Taya de Blonk

🐸 🐟 Crikey! Wednesday again already, time for my “wind-back Wednesday” post!
An absolute cracker of a #Frogfish I think these are incredible, they can take some spotting too amongst the reef!
📍 Philippines, 2010.
📸 Panasonic.
🤿 🌊
#scubadiving #underwaterphotography #wildlifewednesday #marinelife

As we all settle back in at home after an amazing #ssb2026 in Baton Rouge, it seems fitting to share this recent pub from @mbomaaaron.bsky.social where he writes about the utility of taxonomic education. Aaron was a @systbiol.bsky.social mentee and so it is very exciting to see this work of his out!

Washington may ban sales of farmed octopus After stalling in the last session, a bill to outlaw the sale, possession, transport, and distribution of farmed octopus advanced out of committee this week on a party-line vote.

Washington banned octopus farming in 2024, but a new bill is making its way through the Legislature that would also ban the sale, possession, transport and distribution of farmed octopus. The aim isn't to outlaw the culinary use of octopus, proponents say, but to ensure it is treated humanely.

Frontiers | Spawning patterns and reproductive biology of yellowtail scad (Trachurus novaezelandiae) off south-eastern Australia We characterized the reproductive biology of the ecologically and commercially important small pelagic fish Trachurus novaezelandiae (yellowtail scad) in sou...

Frontiers | Spawning patterns and reproductive biology of yellowtail scad (Trachurus novaezelandiae) off south-eastern Australia www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.... 🧪🐠🦑🌎

Emily Graslie of Brain Scoop standing stage left presenting on the importance of natural history collections

Social event hosted at the LSU Museum of Natural Science. Meat service displayed directly near a large, glass encased, polar bear

Panel of scientists sat side by side on stage under the SSB26 logo on screen

Various herpetofauna displayed on a table

“What would our world look like if all natural history collections disappeared?”
Loved #SSB2026! Organized by @jembrown.bsky.social.
Great workshops, talks, panel discussion, and collections tours, plus an awesome social hosted by @prosanta.bsky.social. Great to meet some more fishy folks as well 🐠

Actual botanists don't feel like they need to lie to their neighbors about their jobs.

The great @jembrown.bsky.social closing out #ssb2026

It was a wonderful meeting thanks to the hardwork of Jeremy and funding from @lsu.bsky.social and other sources.

Systematic biology is alive and well. Especially proud of all the Global South who attended.

I’m so proud of @lsu.bsky.social Museum of Natural Science and @tropicalbotany.bsky.social Herbarium folks who volunteered for these tours to over 100 folks - I’m sure they won’t forget what they saw behind the scenes. #museums #naturalhistory
#ssb2026

The wonderful Emily Graslie talking to the #SSB2026 crowd about the importance of natural history museums. She has an art background and became enamored with the University of Montana natural history collections and created the #brainscoop series.

The American Fisheries Society extends our support to the furloughed fisheries and aquatics professionals affected by the U.S. federal government shutdown. Read our full statement on the shutdown and its impacts on natural resources here fisheries.org/2025/10/afs-...

This week, Alanna talks to Dr. Jessie Kittel, a research scientist at the Blue World Research Institute. Jessie's research using modeling techniques has varied from humpback whales to yellowtail flounder. Jessie is also a 100-ton captain!

Quote of the Day,

as found in "Comparative Vertebrate and Human Anatomy: Ecology, Evolution, and Function"
pressbooks.palni.org/comparativev...

Check it out - looks great!

#EndlessFishMostBeautiful

We are undergoing unprecedented loss of freshwater across the planet Rising temperatures are causing water to evaporate and driving humans to extract more groundwater, which is moving freshwater from the land to the seas and creating a "continental drying" trend

“We are undergoing unprecedented loss of freshwater across the planet.”

And need new leadership yesterday. :/

www.newscientist.com/article/2490...

orange clownfish, with white stripe amidst sea anemone tentacles, with isopod in mouth which parasitically replaces the tongue

NEMO! (a clownfish) with lil cymothoid isopod friend! Lembeh Photo by Dave Johnson Photography www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4...

Every fish that we catch has a story, some are crazier than others. We caught this unicornfish during a night dive in Okinawa last year. The trip was memorable because we had to end the dive early when North Korea fired a missile in our general direction and we had to take cover

Tailspot Blenny Ecsenius stigmatura by LagunaticPhoto

July Editor's Choice article: "Parental care drives the evolution of male reproductive accessory glands across ray-finned fishes"

Lucas Eckert, Jessica S Miller, John L Fitzpatrick, Sigal Balshine, Benjamin M Bolker

academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

@lucaseckert.bsky.social @bbolker.bsky.social

New paper alert: 42 ecological traits for all 6,000+ valid species of #Neotropical_freshwater_fishes, the most diverse continental vertebrate fauna on Earth. A foundation for future studies on the ecology and conservation of tropical aquatic biodiversity.

nature.com/articles/s41...

