Rodrigo Figueroa
@rodrigoichthys.bsky.social
🇧🇷 & 🇨🇷. Postdoc at Harvard MCZ working on #Paleozoic #fishes, soft-tissue preservation and #brain evolution (he/him)
Pinned
If universities anywhere are hiring an Evolutionary Biologist/Paleontologist please let me know! I'm on the market for Tenure Track positions!!
You can find more about my research on fish evolution here: rtfigueroa.wixsite.com/my-site
You can find more about my research on fish evolution here: rtfigueroa.wixsite.com/my-site
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
..you're either writing or you're thinking about writing..all the time.
~ #itswhatwedo
~ #itswhatwedo
November 9, 2025 at 8:40 AM
..you're either writing or you're thinking about writing..all the time.
~ #itswhatwedo
~ #itswhatwedo
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
It's irritating that they describe the effects of his racism as limited to causing controversy within science and reputational consequences for himself rather than giving an immeasurable boost, false veneer of legitimacy, and idiot-friendly prestige to modern scientific racism and eugenics.
James D. Watson died on Thursday in East Northport, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 97.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
James Watson, Who Helped Discover the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:42 PM
It's irritating that they describe the effects of his racism as limited to causing controversy within science and reputational consequences for himself rather than giving an immeasurable boost, false veneer of legitimacy, and idiot-friendly prestige to modern scientific racism and eugenics.
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
Hoje é um dia histórico. Demos um passo decisivo para um país mais justo, com um sistema tributário que torna a contribuição mais equilibrada e reconhece o esforço de todos que ajudam a construir o Brasil. (+)
November 5, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Hoje é um dia histórico. Demos um passo decisivo para um país mais justo, com um sistema tributário que torna a contribuição mais equilibrada e reconhece o esforço de todos que ajudam a construir o Brasil. (+)
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
@friedmanlab.bsky.social @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social @fishfetisher.bsky.social I’m finding your GARS at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History! Hope you’ll share some for #GarWeek next week!
November 1, 2025 at 6:31 PM
@friedmanlab.bsky.social @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social @fishfetisher.bsky.social I’m finding your GARS at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History! Hope you’ll share some for #GarWeek next week!
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
I'm telling my student the horrors of Brazilian academic job searches on Halloween and that seam fitting
October 31, 2025 at 7:31 PM
I'm telling my student the horrors of Brazilian academic job searches on Halloween and that seam fitting
Nanotyrannichthys is my suggestion if anyone is describing a small lizard fish (fossil or extant)
Going to name the next new early Silurian fossil crinoid species Nanotyrannocrinus. You know, because of the Liliput effect
October 30, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Nanotyrannichthys is my suggestion if anyone is describing a small lizard fish (fossil or extant)
anaJEANSis x cladoJEANSis
October 27, 2025 at 11:51 PM
anaJEANSis x cladoJEANSis
My first book chapter should be out soon and I’m really looking forward to sharing it with everyone!
October 26, 2025 at 11:22 PM
My first book chapter should be out soon and I’m really looking forward to sharing it with everyone!
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
New preprint led by the brilliant @aleksandra-marconi.bsky.social on cichlid brain diversification, fgf8a signalling and regulatory divergence with TEs on the mix! All part of a wonderful collaboration with @ebablab.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@camzoology.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@camzoology.bsky.social
October 24, 2025 at 8:45 PM
New preprint led by the brilliant @aleksandra-marconi.bsky.social on cichlid brain diversification, fgf8a signalling and regulatory divergence with TEs on the mix! All part of a wonderful collaboration with @ebablab.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@camzoology.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@camzoology.bsky.social
Today I wrapped a fish in a cut piece of a pool noodle and two bottle caps to then blast it with Xrays and get a model of its brain.
Doing science is the best!
Doing science is the best!
October 22, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Today I wrapped a fish in a cut piece of a pool noodle and two bottle caps to then blast it with Xrays and get a model of its brain.
Doing science is the best!
Doing science is the best!
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
With Halloween fast approaching, I'm reminded of a time a few years ago the lab surprised me with costumes based on my past profile pics. Complete with actual elements of my wardrobe, supplied by my partner who was in on the act. (I'd spent the past week wondering where my clothes went.)
October 17, 2025 at 6:49 PM
With Halloween fast approaching, I'm reminded of a time a few years ago the lab surprised me with costumes based on my past profile pics. Complete with actual elements of my wardrobe, supplied by my partner who was in on the act. (I'd spent the past week wondering where my clothes went.)
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
nyti.ms
October 8, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
Great spotlight on our recent @currentbiology.bsky.social paper!
www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(25)01167-4
www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(25)01167-4
October 8, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Great spotlight on our recent @currentbiology.bsky.social paper!
www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(25)01167-4
www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(25)01167-4
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
My unsolicited #eel fact for today is that there are ten species of Gulper Eels (Saccopharynx) while there is only a single species of Pelican Eel (Eurypharynx ).🐟
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwD...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwD...
