Sandy Kawano, PhD

Larval axolotl with fully formed forelimbs

We've got arms now.

Thanks for the signal boost! 😊

Fig. 1Comparison of body sizes across extant salamanders and stem tetrapods✝. Most studies on extant salamanders have been conducted on species that are only about 13–33% of the total length of early digit-bearing stem tetrapods, such as Greererpeton and Acanthostega, respectively. PhyloPic images were used for Ambystoma tigrinum via an Attribution 3.0 Unported license (Quigley 2021), Acanthostega gunnari via a CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication (Hartman 2013), and Eryops megacephalus via an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (McHugh 2014). The image for Greererpeton was originally created by Gabriel N. Ugueto (Ugueto 2018) and then modified into a gray silhouette, with permission from Gabriel N. Ugueto to use the modified image herein.

ICB's Monday free read:

Applying #3D Models of Giant #Salamanders to Explore Form–Function Relationships in Early Digit-Bearing #Tetrapods

@sandyk.bsky.social , @jmhuie.bsky.social et al

doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

#kinematics #biology #ecology #morphology

Friday Harbor Labs has a new marine genomics center! NSF supported facility that is ADA accessible. Great new place to access genomes right where you get the critters.

fhl.uw.edu/facilities-r...

🌟Members Exclusive!🌟

Join our upcoming webinar to learn the ins & outs of the Palaeontological Association Engagement Grant, featuring previous awardees as our panel speakers.

🗓️Wednesday the 23rd of April, 17:30 (BST)

Don't miss your chance to boost your outreach ideas!

The Lumpfish version of Finding Nemo.

Recently, there’s been a lot of discussion about diversity in science.
However, disability/chronic conditions has been absent.
In response, Trends in Ecology & Evolution is publishing a series of interviews with ecologists and evolutionary biologists who are disabled or have a chronic condition.

📢 JOB KLAXON!

The Yale Peabody Museum is hiring a permanent, full-time Museum Assistant in #Entomology 🦋

Full details & how to apply: sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Sear...

#EntoJobs #InsectCollections

An astronomy professor colleague of mine once relayed trying to explain to his students why it was important that they actually write their class reports themselves. “The point is not to teach ME about neutron stars,” he said.

Pivot Fellowship Pivot Fellowship on Simons Foundation

Do you have a PhD in STEM and looking to pivot to a different subdiscipline? The Simons Foundation's Pivot Fellowship provides 1 year of salary + $10k for research + travel to the fellow and $50k to their mentor. Apply by 12:00 PM (ET), May 15, 2025. www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/pivot-... 🧪

🚨 Not a drill: NSF GRFP results are NOW OUT!!!!!

But...good news and bad news.

👍 I'm *thrilled* for the grad students for whom getting this award will be life-changing, esp now.

👎 # of fellowships went down by 51%

(1000 this year vs. 2036 last year)

See here: www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee...

Here is my evergreen reminder (that I used to post on Twitter) about the NSF GRFP:

Even if you didn’t get funded, there is SO much value in working through the process of developing a research idea and writing it up. Take your idea and DO IT!

Funding doesn’t make a scientist.

Xoxox

Done! I'm super excited to see more plant biomechanics!! 🤩🌱🌿🌵

The Structure Equation Model (a fancy kind of Path model) from the paper, constructed of four factors influencing body size: elevation, which acts indirectly via its effect on temperature and precipitation; temperature, which acts directly only weakly, but more strongly via a direct effect on humidity; precipitation, which acts directly on body size but also has a significant relationship with humidity; and humidity, which has a direct influence. It's an elegant figure. There's a salamander representing body size, illustrated by one of the coauthors, Fleming.

Blown away by this paper on body size variation among 11,264 (!!!) measured plethodontid salamanders over an elevational gradient. Super surprised to see that it is not temperature that has the main explanatory role, but mostly humidity and precipitation 🧪🦎
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

#herps 🦎🧪

Interested in graduate studies in science? Was your admission to a US program just rescinded? Well, Canada is now offering doctoral scholarships to qualified foreign students

www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NewsDetail-D...

Our preprint is out! Kudos to @josanesousa.bsky.social, @gabrielalima19.bsky.social, @perezlouise.bsky.social and undergraduate prodigy Hannah Shof! By comparing Polypterus fin and axolotl limb we find shared and new regeneration programs. @lsuscience.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Phylogeny, biology, and evolution of acanthopterygian fish clades - Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries The advent of molecular phylogenetics has rapidly transformed the understanding of relationships within Acanthopterygii, the spiny-rayed fishes. Acanthopterygii includes most of the marine fish divers...

