Robin Saulnier Masson

Robin Saulnier Masson

@robinslnr.bsky.social

Evolutionary and Functional Morphology | Ph.D. student @lib-morpholab.bsky.social ; @leibnizlib.bsky.social ; @uni-hamburg.de | M.S. @universitedeliege.bsky.socia ; @FUNEVOL_MNHN | B.A. @ Université de Franche-Comté

43 Followers 63 Following 4 Posts Joined Dec 2024
2 weeks ago
A little yellow and brown frog in the groove in the middle of a vibrant green Pandanus frond, its feet splayed to the side to brace it in place.

Platypelis tuberifera always remind me of a rockclimber bridging a chimney, the way they sit in the groove of Pandanus fronds. Such charming frogs! And we know so very little about their ecology. For instance, as far as I know nobody has ever found their eggs or tadpoles! 🧪🐸🇲🇬

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2 weeks ago
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A new genus and species of Pliohyracidae (Hyracoidea, Mammalia) from the Pliocene of Jradzor, Armenia Hyracoidea is a group of afrotheres that is today represented by three extant genera, but its fossil diversity is much greater. While most recent palaeontological studies have focused on documenting t...

📢 New #Paper Alert !

Happy and excited to share our new paper in the Swiss Journal of #Palaeontology describing a new hyracoid species, providing the first phylogenetic definition of Pliohyracidae, and shedding new light on their dispersal from Africa to Eurasia !

doi.org/10.3897/sjp....

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3 weeks ago

Beautiful !

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3 weeks ago
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Better late than never! If you haven’t yet read Isabelle’s latest paper on the impact of tweezers on table manners in salamanders, now’s the time. Check out her blog and the full paper at the link below👇 that’s an order 😉
metamorphosis-project.org/publications...

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1 month ago

A small look behind the scenes of my PhD work ! 🐸

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1 month ago
We explored the bioacoustic differentiation of these frogs, and found clear differences among basically all species, especially those co-occurring at the same elevation. This figure shows cut-outs of a the little whistling calls each frog species makes, and a plot of call duration against dominant frequency for all individual calls recorded, coloured by species. There is an interesting pattern of both size diversity and elevational distribution among the Stumpffia of Montagne d'Ambre in the north of Madagascar. This plate shows dorsal, ventral, and lateral photos of all species, as well as their body size ranges, and then also a plot of elevational distributions of each species, showing clear stratification. All of the frogs are pretty round and shows some indication of miniaturisation. Most are resplendent in a variety of brown shades above and below, but some, like Stumpffia madagascariensis, have stark colour contrasts or lines, and one, S. megsoni, has orange on the belly. A photo into the forest at moderately high elevation on Montagne d'Ambre. There is a rather open understory, with tree ferns and low bamboo(?), and quite thin tree trunks. It is a sea of greens and browns. The tiny Stumpffia madagascariensis upon a bright green leaf in the leaflitter. This species is one of the smallest frogs in Madagascar, and indeed the world. This individual has a thin light stripe along the back, a pale brown dorsum, and stark black border along the flank. You can just make out the teensy tiny toesies, and it is, frankly, adorable.

New publication from my lab, led by @njorisfleck.bsky.social! 🧪 We explore the diversity and origins of a genus of tiny frogs 🐸 on an isolated mountain in north Madagascar. A cool case study of both in-situ diversification and repeated colonisation!
vertebrate-zoology.arphahub.com/article/1664...

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3 months ago

🚨PhD position available!🚨🧪
I am seeking a talented PhD student to join my ERC StG project GEMINI, to explore the exciting world of vertebrate genomics and comparative genomics, seeking to understand the genomics of miniaturisation! 🦇🦎🦜🐸🐟🦈 🤏🧬
Deadline: 4 Jan 2026!
employment.ku.dk/phd?show=153...

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3 months ago
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Olfaction written in bones 👃🧠🦴🧬
Thrilled to see our latest study showing that the olfactory bulb endocast is a reliable proxy for mammalian olfaction, now published in @pnas.org
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Thread 👇

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3 months ago
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The first digital anatomical atlases of the chameleon skull, nervous system & cranial & hyolingual muscles are published, including lesson plans to bridge a gap between theoretical knowledge & hands-on analysis in comparative anatomy
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

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3 months ago
Talentech - Head of Conservation Unit at the Natural History Museum Denmark // Leder af Konserveringsenheden ved Statens Naturhistoriske Museum

The Natural History Museum Denmark is seeking a new Head of Conservation Unit! The conservation team here works on a wide array of incredible specimens, and are hard at work preparing for the new museum opening in spring 2027! candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

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3 months ago

Large-eyed animals like owls 🦉 have a trade-off between large eyes & short optic nerves, which lowers eye mobility (to compensate they evolved swivelly necks)

But chameleons 🦎 have long, coiled optic nerves with extra slack for eye mobility, allowing them to use their famous large swivelly eyes 👀🧪🌏

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4 months ago
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Postdoctoral researcher in molecular ecology - Uppsala University Postdoctoral researcher in molecular ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University

📢 We have an open position for a postdoc to join my lab. It's a great position @animecol-uu.bsky.social, fully salaried for 2.5 years with all benefits.

www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

The project is about transmission patterns of bacteria and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in aquatic insects. 🧬🦠 (1/3)

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5 months ago
Rhombophryne coronata rendered in 3D from a micro-CT scan. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn good.

