Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Seema Sheth @seemasheth.bsky.social · 11d

NSF GRFP solicitation is finally up. Life Sci deadline extended to Nov 10 but 2nd year grad students no longer eligible www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

www.nsf.gov

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · Sep 6

Behold the Gloriously Weird Spotted Ratfish. It Has Teeth on Its Forehead for Sex

Researchers have finally traced the origin of the spotted ratfish’s bizarre forehead teeth, which are used for mating

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

UW News @uwnews.uw.edu · Sep 5

New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish have rows of teeth on top of their heads, in addition to those in their jaws. They use these teeth to grip females while mating. @karlycohen.bsky.social

More: www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...

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Chris Goatley @chrisgoatley.bsky.social · Sep 4

New species alert! A Pascua goby from the Coral Sea. This genus now contains four species. Two from the Eastern Pacific and two from Australia, with more than 5,500km separating them. Lots of fun describing my second new species. #TeamFish #Fish
doi.org/10.3390/fish...

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Kate Wong @katewong.bsky.social · Sep 4

Behold the gloriously weird Spotted Ratfish. It has teeth on its forehead for sex. The teeth line a cartilaginous appendage called a tenaculum that in males can be erected and used to grasp a female during mating 🧪

Dr. Karly E. Cohen @karlycohen.bsky.social · Sep 4

New paper is officially out!
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.

www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...

This common fish has an uncommon feature: forehead teeth, used for mating

New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads,...

www.washington.edu

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

John P. Friel, Ph.D. @friel.bsky.social · Sep 4

Bumping to the Fishes! and Science feeds🐟🧪

Dr. Karly E. Cohen @karlycohen.bsky.social · Sep 4

New paper is officially out!
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.

www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...

This common fish has an uncommon feature: forehead teeth, used for mating

New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads,...

www.washington.edu

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Gareth Fraser @garethjfraser.bsky.social · Sep 4

Super excited to share our new paper, out today @pnas.org 'Teeth outside the jaw: Evolution and development of the toothed head clasper in chimaeras' @karlycohen.bsky.social 👻🦈 🦷 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Teeth outside the jaw: Evolution and development of the toothed head clasper in chimaeras | PNAS

Chimaeras (Holocephali) are an understudied group of mostly deep-ocean cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes) with unique characteristics that disti...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Emily Troyer @fishfetisher.bsky.social · Sep 4

Super cool!! What a weird fish #TeamFish

Dr. Karly E. Cohen @karlycohen.bsky.social · Sep 4

New paper is officially out!
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.

www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...

This common fish has an uncommon feature: forehead teeth, used for mating

New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads,...

www.washington.edu

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Adam Summers @fishguy.bsky.social · Sep 4

Coolest fish is a ratfish and they have teeth on the head for mating. @karlycohen.bsky.social's most recent with a great Ray Troll piece of art.

🧪🐡

www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...

Ray Troll reconstruction of a fossil chimera.

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Dr. Karly E. Cohen @karlycohen.bsky.social · Sep 4

Article link here! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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Dr. Karly E. Cohen @karlycohen.bsky.social · Sep 4

New paper is officially out!
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.

www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...

This common fish has an uncommon feature: forehead teeth, used for mating

New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads,...

www.washington.edu

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Dr. Karly E. Cohen @karlycohen.bsky.social · Jul 10

The incredible @shirel.bsky.social fills the room tonight for the FHL teaching us about how manta rays feed

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Jonathan Huie, PhD @jmhuie.bsky.social · Jun 27

Of course there would be no paper w/o my co-authors @fishyologist.bsky.social, Allyson Evans, Thaddaeus Buser, @calliehcrawford.bsky.social, @emilykane.bsky.social, and Matt Kolmann.

HUGE thanks to NSF for funding, @fishguy.bsky.social for the FHL fish class, & Scripps and OSU for their fish.

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Jonathan Huie, PhD @jmhuie.bsky.social · Jun 27

One reason I love this project is because of how many different tools and techniques we used. Field collections, high-speed feeding videos, CT scans of the jaw bones and muscles, scanning electron micrographs of the teeth, and lip histology....truly a tour de force of fun science.

Digital 3D rendering of the head of Clinocottus globiceps. The jaw closing muscles are shown in red.

Scanning electron micrographs of the teeth and jaws of five sculpin species showing that Clinocottus globiceps and C. recalvus have blade like teeth rather than cones

Example of the thick lip in Clinocottus globiceps, shown with histological sectioning

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Jonathan Huie, PhD @jmhuie.bsky.social · Jun 27

New fish paper! We found that Clinocottus globicpes eats anemones (weird!) using a novel wrestling behavior + strong jaws that likely started as adaptations for tearing algae. It also has thick skin that protects it from stinging cells. @jzoology.bsky.social 🐟🧪

DM for PDF.

doi.org/10.1111/jzo....

