Kristen Behrens, PhD
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behrenskristen.bsky.social
Kristen Behrens, PhD
@behrenskristen.bsky.social
370 followers 450 following 320 posts
she/her | postdoctoral fellow of fisheries bioinformatics @ UMich | coregonine genomics and cichlid sex chromosomes | bioinformatician
🖤🩶🤍💜

My views are my own.

https://kristenbehrens.weebly.com/
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behrenskristen.bsky.social
Some funky little guys for #SundayFishSketch I saw a video about razor fish this week and I love that they school together in this nose-down position
Pencil drawing of three razor fish. They school with their nosed pointed downward so it looks like a collection of silvery noodles
November 23, 2025 at 5:45 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
Several DNA friendship bracelets exploded in a burst of beads before I got better at tying knots 😅 I had a great time talking about my Great Lakes research and befuddling people with how similar cisco species look!
Photo of a table with a navy table cloth. On the left is a blue tri fold board with the title “Recipe for a Fish” and on the right is a sign that says “Make a DNA Friendship Bracelet” and a bunch of bowls full of beads
November 16, 2025 at 9:32 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
A very quick #SundayFishSketch for a busy weekend, but my nephew mailed me a drawing of a sunfish this week so I wanted to do one to match
Pencil sketch of a hoodwinker sunfish and his little striped friend. As Nick likes to say, it looks like an abomination of nature. That eye is just unsettling.
November 16, 2025 at 3:36 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
Some juvenile lake whitefish and eggs for this week’s #SundayFishSketch
Pencil sketch of a juvenile lake whitefish that had absorbed it’s yolk. Below are some eggs sitting on rocks in different stages in development and a larvae with the egg sac still attached.
November 9, 2025 at 5:48 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
My #GarWeek contribution is Garbanzo the spotted gar 😏
Colored pencil drawing of a spotted gar. It’s unsurprisingly got lots of large brown spots on a cream and light brown body. Snoot is of course boopable.
November 5, 2025 at 10:16 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
I think a black ghost knife fish is sufficiently spooky for this week’s #SundayFishSketch prompt! But also a good wiggly little guy
Colored pencil drawing of a black ghost knife fish. Think torpedo shape with a lil nubbin tail and a wavy fin running along most of the underside
November 2, 2025 at 4:28 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
I didn’t carve any pumpkins this year, but here’s a cichlid pumpkin I did during my PhD!
Picture of a pumpkin with a mbuna cichlid carved into it and red and yellow mum sitting on a low white table. There is a bumpy/warty pumpkin sitting on the ground next to them.
October 31, 2025 at 1:13 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
Bopped up to north campus today for a teaching workshop, the turkeys up in that area are deeply unimpressed by people
Picture of a turkey very casually strolling through a parking lot
October 29, 2025 at 4:45 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
So I did an opah back in August before I knew the yearly tradition, so here’s August’s colored version and then a quick and dirty pencil redo today! #SundayFishSketch
Colored pencil drawing of an Opah fish. Think flat guy in roughly the shape of the first pancake of a batch (a little wonky), that’s mostly red with white spots Pencil drawing of an Opah fish, still a pancake but no longer brightly colored.
October 26, 2025 at 2:00 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
www.detroitnews.com/story/news/p...
79% will leave behind no science staff.
Screen cap from the beginning of a paywalled Detroit News article titled “Federal Layoffs would gut Great Lakes fisheries research center.” Posted in Oct 20, 2025 at 9:25pm and written by Melissa Nann Burke. It reads “Washington - the U. S. Geological Survey is planning to lay off 79% of the workforce of the Great Lakes Science Center that’s headquartered in Ann Arbor as part of a reduction in force across the U.S Department of the Interior, officials say.”
October 21, 2025 at 6:30 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
For the #SundayFishSketch arctic theme is the golomyanka oil fish, a Lake Baikal native
Pencil drawing of a Lake Baikal oil fish, it’s a weird looking lil dude that in life is so pale it wants to be translucent
October 19, 2025 at 7:15 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
They need to reopen the government because this menace has learned that my work from home day can very easily become 9-to-5 attention for him
Picture of the back of a white and orange cat’s head. He is looking for problems to cause.
