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From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museums The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation iucn.org/news/202607/...

From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museumsThe IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation: a formal acknowledgement that natural history museums,...iucn.org

Every #sharkweek it seems ‘Megalodon ‘is still alive’ comes up.’ ‘What evidence do you have that it went extinct?’ Sharks lose their teeth all the time, like a lot. All the megalodon teeth we have found - and there are a lot of them - are from millions of years ago, fossilized stone, not recent.

I wrote a short piece with @bruno-soares.bsky.social in BioScience about the importance of allowing researchers (particularly from the Global South) who might not be able to easily access type specimens to use topotypes instead. This podcast explains more: bioscience-talks.aibs.org/episodes/typ...

BioScience Talks | Type Localities and Topotypes, with Prosanta Chakrabarty and Bruno SoaresFor this episode, we're joined by Prosanta Chakrabarty, Director of Louisiana State University's Museum of Natural Science, where he is also the Fish Curator and a professor. Also joining us is Bru...bioscience-talks.aibs.org

It seems that the awful news is true. Kent Carpenter, eminent ichthyologist, was killed in the Philippines. A tragedy, and I’m sorry to all who knew him.

Super excited to be going down to NOLA with my lab and I’m giving the opening plenary for the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists! #JMIH26 #ASIH2026

Awesome new American cavefish! New genus and species just under our noses and feet Surprising cryptic cavefish diversity in a long-studied karst cave ecosystem of northern Alabama Niemiller et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Surprising cryptic cavefish diversity in a long-studied karst cave ecosystem of northern Alabama - Scientific ReportsScientific Reports - Surprising cryptic cavefish diversity in a long-studied karst cave ecosystem of northern Alabamawww.nature.com

A 4th of July tradition I prefer to fireworks 🎆 #Jaws #4thofJuly

They found a moribund Indonesian coelacanth in shallow waters in Sulawesi yesterday. This species was described in 1997 and has a story behind the description and discovery almost as crazy as the one from the original Western species in 1938. www.facebook.com/share/r/1VNQ...

Y'all - the Smithsonian is hiring three new curators - herpetology, ichthyology, and ornithology! Notably, this is a 2nd fish curator position - i.e., not the same as the one advertised last month. So if you applied for that one apply again. www.usajobs.gov/job/873849000

An American Ichthyologist’s Guide to Swedish birds The pigeons here are eatin’ size Compare chonker of a Common Wood Dove (Columba palumbus) on the left to the regular ol’ Rock Pigeon (C.livia) on right 🕊️ I was surprised these things could fly. It looks like a pigeon that eats other pigeons.

At the Evolution Museum (Evolutions Museet) in Uppsala, Sweden. More of a taxonomy museum but still fun. I love all the museums on the campus of the University of Uppsala #naturalhistory

Where am I?

Huge Fish Curator gig is advertised! Assistant Curator of Fishes at the Florida Museum of Natural History (part of Uni of. Florida) explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/54...

At a moose 🫎 farm in Sweden - they are a little smaller than the American version but I’m wondering now why Jefferson famously mailed a specimen to the Compt de Buffon in Paris after he said American animals were small and weak compared to European ones.

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I’ve been to several museums now where fire is such a danger in alcohol collections that you can’t bring your phone and in one I had to wear covers on my shoes to avoid making a spark ⚡️ (didn’t know I could do that). People used to smoke in these collections. Thank goodness for fire suppression.

At the beautiful Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet (Natural History Museum of Sweden 🇸🇪 Stockholm) did a behind the scenes tour in the collections (mostly fishes) but couldn’t bring my camera. Saw some Linnean types and the only Thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) in ethanol among other curios. #naturalhistory

CryptoVision "Integrating deep learning, biological hierarchies, and high-resolution imagery to create a new identification tool for cryptic coral reef fishes" Reginato & Brandl 2026 @plos.org #ichthyology #OA journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Integrating deep learning, biological hierarchies, and high-resolution imagery to create a new identification tool for cryptic coral reef fishesLife on Earth has evolved into a staggering diversity of species, most of which still remain undiscovered, unrecognized, or unmonitored. As our ocean’s richest biodiversity hotspot, coral reefs harbor...journals.plos.org

I was a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. I was so impressed by the transparency and rigor around grant reviews. These funds change careers and institutions, but also the lives of those involved (from the primary investigators to students and the public). #SavetheNSF

A closeup of the ‘split’ eyes on Anableps dowei, the ‘four-eyed’ fish that can see above and below water simultaneously and equally well (LSUMZ 15116 collected in El Salvador). #LSU_Fish the topic of tonight’s #lsusciencecafe @lsu.bsky.social @lsuscience.bsky.social @lsuresearch.bsky.social

Finished Rupert Sheldrake’s strange but interesting ‘Science Set Free’. He challenges many science orthodoxies but I don’t know of much evidence for his proposed alternatives. The book is sprawly, messy and a bit selfserving - but it will make you question why we do science in certain ways.