iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Robin Saulnier Masson

LIB @leibnizlib.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

#FunFact A frog’s limb muscles don't start out as dozens of individual muscles. They develop from just two pre-muscle masses, which gradually split and differentiate into the muscles of the shoulder, arm and hand. 3/3

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Reposted by Robin Saulnier Masson

LIB @leibnizlib.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Knowing which muscles are evolutionarily equivalent across species is key to comparing anatomy and reconstructing how vertebrate limbs evolved. Development can reveal relationships that adult anatomy alone may obscure. → doi.org/10.1002/jmor... @robinslnr.bsky.social @kengelkes.bsky.social 2/3

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LIB @leibnizlib.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Same muscle, different frog? Researchers traced how shoulder & forelimb muscles develop in 11 frog and toad species, revealing a largely shared developmental pattern despite differences in adult anatomy. #LIBresearch © Saulnier Masson & Engelkes, CC BY 1/3

3D renderings of the ontogenetic development of the right shoulder joint and forearm muscles in Rhinella marina, showing anterolateral and posterior views at developmental stages 32-33, 35, and 37, with colour-coded muscles and labeled bone structures.

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Reposted by Robin Saulnier Masson

LIB-MorphoLab @lib-morpholab.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

All the lab and #3DReconstruction work paid off for Robin: He published the first paper of his PhD project! Congratulations!!! 🎉🐸

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Robin Saulnier Masson @robinslnr.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

🚨Excited to share my first PhD paper, out in Journal of Morphology 🐸 With @kengelkes.bsky.social, we studied the ontogeny and homology of anuran forelimb muscles across 11 species, resolving long-standing inconsistencies in their nomenclature and homology. First step of many! doi.org/10.1002/jmor...

doi.org

Ontogeny and Homology of the Shoulder Joint and Forelimb Muscles in Frogs and Toads (Lissamphibia: Anura)

The ontogenetic development, innervation, and morphology of the shoulder joint and forelimb muscles were investigated in 11 anuran species. The results reveal largely conserved splitting patterns of ...

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Reposted by Robin Saulnier Masson

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Here are two of the four new species of moss-camouflaged frogs we just described in the journal Salamandra: Spinomantis fohitstilo and S. chlorostictus! The article is OA, available here: www.salamandra-journal.com/salamandra/6... 🧪🐸

Spinomantis fohistilo, a mossy-looking frog with big finger and toe pads, green and brown patterning above, and rather white flanks. The legs have a series of little white spines, which are the source of the name, which means white spines in Malagasy.

A brown frog with a two-toned eye, and little green splotches over its back. Those green splotches are the source of the name, which is of Greek derivation. This one is quite smooth without fringes or spines, but still has well expanded finger and toe tips.

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Eli Amson @eliamson.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

🚨Job alert🚨: Fantastic fossils are waiting to be prepared @smnstuttgart.bsky.social : naturkundemuseum-bw.helixjobs.com/_/jobad?prj=...

naturkundemuseum-bw.helixjobs.com

Präparator*in (m/w/d) für wirbellose Fossilien – Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart

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Morgan PROUST @morganproust.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

New paper out in @journalofanatomy.bsky.social ! With @CyrilETIENNE and @houssayecnrs.bsky.social, we explored how limb bone inner structure varies across bovids of different sizes and habitats.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Platypelis tuberifera always remind me of a rockclimber bridging a chimney, the way they sit in the groove of Pandanus fronds. Such charming frogs! And we know so very little about their ecology. For instance, as far as I know nobody has ever found their eggs or tadpoles! 🧪🐸🇲🇬

A little yellow and brown frog in the groove in the middle of a vibrant green Pandanus frond, its feet splayed to the side to brace it in place.

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Robin Saulnier Masson @robinslnr.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

📢 New #Paper Alert ! Happy and excited to share our new paper in the Swiss Journal of #Palaeontology describing a new hyracoid species, providing the first phylogenetic definition of Pliohyracidae, and shedding new light on their dispersal from Africa to Eurasia ! doi.org/10.3897/sjp....

doi.org

A new genus and species of Pliohyracidae (Hyracoidea, Mammalia) from the Pliocene of Jradzor, Armenia

Hyracoidea is a group of afrotheres that is today represented by three extant genera, but its fossil diversity is much greater. While most recent palaeontological studies have focused on documenting t...

