Go team!!!

Today is the Big Day! Four LSUMNS Ornithology students are traveling across the state of Louisiana today to see how many species they can see in a single day. They're taking over our social media, so expect updates throughout the day!
give.lsufoundation.org/campaigns/77...

A diagram showing the evolutionary relationships among modern birds. The branches are color coded by the estimated likelihood of retaining ancestral character variability, with higher likelihoods in red.

A new paper I'm on is out today! Led by Stanley Somogyi, we suggest that ancestrally variable characters stabilized independently in different bird lineages, causing distantly related groups to retain similar traits and creating headaches for bird systematists. www.cell.com/current-biol... 🪶🧪

These birds suck—literally Scientists spot first example of vertebrate drinking with suction from the tongue alone

Researchers have demonstrated that sunbirds suck up nectar using only their tongues, the first example of a vertebrate drinking through suction generated by the tongue alone. (Yes, hummingbirds do something else.) #ornithology

Chimes is the best!!

Help keep us going!

Birds of a Feather Talk Together cover page with a picture of Horned Lark. Interview with Nick Mason.

This week on Birds of a Feather Talk Together, we’re joined by Dr. Nick Mason, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Curator of Birds at the LSU Museum of Natural Science, for an in-depth and engaging conversation all about the fascinating Horned Lark. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1...

Back again with more cool mammal updates, this time in maybe the coolest mammal - the platypus!

Thrilled to share the second chapter of my PhD, out today in Biology Letters. We found spherical hollow melanosomes in the fur of the platypus, maybe a total vertebrate first!

doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

That's my advisor 🙌!!! Give it a listen if you've got a second

Rapid and repeated evolution of pigmentation patterns in reef fishes - BMC Biology Background Pigmentation patterns are central to animal biology—shaping camouflage, signaling, and mate selection—and uncovering the mechanisms driving their diversification is key to understanding the...

Rapid and repeated evolution of pigmentation patterns in reef fishes

#ichthyology

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

A collection of six ominous bird valentines set against a background of pink hearts. In the first one, a Canada Goose looks angry and hisses and the text says "Baby, I'll make you fall head over heels if you approach within 10m of my nest." In the second, an American white pelican opens its mouth to eat the reader and the text says "There are plenty of fish in the sea, but I want this one." In the third valentine, a Black Vulture looks suspiciously at the reader and the text says "I will love you until you die. And after that, I'll love you even more." A Southern Cassowary stands proudly against the heart-covered background. The text says "My wattles are red. My head is blue. My deadly reputation has been somewhat overblown, but I'd kill for you." In the fifth valentine, a Northern Giant-Petrel stands open-billed next to a large brown furry object, and the text says "Let's seal the deal by sharing a 3000 kg elephant seal carcass." In panel 6, a happy-looking Bearded Vulture holds a bone in its beak, and the text says "I love every part of you, especially your bones."

Ominous bird valentines.

Job Posting: San Diego Natural History Museum Curator of Ornithology workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...

IMAGE SHOWS GRAPHIC OF CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY PHYLOGENY EXPLORER TOOL.

MAJOR NEWS! We just launched an awesome new tool! The illustrated Birds of the World Phylogeny Explorer lets users trace any bird’s lineage, compare species relationships, and explore major evolutionary milestones with a click of a button. SHARE and EXPLORE! birdsoftheworld.org/bow/news/phy...

A u shaped structure made out of sticks called a bower, built under a small tree. In front of the bower is a pile of grey, white and green objects that make up the display court. The whole scene is in dappled sunlight and shade created by the tree above.

New bowerbird paper out, we asked whether male great bowerbirds care about the light environment around the bower where they display to females. Short answer: not really. What they do care about is having a display arena with strong visual contrast on the ground. 🐦 tinyurl.com/2v7rycdz

Tea. Definitely tea.

What a diva 🤩

Cassie Stoddard'a talk was really insightful and colorful:
"sure, we're living exciting times to study the genome, but also to study the phenome, the birds' phenotypes using collections"

#BOUasm25 #ornithology #evolution @bou.org.uk

Honestly? Needed this today 😅

Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs, a special exhibition opening November 17 at the American Museum of Natural History, explores the major asteroid impact 66 million years ago that reshaped life on Earth. Featuring life-size models, fossils and fossil casts, dramatic dioramas, an immersive panoramic video experience that visualizes the moment the asteroid struck, and engaging interactives, Impact reveals the latest scientific understanding of this transformative event.

