Dr. Darien Satterfield

Feeling really proud of my Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows Selena Weathers and Brynne Alcorta-Ordonez! They are learning AI software to generate and clean animal pose movement tracks, R, reviewing papers, and making presentations.

Lol my face when someone asks me for help with something I'm definitely not qualified for.

Came back from a lunch break to find my dog doing a peer review for me.

Scientific breakthroughs we might not have had without NSF funding:

The Internet
Smartphones
DNA analysis
MRIs
Doppler radar
Bar codes

And this is just the tiniest tip of the iceburg.

We are having a blast out here in the Florida Keys helping sample sharks with folks from the Hart lab at Macquarie and the Kajiura lab at FAU for a project on shark sensory systems. Being on the water is great, but I'm also loving swapping shark stories over key lime pie at the end of the day.

Due to flight delays we are running on like 3 hours of sleep but we are officially en route to #SICB2025. Can't wait to see my bio buddies. The pups will be at a hotel a mere 2 minute walk from the conference hotel and are happy to provide pre or post presentation therapy.

Title slide for talk by Darien Satterfield, "Evolutionary Pathways to Novel Morphology in Coral Reef Fishes." Talk to be given at SICB in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, January 4th, at 2:15 PM.

Can't wait to see you at #SICB2025 my talk is on Saturday at 2:15 in the Evolution and Diversification session.

Hi Michael! I'd love to be added. I'm studying reef fish morphological evolution.

Haha 😄 awesome!!! Thanks so much!

Just to give everyone a reminder: you should never have to get a loan for a graduate program in ecology, evolution, & organismal biology.

#🧪

Hi I would love to be added! I study reef fishes.

Hi Fredrik! @friel.bsky.social is the creator of the starter pack so I think he's the person who can add people!

A school of fish people! go.bsky.app/LXwgsEZ

Thanks Liz <3 I had so much fun figuring out how to draw fish for this hahaha

This project was only possible with the guidance of Dr. Mike Burns, Dr. Peter Wainwright, Dr. Dylan Wainwright, and an amazing team of undergraduate assistants Bernice Yin, Sam Hodges-Lisk, and Sky Jung. Typeset version will be available in a few days! Feel free to reach out for a copy.

Evolutionary integration is generally weakened with the evolution of novel swimming modes. Suggesting that functional expansion may be facilitated by decoupling of the fins.

Super proud of my 2nd PhD paper exploring shifts in evo. integration among reef fish fins with expansions in locomotor modes, out now in Evolution. Within modes there is much diversity in fin shape and weak connections between form and function. doi.org/10.1093/evol...

A fish, cleared and stained, has been marked with lines to demonstrate linear measurements taken. Likewise, two drawings of fish anatomy demonstrate other measurements.

A PCA of feeding anatomy, with species points colored by their trophic group. Fishes span an axis along PC1 from evasive to non-evasive prey.

Incredibly proud (& a bit late) that our paper, led by Mike Burns, is OUT NOW & OA!

We find a trade-off structures the primary axis of div. in reef fish feeding anatomy, & weak integration in the complex system allows div. away from that axis

w/ @diverdarien.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1038/s420...

Complexity and weak integration promote the diversity of reef fish oral jaws - Communications Biology The diversity of coral reef fishes’ feeding apparatus aligns with the trade-off between mobility and force transmission, but weak trait covariation and complexity allow jaw traits to evolve independen...

In a new open access paper we show that the trade-off between force transmission and mobility underlies jaw diversification in reef fishes. BUT much diversification is independent of the trade-off axis, facilitated by the weak patterns of integration among traits.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

I feel very fortunate to have gotten to be a part of such a great team of collaborators. This project influenced much of my dissertation (stay tuned for those papers hopefully within the next 6 months!)

With the ability to evolve unique trait combinations species are able to adapt the complex jaw system to tackle the unique challenges of diverse diets.

We show that the functional trade off between force transmission and mobility underlies diversification in reef fish oral jaws. BUT much of oral jaw diversification is independent of the functional trade off axis, facilitated by the weak patterns of integration among traits.

Complexity and weak integration promote the diversity of reef fish oral jaws - Communications Biology The diversity of coral reef fishes’ feeding apparatus aligns with the trade-off between mobility and force transmission, but weak trait covariation and complexity allow jaw traits to evolve independen...

Brand new open access paper alert! "Complexity and weak integration promote the diversity of reef fish oral jaws" led by Dr. Mike Burns and Dr. Dylan Wainwright is out now in Communications Biology.

www.nature.com/articles/s42...

gif depicting a suction feeding strike of the cichlid fish Boulengerochromis microlepis. The fish swims towards its prey, expands its jaws, and sucks in a small prey item.

An image of a figure from the manuscript. The figure depicts a principal components analysis as a scatterplot demonstrating the axes of diversity of feeding kinematics among cichlids fishes. The Neotropical cichlids are very diverse, and access unique regions of kinematic space, while the distribution of kinematics among Lake Tanganyikan cichlids fully encompasses the younger radiation of Lake Malawi cichlids, and likewise, the distribution of kinematics of Lake Malawi cichlids fully encompasses the younger radiation from Lake Victoria.

I am OVER THE MOON that our paper is out at Am Nat today!

We find phylogeny & biogeographic contingency shape functional diversity in cichlid radiations.

It's my first as co-first author, & Chris Martinez was an A+ co-lead. We had an amazing team-I am so proud of this work!

doi.org/10.1086/731477

Workshop Flyer Title: Planning Ethical, Inclusive, Culturally Aware Field Work Date: February 27th, 2024 Time: 1-3pm pst Location: 0347 Storer Hall UC Davis for students, postdocs, faculty and staff of uc davis. On zoom open to everyone. Register for the room link. Topics: What is ethical and inclusive field work? Ways to build research collaborations abroad. Considering cultural values and community interests. A timeline for planning inclusive field work. And responsible science after field work. Speakers: Kēhau Springer, Marina Luccioni, Anna Thonis, and Darien Satterfield

Join us for our workshop on making your field work more ethical and inclusive! In person for uc davis students, postdocs, faculty/staff. Zoom Option open to all. Register at forms.gle/59fujxzq7j23...

Me finally resting after solving a bug in my code.

I really have to proof read my emails because sometimes my Texas tries to come out haha. I'm gonna have to watch that.

*Movie Preview Voice* In a world where nothing is what it seems *Splash! Splash*

Body Shape and Mode of Locomotion DO NOT constrain routine swimming in Coral Reef Fish

Staring all your favorite reef fish families, now out in Functional Ecology

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...