Gustavo Silva de Miranda

New Beginnings in the Invertebrate Collection As the year winds down, I’ve been reflecting on how much has happened since I joined the University of Oklahoma and the Sam Noble Museum. Shelby, our new Collections Manager, came on board just a...

A lot can happen in just a few months! New papers, new specimens, new collaborations, and lots of arachnids. 🕷️
I wrote a blog post reflecting on our early progress at @ou.edu and at the Sam Noble Museum.
🔗 gustavomiranda.weebly.com/news/new-beg...

Peppermint narwhal collage of many arthropod species drawn in cartoon extra cute style. Text: I am thankful for arthropods. Be thankful and protect what you love

Every day:

Thank you very much, Jonas! It's always a lot of fun publishing on amblypygids! :)

Cave Secrets: A New Look at Charinus santanensis I’m thrilled to share my latest research published in Zootaxa , diving deep into the mysterious world of cave-dwelling arachnids in Brazil. The genus Charinus , part of the Charontidae family, is...

Just published a new paper in Zootaxa with my co-authors! We describe the female of Charinus santanensis for the first time and explore its hydrophobic crystal coating. Also: conservation concerns for these fragile ecosystems.
gustavomiranda.weebly.com/news/cave-se...

Celebrating Invertebrate Diversity at Curiosiday This past weekend, the Recent Invertebrates collection made its return to Curiosiday at the Sam Noble Museum! We were thrilled to share some of our amazing specimens with the public. Visitors got a...

The Recent Invertebrates collection made its Curiosiday debut at the Sam Noble Museum! 🐞🦋🕷️

gustavomiranda.weebly.com/news/celebra...

#Curiosiday #Invertebrates #SamNobleMuseum #ArachnidLife

New Insights into the Evolution of Whip Spider Body Form Our latest study, “The impact of climate and habitat on body shape and size evolution in whip spiders (Amblypygi),” is now available as a preprint. Whip spiders are an ancient group of arachnids...

New preprint out!
We investigated how climate and habitat influenced the evolution of body size and shape in whip spiders (Amblypygi). This is the first large-scale study on their morphology and its evolutionary patterns.

Feedback and comments welcome! tinyurl.com/2jtnaxj5

🎓🐟 The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History & OU’s School of Biological Sciences are hiring a tenure-track Assistant Curator of Ichthyology / Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences (start Fall 2026).

Apply here 👉 apply.interfolio.com/174674

#AcademicJobs #Ichthyology #Museum #Biology

Hands-On Science at Dusk: Twilight at Water’s Edge ​On September 26, the Recent Invertebrates team joined the Education Department of the Sam Noble Museum for Twilight at Water’s Edge , an all-ages program designed to explore the hidden world of...

Last week, the Recent Invertebrates collection participated in Twilight at Water’s Edge, a program connecting families with Oklahoma’s nocturnal wildlife. From museum specimens to field observations, participants explored the hidden world that comes alive after sunset. tinyurl.com/3ruynucb

Welcome, Shelby Hernandez – Our New Collections ManageR ​We are thrilled to welcome Shelby Hernandez as the new Collections Manager for Recent Invertebrates at the Sam Noble Museum. Shelby joins us from Texas Tech University, where she honed her...

We’re thrilled to welcome Shelby Hernandez as our new Collections Manager! 🪲 A true beetle lover and collections expert, Shelby will help care for and grow the incredible invertebrate collection at the Sam Noble Museum. 🎉

gustavomiranda.weebly.com/news/welcome...

News We were delighted to host Matthew Pintar at the Sam Noble Museum, where he focused on assessing the museum’s holdings of Tropisternus beetles (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae) and backswimmers...

Whip spiders, beetles, and beyond! 🕷️🪲
I’ll be posting stories from research, collections, and fieldwork at the Sam Noble Museum (OU). Take a look: 👉 gustavomiranda.weebly.com/news

Genetic study of malaria-carrying mosquitoes tracks evolution of insecticide resistance | Natural History Museum It crucially also reveals promising genetic targets for potential control.

www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

Mosquitoes that have been in the collection for nearly a hundred years are helping us in dealing with an even older but also current problem - malaria

@sangerinstitute.bsky.social @nhm-london.bsky.social

PhD fellowship in collection-based Natural History Research Natural History Museum Denmark Faculty of SCIENCE University of Copenhagen   Natural History Museum Denmark invites applicants for a PhD fellowship in coll

@nhmdk.bsky.social is advertising a PhD fellowship in collection-based Natural History Research focused on dark taxa and unknown species, preferably including representatives of Danish flora, fauna or geology

deadline 5 October 2025

candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

Thanks, Davey!! I am very happy to have joined the Sam Noble Museum and to work with such an amazing collection! 😊

Odonata systematics: past, present, and future: a review of the phylogenetic works in Anisoptera (dragonflies) Abstract. Odonata is an insect order that comprises ~6420 described species distributed among three suborders. Here we review the dragonflies, or Anisopter

So excited to have this #dragonfly paper out! #Odonata systematics: past, present, and future: a review of the phylogenetic works in #Anisoptera (dragonflies) url: academic.oup.com/isd/article/... @ethantolman.bsky.social

Jobs - OU Human Resources

Job alert! Sam Noble Museum (OU) seeks a Collection Manager for the Recent Invertebrates collection (insects, mollusks, arachnids & more). You’ll team up with the incoming Curator (👋 me). Apply via jobs.ou.edu, Job # 251244. DM questions. #museumjobs #arthropods #collections

Pivot Fellowship Pivot Fellowship on Simons Foundation

Do you have a PhD in STEM and looking to pivot to a different subdiscipline? The Simons Foundation's Pivot Fellowship provides 1 year of salary + $10k for research + travel to the fellow and $50k to their mentor. Apply by 12:00 PM (ET), May 15, 2025. www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/pivot-... 🧪

Wait, what?! 😱

Looking for a faculty position? How about a postdoc position?

