Final session of #icn2024berlin with Michael Bok and Megan Porter presenting fascinating research on invertebrate vision.

It is exceedingly unlikely that this is visible to anything in a natural light environment. Black light photos of animals are fun, but extremely misleading to the public and to researchers unspecialized in sensory ecology. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

Michael Bok Don't make me tap the sign: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

Hi neuro people: What is the current though on cephalization in bilaterians? Was there probably a significant CNS in urbilateria, or did brains evolve more than once in the major bilaterian lineages?

#molluscmonday!

We are excited to offer a DAAD Rise internship this coming summer (~May-August) for NA/UK/IRE undergraduate students! Interested in insect vision👀, quantitative behaviour🧮, and movement tracking🦋? Get in touch with us and/or apply here: rise-germany.de/offer/offers/d…

I am thrilled to announce publication of a new paper led by Seth Frazer, showing we can accurately predict opsin phenotypes from their gene sequences academic.oup.com/gigascience/...

My collaborator, Anders Garm, is advertising a 2 year postdoc position in Copenhagen working on our awesome project with googly-eyed alciopid polychaetes. Applications are due 15 Dec! Apply here: candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationIni…

🚨PhD siren #2!🚨A 4 year PhD project based in Exeter with Martin Stevens in collaboration with us taking a deep dive into the visually-guided colour change behaviour of chameleon prawns🦐Funded by SWBio DTP to start in Sept 2025! Apply here: swbio.ac.uk/animal-behavio…

Hyperspectral Imager paper out! High sensitivity UV to nearIR, radiance & reflectance, runs from a smartphone. Build the system for about $450 from 3D printed parts & off-the-shelf components. Paper: doi.org/10.1186/s12915… Intro video: youtube.com/watch?v=9q8lyU…

👁️The retina — strikingly conserved across vertebrates, but an oddity among bilaterians! So how did it evolve? With Michael Bok, Tom Baden and Dan-Eric Nilsson, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓. biorxiv.org/content/10.110… 1/n

Most bilaterians keep photoreceptor types separate. But vertebrate eyes are a mash-up: 🪡Ciliary (rods & cones) and 💈Rhabdomeric (ganglion, amacrine, horizontal) …all packed into a multilayered circuit. 2/n

..with a huge payoff, in gradual steps: ✅Choice of right depth ✅Body posture ✅Visually - guided locomotion, eventually 7/n