October 14, 2025 at 12:22 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
For #SundayFishSketch this week I also picked a cichlid (shocker). This time it’s Chromidotilapia guntheri, which is unusual even amongst cichlids because it has biparental mouth brooding. They’re also quite phylogenetically distant from the haplochromines, which are our more typical mouthbrooders
Colored pencil drawing of a pair of Chromidotilapia guntheri. The pair is facing opposite directions and one is slightly smaller and less brightly colored. In the foreground are some of their fry, which still have their yolks
October 12, 2025 at 2:58 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
A friend from the pond that’s on the other side of my building and one of a few in my neighborhood. Also saw some decently sized bass and blue gills that probably appreciate the No Fishing signs
October 9, 2025 at 2:04 AM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
Caught in the act
Picture of an orange cat looking over his shoulder, extremely disgruntled because he was caught trying to chew on the philodendron plant that’s in the background
October 6, 2025 at 4:21 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
For #SundayFishSketch this week, an in-progress Coregonus kiyi. I’m working on an activity for the general public on why we use genetics to distinguish between species, and my current study system of ciscoes is more than a little notorious for being hard to morphologically ID reliably
Pen drawing of a Coregonus kiyi. This thing has HUGE eyes
October 5, 2025 at 3:27 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
For the final day of #SciArtSeptember is Dream. This is my desk at [redacted], where I’m so lucky to be chasing my dreams of being a scientist and doing research I love
Pencil sketch of someone’s desk. There are two monitors at slightly different heights, one shows a PCA plot and the other shows a manhattan plot of FST values. Between the two windows in the background is a poster of great lakes fish. The monograph by Eschenroder on Ciscoes is on the desk as well as a notebook. On the right wall is a sign that says Beware the Cichlid
September 30, 2025 at 8:50 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
For foresight, I recently read “The Life and Death of the Great Lakes” and found it a little depressing that even the best efforts to keep the mussels from being moved to other inland lakes they still made it there 🥲 #SciArtSeptember
Pencil drawing with multiple components. The first is a drawing of a quagga mussel, the second is of a small motorboat with a banner that says “Don’t move a mussel” and third a drawing of a Coregonus artedi fish with a thought bubble that says “there’s nothing to eat”
September 29, 2025 at 10:18 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
For harvest, the most harvested fish in Michigan is the Lake Whitefish. If you drive through the UP you’ll see lots of signage about places to purchase these guys either fresh or smoked. Unfortunately, they’re currently in decline #SundayFishSketch #SciArtSeptember
Pencil drawing of a lake white fish
September 28, 2025 at 4:38 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
For bounded, the devil’s hole pupfish #SciArtSeptember
Colored pencil drawing of a devil’s hole pupfish, which is a cute little dark blue guy with gray/black fins
September 27, 2025 at 8:54 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
For forage, a very familiar face 🐰 the eastern cottontails are always out and about #SciArtSeptember
Colored pencil drawing of an eastern cotton tail rabbit, but just a head-on view of the head because I hate mammal legs
September 26, 2025 at 7:40 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
For tireless, a bar-tailed godwit. These guys fly without stopping from the arctic to NZ/Australia for their migration which is frankly crazy #SciArtSeptember
Pencil drawing of a bar-tailed godwit mid-stride. It’s a pretty standard shore bird with the classic long thin beak
September 25, 2025 at 9:34 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
For Numbered, the Southern Flanders Range Froglet, an unfortunately endangered adorable frog #SciArtSeptember
Colored pencil drawing of a frog, it’s reddish brown and gray and super cute
September 24, 2025 at 7:37 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
Work from home? Did you mean “pet the cats at their whim for 8hrs” 🥴 they’re thrilled
Picture of a white cat with orange ears sitting in someone’s lap at a desk, the orange counterpart is sleeping in the background Photo of an orange cat very happily snoozing with his face tucked into someone’s elbow (that someone is, in fact, working)
September 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
behrenskristen.bsky.social
Scout stumped me honestly, but I went with a red tailed hawk since using a bird to hunt feels kinda like scouting 🤷🏼‍♀️ #SciArtSeptember
Pencil drawing of a red tailed hawk
September 23, 2025 at 7:28 PM