The population genetics and some ancestral-state reconstructions hinted at the fact that one of the Hawaiian endemics may have originated in the Eastern Pacific and that the other one might be ancestral to its Pacific relative rather than the other way around!

Over the course of many years we build a collection of tissue samples from across Hawai‘i and the Indo-Pacific. The phylogenetics showed us that one of the Hawaiian species may not yet be fully diverged from its Pacific relative AND that the one in the Marquesas could be a new (undescribed) species.

Reminiscent to me of Arnold Böcklin’s “Isle of the Dead.”

Day 2 of Papahānaumokuākea expedition. Dawn at Nihoa Island. This tiny island has more than 30 heiau (ancient Hawaiian sacred structures) built across hundreds of years and seeing it at sunrise, you can really understand why.

I have had the great pleasure of visiting Mrs Chippy’s (and McNeish’s) monument in Wellington.

These are cool as hell. Especially since I just found these living brachiopods in Whangaumu Bay, Aotearoa.

Can a #geologist explain this to me? From near Whangaumu Bay, Aotearoa.

Amazingly, I ran into another one that night.

Boy do I have something to show you. (with bonus ziggy stardust)

In honor of the anniversary of his death, please enjoy this portrait of me done by Giuseppe Arcimboldo in 1566. 🐟🐠🦑

Actually it turns out they were 4’ tubes and the mailer was 8’!

I’ve been busy seeing stones. @megalithic.bsky.social @stoneclub.bsky.social

Apropos this excellent work by @davidbrace2.bsky.social: bsky.app/profile/davi... 🦀🥫🦀

Post your warning sign

Lilipuna pier video series, charismatic megafauna edition. Today we have the green turtle or honu, Chelonia mydas. (star destroyer music plays)

Harper's letter signatory labeler rarely fails.

Is this one part of your collection? (incidentally this cover model from like 1986 looks almost EXACTLY like I did as a teenager in the mid 90's)

Lilipuna Pier, part whatever: a bunch of little guys. These are kihikihi or moorish idols (Zanclus cornutus). They're cool for a bunch of reasons but one of them is that they're the only species in their family and they can be found basically everywhere in the Indo-Pacific except the Red Sea. 🐟🦑🐠

I love how similar this things are across quite large distances. Like these from Lunigiana in Italy.

same

Has fate chosen?

what does this mean

I'm working on finally finishing something I started in 2015(!) and oh man I am in love with these old hand-drawn distribution maps. GIS could never. From a paper by the great (and recently departed) Bill Smith-Vaniz. #fishes

Here's a #Crustmas / #fishmas / #25DaysOfFishmas double-whammy: Two Cephalopholis igarashiensis groupers just partying in among an absolute MESS of little purple and yellow shrimps (what are they?!) Filmed from a crewed submersible at ~215m on expedition in Tuvalu. 🐠🦑🦀

Happy #AntarcticaDay! Here I am almost 20 years ago, rising above the McMurdo Sound sea ice with Mount Erebus steaming in the distance. I still think about Antarctica all the time. (working in Antarctica led, in a very roundabout way, to me studying Indo-Pacific reef fishes & biodiversity)

Do you not have this little thing next to the play bar in the bottom right of the screen?

A movie that takes place where you're from

Bonus eagle ray in slightly deeper water (but still shot from the pier)