SMRU Ecophysiology Lab

Our new publication with @strandings.bsky.social & #SMRUsealpred contributors. A first attempt at quantifying grey seal predation of marine mammals and the potential impact on declining harbour seal populatons. Check it out! doi.org/10.1111/1365...

🎉 Exciting to see this paper published using @smruinstrument.bsky.social tags to study diving behaviour and physiology of free divers! Congrats to the authors! 👏🔬📡 @smruecophys.bsky.social @chrismcknight.bsky.social

Read the paper here: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Fascinating new research led by @smruecophys.bsky.social researcher @chrismcknight.bsky.social

New @seamammalresearch.bsky.social & @smruinstrument.bsky.social research out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social, using #NIRS integrated into SMRU phone tags to measure the diving behaviour and physiology of the most incredible human divers - the all-female Haenyeo

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Record-breaking divers are pushing human limits and reshaping scientists' view of our species Humans have a long history of diving to forage from the seabed and today elite freedivers are reaching greater depths than ever. Some researchers argue humans belong in the sea.

Some of our recent @smruecophys.bsky.social research covered by BBC

www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

Minke whale snout protruding from the sea surface

🦤🌐🧪
Minke whales feeding in the Jacques Cartier passage over summer are predominantly pregnant females. From 2007–2015 pregnancy rates remain stable despite fluctuating prey availability, suggesting some resilience to environmental change
@smruecophys.bsky.social
@seamammalresearch.bsky.social

New paper in @nature.com led by @patricepottier.bsky.social! We demonstrated global vulnerability of amphibians to warming, threatening 10% of >5,000 species examined. How did we do it? See thread🧵

Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🐳 UPCOMING BOOK ALERT 🐬
The Evolution of Cetacean Societies

Edited by @darrencroft.bsky.social @andrewfoote.bsky.social @stephanielking.bsky.social and myself

Preorder available now
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

#whale #dolphin #animalbehaviour

We're pleased to share our work at @seamammalresearch.bsky.social, published in @science.org last week, showing that seals perceive circulating oxygen levels to adjust their diving behaviour. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Left: A phylogeny of chordates, flanked by images of a lamprey, a placoderm, a brown shark, a longnose gar and a hawksbill turtle. Agnathans such as lampreys lack synovial joints. The first putative evidence of synovial joints in the fossil record is in early gnathostomes such as the antiarch placoderm fish that lived during the Silurian and Devonian periods. Modern gnathostomes such as cartilaginous fishes (i.e., chondrichthyans such as the brown shark), bony fishes (i.e., osteichthyans such as the longnose gar), and limbed vertebrates (i.e., tetrapods such as the Hawksbill turtle) possess synovial joints in their jaws, fins/limbs, and other locations. All images used are freely available without copyright restrictions. Top right: a typical agnathan joint is shown where glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans are uniformly distributed across the cartilages (blue) that are connected by fibrous tissue (olive). Bottom right: a typical gnathostome synovial joint is shown where surface cartilage has a unique proteoglycan composition from the underlying cartilage and bone, and a fluid-filled cavity separates adjacent skeletal elements.

When did the lubricated joints that allow our skeleton to swivel, rotate and bend evolve? @crumplab.bsky.social explores a new @plosbiology.org paper by @neelimasharma.bsky.social &co that pinpoints their origin to the earliest jawed vertebrates 🧪 Paper: plos.io/3CTC8La Primer: plos.io/4kkhXa6

California Coyotes Spotted Hunting Seal Pups » Explorersweb Now we can add something new to the many foods that coyotes eat. For the first time, scientists have captured footage of them hunting harbor seals.

California Coyotes Spotted Hunting #Seal Pups explorersweb.com/california-c...

Yellow-breasted capuchins use stones as nutcrackers, often inadvertently creating sharp-edged flakes, like those associated with early hominids, in what the authors suggest is a possible mechanism for the emergence of hominin stone tools. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Great new paper from one of our alumni Joanne Morten and Exeter Marine's Dr Lucy Hawkes!

