iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

This is the local coatí. The kids named him Baron Von Bullfroggen

Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

The intense upwelling of the last few weeks has collapsed as trade winds failed again. One possible reason is the Bermuda high is weak and positioned east than is needed to drive the pressure gradient that sets up wind-jet upwelling in the Gulf of Panama, although this idea needs further exploration

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Upwelling Update 20th Feb. The thermocline remains close to the surface although wind strength has decreased

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Data now in up 5th Feb 2026 and upwelling has returned with a vengeance! The thermocline is now close to the surface and we are hearing reports of surface waters as low as 16 degrees C in some parts of the Gulf. Is this the strongest upwelling ever recorded? Interesting after last year's failure!

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

New data in! Now up to the 20th January. 2026 seems to be following a more normal trajectory than 2025, but it's too early to say for sure

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

We are closely tracking the 2026 upwelling season in collaboration with STRI's Marine Monitoring Program. I will present periodic updates on how the thermocline is evolving through the year. So far, too early to say! More info on data collection and analysis here: odealab.com/upwelling-up...

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

In 2025 the normally predictable upwelling in the Gulf of Panama failed to appear - the first time since our records began 40 years ago (www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2512056122I). We are studying the gulf carefully to see what will happen in 2026. Will it also fail or was 2025 a one-off?

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

This beautiful artwork made by Yun-Kae Kiang for the study illustrates the abundance of lanternfishes and other pelagic animals recovered at the Piña site. Love the cookie-cutter shark - we find a lot of their teeth at the site

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

We found that more than 96% of the otoliths recovered from the Piña site belonged to the family Myctophidae - the lanternfishes - demonstrating that the Miocene Caribbean waters were highly productive in contrast to the oligotrophic Caribbean today

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

We named 4 new fishspecies: Chiloconger aflorens, Dasyscopelus inopinatus, Malakichthys schwarzhansi, and Hoplostethus boyae. This one after Brigida de Gracia, Ngäbe fossil fish expert who has contributed greatly to understanding Panama's natural history. Her nickname is Boya, hence the species name

Illustration of new species drawn by Natasha Hinojosa

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

The site is remarkable for many reasons, but the density of otoliths in the sediments really stands out. They are so abundant they are clearly visible as you walk over the wave-cut platform...

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

With otolith master Chien-Hsiang Lin, we studied the remarkable fish fauna of the late Miocene Chagres formation in Caribbean Panama peerj.com/articles/201...

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

New paper! led by Chris Perry: Most W. Atlantic reefs in current state can't keep up with sealevel rise at 2°C+. If reefs could accrete at Holocene rates (like these in Enriquillo basin) they'd manage fine. Restoration pockets offer some local hope, but overall sobering news doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Here in the tropics, climate "disruption" can upend predictable processes that coastal communities rely on. There are many regionally-important upwelling zones across the tropics. All need better monitoring and climate predictions. Great collaboration with @mpic.de.‬ OA! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

More than 95% biomass of Panama's fisheries comes from the Pacific coast and the #1 largest export of Panama is sea food. Upwelling is economically critical for Panama and its people. Is this a one-off or a vision of the future? Photo: Steve Paton/STRI

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

It appears the culprit was dramatically reduced wind patterns—74% fewer northerly winds with much shorter duration when they did occur. Just not enough to kick-start the upwelling...

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

We analysed long term records of temperature and wind in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry using the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's long term monitoring program data. Here's to institutional monitoring!

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

This seasonal upwelling is driven by the trade winds, and it brings cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface. Year on, year out it has predictably supported ocean life and fisheries for millennia. The cooling waters also protect coral reefs from heat stress. Photos: Natasha Hinojosa and Steve Paton

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

📊 new paper! The natural phenomenon of upwelling, which normally occurs every year in the Gulf of Panama, failed for the first time on record in 2025... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... [most co-authors not on bluesky except @javsdiaz.bsky.social @jonscibulski.bsky.social]...