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Jonathan Huie, PhD @jmhuie.bsky.social · Jun 27

How could I forget to tag @karlycohen.bsky.social!!!

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Adam Summers @fishguy.bsky.social · May 27

Hey look! Glowing fishes evolved over and over again. Lots of color of glow. @emilycarr.bsky.social led a team that included 5 FHL folks @jmhuie.bsky.social @lampichthys.bsky.social and @karlycohen.bsky.social.

The oldest glowy fish is an eel at 100MYA.
🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Repeated and widespread evolution of biofluorescence in marine fishes - Nature Communications

Biofluorescence is widespread in fishes. Here, the authors compile data on biofluorescence presence across teleost fishes and demonstrate that it may have originally evolved in eels 112 million years ...

www.nature.com

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Dr. Karly E. Cohen @karlycohen.bsky.social · May 27

So excited to see this paper out! @jmhuie.bsky.social and I began looking at glowing fishes during the pandemic. @emilycarr.bsky.social turned it into amazing science! A great story about the evolution of glow

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Repeated and widespread evolution of biofluorescence in marine fishes - Nature Communications

Biofluorescence is widespread in fishes. Here, the authors compile data on biofluorescence presence across teleost fishes and demonstrate that it may have originally evolved in eels 112 million years ...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Adam Summers @fishguy.bsky.social · Apr 16

Jack Rosen's paper on biting fruits and seeds is out in @royalsocietypublishing.org Interface. 3D models of pacu and piranha jaws cutting different prey. Pacus are 'better' at fruit. Maybe eating seeds drove the evolution of frugivory from piscivory.
🧪
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Four panel figure. A lateral CT scan of a frugivorous fish CT scan with an inset showing the jaws in frontal view. A 3D printed model of the upper and lower teeth opposing each other. The 3D printed models mounted in a materials testing system to allow food to be bitten. The load displacement curve that results from biting fruit in with the model jows.

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Dr. Jaimi Gray @jaimiagray.bsky.social · Feb 11

@aineander.bsky.social: talented scientific artist with a kind soul! April runs the UChicago PaleoCT lab. Her beautiful work in scientific illustration/visualization helps researchers translate complex scientific concepts to visual media such as illustration, animation, & 3D prints

aprilneander.com

Scientific Illustration – April Neander

aprilneander.com

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Dr. Jaimi Gray @jaimiagray.bsky.social · Feb 11

@stephanopteryx.bsky.social: studier of bird bones/anatomy and all round great person! Stephanie's current postdoc at UF involves 3D imaging the anatomy of bird lungs. Her previous PhD work on water bird wing shapes is available here:
doi.org/10.1093/iob/...

Wing Shape in Waterbirds: Morphometric Patterns Associated with Behavior, Habitat, Migration, and Phylogenetic Convergence

Synopsis. Wing shape plays a critical role in flight function in birds and other powered fliers and has been shown to be correlated with flight performance

doi.org

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Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen

Dr. Jaimi Gray @jaimiagray.bsky.social · Feb 11

@mariacavallejo.bsky.social: A paleoherpetologist dedicated to old dead frogs. She is extremely smart, kind, & fun! She recently finished her PhD uncovering the stories fossil frogs have to tell, and won an award from the UF Biology Department for best student paper:

doi.org/10.1093/zool...

Fossil frogs (Eleutherodactylidae: Eleutherodactylus) from Florida suggest overwater dispersal from the Caribbean by the Late Oligocene

Abstract. Establishment of extant terrestrial vertebrate faunas in North America was influenced by a set of factors associated with temporal changes in cli

doi.org

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Dr. Jaimi Gray @jaimiagray.bsky.social · Feb 11

@leaveylab.bsky.social: evolutionary biologist with a go-get-em attitude, I'm yet to see a task she wasn't willing to conquer. I worked w Alice on #diceCT frog legs, & now she's shining in her postdoc on chameleons! She's been busy publishing her PhD research: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Frog Fibres: What Muscle Architecture Can Tell Us About Anuran Locomotor Function

Our study utilises a new, automated approach to digitally extracting muscle fibres from μCT data, allowing us to present the first digital analysis of muscle fibre architecture in frogs, including so...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Dr. Jaimi Gray @jaimiagray.bsky.social · Feb 11

Happy 💕International Day of Girls and Women in Science💕 I'd like to highlight a couple of the women who inspire me! See thread ⬇️

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Adam Summers @fishguy.bsky.social · Jan 16

Our REU summer program just went live. Here is the application form...

etap.nsf.gov/award/499/op...

And here are the project descriptions...

fhl.uw.edu/research/sum...

There is a short time line on this. Please pass it to any interested undergrads.

NSF Education & Training Application | ETAP

etap.nsf.gov

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