#seabirds #AcademicSky 🦤🦑🧪🌐🌍

Seals avoid an operating tidal turbine Authors of a recently published study discuss how their research discovered that seals exhibit avoidance of turbines during operation. This finding is important for industry developers and regulato…

New blog post: Seals avoid an operating tidal turbine 🦭

Important implications for developers & regulators, as lower numbers of seals close to the turbine at higher flow speeds during operation decreases the potential for fatal collisions & injuries 📉🌎🧪

🔗 appliedecologistsblog.com/2025/02/06/s...

We wrote a wee blog post detailing the findings of our most recent study @seamammalresearch.bsky.social and why the results are important! Give it a read below ⬇️

Humpback whale songs have patterns that resemble human language The sounds that make up humpback whale songs follow some of the same statistical rules seen in human languages, which may be because of how they are learned

Humpback whale songs have statistical patterns in their structure that are remarkably similar to those seen in human language. www.newscientist.com/article/2467...

Whale song shows language-like statistical structure Humpback whale song is a culturally transmitted behavior. Human language, which is also culturally transmitted, has statistically coherent parts whose frequency distribution follows a power law. These...

SO very excited about new paper with @simonkirby.bsky.social and @ellengarland.bsky.social: We used infant-inspired tools to analyze eight years of humpback whale song, finding recurring parts with a Zipfian frequency distribution. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Andy Whiten and I wrote a @science.org perspective about a cool new study from @inbalarnon.bsky.social @simonkirby.bsky.social @ellengarland.bsky.social et al! They found humpback whale song has language-like statistical structure, using methods inspired by infant language learning 🐋🎶 Links below ⬇️

We uncovered the same statistical structure that is a hallmark of human language in whale song, published today in Science. @inbalarnon.bsky.social @simonkirby.bsky.social @jennyallen13.bsky.social @clairenea.bsky.social @emma-carroll.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

SMRU researchers are appealing for the public to help us understand why UK Harbour seals are in steep decline news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/st-a...

Polar bear fur has a built-in deicing feature An analysis of the Arctic animals’ fur reveals chemical clues to how they stay ice-free

Polar bear fur has a built-in deicing feature | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Anais Bliault presents the ventilatory adjustments of seals to physiological disturbance

Leopards reveal their identity through a distinct roar Scientists reveal how leopards' unique roars aid conservation in Tanzania, using cutting-edge technology to track and protect these big cats.

How do you spot a leopard? Listen to its roar🐆

Research led by ‪@jonathan-growcott.bsky.social shows for the first time that leopards have unique roars, meaning individuals can be identified through bioacoustic monitoring, a potentially significant advance in leopard conservation.

A pile of lurid yellow semi-liquid feces from a grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) sits on a wet black rock. The feces are full of white parasitic worms (helminths, probably anisakids). 🪱

Do you work in wildlife health & conservation? We are seeking participants for an online survey of practitioner/researcher attitudes to parasite conservation. Open to all roles and experience levels. DM me for more info and links.

Please help us reach as many folk as possible by reposting. 🧪🌍🪱🪰🦟

Some more of our lab’s recently published work - @eva-mariab.bsky.social used #NIRS and underwater arterial blood sampling to investigate depth-dependent effects on cardiovascular and blood oxygen regulation during freediving

t.co/tB6iZ5y0Xm

Among the most agile of flying creatures, dragonflies have evolved to perform quick aerial maneuvers both to attract mates and to catch prey midair.

Now, researchers have documented and explained a unique stunt the insects perform so quickly most people never see it. scim.ag/40mKKBI

Some of our group’s research published last November quantifying and reducing the costs from animal-borne tags on study animals #biologging

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Ancient fish fossil suggests ‘living skeletons' evolved 460 million years ago X-ray analysis of bony scale shows vertebrates developed ability to remodel and repair bone much earlier than thought

An x-ray analysis of bony scales shows vertebrates developed the ability to remodel and repair bone much earlier than previously thought.

Nocturnal camouflage through background matching against moonlight | PNAS Camouflage is often considered a daytime phenomenon based on light and shade. Nocturnal camouflage can also occur, but its mechanistic basis remain...

very cool research in PNAS on barn owl camouflage

Nocturnal camouflage through background matching against moonlight | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

🌍LIBRe's research on the news!

Featured paper:
📚 doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

@cardosopmb.bsky.social @cienciasulisboa.bsky.social @publico.pt @pnas.org

#WildlifeConservation #Sustainability #BiodiversityLoss