Mark Westneat 🐟

Congratulations Armita! I look forward to your great #biomechanics research and teaching, you will have so many students 😃.

Super cool scan, interrupted his meal 😆

Our new REU student Darla found something interesting in one of her CT scans! Looks like this fish was halfway through eating a big snail and some coral rubble when @mwestneat.bsky.social caught it last summer in Okinawa!

A bright green and gold mahi mahi fish against a blue sea and blue sky (and blue shirt) that was caught and released

Pretty pleased with this mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) in the Keys today. What a great fish! This little one was released but we did get a couple that were keepers for dinner. #CatchAndRelease 🐟

Catostomus murivallis , a new species of sucker (Cypriniformes: Catostomidae) from Wall Canyon Creek, Surprise Valley, in Northwestern Nevada, U.S.A. | Zootaxa

New species of sucker just dropped👍
mapress.com/zt/article/v...

A ground hog, large brown rodent that loves to dig

Hello ground hog, please stop digging under my deck?
😃 🦊 🌿 😎

Acute heat stress and the extirpation of a threatened coral species from a remote, subtropical reef system - Coral Reefs The ecological significance of the reef-building elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, is threatened by heat-stress-induced mortality. The intensity and duration of the ocean heatwave affecting Dry Tortuga...

Florida: 100% of the iconic Caribbean elkhorn coral died in Dry Tortugas National Park in 2023 due to global heating.

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

VogelAngst I think

SaveNSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the NSF.

The mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation.

Join: www.savensf.com

Coelacanths illuminate deep-time evolution of cranial musculature in jawed vertebrates Revised coelacanth cranial muscle anatomy reveals previously unknown evolutionary innovations and redefines gnathostome muscle evolution.

Coelacanths illuminate deep-time evolution of cranial musculature in jawed vertebrates.

By Aléssio Datovo & G. David Johnson Sci. Adv. 2025

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Olivia Guerra presenting thesis proposal this afternoon on backbone biomechanics in fishes

Woohoo! Another PhD candidate successfully presents their dissertation proposal! Olivia Guerra, working on backbone #biomechanics, #morphometrics and #evolution in the lab. Fishes, of course. 🐟🧪🌎🎣

Cranial kinematics and prey-type effects in Amia ocellicauda feeding strikes | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Variability in the biomechanics and kinematics of prey capture in vertebrates has been studied extensively, with evidence of multiple strategies for successful feeding in many taxa. Early research into suction-feeding strikes in fishes hypothesized that ...

Bowfin feeding mechanics! Check out our new paper on feeding mechanics in Amia ocellicauda using XROMM x-ray video technology. Led by Katie Whitlow
#Biomechanics
🐟🧪🎣🌎
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

We are now inserting jaw genes from Epibulus insidiator into the wolf genome in order to create the Sling-Jaw Wolf, Canis insidiator

Skinny little catfish, new to science!

Oh damn, there is a new heptapterid catfish in the world too! 🐟🌿🌎🧪👍
bioone.org/journals/ich...

Hypoplectrus espinosai sp. nov. (Teleostei: Serranidae), a new hamlet on coral reefs in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico | Zootaxa

Sorry Shakespeare, new Hamlet just dropped!

www.mapress.com/zt/article/v...

Scientists Record First Known Shark Sounds Clicklike noises made by a small species of shark represent the first instance of a shark actively producing sound

Scientists Record First Known Shark Sounds 🦑🧪🐟🦈 www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...

With over 2.8 million anglers in the provinces and states surrounding the Great Lakes, we know how important the water is to our fisheries. #WorldWaterDay

The lighted crystal caves of grand cayman, with impressive stalactite and stalagmite formations

A curled up Jamaican fruit eating bat, brown and upside down.

Crystal caves! with Jamaican fruit eating bats, cute, brown and upside down. Grand Cayman Island.
🌎🦊🌿🧪

The beautiful Centropyge nahackyi is a very rare angelfish found only on deep reefs of Johnston Atoll and occasionally Hawaii. When I went to Johnston back in 2006 they were quite common below 35m depth, and, unlike other pygmy angelfishes, surprisingly easy to photograph!

Blue iguana on Grand Cayman, facing camera with extraordinary deep blue head characteristic of males.

Blue iguana! The endangered and really quite blue native iguanas (Cyclura lewisi) of Grand Cayman are amazing. Great #conservation and recovery story. 🌎🧪🦎

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.

A frozen specimen from a museum collection, please go somewhere else with your righteous bullshit.

Duh, read the alt text

A new Barb fish from cave habitats that is silvery pink with small whisker barbels, and eyes reduced or absent.

Wake up y’all, Barbodes klapanunggalensis just dropped. 🐟🌎🧪🎣

zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1359...

Voted yes this week on behalf of ASIH signing on to the collaborative letter! Good luck and thanks for organizing that!

Perhaps the best introduction to a species description I have ever seen, a must read!

New redhorse fish, with shiny yellow green scales and Ruby red fin edges

Wow, a new species of redhorse just dropped. What a great fish!
🐟🌎🧪🌿🎣

bioone.org/journals/ich...

We've got a good one for you today! This is the skull of an Indo-Pacific Blue Marlin that we caught in Okinawa. This particular fish is special because it is both the largest fish that I've ever collected, and ever scanned. S/O to @jaimiagray.bsky.social for helping out with the scan!

Good question! Actually 100s of fish species are described every year, I’m just emphasizing a recent burst, cause it’s so cool!

A long skinny new loach fish species, with surprisingly colorful (for a loach) bands of pigment on posterior body and tail

OMG A new loach too! It’s a new fish blizzard. 🐟🌎🧪🌿

𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑙𝑎 𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑜, a new nemacheiline species of loach from the upper Yangtze River basin in Guizhou Province, southwestern China.
zse.pensoft.net/article/1419...