Dr. Karly E. Cohen
@karlycohen.bsky.social
Postdoc and lecturer at University of Washington Friday Harbors Labs looking at the tools organisms use to interact with the world |She/Her
https://www.karlye-cohen.com
https://www.karlye-cohen.com
Pinned
This common fish has an uncommon feature: forehead teeth, used for mating
New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads,...
www.washington.edu
New paper is officially out!
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
Check out this really fun interview I got to work on with Mitch Borden on one of my favorite fish, the spiny lumpsucker!
www.knkx.org/science/2025...
www.knkx.org/science/2025...
Toothy armor, suction cups: Pacific spiny lumpsuckers persevere in Puget Sound
The small, clumsy fish isn’t the strongest or fastest creature living in Puget Sound. But it has developed other tools to survive in rough waters.
www.knkx.org
October 10, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Check out this really fun interview I got to work on with Mitch Borden on one of my favorite fish, the spiny lumpsucker!
www.knkx.org/science/2025...
www.knkx.org/science/2025...
Check out this really fun interview I got to work on with Mitch Borden on one of my favorite fish, the spiny lumpsucker!
www.knkx.org/science/2025...
www.knkx.org/science/2025...
Toothy armor, suction cups: Pacific spiny lumpsuckers persevere in Puget Sound
The small, clumsy fish isn’t the strongest or fastest creature living in Puget Sound. But it has developed other tools to survive in rough waters.
www.knkx.org
October 10, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Check out this really fun interview I got to work on with Mitch Borden on one of my favorite fish, the spiny lumpsucker!
www.knkx.org/science/2025...
www.knkx.org/science/2025...
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
NSF GRFP solicitation is finally up. Life Sci deadline extended to Nov 10 but 2nd year grad students no longer eligible www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 26, 2025 at 8:00 PM
NSF GRFP solicitation is finally up. Life Sci deadline extended to Nov 10 but 2nd year grad students no longer eligible www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
Behold the Gloriously Weird Spotted Ratfish. It Has Teeth on Its Forehead for Sex
Behold the Gloriously Weird Spotted Ratfish. It Has Teeth on Its Forehead for Sex
Researchers have finally traced the origin of the spotted ratfish’s bizarre forehead teeth, which are used for mating
www.scientificamerican.com
September 6, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Behold the Gloriously Weird Spotted Ratfish. It Has Teeth on Its Forehead for Sex
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish have rows of teeth on top of their heads, in addition to those in their jaws. They use these teeth to grip females while mating. @karlycohen.bsky.social
More: www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
More: www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
September 5, 2025 at 6:30 PM
New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish have rows of teeth on top of their heads, in addition to those in their jaws. They use these teeth to grip females while mating. @karlycohen.bsky.social
More: www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
More: www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
New species alert! A Pascua goby from the Coral Sea. This genus now contains four species. Two from the Eastern Pacific and two from Australia, with more than 5,500km separating them. Lots of fun describing my second new species. #TeamFish #Fish
doi.org/10.3390/fish...
doi.org/10.3390/fish...
September 4, 2025 at 10:15 AM
New species alert! A Pascua goby from the Coral Sea. This genus now contains four species. Two from the Eastern Pacific and two from Australia, with more than 5,500km separating them. Lots of fun describing my second new species. #TeamFish #Fish
doi.org/10.3390/fish...
doi.org/10.3390/fish...
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
Behold the gloriously weird Spotted Ratfish. It has teeth on its forehead for sex. The teeth line a cartilaginous appendage called a tenaculum that in males can be erected and used to grasp a female during mating 🧪
New paper is officially out!
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
This common fish has an uncommon feature: forehead teeth, used for mating
New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads,...
www.washington.edu
September 4, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Behold the gloriously weird Spotted Ratfish. It has teeth on its forehead for sex. The teeth line a cartilaginous appendage called a tenaculum that in males can be erected and used to grasp a female during mating 🧪
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
Bumping to the Fishes! and Science feeds🐟🧪
New paper is officially out!
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
This common fish has an uncommon feature: forehead teeth, used for mating
New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads,...
www.washington.edu
September 4, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Bumping to the Fishes! and Science feeds🐟🧪
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
Super excited to share our new paper, out today @pnas.org 'Teeth outside the jaw: Evolution and development of the toothed head clasper in chimaeras' @karlycohen.bsky.social 👻🦈 🦷 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Teeth outside the jaw: Evolution and development of the toothed head clasper in chimaeras | PNAS
Chimaeras (Holocephali) are an understudied group of mostly deep-ocean cartilaginous
fishes (Chondrichthyes) with unique characteristics that disti...
www.pnas.org
September 4, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Super excited to share our new paper, out today @pnas.org 'Teeth outside the jaw: Evolution and development of the toothed head clasper in chimaeras' @karlycohen.bsky.social 👻🦈 🦷 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
Super cool!! What a weird fish #TeamFish
New paper is officially out!
