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Rodrigo Figueroa

@rodrigoichthys.bsky.social
1.9K followers 598 following 97 posts

🇧🇷🇨🇷 Assistant professor of Anatomy at Stony Brook University. 🧠Neuroanatomy, 🐟fishes, 🐠🐡more fishes, ⚒️paleontology, 🔬evolution, 🪾phylogenetics (he/him)

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Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
Fiorella @fiorella.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Our paper on the honey bee stinger 🐝💉is out today in @pnas.org!!! You can read it here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... We also put together a video to explain some of what we did, check it out!! youtu.be/Lbi4YLJlChU?...
youtu.be
The honey bee stinger: An unusual pump with collapsible double pistons
YouTube video by Fiorella Ramirez-Esquivel
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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
NSF just announced its GRFP solicitation due in October - deadline varies by field: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo... Now for the bad news... * NSF estimates they will issue 1,500 awards, down from 2,500+ last year. * NSF removed STEM Education and Learning Research as a Major Field.
nsf.gov
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Just learned this masterpiece got published today and couldn’t be more excited about it!! During my first PhD semester at UMich back in 2019 Willy gave an amazing talk about this project, setting the bauplan of the kind of research I have tried to do since! scholarlypress.si.edu/store/all/co...
scholarlypress.si.edu
Comparative Anatomy of Ocean Sunfishes (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae) | Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press
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Society for the Study of Evolution @sse-evolution.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
We received almost 300 applications to our Graduate Research Excellence Grants this year. We expect to fund around 50 proposals. Help us fund 10 more grants by making a tax-deductible donation to our GoFundMe campaign today! www.gofundme.com/f/support-st...
gofundme.com
Donate to Support Students on their Scientific Research Journey!, organized by SSE Communications
The Graduate Research Excellence Grants are awarded by the So… SSE Communications needs your support for Support Students on their Scientific Research Journey!
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Needs fish stickers
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Paula Villar @artevillar.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Saudade
Desenho dividido em dois quadrantes. No primeiro há o cenário da praia de Ipanema, é possível ver o morro dois irmãos no entardecer. Acima no canto esquerdo está escrito "já é adulta a última geração que costumava ver nas praias". No segundo quadrante há um tatuí saindo de um buraco na areia. Está escrito acima no lado esquerdo "os tatuís."
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Dr. Brendan Anderson @fossilsndcoffee.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Taxonomy is far from complete but it also is not "complete enough" to warrant the disinvestment seen in ithe field and natural history generally. Museums and herbaria need funds to store, curate, and describe species and taxonomists need to be paid to do it www.nature.com/articles/s44...
nature.com
The flounder effect: disparities in taxonomic and ecological study intensity across extant and fossil marine organisms hamper conservation - npj Biodiversity
npj Biodiversity - The flounder effect: disparities in taxonomic and ecological study intensity across extant and fossil marine organisms hamper conservation
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
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Michelle says: Be kind. Always. ❤️ @snarkysillysad.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
First-ever footage of a Barreleye Fish captured deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean: #AGoodPlace Source: www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsi...
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Christopher Zobek @czobek.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I’m happy to say the first chapter of my dissertation has just gotten published! Here, we compared the results of two prominent tools for measuring muscle architecture from contrast data, Xfiber and Goodfibes, with some recommendations for each. anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Relative performance of automated fiber‐tracking approaches to <fc>3D</fc> muscle architecture and their utility for comparative biomechanics
Muscle architecture is a key determinant of muscle performance, informing the calculation of functional traits such as force production and excursion distance. Due to its importance in understanding ....
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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Please join us tomorrow morning at 10 AM eastern for @sanaaelsayed.bsky.social's dissertation defense seminar "Teleost fish evolution in the Cenozoic: New insights from Paleogene ichthyofaunas from the Eastern Desert of Egypt." Message or email me for Zoom passcode: umich.zoom.us/j/98521134857
Slide depicting a set of fishes against a deep blue background. It advertises a talk titled "Teleost fish evolution in the Cenozoic: New insights from Paleogene ichthyofaunas from the Eastern Desert of Egypt" by Sanaa El-Sayed. It lists her affiliations and dissertation committee.
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Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
For #MolluscMonday, a grim one. The new IUCN Red List assessed every mollusc known to live only at hydrothermal vents. Of 201 species, 125 are now threatened with extinction, and the driver is deep-sea mining that has not meaningfully started yet. #marinelife iucn.org/press-releas...
iucn.org
From desert frog to deep-sea molluscs, remarkable species at risk – IUCN Red List
Gland, Switzerland, 9 July 2026 (IUCN) – Deep-sea mining threatens over half of molluscs reliant on hydrothermal vents, today’s update of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ has revealed. In Aust...
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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
This spring, another of Lindsey's chapters earned the E. C. Case Award for best student paper in paleontology at U-M. Lindsey is wrapping up her PhD this year. She's got exciting ideas and an extensive skill set, and is on the lookout for postdocs.
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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
NAPC 2028 website is now live! napc2028.sites.utk.edu
napc2028.sites.utk.edu
Welcome to NAPC 2028! - NAPC 2028
Join  the international paleontology community for the 13th North American Paleontological Conference from May 22-26, 2028 in Knoxville, Tennessee. The North American Paleontological Conference is a m...
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
All my homies hate argentina
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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
CT technician position available at the U-M Museum of Zoology/Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology: careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...
careers.umich.edu
Research Laboratory Tech Sr - Rabosky Lab | U-M Careers
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Very well-timed publication of my most recent work at @royalsociety.org Proc B showcasing the backbone of my future research at @stonybrooku.bsky.social! There is still much to learn about ray-finned fish neurocranial evolution and the diversity of ways brain and endocasts interact in this lineage!
royalsocietypublishing.org
The ray-finned fish blackbox: unprecedented morphological diversity and the interplay between brain and endocast
Abstract. Vertebrates are unique among animals as they bear a neurocranium, which almost completely encapsulates the brain. Thus, within vertebrates, the e
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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Ray-finned fishes are famously diverse, but we know little about their brains or cranial endocasts. @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social opens this black box with a dice-CT survey of 86 species across the actinopt tree of life. #OA in @royalsocietypublishing.org 🐟🧠 royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
Figure of radial phylogeny featuring colored branches and tips representing brain-to-endocranial cavity correlation and endocast complexity. Select endocasts (rendered as semitransparent gray) and brains (rendered in peach) are shown for some terminals. They show substantial variation in shape and the degree of brain:endocast correspondence.

