Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 15/10/2026Porichthys plectrodon - the Atlantic midshipman. These unusual fishes possess rows of bioluminescent organs called photophores and can produce sounds using specialized muscles attached to their swim bladder. 0186
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 19/08/2026I’ve been looking at this weirdo quite a bit lately. Monocentris japonica, AKA the pineapplefish, pineconefish, or the knightfish. They possesses amazing armor that allows these fishes to swim around like little tanks. Scan is from Morphosource: UF 159787 🐟🧪🌊🦇 021
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Behold! Two extinct birds: the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) and the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis). Both were wiped out by humans not long after we encountered them. These specimens are housed at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, where they’re used for research. 🌊🧪🦆🦇 000
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 26/06/2026Time in Copenhagen is never lonely when working with #anglerfishes 🧪🐟🌊🦑🦇 161
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 10/04/2026‼️ Our anglerfish research is now featured in @ScienceMagazine! 🐟🎣 "Why do anglerfish have glowing lures? It might be sex" Check it out here! 🧪🌊🐟🦇 www.science.org/content/arti... 2199
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 08/04/2026‼️NEW ANGLERFISH PAPER! 🐟🎣 So excited to share the final part of my Master’s research! We explore the bizarre tacklebox of anglerfish lures and show how these fishes evolved different ways to attract prey and maybe even mates in the deep sea. 🧪🦑🌊🦇🦀 Open access paper link: doi.org/10.1643/i202... 17329
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 04/04/2026Finally got around to framing these postcards from a Nagasaki University calendar I was gifted a few years ago. 🌊🐟🦑🦀 1111
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 20/03/2026Talk about a headache! (especially from your partner fusing to you!) This is a Ghostly Seadevil (Haplophryne mollis) from the University of Washington Burke Museum! 012
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 31/12/2025These MN blizzard conditions make me long for Cretaceous weather. 030
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 22/11/2025When life puts a rock in the way, carry it around like an urchin 🦑🌊🦇🧪 2167
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 05/11/2025Our mini snail aquarium for this week’s lab on gastropods! 010
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 31/10/2025We didn't carve pumpkins this year, but here are some deep-sea fish jack-o'-lanterns l've made in prior years! 170
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 30/10/2025Ever seen a clear and stained little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus)? 🦇 I love how their modified forelimbs, with elongated phalanges that support the wing membrane used for flight. Look how big those fangs are! 🧪🎃 082
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 24/10/2025A 3D printer is glamorous until you have to fix a wiring issue… 000
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 20/10/2025Bellator militaris — the horned searobin. Just like other armored searobins, they possess modified pectoral fin rays used to walk and detect food on the seafloor. This specimen is TCWC 6818.17 available on MorphoSource. www.morphosource.org/concern/biol... 🦑 🌊 🧪 0113
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 20/10/2025Bellator militaris — the horned searobin. Just like other armored searobins, they possess modified pectoral fin rays used to walk and detect food on the seafloor. This specimen is TCWC 6818.17 available on MorphoSource. www.morphosource.org/concern/biol... 🦑 🌊 🧪 042
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 14/10/2025Just a few more pieces left to glue — the monkfish is nearly complete! 🦑 🌊 🧪 415311
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 06/10/2025They are jumpers so I would suggest a lid of some sort. 020
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 05/10/2025New addition to the aquarium! A Longnose Hawkfish (Oxycirrhites typus). Loves the camera more than any other fish I’ve had. 2666462
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 26/09/2025Hoplostethus mediterraneus – the Mediterranean slimehead (Trachichthyidae). Remarkably, slimeheads have been documented to live for over 230 years. This specimen is KU 42748 from the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum. 🦑🌊 2256
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 26/08/2025Monocentris japonica — the Japanese pineapplefish (or pinecone fish) 0105
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 19/07/2025Anyone else walk into the fish store and suddenly feel like handing over their wallet for a new tank? 050
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 09/07/2025Went to Duluth to celebrate wedding anniversary prior to #JMIH. Pretty cool aquarium and sturgeon touch tank! 071
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 06/06/2025Returned from visiting family to see new leaves on my mangroves! 🧪🌊🦑 091
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 31/05/2025Always ask your doctor for a copy of your CT scan. You never know when it may come in handy, say for Halloween… 030
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 31/05/2025Such smol mouths 👄… Poor things don’t have typical tetrodontid beaks 170
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 22/05/2025Have you ever seen a sargassum frogfish (Histrio histrio) eat in slowmo? This is Freddy eating his favorite food: anchovies. #marinelife #anglerfish 0111
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 07/05/2025Have you ever seen a juvenile Buffalo Trunkfish (Lactophrys trigonus)? I absolutely love their weird skeleton which forms this bony carapace making their body rigid. 031
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 03/05/20259/11 Finally, for some cool morphology, we identified new traits to help diagnose monkfishes (Lophiidae), including elongated dorsal and pelvic fin elements, and we show that hinged teeth are a shared derived trait of all anglerfishes! 111
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 03/05/20258/11 We used geometric morphometrics to explore how depth transitions affect body form in anglerfishes. Frogfishes (Antennariidae) and deep-sea ceratioids (Ceratioidei) have the highest body shape disparity, despite living in vastly different environments. 100
Alex Maile @anoplogaster.bsky.social · 03/05/20257/11 Our character state reconstructions show independent deep-water transitions in monkfishes and batfishes, and a deep-sea invasion in coffinfishes and ceratioid anglerfishes, with ceratioids anglers also moving to pelagic environments. 100