Kory Evans Ph.D

Bird cocks its head at the camera with a bat dangling in its talons.

Peregrine falcon hunting bats (very successfully) in Houston tonight!

Fishes do it all!

I'm glad that I wasn't a grandma for once and went to the division social because @sternarchella.bsky.social taught me that flat fish have handedness preferences (!!?!!) and that parrotfish beaks are a hellscape amalgamation of teeth. Fish are wild.
I 🐟 #SICB2026

The K/Pg extinction created a buffet for open-ocean fishes. A new paper shows that Pelagiaria underwent an adaptive radiation following the extinction based on new jaw shapes to fill the vacuum @knapprew.bsky.social @evoswami.bsky.social @sternarchella.bsky.social academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

Adaptive radiation of pelagiarian fishes at the K/Pg boundary led to rapid diversification of mandible morphology Abstract. Mandibles represent a key evolutionary innovation that has enabled jawed vertebrates to adapt and diversify in response to a range of food source

New paper! Here we look at shape evolution of the mandible in Pelagiaria, a group of open-ocean fishes that includes tuna and mackerel. We find that shape disparity accumulated rapidly at the origin of the clade at around the K/Pg boundary... academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

This paper has been in the works for a long time for various pandemicky and other reasons, and I thank all of my excellent coauthors for their hard work and patience! @evoswami.bsky.social @friedmanlab.bsky.social @sternarchella.bsky.social @gilespalaeo.bsky.social @gizehrdelazaro.bsky.social

MicroCT scan of crypt galls induced by the cynipid wasp Bassettia pallida in branches of the southern live oak, Quercus virginiana. Hiding in the crypts are a second parasitoid wasp, the crypt-keeper - Euderus set! @sternarchella.bsky.social
#biodiversity

A large fish with a teal body and purple, yellow, and orange bands on its fins swims above a sandy bottom.

Stoplight Parrotfish, just a ridiculously beautiful animal. #scuba #diving #oceans 🦑

Took a long time but we are finally growing baby clownfish in the lab!

I love it when art and science connect! The newest art exhibit at Rice’s Moody Center features stunning representations of fish anatomy by @sternarchella.bsky.social and some of his students!

Fig. 3 Modularity hypotheses for cranial bones of Thalassoma lunare. Each color represents a different module. The operculum represents the preopercular/opercular series. See Table 1 for a description of the functional and developmental patterns that underly each hypothesis.

ICB
From the Evan's lab!
Developmental and Functional Interactions Structure Patterns of Variational #Modularity in the Lunar #Wrasse Skull
by
Hugi,& @sternarchella.bsky.social et al

doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

Evans lab
koryevans.weebly.com/people.html

91 years is a good long run for most but too short for someone like Jane Goodall. Damn.

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

Checkout the write up for our latest study! news.rice.edu/news/2025/an...

Thanks Kelly!

Thrilled to see our PNAS paper out! Such an amazing journey and couldn’t have asked for a better experience working with the Evans Lab 💙🐟

We have a new paper on the icefish adaptive radiation led by @mayaranevesbio.bsky.social, a new PI at UFPR 🧊🐟

New paper alert!!!🚨 in our new study we find that Antarctic icefishes added a new module in their skulls during their adaptive radiation special shout out to @mayaranevesbio.bsky.social who led this project!

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A graphic promoting episode 62 of the "Gettin' Fishy With It" podcast, releasing September 19, 2025. The episode features Dr. Kory Evans, and the topic and episode title is "Fish Evolution".

Episode 62 launches this Friday! Join us as we chat with @sternarchella.bsky.social, Ichthyologist and professor of biosciences at Rice University. Dr. Evans chats with us about fish evolution, particularly through the lens of fish skulls. A fascinating discussion, fresh in your podcatcher Friday!

Join us!!! We’re hiring an Assistant Professor of Evolution! apply.interfolio.com/173889

Wing pelage is suggested to have a functional role in bats — and it’s not just to make them cuter. Check out the publication below to learn more!

#academia #academicSky #PhDSky #bats #science

NYAS Publications Bats are the only mammals capable of powered flight, and while they retain the furry coat of other small mammals, their wings, the primary flight surface, are generally thought to be hairless. We ass....

Super proud to share the first first-author paper from @ashockney24.bsky.social and our first official Rummel lab publication! Check it out here: nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A bat is being released back into the night.

Loved this write-up of our fieldwork in Tanzania this summer, led by grad student Annie Finneran and undergrad Caroline Pollan. I felt very lucky to join them to catch some bats there!

news.rice.edu/news/2025/ba...

Alligator snapping turtle looking crazy

Went fishing for gar in Buffalo Bayou, didn’t catch anything but we saw this incredible alligator snapping turtle!

A swainson's hawk with a bat in its talons flies through the air.

A night heron sits on a branch with two bats in its beak.

A swarm of bats flies through Houston after leaving their roost at Waugh Dr and Buffalo Bayou

Another active night at Buffalo Bayou watching the bat emergence. The bats come out before sunset, and so do the predators, with hawks catching them mid-air and herons plucking them from their roosts

Every fish that we catch has a story, some are crazier than others. We caught this unicornfish during a night dive in Okinawa last year. The trip was memorable because we had to end the dive early when North Korea fired a missile in our general direction and we had to take cover

Modularity promotes the evolution of complex biomechanical systems

Kory Evans @sternarchella.bsky.social taking on Modularity promotes the evolution of complex biomechanical systems #JMIH25 #ASIHin3D

See you soon!

I think so

😂looked like a good one too