From Figueroa & Pierce (2026) Proc Biol Sci 293 (2070): 20253277 .
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.3277

Shared under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Really happy to share I will be joining the Dept. of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University this fall as an assistant professor!! My lab will focus on ray-finned fish neurocranial evolution, integrating fossils and living species. DM if you have interest in joining my new research group!
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
No fish, no good
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Carlos Araújo @carlao.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
I guess close access too… 😅
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
btw, congrats on landing this job Jack!! I’m really happy for you!
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Definitely have a section on ‘tree thinking’. We all know how important it is but it’s lacking in many eco&evo curricula
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Dr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
In a world shaped by climate change and the biodiversity crisis, you're far more likely to actually purchase ocean front property in Arizona from George Strait than resurrect the dodo from extinction
theguardian.com
Can scientists really resurrect the dodo? Inside the company that says they can
Colossal Biosciences’ CEO says its work follows a ‘moral obligation’ while critics say it’s ‘tech bro’ hype that could undermine conservation
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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Osteichthyans--the bony fishes--are by far the most diverse group of living jawed vertebrates. Two papers out today in @nature.com feature remarkable new Chinese fossils that paint a picture of substantial morphological diversity among stem osteichthyans.
Cover of the journal Nature, featuring the head of a large fish with its mouth open.  A smaller fish is swimming into its mouth. The cover reads "Caught in Time: Early fossils shed light on the origins of bony fish."
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J Pardo @jdpardo.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
New paper! How weird could Permian animals get? Turns out, pretty weird. Meet the stem tetrapod Tanyka amnicola from the Pedra de Fogo Formation of northeast Brazil royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
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Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
A Dutch lock is closed for the spring, and its employees want you to tell them when migrating fish come knocking by ringing a digital doorbell
scientificamerican.com
Ding-dong! The Dutch Fish Doorbell needs you to help migrating fish
A Dutch lock is closed for the spring, and its employees want you to tell them when migrating fish come knocking by ringing a digital doorbell
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
“The truth lies in their small brains” should have been my dissertation title
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
When I finish a museum collection visit:
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The Palaeontological Association @thepalass.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
The oldest acanthomorph fossil from the Early Cretaceous of Gondwana (Morro do Chaves Formation, Sergipe–Alagoas Basin, NE Brazil) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology
Main image is a reconstruction of extinct fish Gondwanacanthus decollatus swimming in its natural environment.
On the left are two photographs of fossil specimens: at the top, the holotype (MCP2457) which preserves vertebrae, ribs, rays and fines of the main body and tail; at the bottom, paratype MCP3458D, which preserves large spinoid scales in several rows, with the lateral line running horzontally across the centre.
Small red image in lower right corner is the cover of Papers in Palaeontology, the journal in which the new species is described.
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
paleo club lives???
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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Remarkable. Report of a Brazilian spiny-rayed fish dating to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous, preceding the oldest known acanthomorphs by ~20 million years. Gondwanacanthus extends the roots of one of today's most prominent vertebrate radiations: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Four incomplete fossil fish specimens on a black background. The specimens preserve scales, vertebrae, spines, and so on, and are dark gray on lighter gray to mustard-colored slabs.
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
For some reason it makes me unhappy that Gondwanacanthus isn’t a Devonian ‘shark’
