Eric Ekdale
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eekdale.bsky.social
Eric Ekdale
@eekdale.bsky.social
290 followers 280 following 110 posts
I teach Biology at San Diego State University. And I study the ears of dead things. And whales. And mammals in general. And other things paleontological, comparative anatomical, and evolutionarily biological that strike my fancy. Opinions are my own.
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eekdale.bsky.social
Eric Ekdale @eekdale.bsky.social · Dec 4
I have a new paper out on the evolution of hearing in toothed whales! It looks like a narrow range of high-frequency auditory sensitivity in some living dolphins and porpoises may be an ancestral physiology rather than novel specializations in select groups.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Variation in whale (Cetacea) inner ear anatomy reveals the early evolution of “specialized” high‐frequency hearing sensitivity
Our findings support sensitivity to low-frequency sound in the archaeocete Zygorhiza kochii and an early toothed mysticete cf. Aetiocetus. Narrow-band high-frequency hearing was present in Oligocene ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
ashpoust.bsky.social
12 million year old bone-crushing dog tracks!

New article on research we presented at the recent Vert Paleo conference in the UK.

Lots of on-going work at Ashfall Fossil Beds @unsmmorrillhall.bsky.social

Happy Thanksgiving for those in the states. 🦃

www.livescience.com/animals/exti...
Large, bone-crushing dogs stalked 'Rhino Pompeii' after Yellowstone eruption 12 million years ago, ancient footprints reveal
Researchers have found footprints of large, bone-crushing dogs in the 12 million-year-old Ashfall Fossil Beds in northeastern Nebraska, suggesting these large carnivores may have survived a cataclysmi...
www.livescience.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
paleonerdspod.bsky.social
Happy Theropod Appreciation Day 🦃, aka Thanksgiving! We're thankful for ALL of YOU - our listeners, who make this podcast so much fun to make. THANK YOU!!!

Listen to the newest episode with paleontologist and cat-lover 🐈‍⬛️🐾, Dr. Hans-Dieter Sues!

🔊 Listen now:
www.paleonerds.com/podcast/hans...
November 27, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
coastalpaleo.bsky.social
#worldwalrusday Walruses today live in the Arctic, but walrus fossils keep being discovered in ancient marine rocks from California! Read all about the 'toothless' walrus Valenictus sheperdi which we named from Santa Cruz last year: 🧪🦖🐬 coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2024/02/vale...
Valenictus sheperdi and friends: Miocene-Pliocene tusked walruses from the Purisima Formation in Santa Cruz, California
I had very much intended to be writing a part 2 of my Xenorophus blog series right now but the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology jumped the...
coastalpaleo.blogspot.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
arctomet.bsky.social
Gelfo, J.N., Goin, F.J. & Vega, N.A. First unambiguous evidence of Multituberculata from the Late Cretaceous of South America. Sci Rep 15, 41500 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...
First unambiguous evidence of Multituberculata from the Late Cretaceous of South America - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - First unambiguous evidence of Multituberculata from the Late Cretaceous of South America
doi.org
November 24, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
dinochick.bsky.social
New paper alert!! Thanks to @tuttran.bsky.social for putting us all together for his first publication! It will be helpful to have much of this data in one place. Check it out: giw.utahgeology.org/giw/index.ph...
#NPSpaleo
Cover of new paper shows geologic section with fossils of a variety of national parks and monuments in Utah.
November 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
greybriar.art
I heard its #worldwalrusday , so have some art of these vastly underappreciated wonders.
#sciart #marinemammals
A painting of a walrus skull with a "crown" of seaweed and the alchemical symbol for water. An ink drawing of a walrus facing the viewer with ornate filigree tusks.
November 24, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
fossilhistory.bsky.social
Celebrating an incredible coincidence of history today: #OnThisDay in 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, and 115 years later, to the day, Lucy was found. 🏺
Fossil bones from a partial hominin skeleton displayed against a black background. The bones are laid out in anatomical position but many are missing — fragments of skull, ribs, vertebrae, pelvis, arms, and a single full leg are present, creating the outline of a small-bodied individual (Lucy -- Australopithecus afarensis). Close-up black-and-white photograph of an open copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. The title page is in focus, with the words “BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION” clearly legible. The page shows slight wear and a faint handwritten note near the subtitle. The background is softly blurred, drawing attention to the historic text.
November 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
ferrisjabr.bsky.social
Kestrels are such handsome birds. Lots out and about today, their plumage even more striking than usual. This shot captures the colors and patterns well.
A male kestrel mid-flight above a meadow in late fall. His blue-gray wings, accented with dark tips and white dots, are spread wide; his coppery red tail, dipped in black, is fanned out. His back is copper flecked black, his head blue, his face white, his black beak small and sharply curved. He appears to be glancing over his shoulder at the viewer.
November 22, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
bretdevereaux.bsky.social
This (youtu.be/2AvfOhtmCZY?...) is an older @acollierastro.bsky.social video I must have missed, but it is brilliant in explaining the intensity of the bullshit of the adjunct system, for students and instructors.
the adjunct problem
YouTube video by Angela Collier
youtu.be
November 23, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
biodivlibrary.bsky.social
Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are called the unicorn of the sea — for obvious reasons.
This illustration by Louis A. Sargent comes from "The wild beasts of the world", v. 2 (1909), contributed to BHL by @uoftlibraries.bsky.social: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19657038 #SciArt #ILoveBHL 🧪 📖 🌊
Three Narwhals (grey sea mammals with a long pointed tusk) diving down into a green wave.
November 22, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
royalsocietypublishing.org
By studying #primates and closely related species, this new #RSOS study examines the evolution of the #cochlea, the mammalian hearing organ: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
November 22, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
coastalpaleo.bsky.social
#fossilfriday Sarah stands in for scale against the surprisingly large skeleton of the Jurassic pliosaur Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni, on display in the "Mary Anning hall" at @nhm-london.bsky.social. This is a cast of the type, from the Whitby Mudstone of Yorkshire. @tetrameryx.bsky.social #2025SVP
Skeleton of a short necked plesiosaur mounted on a wall: it has a large, ~meter long head, a two meter long neck, a fusiform two meter long ribcage, and four ~1.5 meter long flippers - the entire damn thing is preserved in articulation.
November 21, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
caleb-m-gordon.bsky.social
Hey everyone! I’m excited to share that one of my thesis projects was just published in @currentbiology.bsky.social and featured on phys.org! In this paper, we use an old statistical approach developed by the US Navy in WW2 to predict the aquatic habits of various dinosaurs and marine reptiles 🦖🐊
November 20, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
nnedi.bsky.social
Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door.

