Rodrigo Figueroa

YouTube video by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) Throwback to one of our earliest encounters with a deep-sea gulper eel

My unsolicited #eel fact for today is that there are ten species of Gulper Eels (Saccopharynx) while there is only a single species of Pelican Eel (Eurypharynx ).🐟

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwD...

"...although analyses of extant phylogenies can estimate extinction rates and even suggest mass extinctions, they cannot imply trilobites ever existed or that sphenodonts (now represented only by the tuatara) were once as diverse as lepidosaurs (lizards and snakes)." #FossilFriday 🧪

New in @science.org, meet Acronichthys maccagnoi, a new species from Late Creatacous Canada that changes what we know about the origins and evolution of one of the most successful fish groups on Earth.

The unfairness of the fossil record

OK, head above water briefly and can say a few things about a paper that came out a few weeks ago in @royalsocietypublishing.org on Platysomus and kin.

Find us a brain so we can pinpoint where they fit in relation to the crown

A blood vessel in the brain for #FluorescenceFriday! Why am I looking at these in the microscope? (1/3)

Uma questão que sempre fica de fora dessas discussoes é o quão antiquado e limitante é o modelo dos concursos para docência em universidades públicas. Exigir processo presencial com prova no século 21 é no mínimo surreal...
Como atrair pesquisadores de fora (inclusive brasileiros) desse jeito?

100%!! Thank you so much for sharing!

Please help me get a job in a different country

lol thanks? 😅

Today I was looking at some diceCT scans and started to think: how many undescribed species we have inside the guts of museum specimens?

Just learned chessboxing is a thing and now I'm sad I lost the opportunity to be good at something

We actually have very little data to answer this question in fishes, but from what we have so far there doesn’t seem to be a trend in brain and/or brain cavity size increase for most lineages

Cichlids are the worst part of the best clade but I highly vouch for working with Matt and Hernan!!

I absolutely love how this marvelous structure looks like in CT scans. Any guesses of what it is?
clue: 🏓

Impacts on Science This website hosts information about the impacts of federal and state policies since January 20, 2025 on the fields of ecology, evolution, marine science, and environmental science in the USA. Partici...

A comprehensive survey of scientists across ecology, evolution, and marine science has revealed significant disruptions to federal research programs following executive branch actions that began January 20, 2025.

www.firsthandaccounts.org/home

Macroevolutionary role reversals in the earliest radiation of bony fishes Troyer et al. examine lower jaw evolution in Silurian-Devonian bony fishes and find substantial differences in patterns of morphological disparity, rates of shape evolution, and functional diversity b...

Excited to announce that the 1st paper from my postdoc is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social ! Using a large dataset of 3D preserved fossils, we explore the diversification of jaws in early bony fishes. 1/15
www.cell.com/current-biol...

The world if scientists could focus on the actual science and public engagement rather than worry about funding/employment and having to write proposals all the time:

I assume the ike jime emails arrive from my work on fish brains

Trying to resist the urge of writing a book on fish prep and cooking from the viewpoint of an ichthyologist.

Already get occasional emails from people asking about ike jime… might as well write about it 😂

And here’s a CT scan projection of a MCZ specimen!

Wake up, babe, a new fossil fish faceplant just dropped. 🐟🧪

Also gives Tegeolepis vibes

old man yells at cloud is written on a newspaper ALT: old man yells at cloud is written on a newspaper

No longer eligible for Forbes “30 under 30”

Quedan tres semanas para aplicar al Taller Suraméricano de Biología Evolutiva en Uruguay (nov 23-29) Todos los gastos pagos para estudiantes, gracias a la financiación del @sse-evolution.bsky.social @eseb.bsky.social @asn-amnat.bsky.social #CienciaCriolla Info aquí: sites.google.com/view/evosur2...

🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com!

We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️

Devonian ray-finned fishes were not particularly species rich, particularly compared to their lobe-finned cousins. This implies early actinopts might've also been anatomically monotonous. But a deep dive into their jaw anatomy w/ µCT reveals subtle but important structural diversity.

We now have the stepping stones to slowly jump towards a more robust understanding of the "baby steps" of ray-finned fish diversification long before they were as diverse as today.

Here is where this study comes. Lower jaws are great because they preserve really well in comparison to other parts of the skeleton and they also can provide good hints on the ecology of these animals. So, by providing a detailed and updated description of these jaws