal Gavialis gangeticus (critically endangered gharial) reveals unique skull + sinus features differing from adults. Researchers share a free 3D atlas for future crocodylian ontogeny research. Maria Castillo & Maria Gold: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

This week, the Society for the Evolutionary Study, Japan (SESJ2025) will be held at Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology. I am organizing a symposium with three guest speakers on the theme of "Theory, Plant, and Animal── Evolvability of Morphology." (in Japanese)

#ICVM2025 (International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology, online) I will give a talk on the evolution of the head-trunk interface and the heart. In the session General Morphology and Morphological Evolution 3.

International conference "Limb Development and Regeneration: Quantitative, Ecological, and Diversification Studies" cscenter.co.jp/limbdev26/ 23-27 March, 2026. Tokyo, JAPAN.

New study reveals surprising jaw diversity in early ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii)! Using XCT, researchers analyzed mandibles of 19 Devonian species—showing considerable variation in size, structure, and teeth. Research by Ben Igielman et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

"How the Face Came to Be" | Seitai no Kagaku, 76(3) 2025 imis.igaku-shoin.co.jp/journal/425/... (in Japanese) A short Japanese review I wrote was apparently popular enough to get featured. Available FREE to read online (browser only, no PDF) until the end of August 2025. ⇩figures I drew.

顔の来た途 | 生体の科学 76巻3号 (2025年6月発行) | 医学書院 雑誌電子版 imis.igaku-shoin.co.jp/journal/425/... 以前出版された短い総説ですが、好評だったらしくピックアップ記事に選ばれました。2025年8月末までweb上で無料で読めるらしいです（ブラウザのみ. PDFは無し）。 ⇩こんな図を描いたよ。

It is not a political statement to note the fact that science enhances our well being, expands our knowledge of the world, and drives economic growth 🧪

New from the lab! Announcing MORPHOVIEW a powerful tool to quantify in high throughput the 3D structures of cells and tissues during organ morphogenesis. Great work by Sam Norris. 🧪 https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dvdy.70061

Last Saturday, we had the kickoff symposium for MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (B): "Detecting Evolvability Dynamics" @evol-dynam.bsky.social detecting-evolvability-dynamics.com/en/

Are you a scientist with an interest in photography? We're delighted to announce that the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition is now open for entries until 15 August 2025! 🎉 Find out more: royalsociety.org/journals/pub... #RSPphotocomp

Abstract submission completed. 　ICVM-14 SVP 85th Annual Meeting

My Wife's Exhibition 🎨Azusa Kobayashi's solo exhibition at Gallery Q, Ginza, Tokyo. (May 19–31). A reception will be held on the opening day (May 19, 18:00–.). → www.galleryq.info/exhibition20...

Have you heard of Michał Piotr Boym? A Pole, born in Lwow (1612), died in Guanxi. Considered to be the first European Natural History Researcher in China. Responsible for creating the first map of China, coining the word "flora" and introducing Europe to fruit such as lychee 🧵

My 1-year-old recently learned two important words: happa (leaf) and chōcho (butterfly). So I took the chance to test him—with one of nature’s greatest masquerade: the dead-leaf butterfly, Kallima inachus. I showed him a specimen. He looked at it silently for about five seconds…

Trackways from the lowermost Carboniferous suggest early diversification of tetrapods. Not convinced by all the taxonomic assignments here and many of these track forms have previously been reported from coeval locs. Interesting ideas worth considering though www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New specimen of Archaeopteryx described (the one housed at the Field Museum in Chicago), providing new info on the skull and soft tissue: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🪶🧪 (📷O'Connor et al.)