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Quentin Martinez

@quentinwildlife.bsky.social

130 followers 100 following 58 posts

Post-doc researcher and Wildlife Photographer. Evolution of olfactory systems using integrative approaches. Frog lover 🐸 quentinmartinez.fr

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Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · Jul 7

A 45-million-year-old cetacean brain exhibits prominent olfactory regions, indicating that early whales retained a sense of smell 🐳🧠
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

@smnstuttgart.bsky.social

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Reposted by Quentin Martinez

louiseheitzmann.bsky.social @louiseheitzmann.bsky.social · 15d

🎉 PAPER OUT ! Happy to see another chapter of my PhD out in #MBE ! The African pygmy mouse flips the script on sex determination. Its multiple sex and neo-sex chromosomes 🤯 shape brain transcriptomes and drive sexual polymorphism, reflecting new evolutionary trajectories for sex-linked regions.

Molecular Biology and Evolution @molbioevol.bsky.social · 16d

Heitzmann et al. compared brain transcriptomes of four sexual genotypes of the African pygmy mouse, showing how sex and neo-sex chromosomes impacted transcriptomes to reflect their transmission mode, evolutionary trajectories, and genomic conflicts.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf208

#evobio #molbio

MBE | Influence of Gonadal and Chromosomal Sex on the Brain Transcriptome in a Mouse Species with Natural Sex Reversal

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Reposted by Quentin Martinez

Ivan Manzini @xenofrog.bsky.social · Aug 22

🚨 We are looking for 2 PhD students! 🧠🐸👃

Join the Manzini Lab @jlugiessen.bsky.social to explore the olfactory system in #aquatic #vertebrates.

We mainly use #amphibians, combining:
🔬 Imaging
👩‍🔬 Cell biology
🐝 Behavior

👉 bit.ly/neurophd
🌍 bit.ly/manzinilab

Please share!

#PhD #neuroscience #job

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Rafaela Missagia @rmissagia.bsky.social · Sep 4

Our paper on rodent thumbnails is out! Big team effort, powered by museum collections. Turns out, nails can reveal a lot about rodent evolution. Shoutout to Dr. Gordon Shepherd for the wild idea to study rodents thumbs!

Science Magazine @science.org · Sep 4

New findings in Science suggest that rodents owe much of their evolutionary success to their thumb-nail (the first digit, D1), an adaptation that gave them dexterous hands for cracking seeds and nuts.

Learn more in this week's issue: https://scim.ag/46caVho

This red squirrel’s hands display tiny nail-bearing thumbs, alongside large claw-bearing digits.

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Reposted by Quentin Martinez

Nature @nature.com · Sep 3

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species

go.nature.com/4mOb5T9

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

go.nature.com

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Anne-Claire Fabre @grumpydrfabre.bsky.social · Aug 5

Huge congratulations to Isabelle Toussaint-Lardé on publishing the first paper of her PhD! 🎉

Ever wondered whether paedomorphic species change their feeding strategies from larval to adult stages? Is adulthood in axolotls just an illusion? 🧠👀

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Stephan Spiekman @stephanspiekman.bsky.social · Jul 23

I am proud and grateful to present a dream project today in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Meet #Mirasaura grauvogeli, a #wonderreptilewith skin appendages that rival feathers and hairs, challenging our view of reptile #evolution🪶🦎

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Priscila Rothier @priscilarothier.bsky.social · Jul 11

Thrilled to share our new paper out in BMC, part of my postdoc at @cornellvet.bsky.social! 🐘🐀
We found that larger mammals evolve more diverse morphologies, while smaller ones can explore many locomotor strategies without much change to their forelimbs.
bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Body mass evolution as a driver of morphological and ecological diversity in terrestrial mammals - BMC Ecology and Evolution

Body mass plays a fundamental role in the macroevolutionary dynamics of morphological, ecological, and phylogenetic diversification. Given biomechanical principles, large body masses in terrestrial ve...

bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com

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Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · Jul 7

You can find the accompanying models on MorphoMuseuM here: morphomuseum.com/articles/vie...

Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · Jul 7

This study is the result of Elena Berger’s Bachelor’s thesis, conducted in collaboration with @eliamson.bsky.social @hesham-sallam.bsky.social @gohar.bsky.social @gsferreira.bsky.social and many other co-authors. Thanks to Tyler Stone @tylerstoneart.bsky.social for the nice reconstruction!

Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · Jul 7

Regarding the sense of smell, we basically found that no part of the olfactory apparatus was significantly reduced, indicating that these amphibious cetaceans most likely had a good nose, and that the reduction of this sense most likely came later in their evolution.

Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · Jul 7

Comparing the relative volume of the brain endocast, we found that this early whale was quite brainy, which is a surprise, as the first cetaceans with big brains were so far understood to be the fully aquatic basilosaurids.

Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · Jul 7

We addressed two aspects of cetacean evolution: their acquisition of a relatively big brain and the evolution of their sense of smell. As other mammals secondarily adapted to the aquatic environment, cetaceans have been assumed to reduce their sense of smell.

Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · Jul 7

We ct-scanned the skull of Protocetus atavus, an amphibious cetacean coming from the Mokattam Formation in Egypt. The inner anatomy of the skull was reconstructed, and we were able to reconstruct the brain imprint (endocast) as well as the different components of the nasal cavity

Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · Jul 7

A 45-million-year-old cetacean brain exhibits prominent olfactory regions, indicating that early whales retained a sense of smell 🐳🧠
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

@smnstuttgart.bsky.social

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Reposted by Quentin Martinez

Eli Amson @eliamson.bsky.social · Jul 2

Fossil brain 🧠🧟 of a 45-million-year-old cetacean! We are proud to publish‪ @journal-evo.bsky.social l the result of Elena Berger’s Bachelor’s thesis @smnstuttgart.bsky.social. Thread 👇
‬

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

🚨🚨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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ScorpYuri @scorpyuri.bsky.social · May 21

My official baptism of Bluesky!

Hot off the press!
My last chapter of PhD has been finally published! Here we compare the internal anatomy of the chela closing muscles in two species of scorpions at the extremes of the chela morphological gradient.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Functional Divergence of Scorpion Pedipalps: Musculoskeletal Specialization Toward Opposing Performance Optima

We investigated the determinants of pincer (chela) closing performance in two scorpion species representing extremes of chela morphology. Using synchrotron-based 3D models and muscle architecture dat...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · May 23

Almost the weekend! Georges the caecilian (Herpele squalostoma) is clearly feeling it too! 🪱
#NameItToSaveIt #Caecilian #Amphibians @smnstuttgart.bsky.social

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Anne-Claire Fabre @grumpydrfabre.bsky.social · Apr 30

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....

Complete metamorphosis promotes morphological and functional diversity in Caudata

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

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Gemma Benevento @gemmabenevento.bsky.social · Apr 23

Happy to have had the opportunity to write a short article discussing the findings of an exciting recent paper on the diversification of burrowing behaviour in mammals by Pinkert et al. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kzR93QW8S... (Full access via link until 10.06.25)

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Frederic Delsuc @freddelsuc.bsky.social · Feb 25

New @erc.europa.eu funded #ConvergeAnt preprint on using the evolution of pseudogenes to document the parallel regression of oral anatomy in myrmecophagous mammals posted at @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Regression of genes linked to the oral apparatus in myrmecophagous mammals

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Dr Alice Clement @draliceclement.bsky.social · Feb 24

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...

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

careers.adelaide.edu.au

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Quentin Martinez @quentinwildlife.bsky.social · Feb 18

Fun data acquisition at the Senckenberg Nature Museum! More #herpetology and #mammalogy to come! 🐻🐸🐍🦎

Reposted by Quentin Martinez

Dr. Jaimi Gray @jaimiagray.bsky.social · Jan 29

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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Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · Jan 22

Museum Resource 🩻 Digital Imaging Gallery
Our Digital Imaging Division produces two- and three-dimensional data from museum collections. Many are available on Sketchfab & Morphosource. Explore some of the specimens our digitization team has been working on:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/digital-lab/...

a scan of a frog shown from the top with all of its tiny bones showing and some soft tissue in its abdomen in purple

four views of a thick lizard specimen with rows of angular scales on its body shown in golden and each view showing either bones, circulatory, nervous system or digestive oranges in bright colors

the skeleton and some scales of a large almond shaped fish are scanned in dark blue with some fin spines highlighted in rainbow of colors

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