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
This common fish has an uncommon feature: forehead teeth, used for mating
New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads,...
www.washington.edu
September 4, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Super cool!! What a weird fish #TeamFish
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
Coolest fish is a ratfish and they have teeth on the head for mating. @karlycohen.bsky.social's most recent with a great Ray Troll piece of art.
🧪🐡
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
🧪🐡
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
September 4, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Coolest fish is a ratfish and they have teeth on the head for mating. @karlycohen.bsky.social's most recent with a great Ray Troll piece of art.
🧪🐡
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
🧪🐡
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Article link here! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
September 4, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Article link here! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
New paper is officially out!
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
This common fish has an uncommon feature: forehead teeth, used for mating
New findings call into question one of the core assumptions about teeth. Adult male spotted ratfish, a shark-like species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, have rows of teeth on top of their heads,...
www.washington.edu
September 4, 2025 at 7:01 PM
New paper is officially out!
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth.
www.washington.edu/news/2025/09...
The incredible @shirel.bsky.social fills the room tonight for the FHL teaching us about how manta rays feed
July 10, 2025 at 12:25 AM
The incredible @shirel.bsky.social fills the room tonight for the FHL teaching us about how manta rays feed
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
Of course there would be no paper w/o my co-authors @fishyologist.bsky.social, Allyson Evans, Thaddaeus Buser, @calliehcrawford.bsky.social, @emilykane.bsky.social, and Matt Kolmann.
HUGE thanks to NSF for funding, @fishguy.bsky.social for the FHL fish class, & Scripps and OSU for their fish.
HUGE thanks to NSF for funding, @fishguy.bsky.social for the FHL fish class, & Scripps and OSU for their fish.
June 27, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Of course there would be no paper w/o my co-authors @fishyologist.bsky.social, Allyson Evans, Thaddaeus Buser, @calliehcrawford.bsky.social, @emilykane.bsky.social, and Matt Kolmann.
HUGE thanks to NSF for funding, @fishguy.bsky.social for the FHL fish class, & Scripps and OSU for their fish.
HUGE thanks to NSF for funding, @fishguy.bsky.social for the FHL fish class, & Scripps and OSU for their fish.
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
One reason I love this project is because of how many different tools and techniques we used. Field collections, high-speed feeding videos, CT scans of the jaw bones and muscles, scanning electron micrographs of the teeth, and lip histology....truly a tour de force of fun science.
June 27, 2025 at 2:14 PM
One reason I love this project is because of how many different tools and techniques we used. Field collections, high-speed feeding videos, CT scans of the jaw bones and muscles, scanning electron micrographs of the teeth, and lip histology....truly a tour de force of fun science.
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
New fish paper! We found that Clinocottus globicpes eats anemones (weird!) using a novel wrestling behavior + strong jaws that likely started as adaptations for tearing algae. It also has thick skin that protects it from stinging cells. @jzoology.bsky.social 🐟🧪
DM for PDF.
doi.org/10.1111/jzo....
DM for PDF.
doi.org/10.1111/jzo....
June 27, 2025 at 2:14 PM
New fish paper! We found that Clinocottus globicpes eats anemones (weird!) using a novel wrestling behavior + strong jaws that likely started as adaptations for tearing algae. It also has thick skin that protects it from stinging cells. @jzoology.bsky.social 🐟🧪
DM for PDF.
doi.org/10.1111/jzo....
DM for PDF.
doi.org/10.1111/jzo....
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
How could I forget to tag @karlycohen.bsky.social!!!
June 27, 2025 at 2:35 PM
How could I forget to tag @karlycohen.bsky.social!!!
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
Hey look! Glowing fishes evolved over and over again. Lots of color of glow. @emilycarr.bsky.social led a team that included 5 FHL folks @jmhuie.bsky.social @lampichthys.bsky.social and @karlycohen.bsky.social.
The oldest glowy fish is an eel at 100MYA.
🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The oldest glowy fish is an eel at 100MYA.
🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Repeated and widespread evolution of biofluorescence in marine fishes - Nature Communications
Biofluorescence is widespread in fishes. Here, the authors compile data on biofluorescence presence across teleost fishes and demonstrate that it may have originally evolved in eels 112 million years ...
www.nature.com
May 27, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Hey look! Glowing fishes evolved over and over again. Lots of color of glow. @emilycarr.bsky.social led a team that included 5 FHL folks @jmhuie.bsky.social @lampichthys.bsky.social and @karlycohen.bsky.social.
The oldest glowy fish is an eel at 100MYA.
🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The oldest glowy fish is an eel at 100MYA.
🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
So excited to see this paper out! @jmhuie.bsky.social and I began looking at glowing fishes during the pandemic. @emilycarr.bsky.social turned it into amazing science! A great story about the evolution of glow
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Repeated and widespread evolution of biofluorescence in marine fishes - Nature Communications
Biofluorescence is widespread in fishes. Here, the authors compile data on biofluorescence presence across teleost fishes and demonstrate that it may have originally evolved in eels 112 million years ...
www.nature.com
May 27, 2025 at 3:04 PM
So excited to see this paper out! @jmhuie.bsky.social and I began looking at glowing fishes during the pandemic. @emilycarr.bsky.social turned it into amazing science! A great story about the evolution of glow
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
Jack Rosen's paper on biting fruits and seeds is out in @royalsocietypublishing.org Interface. 3D models of pacu and piranha jaws cutting different prey. Pacus are 'better' at fruit. Maybe eating seeds drove the evolution of frugivory from piscivory.
🧪
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
🧪
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
April 16, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Jack Rosen's paper on biting fruits and seeds is out in @royalsocietypublishing.org Interface. 3D models of pacu and piranha jaws cutting different prey. Pacus are 'better' at fruit. Maybe eating seeds drove the evolution of frugivory from piscivory.
🧪
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
🧪
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
@aineander.bsky.social: talented scientific artist with a kind soul! April runs the UChicago PaleoCT lab. Her beautiful work in scientific illustration/visualization helps researchers translate complex scientific concepts to visual media such as illustration, animation, & 3D prints
aprilneander.com
aprilneander.com
Scientific Illustration – April Neander
aprilneander.com
February 11, 2025 at 5:49 PM
@aineander.bsky.social: talented scientific artist with a kind soul! April runs the UChicago PaleoCT lab. Her beautiful work in scientific illustration/visualization helps researchers translate complex scientific concepts to visual media such as illustration, animation, & 3D prints
aprilneander.com
aprilneander.com
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
@stephanopteryx.bsky.social: studier of bird bones/anatomy and all round great person! Stephanie's current postdoc at UF involves 3D imaging the anatomy of bird lungs. Her previous PhD work on water bird wing shapes is available here:
doi.org/10.1093/iob/...
doi.org/10.1093/iob/...
Wing Shape in Waterbirds: Morphometric Patterns Associated with Behavior, Habitat, Migration, and Phylogenetic Convergence
Synopsis. Wing shape plays a critical role in flight function in birds and other powered fliers and has been shown to be correlated with flight performance
doi.org
February 11, 2025 at 5:49 PM
@stephanopteryx.bsky.social: studier of bird bones/anatomy and all round great person! Stephanie's current postdoc at UF involves 3D imaging the anatomy of bird lungs. Her previous PhD work on water bird wing shapes is available here:
doi.org/10.1093/iob/...
doi.org/10.1093/iob/...
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
@mariacavallejo.bsky.social: A paleoherpetologist dedicated to old dead frogs. She is extremely smart, kind, & fun! She recently finished her PhD uncovering the stories fossil frogs have to tell, and won an award from the UF Biology Department for best student paper:
doi.org/10.1093/zool...
doi.org/10.1093/zool...
Fossil frogs (Eleutherodactylidae: Eleutherodactylus) from Florida suggest overwater dispersal from the Caribbean by the Late Oligocene
Abstract. Establishment of extant terrestrial vertebrate faunas in North America was influenced by a set of factors associated with temporal changes in cli
doi.org
February 11, 2025 at 5:49 PM
@mariacavallejo.bsky.social: A paleoherpetologist dedicated to old dead frogs. She is extremely smart, kind, & fun! She recently finished her PhD uncovering the stories fossil frogs have to tell, and won an award from the UF Biology Department for best student paper:
doi.org/10.1093/zool...
doi.org/10.1093/zool...
Reposted by Dr. Karly E. Cohen
@leaveylab.bsky.social: evolutionary biologist with a go-get-em attitude, I'm yet to see a task she wasn't willing to conquer. I worked w Alice on #diceCT frog legs, & now she's shining in her postdoc on chameleons! She's been busy publishing her PhD research: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Frog Fibres: What Muscle Architecture Can Tell Us About Anuran Locomotor Function
Our study utilises a new, automated approach to digitally extracting muscle fibres from μCT data, allowing us to present the first digital analysis of muscle fibre architecture in frogs, including so...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 11, 2025 at 5:49 PM
@leaveylab.bsky.social: evolutionary biologist with a go-get-em attitude, I'm yet to see a task she wasn't willing to conquer. I worked w Alice on #diceCT frog legs, & now she's shining in her postdoc on chameleons! She's been busy publishing her PhD research: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...