Spent a little time in the last couple of day working with micro-CT scans of frogs again. This is the holotype of Rhombophryne coronata. I’m hoping to submit a manuscript including a plate of this specimen’s skeleton tomorrow! 🧪🐸🩻

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5 months ago
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🚨 Postdoc in evolutionary genomics of heat stress adaptation position at @ucddublin.bsky.social.
📍 Dublin, Ireland
Closes: 15th Oct 2025
🔗 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOV094/u...

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5 months ago
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Hello, microanatomy &/or salamander enthusiasts!

If you’re a first-year master’s student, I might have an exciting internship for you on the microanatomy of two salamanders sp., with already great results on the humerus.

What: Zeugopod microanatomy
Where: SMNS

Contact: morgan.proust@smns-bw.de

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5 months ago
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Hello, microanatomy &/or salamander enthusiasts!

If you’re a master’s student, I might have an exciting internship for you on the microanatomy of a broad sample of salamanders!

What: long bones microanatomy
Where: SMNS

Contact: morgan.proust@smns-bw.de

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5 months ago
Ranidae: Rana temporaria, a generic brown frog from Denmark. Dicroglossidae: Limnonectes paramacrodon, a generic brown frog from Borneo. Mantellidae: Aglyptodactylus madagascariensis, a generic brown frog from Madagascar. Pyxicephalidae: Amieitia tenuoplicata, a generic brown frog from Tanzania.

Four generic frogs? No! These are members of four different FAMILIES from Europe, Borneo, Madagascar, and East Africa, convergently evolved on the generic brown frog morphotype! 🧪🐸

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6 months ago
The poster features 176 species of frog from Madagascar, to scale. The biggest species are over 100 mm, the smallest are under 10 mm. They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and colours. So many variations on the theme of frog!

Thrilled to announce version 2.0 of my poster featuring some of Madagascar's endemic frog species, to scale! This version features 176 species—40 more than version 1.1 (now retired)! Check it out!
🐸🧪
www.redbubble.com/i/poster/Som...

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5 months ago
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Are you tired of people constantly overestimating body size of marine reptiles? No longer!

We provide equations to estimate body size in ichthyosaurians, mosasaurids, and thalattosuchians.

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5 months ago
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Last week: #SEH2025 in Bonn !

I gave my very first talk, about the Homology of the shoulder joint and forelimb muscles #anura.

I hope to submit the paper later this year, so stay tuned 😉

Many thanks to the organisers of this congress !

#SEH2025 #herpetology #anura #amphibian #frog #toad

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5 months ago
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We offer a fully funded 4-yr contract for a PhD candidate in Evolutionary Biology to join our group (www.eco-evo-devo.com). The project will combine genomics and ecophysiology to understand the evolution of developmental plasticity in spadefoot toads. For requisites and contact info please check 👇

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6 months ago

"Growth series", with foetus, of two very distinct ichthyosaurs from the Triassic! Very glad to have participated to this cool study! Thanks again Lene!

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6 months ago

I'm recruiting a PhD student to join the lab at @gtsciences.bsky.social in Fall 2026! Broad taxonomic and topical freedom under the umbrella of vertebrate joint form and function. Information here: www.manafzadeh.com – please share 🦴🩻

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6 months ago
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In May and Jully 2025, I presented some new results from my PhD dedicated to the Latest Famennian flora of Euramerica🌿 in the Swedish Museum of Natural history and at Agora Paleobotanica in Paris. At Agora, I was awarded the Boureau Prize for the best oral presentation. 😄🏆 #Paleobotany #Devonian

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6 months ago
Karriereportal Karriereportal für Bewerbungen

📢 job alert: Scientific lead (f/m/d) for #biodiversity #dataScience @leibnizlib.bsky.social. Application deadline: 31.8., for details see 8101202752.karriereportal.cloud/job/2025-10-...

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6 months ago
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Today is International Armadillo Day! Even these amazing mammals share similar bones with humans, their specialized forelimbs have evolved for digging.
#SciArt #SciComm #VizSciComm, #armadillo, #InternationalArmadilloDay #anatomy

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6 months ago

🚨Paper Alert🚨Wanna know how a climate crisis 56 million years ago shaped the current diversity of salamandrids? Check the the paper led by the amazing Loredana Macaluso and a fantastic team of collaborators@robertorozzi.bsky.social, A. Villa & B. Mennecart. I am truly delighted to be part of it!!!🦎👇

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9 months ago
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🚨🚨PhD position alert!🚨🚨
Do you like 🐢🐢? Or ecomorph evolution? I am offering a 36-month PhD position funded by the DFG about ecomorphology and neuroanatomy of turtles. Check out the ad here: www.senckenberg.de/en/career/sc...

Please share and if you have questions, send me a message 😉

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10 months ago
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Complete metamorphosis promotes morphological and functional diversity in Caudata Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Paper alert 🚨
Our 1rst paper with @vivienl.bsky.social and colleagues is out in Functional Ecology! In this paper, we investigated how complete metamorphosis promotes morphological and functional diversity in Caudata.Want to know more? Read this👇
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

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11 months ago
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Want to know more about craniofacial evolution in vertebrates? Join us at symposium#9 organized by Olivia Plateau and Kevin Le Verger @ESEB2025 in beautiful Barcelona!!!! #frenchconnexion #ESEB2025

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