Chris Thacker and I have published a new review on the phylogenetics and biology of acanthopterygian fishes. This lineage includes more than 19,100 species, comprising nearly one third of all species of vertebrate animals!

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Hey Bluesky! @sicb.bsky.social 's Divisions of Comparative Biomechanics and Vertebrate Morphology are here! We're here to share any position opportunities and keep you updated on DCB and DVM activities. Give us a follow and feel free to send any postings our way.

So excited to see this paper finally out! Part of the Paleobiology 50th anniversary issue, we cover the history of the field, morphometrics, morphospaces, new approaches to evolutionary models & disparity, incorporating climate, the importance of fossils & more. Check it out! doi.org/10.1017/pab....

Hey y'all. Anyone teaching at a PUI interested in participating in a panel @ SACNAS NDiSTEM conference?

Evolution of Vocal Sacs in Anura Of the many features that make frogs and toads unique, vocal sacs are among the most remarkable. Vocal sacs are inflatable, elastic chambers present in adult males of most anurans and are key elements in their social interactions. Traditionally vocal sacs have been associated primarily with acoustic communication, but their functions are currently being reinterpreted, and there is increasing evidence that they play a wider role in anuran biology. We surveyed the anatomical and histological structure of vocal sacs in all major clades of frogs by examining 777 specimens representing 605 species. Herein we characterize the morphological diversity of the three elements that compose the vocal sac: the gular skin, the superficial submandibular musculature, and the internal mucosa. We describe major anatomical patterns and define characters that we optimize on a comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis of Anura. Integrating this anatomical information with images and videos of vocalizing frogs, we produce an updated morphological classification that includes 20 patterns of vocal sac morphology, each of which can be diagnosed by internal and external structures. Applying this classification to 4358 species, we discuss major evolutionary trends, taking ontogeny, homology, and multimodal communication into consideration. A single, spherical vocal sac is the most widely distributed vocal sac shape (present in 63% of known species), but some degree of lateralization (bilobate or paired sacs) has evolved in almost all anuran families. Some groups, such as Hylidae and Ranidae, are particularly diverse and contain more than 10 different vocal sac morphologies. Vocal sacs are absent in 18% of anurans and have been lost between 146 and 196 times, an astounding number considering their biological importance. Lastly, we review the morphological diversity and taxonomic relevance of vocal sac structures for each of the 58 families of recent anurans.

Cool! A systematic review of vocal sacs in amphibians and description of internal and external characters for each type. Vocal sacs, despite their importance in anuran communication, have been lost >100 times! 🐸🌿🧪 bioone.org/journals/bul...

The Evolution 2025 meeting logo. A laptop showing someone presenting their research. Behind the laptop, a globe with a dotted line encircling it. Text: Society for the Study of Evolution Global Meeting Participation, Virtual: May 29-30.

Registration for virtual #Evol2025 on May 29-30 is free for SSE members in 152 countries and territories around the world! Check if you’re eligible and request your discount code on our website: buff.ly/oCf6sjr @evolmtg.bsky.social

Help our friends at the NSF:
Seeking scientists based in California who are willing to attest to direct harm caused by NSF firings.
If you’re in the science world, please RT this to widen the net— a lawsuit on the unjust mass firings needs these comments.
(comment briefly here and I’ll follow up!)

Join Drs. Gibson, Wood, Delph, and Lively for a six-day workshop on evolutionary biology for early career grad students from July 27 - Aug 2, 2025. More info: https://mlbs.virginia.edu/evolutionary-biology-workshop #workshop

Hey, uh if you feel so inclined, I have a shop. I’m broke as shit rn.

I thought it would be cool to take a #microCT scan of romanesco broccoli that came in my meal kit this week, and I was not disappointed! What a stunningly beautiful vegetable 🤯 The scan was taken with our Rigaku HX130 (@rigakucorporation.bsky.social) here at Beckman (@beckmanillinois.bsky.social)

If you have experienced direct harm to your work/lab/job due to recent changes at US NSF, & are willing to share this on behalf of the Am. Society of Naturalists and NSF, please DM/ email me ASAP (this is time-sensitive) or submit story here sites.google.com/view/scienti...
Please share widely

USDA reinstates scholarship program for HBCU students On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reopened applications to the 1890 Scholars Program, which provides federal scholarships to agriculture students at historically Black land-grant institut...

A bit of good news. Popular outrage can sometimes provide enough pressure to reverse bad policy. Sometimes. USDA's 1890 Scholars Program for HBCU agriculture students is reinstated.
#AcademicSky

www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

KU Center for Genomics is hiring a postdoctoral fellow!

Choose a mentor among the Center's faculty and propose an original project. Two years funding and generous research budget included. Please share, retweet and apply!

genomics.ku.edu/ku-center-geno…