Exhibition visitors will encounter life-size models of a 27-foot-long mosasaur—among the most fearsome and widespread marine reptiles of the time—attacking a long-necked plesiosaur measuring 30 feet.

Impact features a stunning diorama that depicts a scene based on fossils from the Hell Creek Formation, an ancient rock layer that dates to the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. The scene includes intricate life-size models of a Triceratops and a recently discovered hook-handed dinosaur called Trierarchuncus prairiensis, as well as other members of their ecosystem including turtles, birds, frogs, and even a predatory mammal— Didelphodon—that might have eaten small dinosaurs and other animals.

☄️The Museum’s newest exhibition Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs opens on Monday, November 17! Explore the before-and-after story of the asteroid impact that led to the extinction of non-bird dinosaurs and the majority of animal and plant species 66 mil years ago.

📸: A.Keding & D. Kim/© AMNH

a group of people in matching t-shirts are standing at a table while a man holds up one of several trays of shallow boxes with different types of shells sorted neatly into them

close up of a museum display of many large fossil shells mounted carefully on a black background with small info labels

there is a person in outdoors clothing kneeling at the top of a long sandy slope covered in many small dark shells with a cloudy sky overhead

Work with us! 👉 Invertebrate Paleontology Collection Manager
Position will manage the extensive collections, conduct fieldwork, participate in public outreach, & pursue external funding.

🔸 Full info: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/inver...

🔸 Apply @ufl.edu: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...

Fascinating ABA podcast this week, reviewing the life of Roxie Laybourne, an amazing female scientist who “may be the most influential ornithologist you've never heard of”.
#Ornithology

NSF is open again!

A few comments:

*Please be patient.
During a shutdown NSF employees cannot open computers or respond to emails.

*Merit review will continue. However panels won’t resume until after Dec 8th.

*POs remain excited and committed to advancing science and the scientific workforce.

The vivid colours of the gemstone ammolite (Placenticeras meeki), perfectly preserved in its original form. Credit: Hiroaki Imai.

A paper in Scientific Reports presents the origins of vivid colours within the gemstone ammolite — a rare type of brightly coloured fossilised ammonite shell. go.nature.com/48OT5DX #Paleosky ⚒️ 🧪

New York Botanical Garden is looking for Assistant Curator, Mycology or Cryptogamic Botany. New York Botanical Garden is looking for Assistant Curator, Mycology or Cryptogamic Botany. Learn more or Jobvite a friend.

The deadline to apply to the Assistant Curator in Mycology or Cryptogamic Botany position we are advertising at NBYG is THIS Friday! Happy to chat about my experience at NYBG and the cool science going on here. Come be our colleague!! jobs.jobvite.com/nybg/job/o8I...

Happy (early) Halloween 🎃

An image of the cover page of Micrographia

I posed recently about my recent obsession with Hooke's Micrographia (1665) and the incredible feather drawings it has. I really wanted to see an original copy and luckily, Yale has two! So, earlier this week, I headed down to the Beinecke Library with @mylestogo.bsky.social to check it out

A fluorescent confocal microscopy image of a butterfly wing scale showing the surface and internal structures

We are looking for a physics/maths graduate with an interest in biology, or a biology graduate with strong computational/mathematical skills/interests, to join us as a PhD student working on biomechanical modelling of butterfly wing scale structure formation www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

⏰ DEADLINE APPROACHING ⏰

BOU Small Research Grants & Career Development Bursaries

Application deadline: 31 Oct 2025

Full details via links ⬇️

Grants: bou.org.uk/funding/s...

Bursaries: bou.org.uk/funding/c...

#ornithology 🪶

Distinctive casque morphologies among cassowary species - American Ornithological Society For more than 150 years, the conspicuous cranial casque has been acclaimed as the most iconic feature of cassowaries—perhaps, in addition to the lethal daggers adorning their inner toes.

The latest on Wing Beat | "Distinctive casque morphologies among cassowary species" by Todd L. Green
Blog post: americanornithology.org/distinctive-...
Related paper: doi.org/10.1093/orni...
#ornithology