DeMarchi et al (2025) explore why some amphibians are better reservoirs for the deadly chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, Bd) than others. See what they found at AmphibiaWeb.org #AWNews
Super proud of @stancaf.bsky.social and @shubhamsoni.bsky.social for having led this important Natural History study. Surely you have heard about arboreal 🐍, but did you ever imagine them to dive to hunt for tadpoles in treeholes?! You're welcome! 👉 doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
@klivvvienna.bsky.social
Hey y'all. I'm a month late to this, but I wanted to share that one of my PhD chapters was published in Systematic Biology with my advisor, Frank Burbrink. Here, we explore how ecological opportunity influences phenotypic evolution in North American natricid snakes. 🧵/8
Gillard and Rowley (2025) analyzed data from FrogID's citizen science project to investigate biodiversity sampling on private lands relative to public lands. See a summary of their findings at AmphibiaWeb.org for this week's #AWNews.
Do tadpoles have acoustic communication? Protázio et al. (2025) documented Ceratophrys joazeirensis (Caatinga Horned Frog) tadpoles producing a short, metallic click sound. See what their hypotheses are for this observation at AmphbiaWeb.org #AWNews
Happy to share our new paper on the thermal tolerance of phrynosomatid lizards, now out in The American Naturalist! A beautiful collaborative project across career stages, with undergraduate and graduate students and postdocs 😊🦎 www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
rattling Western diamondback rattlesnake
Western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) spotted in Arizona
An alternative patterning mechanism for vertebrate tooth complexity www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...
Lateral view of a preserved croaking gecko (Aristelliger) embryo
I’m so excited to announce our new paper in @journal-evo.bsky.social showing how embryology can help us determine ancestral character states in temporal niche
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
Collab w/ A Bauer, A Wegerski, @tonygamble.bsky.social, & A Rasys
#GeckoEvoDevo #Aristelliger
1/x
Out now in @anatrecord.bsky.social: The distinct synsacrum of knob-tailed geckos (Gekkota: Carphodactylidae: Nephrurus) doi.org/10.1002/ar.7...
Granados-Martinez et al. (2025) ran behavioral field experiments to test whether male Strawberry Poison Frogs (Oophaga pumilio) rely on vision for navigation in tropical forests and open areas. Read a summary of their results at AmphibiaWeb.org #AWNews
Spring has officially arrived. Pair of wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) in amplexus.
Grow a thick skin frog! VanBuren et al. (2025) examined three frog species from the northern United States and found that skin layers were not consistent over the time. Read the details at AmphibiaWeb.org #AWNews
Our paper on convergent regressive evolution of genes involved in oral anatomy of myrmecophagous mammals is now officially published @molbioevol.bsky.social
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag009
The recent description of the 9,000th amphibian species marks a remarkable milestone for biodiversity science and a testament to decades of careful fieldwork, taxonomy, and collaboration across the globe. Read more at AmphibiaWeb.org #AWNews
New paper led by my former student Cinnamon Mittan... find out what those cane toads have been doing once they got established down there in Florida... www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Navarrete et al. (2025) provides evidence that Caecilians aren't totally blind. Go to AmphibiaWeb.org to read more of this #AWNews.
How are ballistic tongues in plethodonts and chameleons similar and different? Zeng et al. (2025) explore this in this week's #AWNews. Visit AmphibiaWeb.org to read more.
Limnonectes palavanensis group exhibit one of the most advanced brood care behaviors. Recently, Dehling et al (2025) showed that there is an unexpectedly high diversity within this clade. Read more of this #AWNews at AmphibiaWeb.org
Cartoon of Pax9 expression (purple) during facial development in mouse (left) and zebrafish (right). Text: Mammals. Pax9 is expressed In tooth-forming mesenchyme around the mouth. Required for tooth formation in mouse and human. Fish. Pax9 is also expressed in oral mesenchyme in fishes. But many fish do not form oral teeth. Vestigial expression or divergent function? Result: pax9 is required for formation of upper jaw bones and barbels in zebrafish, but dispensable for non-oral teeth. Support ancestral function in building peri-oral structures from condensed mesenchyme rather than a specific requirement for teeth
#DBfeature 🐠
Pax9 has a broader role in initiating development of mesenchymal structures around the mouth during zebrafish development
By Sandhya Paudel, Sarah McLeod, Stefani Gjorcheska, Lindsey Barske
tinyurl.com/yc3jfpux
Atelopus ignescens (the jambato) is a sentinel for environmental health. Please help us protect it from construction that doesn't follow local environmental regulations givebutter.com/XNVdrL
If you are a geologist/engineer who could help advise on alts to dynamite for road construction pls DM me.
NEWS from Ohio State Fish Division: You can now search our 6,000-tissue collection on our website! 🐟
mbd.osu.edu/collections/...
The metamorphic transition of the frog mouth: from tadpole keratinized mouthparts to adult teeth: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @garethjfraser.bsky.social @danpaluh.bsky.social #evolution
brightfield images of three lizard embryos of approximately the same developmental stage. Below each embryo image is an immunofluorescence image labeling E-cadherin (green) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (magenta) of their developing lungs
New paper out in @devdynamics.bsky.social on lizard lung development!
Project co-led w/ Kaleb Hill and also w/ @tonygamble.bsky.social @shylonatasha.bsky.social @aussiebiologist.bsky.social @bezbez.bsky.social @celestemnelson.bsky.social
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Immunofluorescence of mouse, anole, and chicken lungs showing epithelium in green and smooth muscle actin in magenta
New preprint from my postdoc work! Using fluorescent imaging, scRNA-seq, and ATAC-seq of mouse, anole, and chicken embryos, we provide evidence that birds have co-opted vascular smooth muscle to generate the pulmonary smooth muscle in their lungs. More on this later!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Very happy that our new paper on the odd, looped optic nerves of chameleons is now out! It turns out having highly mobile eyes require some pretty specialized connections! doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Can lungless tadpoles get their lungs back before metamorphosis? Find out in this week's #AWNews featuring Phillips et al. (2025) at AmphibiaWeb.org
Last major paper of my #MSCA is finally out!! I modeled and mapped over 300 fish species in three orders in 3D to demonstrate how incorporating a depth perspective may offer a view of open-ocean biodiversity patterns that differs from a typical 2D approach.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Pretty stoked that our article got the cover of the latest issue of @journalofanatomy.bsky.social!
Check it out here: doi.org/10.1111/joa....
