Very cool!
05.03.2026 12:40
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Very cool!
First whole-brain recording of social sound processing in a vertebrate. Surprises start in the hindbrain; thalamus gates conspecific calls; male and female brains diverge downstream. Work by @joerghenninger.bsky.social, @mh123.bsky.social sky.social and team. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
I don’t know if it works with pizza but that is a great beer, and now I have to go get one.
Was the AI generated picture of birds really necessary.
What paper is this?
Cartoon. Person says to other person „We invented a robot that answers questions.“, adding, „we just have to feed it 10 baby giraffes a day“. The other person asks „But it answers the questions correctly?“ Person responds „Oh my goodness, no. No no no no no.“ By Aram J. French Appropriated due to missing alt text
🧵In this new op-ed in the Edmonton Journal, @pinglamjoeip.bsky.social and I debunk the myth that EDI hiring and “reverse discrimination” happened at University of Alberta.
In actuality, the U of A has not made any advancement in EDI hiring.
A great write up of our recent paper funded by NSERC and the Smithsonian Institution that concluded that the extinct Apteribis of Hawaii might have been nocturnal.
#birds 🪶🧠🧪
done in collaboration with @weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social
The skull of an extinct bird with a long, curved bill. Close-ups show features relevant to interpreting its sensory biology.
Sensory biology and evidence for nocturnality in the extinct Hawaiian ibis Apteribis: academic.oup.com/icb/advance-... 🪶🧪 (📷 @evolsara.bsky.social et al.)
Fig 2 Top: digital reconstructions of the skulls of (A) American White Ibis (Eudocimus albus skull ROM112456), and (B) Apteribis sp. (USNMPAL377837), with azure circle highlighting the orbit and green segment highlighting the optic foramen. Bottom: endocasts of (C) Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja), (D) Apteribis sp., (E) Hadada Ibis (Bostrychia hagedash), (F) Sharp-tailed Ibis (Cercibis oxycerca), (G) American White Ibis (Eudocimus albus), (H) Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita), (I) Madagascar Ibis (Lophotibis cristata), (J) Green Ibis (Mesembrinibis cayennensis), (K) Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon), (L) Bare-faced Ibis (Phimosus infuscatus), (M) White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi), (N) Red-naped Ibis (Pseudibis papillosa), (O) Black-faced Ibis (Theristicus melanopis), and (P) Straw-necked Ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis). The green-marked brain region highlights the optic lobe. Note the reduced optic system of Apteribis for all three traits: orbits, optic foramen, and optic lobes.
" This study provides the first quantitative evidence for the evolution of a kiwi-like niche for a #bird outside New Zealand, and emphasizes the remarkable diversity of #avian lifestyles lost due to #anthropogenic impact..."
ICB's
Sara Citron et al
doi.org/10.1093/icb/...
Fossil evidence indicates the extinct Hawaiian ibis Apteribis had unusually small eyes and limited visual capacity, suggesting it was adapted for nocturnal activity on predator-free islands.
FYI if anyone out there is interested, I’m happy to deliver this talk elsewhere via Zoom or in person
#birds
Huang, J., Wu, W., Mao, L. et al. Cellular-level preservation of cutaneous spikes in an Early Cretaceous iguanodontian dinosaur. Nat Ecol Evol (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s415...
"By the end of the two-year period, 94% of participants reported they were housed."
A million pilot programs show the same thing: when people are given enough money to afford housing, homelessness ends.
Other supports matter, but housing comes first. Not policing. Not moralizing. Homes.
Bio science building? Cool
Reminder here’s some adobe alternatives, Because FUCK ADOBE….
The cerebellum supports high-level language?? Now out in @cp-neuron.bsky.social, we systematically examined language-responsive areas of the cerebellum using precision fMRI and identified a *cerebellar satellite* of the neocortical language network!
authors.elsevier.com/a/1mUU83BtfH...
1/n 🧵👇
Birds have a thick retina devoid of blood vessels - so how do they ensure sufficient oxygen availability?
They don't - neurons rely on glycolysis, metabolizing glucose released from the pecten.
Insane new study that includes comparative data on lizards and crocs.🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Where does learning through imitation happen in the brain?
In juvenile zebra finches, we pinpoint a synaptic locus of song learning in a cortico-basal ganglia circuit and leverage this localization to measure the timescale of consolidation and make birds learn faster! #neuroskyence (1/14)
Horrific wildfires in Chile. It is unfortunately becoming much too common and a near annual occurrence for the country as it deals with more extreme summer heat and favorable fire conditions.
Cow Tools!
We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them
It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS
Here I describe our study
(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
This book is a wonderful, synthetic and richly illustrated journey through the natural history of the vertebrate brain 🤩
A big thank you to the authors 🙏
"A major theme in the evolution of the telencephalon has been the emergence of novel pathways...
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Brilliant overview here of the ongoing debate over dinosaur cognition. In short, it's complicated and evidence is fragmentary.
#neuroethology #neuroskyence #anatomy #brains
@tetzoo.bsky.social @gallinaciega.bsky.social @nomascus.bsky.social
#ornithology
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Wascher: CORVIDATA: A global dataset of morphology, ecology, sociality, and life-history in Corvidae www.nature.com/articles/s41... #ornithology
A data collection mission that began in 2012 is finally released as AVONICHE.
Designed as a companion to AVONET bird trait database and updated to Avilist taxonomy, it’s an Open Access dataset providing updated diets and a detailed breakdown of foraging behaviours used by all bird species.
🪶🌐
New paper out! 🐦📊
We realease AVONICHE, a global dataset with detailed information on the proportional use of 32 foraging niches, combining dietary categories with the behaviours and substrates used to access resources.
Openly access the paper and data in GEB: doi.org/10.1111/geb....
