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Ben Frable

@frable.bsky.social

Marine Vertebrate Collection Manager at Scripps Institution of Oceanography | Ichthyologist | Beer and bike lover | Horror fan

Posts Replies Media

Ben Frable @frable.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

We collected tissue samples and @arciladk.bsky.social was able to generate a mitogenome for this species and compare it with related eels, such as gulper eels, bobtail eels and snipe eels.

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Ben Frable @frable.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

These eels lack an upper jaw and instead have a venomous fang in the roof of their mouth that you can see on this CT scan. They presumably use this to immobilize large red crustaceans, their favorite prey.

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Ben Frable @frable.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

It matches Monognathus jesse, previously known from only ONE specimen collected near the Line Islands in 1960 (catalog number SIO 60-245).

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Ben Frable @frable.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

From 1,750–2,000 m deep, we collected one of the rarest deepsea fishes out there: a one-jaw eel (family Monognathidae). Only ~100 specimens of this group are known worldwide and we hold the largest collection (~46), most just a few inches long… The one we collected though, 6 inches or 154 mm!

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Ben Frable @frable.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Back in Pct 2023, @scrippsocean.bsky.social Professor Anela Choy invited me on a research cruise hundreds of miles off California to study open ocean Goodwin’s. I helped ID deep-sea fishes collected via a MOCNESS net system (opening–closing trawl with known capture depths)

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Ben Frable @frable.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

@neilshubin.bsky.social lectured at @scrippsocean.bsky.social a few weeks ago, I was out of town but got the grad students to get my stuffed Tiktaalik signed! #walkingfish #paleontology

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Ben Frable @frable.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

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Ben Frable @frable.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

The new entrance to the Marine Vertebrate Collection! An amazing mural by Dwight Hwang of California ichthyofauna. Offshore to nearshore, shallow to deep; from the oarfish and footballfish to sardines and finescale triggerfish. Brought to life by the amazing @birchaquarium.bsky.social Exhibits team!