Canadian Women in STEM launches an easy to use Job Board.

canadianwomeninstem.org/job-board/

Hello! Yes, I can help or find someone who can give you all the pseudoscorpion answers :)

Some local (NE Oklahoma) symphylans to illustrate a difference between the two families -

Scolopendrellidae has sharp pointed tergites (pics 1 and 2)

...while Scutigerellidae has more rounded/lobed tergites (pics 3 and 4)

Thanks @plantpollinator.bsky.social Kelsey Byers for sharing knowledge about accessible fieldwork & a link to a useful guide created by Chloe Stevens. Take homes include bidirectional communication and trust, and improving accessibility helps EVERYone!! #PlantSciEd
www.bristol.ac.uk/media-librar...

A dialogue box showing a conversation between my colleague and I discussing how we got into spiders. Korean text: 한글 Dialogue "거미 연구자들이 거미와 사랑에 빠진 순간" 이항: 어떻게 처음 거미를 좋아하게 됐어? 정화: 어릴 땐 거미를 무서워했어. 어쩌다가 학부 때 곤충 박물관에서 거미를 관리하는 일을 맡아서 관심이 생겼지. 그러다가 2018년에 마다가스카르에 여행을 갔는데, 거기서 'Darwin's bark spider(다원의 나무껍질거미)'라는 세계에서 가장 큰 거미줄을 만드는 거미를 보게 됐어. 거미줄이 얼마나 멋지던지! 이항: 너도 취향이 참.... English Translation: Dialogue “The moment spider researchers fell in love with spiders.” Yihang: How did you first like spiders? Jeong-hwa: I was afraid of spiders when I was young. I got interested in taking care of them at an insect museum when I was an undergraduate. Then, in 2018, I went on a trip to Madagascar, where I saw Darwin's Bark Spider, a spider that makes the world's largest web. How wonderful the web is! Yihang: You have very interesting taste.

🧵 1/ Words cannot describe publishing my first article in Korea as an adoptee. I am coauthoring a series on arachnid behavior in Donga Science (과학동아). It is surreal to see my Korean name in print.

Korea, I am still here and I am still your daughter.

[Korean and English translation in alt text.]

Chonky teardrop shaped pseudoscorpion with sparse white setae all over, and modest pinchy claws at the ready

Slim reddish brown pseudoscorpion with long pinchy arms and extremely long crabby grabby claws on them.

Pale chonky pseudoscorpion with red legs and thick beefy pinchy arms

Tiny pale slim pseudoscorpion with long delicate grabby claws

There's at least 4 different pseudoscorpion species living under the bark of a small patch of mahogany trees, and that makes me happy. 🤎
I don't know which species, but they're all silly in their own special ways.
#InverteFest

🟠New #genome resources expand possibilities for #insect models
🟢Assembly quality varies in contiguity & completeness
🔵Technological advances support new models with high-quality #data
🟣Emerging models advance knowledge of insect #biology & #evolution www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

crab anatomy diagram that covers the basics of the crab anatomy and names of various body parts

diagram that shows the various different shapes of crab claws and how the shapes relate to their lifestyles

diagram showing the various segments of crab legs and how the different leg shapes relate to their lifestyles

diagram showing all the complicated limbs that sprout out from a crab's face

Quick crab drawing guides that @jopabinia.bsky.social and I made a few years back to get you all started for this month's #InsertAnInvert2024 theme: Carcinization.

Fun fact, this was the beginning of the whole "Insert An Invert" series

It occurs to me that many of you may never have seen a squirting cucumber in action, please allow me remedy that for you

As you may imagine, naturalists have been gobsmacked by these seed-spurting gourds for centuries (Pliny the Elder described them and warned observers to mind their eyeballs) 🧪

Thank you!

Frontiers | Dolomedes fishing spider biology: gaps and opportunities for future research

My first time being part of a published article! Everything about Dolomedes in one place. I wrote the section on parental care. 🕷️

I am very grateful to all of the collaborators on this paper especially Dr. Chrissie Painting and my advisor Eileen.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/ara...

😊🤚

Biodiversity loss: a health crisis The Earth is approaching a critical threshold of irreversible biodiversity loss. World leaders, environmental activists, and prominent researchers are gathered in Colombia for the 16th meeting of the ...

A Lancet editorial highlights the reality: nature & biodiversity underpin our survival. We must act decisively-75% of emerging diseases stem from disrupted ecosystems. There are ethical/moral arguments for protecting biodiversity. + Nature's health is our health. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...