This is who it was:
A male Anna’s hummingbird at the door. So nosy! 🤣
November 21, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
arunsethuraman.bsky.social
Aaah! New preprint from the Sethuraman Lab has dropped! Tamsen and I have been working on this for a while, and we can’t wait for your feedback. Short thread on our swanky new polyploid genome simulator, DemographiKs, and its functionality.
biorxiv-genomic.bsky.social bioRxiv Genomics @biorxiv-genomic.bsky.social · 10d
Hidden in Plain Sight. How Ks histogram dynamics can reveal and obscure ancient whole genome duplications. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.19.689290v1
November 20, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
science.org
While the range of physical diversity dogs show is often thought to be the result of intense breeding over the last 200 years, a new Science study suggests domestic dogs began developing their distinctive forms thousands of years before humans started shaping modern breeds. https://scim.ag/4nVRhNq
The emergence and diversification of dog morphology
Dogs exhibit an exceptional range of morphological diversity as a result of their long-term association with humans. Attempts to identify when dog morphological variation began to expand have been con...
scim.ag
November 18, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
inclusiveevoedu.bsky.social
TL;DR We're looking for biology/evolution instructors in the US and Canada to test the impacts of inclusive evolutionary biology educational materials on undergraduate learning (you will be compensated). Pasting the official recruitment info in thread below. sunybuffalo.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management
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sunybuffalo.qualtrics.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:58 PM
eekdale.bsky.social
The present is the key to the past, the past is the key to the present. Loss of Earth Science education would be devastating.
tweetisaurus.bsky.social Prof Susie Maidment @tweetisaurus.bsky.social · 11d
Geology and palaeobiology at the University of Leicester are under threat, with at least 14 staff expected to be made redundant. Support them, their postdocs, and their students by signing this petition: c.org/SK8Xm8dhqK
Sign the Petition
Save Geology at the University of Leicester
c.org
November 19, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
whaletalesorg.bsky.social
A Magnificent Spyhop. Read the full story here: buff.ly/0c2MouI
Photos by Roos
This is an encounter from 2025
#WhaleTales #orca
November 18, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
drangelborja.bsky.social
These rare whales had never been seen alive. Then a team in Mexico sighted two
#marineecology
#research

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
These rare whales had never been seen alive. Then a team in Mexico sighted two
The search for a ginkgo-toothed beaked whale had taken five years, when a thieving albatross nearly ruined it all
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
jackdashby.bsky.social
Another day, another overstuffed #platypus 😍
Meet The #Fattypus of Salzburg.
A very rotund taxidermy platypus on a beige shelf
November 18, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
nhm-london.bsky.social
When you think of bats, you probably don’t think of pollination - but bats are crucial pollinators, and the key to creating a certain drink! 🍸

See an (adorable) bat covered in pollen and learn why a world without bats would be a world without tequila in this week’s Surprising Science. 🦇
November 17, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
tetzoo.bsky.social
In Oct 2025, 'Charges dropped against former College of Charleston paleontologist in case of missing fossils': allegations made against marine mammal expert Dr Bobby Boessenecker said to stem from "personal animosities and hidden agendas" www.postandcourier.com/news/crime/c... #fossils #FossilFriday
Charges dropped against former College of Charleston paleontologist in case of missing fossils
Charleston prosecutors dismissed charges against Robert Boessenecker and Sarah Jo Michalies of stealing about $8,000 worth of fossils and models.
www.postandcourier.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
arctomet.bsky.social
youtu.be/YRCaNhDeSVE?...
A Presidential Panel: Chatting with the Presidents of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
YouTube video by DrNeurosaurus
youtu.be
November 13, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Eric Ekdale
headlab.bsky.social


Super-proud of former MPhil student Emily Hillan for publishing her dissertation on the evolution of rib skeleton regionalisation in the evolution of snake-like body forms in squamates!

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
November 10, 2024 at 5:28 PM