Hot off the press.

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

deep-sea adaptations have evolved independently in several groups. Eye shape: A prominent morphological example is the evolution of an elongated tubular, barrel eye to maximize photon capture in several deep-sea groups. Groups, where tubular eyes are common, are marked by a black square and a tubular eye scheme; groups with one/ few cases of tubular eyes but where the majority of species have a camera-type eye are marked with black dots (i.e. anglerfishes and dragonfishes). Retina: Rod-only retinas are a common feature of many adult deep-sea fishes. In other cases, they possess the typical duplex retina with cones (green cells) and rod cells (grey cells). Multibank: In some species, the rod cells are organized in multiple layers, forming a multibank retina, while other deep-sea fishes have the typical vertebrate single layer. Cone/rod id: Some deep-sea fishes have photoreceptor cells with an uncertain id that is intermediate between rods and cones due to a mismatch of the opsin and phototransduction cascade genes (e.g. in Scopelarchidae and Evermanellidae; Aulopiformes), or thanks to the presence of transmuted cells (i.e. rod-like cones in Maurolicus spp.; Sternoptychidae; Stomiiformes). Rhodopsins: Like other vertebrates, most lineages only have one rhodopsin (rh1) gene. Two rhodopsins are found in pearleyes (Scopelarchidae; Aulopiformes), and hatchetfishes (Sternoptychidae, Stomiiformes), and more than three rhodopsin genes are found in lanternfishes (Myctophiformes), spinyfins (Diretmidae), and tube-eye (Stylephoriformes). Photos (from top to bottom): Threadfin dragonfish, Echiostoma barbatum (Stomiiformes; photo Zuzana Musilova); pearleye, Benthalbella sp. (Aulopiformes; photo Zuzana Konvičková); and silver spinyfin, Diretmus argenteus (Trachichthyiformes; photo Vít Kaufman). Based on data from Collin and Partridge (1996), De Busserolles et al. (2017), De Busserolles et al. (2020), Lupše et al. (2021) and Musilova, Cortesi, et al. (2

An (omics) perspective on the evolution of vision in deep-sea
fishes reveals exceptional adaptations to life in the extreme

Musilova & Cortesi 2025 Functional Ecology

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...

#ichthyology #teamfish neat review of genetics of deep-sea vision in fishes

Pseudojuloides edwardi

Quite possibly the most beautiful wrasse in existence

Have you ever seen a juvenile Buffalo Trunkfish (Lactophrys trigonus)? I absolutely love their weird skeleton which forms this bony carapace making their body rigid.

Phylogenomic species delimitation of studfishes (Fundulidae: Fundulus ): evidence for cryptic species in agreement with the central highlands vicariance hypothesis | Zootaxa

Two new studfish! Thanks to the Sandel Lab for letting me tag along :)

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

Photo-diagram and illustrations depicting the many forms of life in emergent freshwater marshes.

Life in emergent freshwater marshes. For my forthcoming book "PONDS: An Illustrated Guide," Yale University Press, 2026.

🧪🌿🌎 #sciart #wildlife #scicomm #sciviz #wildlifeart #iNat #scientificillustration #natureart #visualscicomm #sciviz #scicomm #marshes #freshwater #wetlands

A total-evidence phylogenetic approach to understanding the evolution, depth transitions, and body-shape changes in the anglerfishes and allies (Acanthuriformes: Lophioidei) The anglerfishes and allies (Lophioidei) are a diverse group of fishes with over 400 carnivorous species that are renowned for their remarkable hunting behavior employing a modified first dorsal-fin s...

1/11 New #OpenAccess #anglerfish paper in @plosone.org! We combine genomic, mitochondrial, and morphological data to produce the most complete evolutionary hypothesis for anglerfishes! Includes new body shape, habitat analyses, and a new frogfish subfamily) 🦑
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Black background fish photography are MY NACHOS.

Two fish, Emerald Bowfin, are seen on measuring boards during scientific field research. They have bright green fins and eyespots on their tales. Male bowfins develop these bright green colors during spawning season, which coincides with St Patrick’s Day throughout much of their range. Top fish is from Michigan, bottom fish is from Louisiana. Scientists still don’t know the mechanism for developing these super green fins!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the Emerald Bowfin!☘️🐟

From the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast, few freshwater fishes are as festive as male bowfins! Their bellies and fins turn bright green during spawning season (right now in parts of their range!)🌎

*Gulf of MEXICO.

It’s true!

~ this lungfish, probably

ABC distributed 8 microgrants already this year totaling 1295 GBP. Next round of application opens in May.

Contribute to ABC by making a one time donation or becoming a monthly backer!

We granted 8 microgrants totalling £1295! 🥳🥳🥳
Our next funding round will open for applications on 26th May. Thank you to all our donors for making this possible!! 🫶

Oh HELL yeah look at that squid on the cover, beautiful reef squid we LOVE a reef squid in this household