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Reposted by Robin Saulnier Masson

Anne-Claire Fabre @grumpydrfabre.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Better late than never! If you haven’t yet read Isabelle’s latest paper on the impact of tweezers on table manners in salamanders, now’s the time. Check out her blog and the full paper at the link below👇 that’s an order 😉 metamorphosis-project.org/publications...

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Robin Saulnier Masson @robinslnr.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

A small look behind the scenes of my PhD work ! 🐸

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Reposted by Robin Saulnier Masson

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

New publication from my lab, led by @njorisfleck.bsky.social! 🧪 We explore the diversity and origins of a genus of tiny frogs 🐸 on an isolated mountain in north Madagascar. A cool case study of both in-situ diversification and repeated colonisation! vertebrate-zoology.arphahub.com/article/1664...

We explored the bioacoustic differentiation of these frogs, and found clear differences among basically all species, especially those co-occurring at the same elevation. This figure shows cut-outs of a the little whistling calls each frog species makes, and a plot of call duration against dominant frequency for all individual calls recorded, coloured by species.

There is an interesting pattern of both size diversity and elevational distribution among the Stumpffia of Montagne d'Ambre in the north of Madagascar. This plate shows dorsal, ventral, and lateral photos of all species, as well as their body size ranges, and then also a plot of elevational distributions of each species, showing clear stratification. All of the frogs are pretty round and shows some indication of miniaturisation. Most are resplendent in a variety of brown shades above and below, but some, like Stumpffia madagascariensis, have stark colour contrasts or lines, and one, S. megsoni, has orange on the belly.

A photo into the forest at moderately high elevation on Montagne d'Ambre. There is a rather open understory, with tree ferns and low bamboo(?), and quite thin tree trunks. It is a sea of greens and browns.

The tiny Stumpffia madagascariensis upon a bright green leaf in the leaflitter. This species is one of the smallest frogs in Madagascar, and indeed the world. This individual has a thin light stripe along the back, a pale brown dorsum, and stark black border along the flank. You can just make out the teensy tiny toesies, and it is, frankly, adorable.

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Reposted by Robin Saulnier Masson

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

🚨PhD position available!🚨🧪 I am seeking a talented PhD student to join my ERC StG project GEMINI, to explore the exciting world of vertebrate genomics and comparative genomics, seeking to understand the genomics of miniaturisation! 🦇🦎🦜🐸🐟🦈 🤏🧬 Deadline: 4 Jan 2026! employment.ku.dk/phd?show=153...

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Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Olfaction written in bones 👃🧠🦴🧬 Thrilled to see our latest study showing that the olfactory bulb endocast is a reliable proxy for mammalian olfaction, now published in @pnas.org www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Thread 👇

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IUCN SSC Chameleon Specialist Group @iucnchameleons.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

The first digital anatomical atlases of the chameleon skull, nervous system & cranial & hyolingual muscles are published, including lesson plans to bridge a gap between theoretical knowledge & hands-on analysis in comparative anatomy anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

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Reposted by Robin Saulnier Masson

Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

The Natural History Museum Denmark is seeking a new Head of Conservation Unit! The conservation team here works on a wide array of incredible specimens, and are hard at work preparing for the new museum opening in spring 2027! candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

candidate.hr-manager.net

Talentech - Head of Conservation Unit at the Natural History Museum Denmark // Leder af Konserveringsenheden ved Statens Naturhistoriske Museum

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Dax Kellie @daxkellie.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Large-eyed animals like owls 🦉 have a trade-off between large eyes & short optic nerves, which lowers eye mobility (to compensate they evolved swivelly necks) But chameleons 🦎 have long, coiled optic nerves with extra slack for eye mobility, allowing them to use their famous large swivelly eyes 👀🧪🌏

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Elin Videvall @elinvidevall.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

📢 We have an open position for a postdoc to join my lab. It's a great position @animecol-uu.bsky.social, fully salaried for 2.5 years with all benefits. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/... The project is about transmission patterns of bacteria and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in aquatic insects. 🧬🦠 (1/3)

uu.se

Postdoctoral researcher in molecular ecology - Uppsala University

Postdoctoral researcher in molecular ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Spent a little time in the last couple of day working with micro-CT scans of frogs again. This is the holotype of Rhombophryne coronata. I’m hoping to submit a manuscript including a plate of this specimen’s skeleton tomorrow! 🧪🐸🩻

Rhombophryne coronata rendered in 3D from a micro-CT scan. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn good.