Throwback to one of our earliest encounters with a deep-sea gulper eel
YouTube video by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
www.youtube.com
October 7, 2025 at 5:43 PM
My unsolicited #eel fact for today is that there are ten species of Gulper Eels (Saccopharynx) while there is only a single species of Pelican Eel (Eurypharynx ).🐟
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwD...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwD...
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
"...although analyses of extant phylogenies can estimate extinction rates and even suggest mass extinctions, they cannot imply trilobites ever existed or that sphenodonts (now represented only by the tuatara) were once as diverse as lepidosaurs (lizards and snakes)." #FossilFriday 🧪
October 3, 2025 at 3:13 PM
"...although analyses of extant phylogenies can estimate extinction rates and even suggest mass extinctions, they cannot imply trilobites ever existed or that sphenodonts (now represented only by the tuatara) were once as diverse as lepidosaurs (lizards and snakes)." #FossilFriday 🧪
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
New in @science.org, meet Acronichthys maccagnoi, a new species from Late Creatacous Canada that changes what we know about the origins and evolution of one of the most successful fish groups on Earth.
October 2, 2025 at 6:18 PM
New in @science.org, meet Acronichthys maccagnoi, a new species from Late Creatacous Canada that changes what we know about the origins and evolution of one of the most successful fish groups on Earth.
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
OK, head above water briefly and can say a few things about a paper that came out a few weeks ago in @royalsocietypublishing.org on Platysomus and kin.
U-M researcher @friedmanlab.bsky.social helps identify the first time fish evolved a toothy, tongue-like structure, an early innovation in the way fish eat. #Science
Learn more: https://news.umich.edu/310-million-year-old-fossil-takes-a-bite-out-of-fish-evolutio
Learn more: https://news.umich.edu/310-million-year-old-fossil-takes-a-bite-out-of-fish-evolutio
310-million-year-old fossil takes a bite out of fish evolution
U-M researcher discovers an early innovation in the way fish eat
news.umich.edu
September 27, 2025 at 3:47 PM
OK, head above water briefly and can say a few things about a paper that came out a few weeks ago in @royalsocietypublishing.org on Platysomus and kin.
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
A blood vessel in the brain for #FluorescenceFriday! Why am I looking at these in the microscope? (1/3)
September 26, 2025 at 6:50 PM
A blood vessel in the brain for #FluorescenceFriday! Why am I looking at these in the microscope? (1/3)
Please help me get a job in a different country
If universities anywhere are hiring an Evolutionary Biologist/Paleontologist please let me know! I'm on the market for Tenure Track positions!!
You can find more about my research on fish evolution here: rtfigueroa.wixsite.com/my-site
You can find more about my research on fish evolution here: rtfigueroa.wixsite.com/my-site
September 25, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Please help me get a job in a different country
Today I was looking at some diceCT scans and started to think: how many undescribed species we have inside the guts of museum specimens?
September 19, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Today I was looking at some diceCT scans and started to think: how many undescribed species we have inside the guts of museum specimens?
Just learned chessboxing is a thing and now I'm sad I lost the opportunity to be good at something
September 16, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Just learned chessboxing is a thing and now I'm sad I lost the opportunity to be good at something
Cichlids are the worst part of the best clade but I highly vouch for working with Matt and Hernan!!
Do you like cichlids? Fossils? Fossil cichlids? Would you like to study them as part of a graduate degree at the University of Michigan, joining an NSF-funded project? Get in touch.
September 12, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Cichlids are the worst part of the best clade but I highly vouch for working with Matt and Hernan!!
I absolutely love how this marvelous structure looks like in CT scans. Any guesses of what it is?
clue: 🏓
clue: 🏓
September 4, 2025 at 5:16 PM
I absolutely love how this marvelous structure looks like in CT scans. Any guesses of what it is?
clue: 🏓
clue: 🏓
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
A comprehensive survey of scientists across ecology, evolution, and marine science has revealed significant disruptions to federal research programs following executive branch actions that began January 20, 2025.
www.firsthandaccounts.org/home
www.firsthandaccounts.org/home
Impacts on Science
This website hosts information about the impacts of federal and state policies since January 20, 2025 on the fields of ecology, evolution, marine science, and environmental science in the USA.
Partici...
www.firsthandaccounts.org
September 2, 2025 at 4:51 PM
A comprehensive survey of scientists across ecology, evolution, and marine science has revealed significant disruptions to federal research programs following executive branch actions that began January 20, 2025.
www.firsthandaccounts.org/home
www.firsthandaccounts.org/home
Reposted by Rodrigo Figueroa
Excited to announce that the 1st paper from my postdoc is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social ! Using a large dataset of 3D preserved fossils, we explore the diversification of jaws in early bony fishes. 1/15
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Macroevolutionary role reversals in the earliest radiation of bony fishes
Troyer et al. examine lower jaw evolution in Silurian-Devonian bony fishes and find
substantial differences in patterns of morphological disparity, rates of shape evolution,
and functional diversity b...
www.cell.com
September 1, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Excited to announce that the 1st paper from my postdoc is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social ! Using a large dataset of 3D preserved fossils, we explore the diversification of jaws in early bony fishes. 1/15
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...