Category Archives: own research

Retinal Topography Maps in R

Posted on August 5, 2015 by

I’m happy to report that we published a paper in Journal of Vision this week. It’s a methods paper on an open-source R package for retinal topography mapping and comparison. The paper represents part 1 of Brian’s senior thesis — … Continue reading →

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The giant squid problem

Posted on October 16, 2013 by

Just wanted to give a quick round-up of the recent, intriguing discussion of the (potential) driving mechanism and the function of the eyes of giant squid. If you haven’t seen the paper that started it all you should most definitely … Continue reading →

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Are the eyes of giant squid unusually large?

Posted on February 19, 2013 by

Giant squid are arguably one of the most fascinating and enigmatic marine organisms. We just don’t know much about their natural history and morphology at all, and the little that we do know makes them even more interesting: their enormous … Continue reading →

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Nocturnal dinosaurs, again: the benefits of discriminant analysis in quantitative paleobiology

Posted on December 22, 2011 by

More on nocturnal dinosaurs, or, importantly, on our quantitative approach to infer ecology and behavior in fossil vertebrates. Hall et al.’s technical comment provided us with the opportunity to further explain the benefits of our approach. Schmitz, L. & R. … Continue reading →

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The eyes of reef fishes

Posted on December 14, 2011 by

Peter and I recently published a paper in BMC Evolutionary Biology and today the final HTML and PDF versions have become available. BMC is an open access journal, so everyone can read the paper: Schmitz, L. & P.C. Wainwright (2011). … Continue reading →

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An optical illusion?

Posted on July 1, 2011 by

Zooplanktivory is one of the most distinct feeding niches in coral reef fish and many morphological traits have been interpreted as adaptations to feeding on plankton in the water column above the reef. One of these traditional hypotheses is that … Continue reading →

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Nocturnal dinosaurs

Posted on April 14, 2011 by

Nocturnal dinosaurs. Wait a second! Is that right? Nocturnal (= night-active) dinosaurs? Yes, indeed. Contrary to what was commonly believed, many dinosaurs were likely nocturnal.  We have to change our perception of the dinosaur era. All details about methods, results, … Continue reading →

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