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Nicholas Wu @nicholaswu.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

🚨 Postdoc in evolutionary genomics of heat stress adaptation position at @ucddublin.bsky.social. 📍 Dublin, Ireland Closes: 15th Oct 2025 🔗 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOV094/u...

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Morgan PROUST @morganproust.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Hello, microanatomy &/or salamander enthusiasts! If you’re a first-year master’s student, I might have an exciting internship for you on the microanatomy of two salamanders sp., with already great results on the humerus. What: Zeugopod microanatomy Where: SMNS Contact: morgan.proust@smns-bw.de

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Morgan PROUST @morganproust.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Hello, microanatomy &/or salamander enthusiasts! If you’re a master’s student, I might have an exciting internship for you on the microanatomy of a broad sample of salamanders! What: long bones microanatomy Where: SMNS Contact: morgan.proust@smns-bw.de

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Four generic frogs? No! These are members of four different FAMILIES from Europe, Borneo, Madagascar, and East Africa, convergently evolved on the generic brown frog morphotype! 🧪🐸

Ranidae: Rana temporaria, a generic brown frog from Denmark.

Dicroglossidae: Limnonectes paramacrodon, a generic brown frog from Borneo.

Mantellidae: Aglyptodactylus madagascariensis, a generic brown frog from Madagascar.

Pyxicephalidae: Amieitia tenuoplicata, a generic brown frog from Tanzania.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Thrilled to announce version 2.0 of my poster featuring some of Madagascar's endemic frog species, to scale! This version features 176 species—40 more than version 1.1 (now retired)! Check it out! 🐸🧪 www.redbubble.com/i/poster/Som...

The poster features 176 species of frog from Madagascar, to scale. The biggest species are over 100 mm, the smallest are under 10 mm. They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and colours. So many variations on the theme of frog!

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Prof. Valentin Fischer @val-fisch.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Are you tired of people constantly overestimating body size of marine reptiles? No longer! We provide equations to estimate body size in ichthyosaurians, mosasaurids, and thalattosuchians. 1/4

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Robin Saulnier Masson @robinslnr.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Last week: #SEH2025 in Bonn ! I gave my very first talk, about the Homology of the shoulder joint and forelimb muscles #anura. I hope to submit the paper later this year, so stay tuned 😉 Many thanks to the organisers of this congress ! #SEH2025 #herpetology #anura #amphibian #frog #toad

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Ivan Gomez-Mestre @igmestre.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

We offer a fully funded 4-yr contract for a PhD candidate in Evolutionary Biology to join our group (www.eco-evo-devo.com). The project will combine genomics and ecophysiology to understand the evolution of developmental plasticity in spadefoot toads. For requisites and contact info please check 👇

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houssayecnrs.bsky.social @houssayecnrs.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

"Growth series", with foetus, of two very distinct ichthyosaurs from the Triassic! Very glad to have participated to this cool study! Thanks again Lene!

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Armita R. Manafzadeh @armanafzadeh.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

I'm recruiting a PhD student to join the lab at @gtsciences.bsky.social in Fall 2026! Broad taxonomic and topical freedom under the umbrella of vertebrate joint form and function. Information here: www.manafzadeh.com – please share 🦴🩻

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Alexis Rastier 🌿 @alexisrastier.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

In May and Jully 2025, I presented some new results from my PhD dedicated to the Latest Famennian flora of Euramerica🌿 in the Swedish Museum of Natural history and at Agora Paleobotanica in Paris. At Agora, I was awarded the Boureau Prize for the best oral presentation. 😄🏆 #Paleobotany #Devonian

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LIB-MorphoLab @lib-morpholab.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

📢 job alert: Scientific lead (f/m/d) for #biodiversity #dataScience @leibnizlib.bsky.social. Application deadline: 31.8., for details see 8101202752.karriereportal.cloud/job/2025-10-...