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

We are hiring a lab manager for our lab family at Naos Island in Panama. More information and position description here: odealab.com/opportunities/. Deadline is today, but if you need more time please just let me know

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

While writing this paper, our labs underwent their own trophic cascade! We used to have a few scorpions here and there. Administration put out scorpion poison and the we became infested by millipedes (?Chondrodesmus)

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

While all this was going, the cryptobenthic fishes showed remarkable stability with no change in body size or abundance over 7,000 years. Are they immune to the cascading effects of predation or are bottom-up factors more important? Photo by @gobyone.bsky.social

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

We also looked at the frequency of damselfish bite marks on Acropora coral. They increased nearly 10-fold on modern compared to ancient reefs, suggesting more damselfishes and again, reduced predation. Photo of S. planifrons in Bocas del Toro by @hannah-rempel.bsky.social

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

We found that sharks and fishes that are commonly targeted by humans are >50% depleted and 22% smaller today than 7,000 years ago. Expected given long term exploitation! What surprised us was that prey fish doubled in abundance and are growing 17% larger today, suggesting release from predation

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

and extracted thousands of reef fish otoliths and dermal denticles from the fine reef sediments

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

We used the amazing 7,000 year-old coral reefs like these in Panama and the Dominican Republic to travel back in time

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

🐠🦈 Just out: In this paper we ask "How has reef trophic structure changed since humans started removing predatory fishes from Caribbean coral reefs?". www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Illustrations @cookedillustrations.com

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

This is the Panama Canal with the centennial bridge over the Culebra Cut, the locks leading into the Pacific ocean and Panama City in the background

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

The #INQUA meetings are about paleoecology, climate change, human evolution, and environmental transformations over the past 2.6myrs. @cookedillustra.bsky.social made a beautiful report from the last INQUA meeting in Rome. Here are some highlights. Grab the whole pdf here zenodo.org/records/1494...

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

This smoky jungle frog is the reigning queen of the Gamboa frog pond

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

A myctophids-eye view of the Tropical Eastern Pacific. Lanternfishes live typically from 200 to 2000m deep. Panama (top right) and Galapagos (bottom left) are connected by the Cocos ridge

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

I think this is part of a rostrum of a large billfish. From the Caribbean late Miocene for #fossilfriday

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

The ITCZ has finally shifted south of the Isthmus and wind jets forming through low-lying canal area. Will be interesting to see if the winds will be strong enough to create upwelling in the Gulf of Panama during this La niña. The role of ENSO on upwelling in the region has not been resolved

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

Some lovely columnar volcanics in Los Ladrillos, Boquete in Western Panama

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Meet marine biologist Javier Pardo (@javsdiaz.bsky.social). He found some record-sized sea slugs in Bocas - these Elysia crispata are huge. They steal chloroplasts from algae to photosynthesise (kleptoplasty). Javier is also working in the Miocene to build up our fossil shark teeth collection 🌊🦈

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

🌿 We held a two-day end-of-year lab retreat on Barro Colorado Island last week and got treated to a wonderful guided walk by David Brassfield - a walking encyclopedia of rainforest plants. Impressed by the BCI staff wardens, cooks, admin, scientists, technicians etc that keep this monument thriving

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Feeling like a dry season in Panama ☀️ because the ITCZ is sitting south, drawing winds across the isthmus and generating a wind jets. While not strong enough to cause upwelling in the Gulf of Panama, upwelling is noticeable in Santa Elena (Costa Rica), and Gulf of Tehuantepec(Mexico)

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

These things eat bats. A smoky jungle frog (Leptodactylus pentadactylus) in #Gamboa

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

That's pushing it, Seth, even for me. This is more your thing

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Estancia Bonanza, Patagonia. 3am #FitzRoy. An insomniac's delight

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Just back from a fun fossil hunting trip in Bocas del Toro, Caribbean Panama. Thanks to erosion in the last 12 years, I think the late Miocene marine fossil site "Finger Island" in Valiente Peninsula now needs a name change...🤔

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

One of the most amazing things about living in the rainforest is that everyday you can see a species you've never seen before. If I could identify insects in the garden, I bet the sp. accumulation curve would still be going steep even after 10 years

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

My uncle-in-law from Buenos Aires, who is a local piano tuner there and starred as himself in the film 'La Ventana,' created this mock-up from the 1st edition...

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Second edition of A History of Life in #100Fossils is out in the UK. Among the edits and additions is Sergiu Loghin's rather striking, monolithic-like image of a Cyprideis #ostracod - a fossil that provided key evidence for revealing the #Mediterranean once dried up!

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Hello again! Lovely to see old faces. Looking forward to sharing science in a reasonable place. I thought a picture of ~800 years of #Acropora cervicornis reef growth, with two Siderastrea siderea colonies, would be a nice way to kick things off. #Holocene Enriquillo Basin DR. Photo Sean Mattson

A section of a Holocene reef accreting upwards with two coral heads, one of which has a geological pick resting on it. The image represents the importance of waiting it out...

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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 25/01/2023

We have a cracking @Q_MAREwg Seminar coming up from the one and the only @pimientoc. Join us next Wednesday February 1st here:Passcode: 010486 smithsonian.zoom.us/j/87218273935?…

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