Issue 8 has closed and issue 9 is open journals.biologists.com/jeb/issue/226/8 #JEB100 #comparativephysiology #zoology #biomechanics #neuroethology #OpenAccess 🧵1/2

The gorgeous image by Ignacio Moya shows a brown-throated three-toed sloth moving below a branch by suspensory walking and accompanies McKamy&co's paper Pump the brakes! The hindlimbs of three-toed sloths decelerate and support suspensory locomotion journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/22… 🧵2/2

Sloths may be known for their slow movements, but this study from melody young et al. shows they have a more varied locomotor repertoire than previously thought #SlothLife #Locomotion #Neuroplasticity bit.ly/41PmAPM

Pump the brakes! The hindlimbs of three-toed sloths decelerate and support suspensory locomotion journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/22…

Pump the brakes! The hindlimbs of three-toed sloths decelerate and support suspensory locomotion journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/22… One of our latest contributions that will grab you tightly and never let go #sloths #butcherlab

Elephant teeth: how they evolved to cope with climate change-driven dietary shifts theconversation.com/elephant-teeth… via The Conversation Africa

But why didn't ground sloths invest in higher metabolic rates? We suggest that the low metabolic rates allowed for ground sloths to get more "metabolic mileage" to avoid ecological competition with other large herbivores pre and post GABI. Art by Benjamin R. Langlois.

Niche Mapper has also proved to be a valuable tool in this analysis and exhibits untapped potential in determining physiologically plausible integument types in extinct taxa with limited data preserved in the fossil record.

And I'll end this with the following question: in a 4-5,000 kg. sloth can be just fine with a fairly thick coat in temperate settings (albeit due to a low metabolic rate), what does that mean for similarly-sized amniotes in deep time? Am I teasing a sequel? Maybe...

I of course can't take full credit for this, as I had an all star cast of co-authors from Dave Lovelace and co, to Rob Eagle and his lab at UCLA Atmospheric Science. A special thanks also goes out to my MS advisor Mike Butcher, Ph.D.. Thanks for being there for me every step of the way, boss!

Dave Lovelace UCLA Atmospheric Science Mike Butcher, Ph.D. Also, HUGE shout-out to H.J for doing not one, but two excellent pieces of art for the paper!

Think that all #groundsloths were woolly? Learn more in our latest paper: nytimes.com/2025/04/03/sci…

Think that all #groundsloths were woolly? Learn more in our latest paper: nytimes.com/2025/04/03/sci…

A hearty congratulations to my graduate student, Carter Burnett. He successfully defended his thesis and graduated. We popped a bottle and added another to the shelf of fame #winning #stemysu #funkymorph #sciurids

The emergence and demise of giant sloths | Science science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

My graduate student, Shradha Suman Yadav, successfully defended her thesis yesterday. She is finishing an excellent project on ecomorphology in #armadillos #ysu #ysustem #funkymorph #ysubiosciences

Congrats to my graduate student, Shradha Suman Yadav, who successfully defended and submitted her thesis. Her work involved ecomorhological analysis in #armadillos identifying #bone and #muscle traits that discriminate digging ability and soil preference.