8101202752.karriereportal.cloud

Karriereportal

Karriereportal für Bewerbungen

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Dino Pulerà @dpulera.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Today is International Armadillo Day! Even these amazing mammals share similar bones with humans, their specialized forelimbs have evolved for digging. #SciArt #SciComm #VizSciComm, #armadillo, #InternationalArmadilloDay #anatomy

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Anne-Claire Fabre @grumpydrfabre.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

🚨Paper Alert🚨Wanna know how a climate crisis 56 million years ago shaped the current diversity of salamandrids? Check the the paper led by the amazing Loredana Macaluso and a fantastic team of collaborators@robertorozzi.bsky.social, A. Villa & B. Mennecart. I am truly delighted to be part of it!!!🦎👇

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Gabriel S. Ferreira (he/his) @gsferreira.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

🚨🚨PhD position alert!🚨🚨 Do you like 🐢🐢? Or ecomorph evolution? I am offering a 36-month PhD position funded by the DFG about ecomorphology and neuroanatomy of turtles. Check out the ad here: www.senckenberg.de/en/career/sc... Please share and if you have questions, send me a message 😉

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Anne-Claire Fabre @grumpydrfabre.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Paper alert 🚨 Our 1rst paper with @vivienl.bsky.social and colleagues is out in Functional Ecology! In this paper, we investigated how complete metamorphosis promotes morphological and functional diversity in Caudata.Want to know more? Read this👇 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Complete metamorphosis promotes morphological and functional diversity in Caudata

Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Anne-Claire Fabre @grumpydrfabre.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Want to know more about craniofacial evolution in vertebrates? Join us at symposium#9 organized by Olivia Plateau and Kevin Le Verger @ESEB2025 in beautiful Barcelona!!!! #frenchconnexion #ESEB2025

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Marion Segall @marionsegall.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

I am looking for a PhD candidate to work on the morphological and functional evolution of the head shape of limbless squamates. The project will involve evolutionary biology, experimental and computational biomechanics, and a lot of scaly animals!!! More info here: adum.fr/as/ed/voirpr...

adum.fr

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Pauline Provini @paulineprovini.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Pour participer au projet @e-colplus.bsky.social de numérisation en 3D des collections naturalistes françaises, envoyer votre candidature avant le 30 avril.

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Prof. Valentin Fischer @val-fisch.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

It might sound crazy but we are going to build up a life-size sculpture of Mosasaurus right in the city center of Liège! You can discover and contribute to project via this link! promethea.koalect.com/project/43722 @universitedeliege.bsky.social

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Dr Alice Clement @draliceclement.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

We are hiring!! 🦎🧠🐍 2 year postdoc to work on on the evolution of brains in snakes and lizards (on our current ARC Discovery project). Applications close 25th March 2025! careers.adelaide.edu.au/cw/en/job/51...

careers.adelaide.edu.au

Learn more about South Australia's new university for the future.

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LIB-MorphoLab @lib-morpholab.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Playing with propagation-based phase contrast in #microCT scans to visualize soft tissue without contrast staining in jumping #spiders 🕷️🕷️🕷️ Sure no great image quality achieved, but good enough to measure internal structures of the eyes with @jadethurlow.bsky.social & @mherberstein.bsky.social

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LIB-MorphoLab @lib-morpholab.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Robin (@robinslnr.bsky.social) is doing some #CT scans of #Xenopus tadpoles with different contrast stainings to visualize soft tissue and skeletal structures in the developing forelimb. Many thanks to @kruthsatz.bsky.social for providing the specimens! 🐸

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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Interested in the latest advances developed to bring fossils back to life? 🦴 Join us for the A2 - Experimental Palaeobiology session at the #SEBconference in Antwerp, 8-11 July 2025 🦾 🚨 Registration is OPEN 📅 Abstract deadline: March 7 [1/2] 🧵

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LIB-MorphoLab @lib-morpholab.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Jade (@jadethurlow.bsky.social) is visiting to image and study jumping spiders. Many hours at the Keyence and some critical point drying and CT scanning to explore the relationship between morphological features, such as eye diameter and femur length. 🕷️

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Dr. Jaimi Gray @jaimiagray.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

We CT scanned thousands of vertebrates from US natural history collections and made them freely available. Countless people have used the data for research (>200 pubs) and to learn anatomy/morphology. www.morphosource.org/projects/000...

A banner image showing CT scans of a collection of 3D rendering of the skeletons and soft tissue of different vertebrates, including amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and fish

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