Our new paper is out in PNAS! Electrical activity plays important roles in brain development, but begins mid-gestation in humans and mice, making it very difficult to investigate. We recorded the onset of cortical activity in vivo by studying marsupials. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

Well would you look at that 🤩 First Amphiprion clarkii clutch in the lab. The male is rather protective of the eggs too, so cute! Abi Shaughnessy aquarium 🧙‍♀️

A shoal of the pygmy squid hatchlings (body length: hatchling <2mm, adult <2cm). The glue glands on its dorsal mantle allow the pygmy squid to attach on seagrass to maintain position for rest or ambush #Idiosepius #hallami Visual Ecology UQ

Meet Justin&Judy our two #mantisshrimp lab residents. These lil critters have the most astonishing visual systems with 12+ colour receptors and the ability to detect linear and circular polarised light 🌈 The Q is how they decode all of this info with their rel simple 🧠??

A bunch of sea jewels arrived in the aquarium today 🤩 How cool are #nudibranchs? Visual Ecology UQ Karen Cheney UQ Science

Baby #Nemo never gets old 🐠

These lil fellas are of the Darwin morph #Nemo - their parents are originally from waters around Darwin, the northern most part of Australia. They are heavily melanised giving them a striking black appearance.

It was a pleasure to host Daniel Escobar-Camacho & stellar delegation from Universidad San Francisco de Quito at #UniversityofQueensland last week. Doing research in the Galapagos is the goal now 👏👏 Fabio Cortesi UQ News

In today’s lab meeting, Sam is giving us a brief on the history of optics. 1) Arabic world was waaaay ahead of the West , already describing how the rainbow gets its colours a Millenia ago 2) Academic drama between Newton and Hooke likely has slowed progress for centuries

Update, it’s getting dicey 👁️ 📖

Our review on "The evolution and ecology of multiple antipredator defences" is out now! This paper stems from a symposium sponsored by ESEB during the pandemic, and is out now (Journal of Evolutionary Biology) thanks to the tireless leadership of David Kikuchi & Alice Exnerova doi.org/10.1111/jeb.14… #OA

The Marine and Aquaculture Research Facility at James Cook University is looking for a new Research Technician. Come join a fun team that helps make #research and #learning happen. My 🐠research would not be possible without them! MARFU James Cook Uni seek.com.au/job/68411220?t…

Happy to announce two new papers out in Nature today! One is on octopus sleep, where Neuropixels recordings shows a wake-like stage of 'active sleep' accompanied by rapidly changing skin patterns that match those of waking behavior rdcu.be/dfAQt

High-sensitivity low-cost spectrometer that runs from a smartphone. Build your own from 3D printed parts and off-the-shelf components. My paper is out in JEB today. doi.org/10.1242/jeb.24…

Sometimes it takes a bit of time for our clownfish babies to make friends 🥺 Visual Ecology UQ

We still accept registrations to attend the European Congress of Ichthyology #eci2023 and - it's still for the Early bird fee (=cheaper:-) Preliminary programme available on the web. Please register till the end of July on: eci23.agrobiologie.cz Happy to see you here! <°°)))><

Today's cover of ProcB - Signal detectability and boldness are not the same: the function of defensive coloration in nudibranchs is distance-dependent. With Karen Cheney & J. Endler UQ Science Queensland Brain Institute, UQ Visual Ecology UQ Ecology of Vision micaToolbox #colsci shorturl.at/qSV38

The fast growing bluey with the same birthmark #bluelined #octopus #Hapalochlaena #fasciata Visual Ecology UQ

Delighted to see our paper on the amazing signatures and forgeries of fork-tailed drongos and African cuckoos out today in ProcB! Big thank you to the wonderful coauthors Tanmay Dixit, Mairenn Attwood , Silky Hamama, Collins Moya, Martin Stevens, Gabriel Jamie and Claire Spottiswoode. 1/3

#SMBE2023 If you're interested in evolutionary convergence and/or bioluminescence, I'll be giving a talk tomorrow at 10 AM in AD1, as part of the "Evolution on repeat in the genomics era" session!