The "Spags🍝 and snags🌭" study is officially out in @journal_evo. W/ @Keogh_Lab & A. Skeels. 🩵🫰for @StephenZozaya for this amazing photo.of the Kimberley shallow-soil blindsnake. Check it out at: summary in this series of post/thread 👇

RT @Chomicki_G: Dream Masters by research (MRes) advertised! No fees!.'Origin and evolutionary dynamics of rainforest assembly in the Fiji….

RT @NicolasDiPoi: Do you use 3D imaging like CT or MRI for research, teaching, outreach, or art? Check out our new article in @iScience_CP ….

RT @AustEvolSoc: We’re excited to announce a Mentor-Mentee Networking Session at #AusEvol2024! To participate, be sure to register by Frida….

Another wonderful paper led by @jamesTstroud, I do miss watching these lizards in Miami.

RT @kyogok: Dear fellow vertebrates, We have discovered some fascinating rules about vertebrate counts that you probably weren't aware of.….

RT @Ebelosaurus: Osteoderms, body armor in the skin, occur in many unrelated species, from tiny worm lizards to massive dinosaurs. But what….

RT @Emily_Roycroft: The year is flying past, so thought I’d better share the happy news that I’m joining the School of Biological Sciences….

Bonus content from @AntRoom_taku .

9/ This is the final chapter of my PhD thesis! I'm very grateful for everyone that have enthusiastically supported me and the blindsnakes along the way! . Now go out there and find some blindsnakes (they are harmless) 🤠.

8/ There's a lot more in the paper so make sure to check it out for free (open access) at: . I can gaurantee more tests/discussions about convergence, niche conservatism, and modes of speciation. Maybe even NONadaptive radiation 🫢.

7/ and spaghetti like blindsnakes, like this Pilbara blindsnake, tend to occur in hotter + dryer areas with harder soil substrate. 📸 @StephenZozaya

6/ We found that sasaugey blindsnakes, like this robust blindsnake, tend to occur in areas that are cooler, wetter, with softer soil. 📸 @scott_macor That's a good snag.

5/ So we asked whether the morphological diversity is correlated with their current environmental niche? 🤔.

4/ The cool thing is, despite eating the same thing and all living underground, there's surprising morphological and ecological diversity. Different species can be found in extremely different habitats like the driest deserts🏜️ to the wettest forests🌦️🌳.

3/ and they eat pupae and larvea of ants and termites. So those eye shields are good to have!. Here's a great video of a blindsnake eating some pupae:

2/ Blindsnakes aren't actualyl blind, they just have very reduced eyes covered by scales because they spend most of the time underground.

1/ First, in 🇦🇺 spags = spaghetti and snags = saugages. I think they're pretty good descriptions of the variation in body shape/size of blindsnakes.

RT @NicholasWuNZ: Increasing land drying & drought will threaten water-sensitive species such as frogs 🐸. We examine the potential exposure….

RT @SPBombaci: We are still taking applications for this postdoctoral position studying urban ecology, citizen science, and social justice.….