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Einstein would have developed the theory of relativity much faster if he had to count on the schedule timing of the Boston MBTA
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Jules knew what it is all about
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
tbf, chondrichthyans do have “otoliths”. First time looking at a Squalus scan I was quite puzzled link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Morphology and evolutionary significance of phosphatic otoliths within the inner ears of cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes) - BMC Ecology and Evolution
Background Chondrichthyans represent a monophyletic group of crown group gnathostomes and are central to our understanding of vertebrate evolution. Like all vertebrates, cartilaginous fishes evolved c...
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Apparently the original link is not working: www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...
sciencedirect.com
Evolution of the ray-finned fish brain
Ray-finned fishes can be considered as the most successful group of vertebrates as they represent roughly half of the extant species diversity of vert…
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
If anyone wants a PDF just DM me!
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
I wanted this to be a text that can be used by those that want to start exploring brain anatomy and evolution in ray-finned fishes, which is something that I personally think was lacking in the literature.
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
I’m delighted to share my first ever book chapter is out now! I goal with this piece is to provide a detailed but approachable review of ray-finned fish brain anatomy, anatomical diversity and evolutionary patterns. www.sciencedirect.com:5037/science/chap...
sciencedirect.com
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
It’s so much fun spending more than a decade working on my career, making sacrifices, achieving important milestones and contributing to science and society to then receive job rejections like this:
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The Haunted Bookshop @thehauntedbookshop.com · 27/11/2025
Communities need used-book shops. As the trends in our world are increasingly standardized and entrenched by "predictive" technologies that stifle innovation and reduce human actions into economic categories... We need a full range of possibilities for readers and communities to explore and share.
On the left, a narrow, glass-fronted display case with a mix of letterpress, hand-bound, antiquarian, and collectors' books; stretching off to the right, 8-foot bookcases laden with literary and contemporary commercial fiction, about one thousand books out of the 6-7 thousand in that section. LED lighting and light-colored wood cases and flooring keep the room feeling relatively spacious despite the sheer quantity of books.
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
where there’s a will there’s a government trying to destroy the way
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Society for the Study of Evolution @sse-evolution.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Applications now open for the International Travel Stipends to attend #Evol2026! Funds cover registration, travel, food, and lodging. Apply by January 30: www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci... @evolmtg.bsky.social
Evolution 2026 logo. Text: Evolution 2026, Cleveland, OH, June 20-24. A globe with a plane flying across it. Text: Society for the Study of Evolution International Travel Stipends, Deadline: January 30.
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Couldn’t agree more
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
27-28yo - publish these brains in fancy journals; 29yo - Finish PhD and start postdoc at Harvard
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
18yo - Start working at a paleo lab, looking at fossil sharks, including the ones my mom chose for my 1yo party; 21yo - my first 2 papers are published; 22yo - I describe my first new fossil species; 23yo - I find fossil fish brains!!
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
12yo - I learn to dive and spearfish and get together my fish anatomy basics; 12yo - I meet a paleontologist for the first time at a book release; 17yo - I finish high school and get into college for a bio degree; (cont.)
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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
1yo - my mom chose plastic fossil fish to decorate my first birthday party; 4yo - hitting a quartzite wall with a hammer it falls over me (but I love it); 5yo - I watch Jurassic Park; 6yo - I find my first fossils; (continued)
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HeLô D'AngeLo em ritmo de FIQ @helodangeloarte.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
BOLSONARO PRESO
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