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...

Keeping it local for world lizard day- Rhineura floridana, also known as the Florida worm lizard or, brilliantly, the thunderworm, is a truly bizarre and wonderful creature. Eyeless, burrowing and restricted to the sandy soils of the sunshine state. What a fabulous weirdo!

Very excited to be part of the #ASIHin3D symposium! @hannahoish.bsky.social has put together an amazing lineup!

Feel free to use that anytime!

Thanks for the reply! My understanding is that ovoviviparity is a kind of viviparity, like placental viviparity. Dan Blackburn has written a lot on this topic- here is a nice paper about the confusing terminology www.thebhs.org/publications...

Hi, yes, Ouroborus and all non-platysaur cordylids give birth to live young. Like most live bearing lizards, they do this by keeping their eggs inside them until embryos are sufficiently developed, which is called ovovivipary. True placental vivipary occurs in mammals and a few lineages of skink.

I’m delighted to see that altmetric is now incorporating Bluesky posts into their impact reporting.

Delighted to receive my bizarre beast spiny mouse pins. I really love the video they put together, and am tickled that the armored, Eocene hedgehog thing, Pholidocercus, gets a shout out too!

I’m excited for the upcoming publication of our paper summarizing the lessons learned from seven years of specimen digitization. The oVert project has produced tens of thousands of datasets and is changing the way people view and use collections.

A tale of discovery about a tail of deglovery! The good folk over @BizarreBeasts have just released an excellent new video about spiny mice and their armored tails! I’ll wear my Acomys pin with pride! youtu.be/xKI9yIqyFWs?...

Happy Halloween! No eye of newt or toe of frog, but here's a (sort of) blindworm's sting! Atractaspis, or stiletto snakes are so-named as they have a sharpened tail that they can poke attackers with, in addition to some pretty formidable fangs! UF:herp:68168 Atractaspis irregularis.

🚨🍞 Fresh out of the oven! I am so happy yo share this new paper with @anura.bsky.social @drscanley.bsky.social and Jon Bloch! We found 28 Million years old fossils of the “Caribbean Amphinians 🎵🎶” Eleutherodactylus in Florida 🦴🐸 doi.org/10.1093/zool...

Hot off the presses, a new paper that applies Geometric Morphometrics to CT scanned cacao flowers to identify potential pollinators. This was a really fun project led by Katie Wolcott, & one of the first studies to use of the new @UFRSC Versa 620 CT. bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The Florida Museum of Natural History Is looking to hire a new assistant curator of vertebrate paleontology! I’m really excited about the addition of another dynamic and innovative colleague, continuing our run of hiring amazing new curators in ornithology, mammalogy and AI! t.co/4bC6tZQnT3

It’s wonderful to spend some time in Dorset during the summer. I’ve never appreciated how many lizards and snakes were within a few miles of my childhood home! Zootoca, Lacerta, Anguis and Natrix! 2/3rds of British reptile diversity in a few days! Will keep Vipera & Coronella for the next visit!