Mark Westneat 🐟
@mwestneat.bsky.social
Biologist at UChicago interested in biomechanics, phylogenetics and evolution, structure and function, marine biodiversity and conservation, fishes of coral reefs and freshwaters
We are doing a food drive across multiple Departments and programs at UChicago. Our box in Culver Hall for Organismal Biology and Anatomy is now greatly overflowing 🤙 To the food pantries soon!
November 19, 2025 at 9:35 PM
We are doing a food drive across multiple Departments and programs at UChicago. Our box in Culver Hall for Organismal Biology and Anatomy is now greatly overflowing 🤙 To the food pantries soon!
Happy Halloween! We are THE haunted Harper Ave block in Hyde Park, and will serve candy to thousands of South Side Chicago kids tonight! I have a bunch of cool skulls out in the yard but the baseball graveyard is the most popular. 😆
October 31, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Happy Halloween! We are THE haunted Harper Ave block in Hyde Park, and will serve candy to thousands of South Side Chicago kids tonight! I have a bunch of cool skulls out in the yard but the baseball graveyard is the most popular. 😆
Seems like the L flag was bad luck. Brewers are now 0-3 after using it to celebrate their opponents loss. Oops.
October 17, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Seems like the L flag was bad luck. Brewers are now 0-3 after using it to celebrate their opponents loss. Oops.
Seems worth noting this award in light of the present circumstances. Get the troops out of our fair city please, perhaps after they enjoy a great Malnati’s pizza!
October 7, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Seems worth noting this award in light of the present circumstances. Get the troops out of our fair city please, perhaps after they enjoy a great Malnati’s pizza!
September 3, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Ever wonder how the axial locomotor system is arranged into segmented myomeres of red and white muscle in a large pelagic surgeonfish? Well, now you know! 🐟🧪🦑
August 27, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Ever wonder how the axial locomotor system is arranged into segmented myomeres of red and white muscle in a large pelagic surgeonfish? Well, now you know! 🐟🧪🦑
Naso! Great genus of surgeonfishes, sporting the vicious cutting scalpel blades at the base of their tail. Here is a better color photo of that bignose where you can see the tail blades.
🐟🦑🧪🌎
🐟🦑🧪🌎
August 26, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Naso! Great genus of surgeonfishes, sporting the vicious cutting scalpel blades at the base of their tail. Here is a better color photo of that bignose where you can see the tail blades.
🐟🦑🧪🌎
🐟🦑🧪🌎
Bignose Unicornfish! Yep, Naso vlamingii, a very nice specimen for our research, collected with permit. They have 2 wicked sharp scalpel blades on each side of their tail base, but are they venomous? We will know soon!
🐟🦑🌿🧪🌎
🐟🦑🌿🧪🌎
August 26, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Bignose Unicornfish! Yep, Naso vlamingii, a very nice specimen for our research, collected with permit. They have 2 wicked sharp scalpel blades on each side of their tail base, but are they venomous? We will know soon!
🐟🦑🌿🧪🌎
🐟🦑🌿🧪🌎
Acanthuriform fishes! Research goals on Moorea are focused on morphology and evolution of defensive spines and backbones of surgeonfishes, angelfishes, and butterflyfishes. We have a scientific permit to collect specimens, and here are 2 beauties, Acanthurus lineatus and Pygoplites diacanthus. 🐟🦑🧪
August 21, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Acanthuriform fishes! Research goals on Moorea are focused on morphology and evolution of defensive spines and backbones of surgeonfishes, angelfishes, and butterflyfishes. We have a scientific permit to collect specimens, and here are 2 beauties, Acanthurus lineatus and Pygoplites diacanthus. 🐟🦑🧪
Local Moorea fish markets are interesting, with stringers hung (and often taxonomically sorted!) on the side of the road. Gotta get there early- these were mostly gone by about 5:30 am. Some good specimens for Linnea and Olivia’s research! 🐟🧪🦑🌎
August 21, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Local Moorea fish markets are interesting, with stringers hung (and often taxonomically sorted!) on the side of the road. Gotta get there early- these were mostly gone by about 5:30 am. Some good specimens for Linnea and Olivia’s research! 🐟🧪🦑🌎
The Red-Vented Bulbul stopped by my cottage on Moorea. You can just see his red ass! 🧪🌿🐦⬛
August 20, 2025 at 10:44 PM
The Red-Vented Bulbul stopped by my cottage on Moorea. You can just see his red ass! 🧪🌿🐦⬛
Shark’s Tooth Peak, the dramatic volcanic backdrop to our research on marine fishes here at the CRIOBE marine lab. 🧪🐟🦑
August 20, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Shark’s Tooth Peak, the dramatic volcanic backdrop to our research on marine fishes here at the CRIOBE marine lab. 🧪🐟🦑
Doing some work at the CRIOBE marine lab on Moorea with some students. This place is fantastic, the staff are so great, efficient and helpful, and the access to the water is easy and fun. A few posts from Opunohu Bay to come!
August 19, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Doing some work at the CRIOBE marine lab on Moorea with some students. This place is fantastic, the staff are so great, efficient and helpful, and the access to the water is easy and fun. A few posts from Opunohu Bay to come!
