Chris Law

New Comparative Anatomy Textbook! Completely free to read and open access!

doi.org/10.59319/YHF...

Hi! My research examines how ecological and environmental factors contribute to the phenotypic diversity we see today, primarily in carnivoran mammals. I also study phenotypic variation in a population of tool using sea otters. Would love to give a talk!

And here's the abstract: www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...

Thanks!!

Thanks! 🙏

Thanks! 🙏

After 11 months in review, grateful to learn that my NSF proposal examining the ecomorphology and evolution of mammalian skull dimorphism was awarded!

Stay tuned for research on intraspecific effects on maroevolution and more undergrad-led projects! @uwbiology.bsky.social

Long-fuse evolution of carnivoran skeletal phenomes through the Cenozoic Climatic change is hypothesized to promote phenotypic diversification. While neontological analyses are often used to test this hypothesis, extant data only captures the time-averaged signal of surviv...

New preprint with @tsengzj.bsky.social & @hlusko.bsky.social! Here, we developed the most comprehensive phenomic dataset of extant and extinct pan-carnivorans to test how Cenozoic climatic change influenced the evolution of the cranial, appendicular, & axial skeleton

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Anat (me) wearing a white hat with red OU logo, jean jacket with a snake design, and a huge smile! Lupines and daises are in the background.

I'm beyond excited to announce that I will be joining the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Oklahoma as an Assistant Professor in January 2026!

Belasen Lab @ou.edu coming soon 🐸 ❤️

Students presenting posters of their research

Great day at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium!

Over the last two years, my mentees learned to develop hypotheses, collect data, code, and present results. All of this would not be possible without NSF support.

Have a mini mac with M1 chip for the past 4.5 years and still works great! I've used it for long R runs and 3D morphometrics.

Hawaiian monk seal sleeping on the beach

Happy #MammalMonday! Here's a Hawaiian monk seal relaxing in the morning sun and making everyone jealous

#mammals

I wish I could ask an otter expert about this. Oh I did! (It’s not true, folks.)

The whole episode will f you up forever. It’s great. Thanks Dr. @chrislaw.bsky.social !

www.alieward.com/ologies/lutr...

The otter they have pictured is not even a sea otter 🤣🫣

New 🦦 paper in @anatrecord.bsky.social! I quantified the growth curves of theoretical bite force & jaw musculature in sea otters. Newly weaned otters are at a disadvantage in foraging until the early stages of adulthood when they reach full skull & biting maturity

doi.org/10.1002/ar.2...

Tooth be told: Sea otters have a powerful bite Sea otters are incredible marine wrestlers, packing some serious strength under all that fluff.

There’s a creature lurking in the sea. It’s slick, fast, and if you get too close, it might chomp your face off. No, not sharks or giant squid — sea otters.

Our National Science Foundation funded work, led by @chrislaw.bsky.social, continues to decipher trade-offs in complex biological systems. These projects add new phenotypic data with which to understand how evolution works in the past, present, and future.

Had a blast presenting our work on carnivoran adaptive landscapes at #AnatomyConnected25!

Read more here: academic.oup.com/iob/article/...

#anatomy25 @tsengzj.bsky.social @hlusko.bsky.social

One week left for applications! (just a simple questionnaire).

Golden mantle ground squirrel posing

Happy #MammalMonday! Here's a golden-mantled ground squirrel surveying the trails.

📍Mount Rainier National Park

#mammals

Public comment period is <30 days. COMMENT!

“This interim final rule removes the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) from the Code of Federal Regulations.”

www.regulations.gov/document/CEQ...

Very sorry to hear this. Thank you for all the work you do.

Crab-eating macaque and its young

Happy #MammalMonday! Family portrait of a crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis) with its infant outside of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

#mammals

If you are interested in doing a postdoc on topics related to mammalian paleobiology, don’t heasitate to reach out to me!

Red fox looking at a distance

Happy #MammalMonday! Here's a red fox on the hunt for food

#mammals

Thanks!

A grayscale illustration of a hyena skull on turquoise background, overlaid by letters and a network of circles that represent the complex interconnections of skull bones produced by macroevolutionary change.

New, NSF-supported research: Emergent network properties link phenotypic modules to ecomorphological divergence in carnivoran mammals doi.org/10.1016/j.is...

Also, check out the beautiful original artwork made by one of the co-authors for this study:

Happy groundhog (marmot) day! Here's an Olympic marmot since there are no groundhogs in WA

#addMam #mammals

Jealous lol

Was the rest of it 🍽️? 😉