Pretty pleased with this mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) in the Keys today. What a great fish! This little one was released but we did get a couple that were keepers for dinner. #CatchAndRelease 🐟
July 1, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Pretty pleased with this mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) in the Keys today. What a great fish! This little one was released but we did get a couple that were keepers for dinner. #CatchAndRelease 🐟
Hello ground hog, please stop digging under my deck?
😃 🦊 🌿 😎
😃 🦊 🌿 😎
May 24, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Hello ground hog, please stop digging under my deck?
😃 🦊 🌿 😎
😃 🦊 🌿 😎
Woohoo! Another PhD candidate successfully presents their dissertation proposal! Olivia Guerra, working on backbone #biomechanics, #morphometrics and #evolution in the lab. Fishes, of course. 🐟🧪🌎🎣
April 29, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Woohoo! Another PhD candidate successfully presents their dissertation proposal! Olivia Guerra, working on backbone #biomechanics, #morphometrics and #evolution in the lab. Fishes, of course. 🐟🧪🌎🎣
Oh damn, there is a new heptapterid catfish in the world too! 🐟🌿🌎🧪👍
bioone.org/journals/ich...
bioone.org/journals/ich...
April 4, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Oh damn, there is a new heptapterid catfish in the world too! 🐟🌿🌎🧪👍
bioone.org/journals/ich...
bioone.org/journals/ich...
Crystal caves! with Jamaican fruit eating bats, cute, brown and upside down. Grand Cayman Island.
🌎🦊🌿🧪
🌎🦊🌿🧪
March 22, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Crystal caves! with Jamaican fruit eating bats, cute, brown and upside down. Grand Cayman Island.
🌎🦊🌿🧪
🌎🦊🌿🧪
Blue iguana! The endangered and really quite blue native iguanas (Cyclura lewisi) of Grand Cayman are amazing. Great #conservation and recovery story. 🌎🧪🦎
March 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Blue iguana! The endangered and really quite blue native iguanas (Cyclura lewisi) of Grand Cayman are amazing. Great #conservation and recovery story. 🌎🧪🦎
February 26, 2025 at 1:34 AM
February 19, 2025 at 1:18 AM
OMG A new loach too! It’s a new fish blizzard. 🐟🌎🧪🌿
𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑙𝑎 𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑜, a new nemacheiline species of loach from the upper Yangtze River basin in Guizhou Province, southwestern China.
zse.pensoft.net/article/1419...
𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑙𝑎 𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑜, a new nemacheiline species of loach from the upper Yangtze River basin in Guizhou Province, southwestern China.
zse.pensoft.net/article/1419...
February 14, 2025 at 4:06 AM
OMG A new loach too! It’s a new fish blizzard. 🐟🌎🧪🌿
𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑙𝑎 𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑜, a new nemacheiline species of loach from the upper Yangtze River basin in Guizhou Province, southwestern China.
zse.pensoft.net/article/1419...
𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑙𝑎 𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑜, a new nemacheiline species of loach from the upper Yangtze River basin in Guizhou Province, southwestern China.
zse.pensoft.net/article/1419...
It’s like, raining fish species.
New sardine just dropped.
🐟🦑🌎🧪
A New Species of Rainbow Sardine in the Genus Dussumieria (Teleostei: Clupeiformes: Dussumieriidae) from New Guinea and Australia
www.ichthyologyandherpetology.org/ihbjbe/lhi20...
New sardine just dropped.
🐟🦑🌎🧪
A New Species of Rainbow Sardine in the Genus Dussumieria (Teleostei: Clupeiformes: Dussumieriidae) from New Guinea and Australia
www.ichthyologyandherpetology.org/ihbjbe/lhi20...
February 14, 2025 at 2:27 AM
It’s like, raining fish species.
New sardine just dropped.
🐟🦑🌎🧪
A New Species of Rainbow Sardine in the Genus Dussumieria (Teleostei: Clupeiformes: Dussumieriidae) from New Guinea and Australia
www.ichthyologyandherpetology.org/ihbjbe/lhi20...
New sardine just dropped.
🐟🦑🌎🧪
A New Species of Rainbow Sardine in the Genus Dussumieria (Teleostei: Clupeiformes: Dussumieriidae) from New Guinea and Australia
www.ichthyologyandherpetology.org/ihbjbe/lhi20...
In other news, the labradoodle has had a nice trim.
February 9, 2025 at 12:40 AM
In other news, the labradoodle has had a nice trim.
We are fortunate that we have a rich teaching natural history collection at UChicago, built by folks like Len Radinsky and Jim Hopson, and now by myself and Paul Sereno. Great resource for our students. Here is a nice loggerhead sea turtle skull, obtained back in the 70s by Radinsky I believe. 🦑🧪🌎
February 8, 2025 at 6:16 PM
We are fortunate that we have a rich teaching natural history collection at UChicago, built by folks like Len Radinsky and Jim Hopson, and now by myself and Paul Sereno. Great resource for our students. Here is a nice loggerhead sea turtle skull, obtained back in the 70s by Radinsky I believe. 🦑🧪🌎