John P. Friel, Ph.D.

@friel.bsky.social

22668 Followers 1636 Following

Director of the Alabama Museum of Natural History • He/Him • 🐟Zoologist 🦈 • https://linktr.ee/john.friel

Photo of a pair of Fowler's Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri) in amplexus.
In situ observations of a goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) recorded during exploration of an unnamed seamount near Jarvis Island, Central Pacific.
Figure from a scientific paper showing the clasper pocket of Isurus Oxyrinchus.
Comparison of dermal odontodes (od) in ray-finned fishes discussed in this study, †Redfieldius gracilis (a) after Schaeffer and McDonald (1978) figure 6, Denticeps clupeoides (b) after Clausen (1959) Male Ancistrus (c) after Sabaj et al. (1999) figure 2e.
A GIF of a Remora fish swimming in the cloacal opening of a Manta Ray.
Photo of Snuffleupagus in lateral view.
A figure from a scientific publication showing the similarities of the pharyngeal jaw morphology of a catfish and a cichlid fish that specialize on feeding on mollusks, along with a image of shell fragments contained in the feces of the catfish Planiloricaria cyptodon.
Color photo of a live Eastern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) resting on top fallen leaves on the ground.
Holotype of Pterobunocephalus carvalhoi from the Napo River basin, Ecuador, coordinates 00°27’53”S 76°19’09”W, MEPN-I 20199, 69.9 mm SL. Scale bar = 10 mm. Photo by P. Argüello.
A male Indigo Bunting being held in a person hand if it was captured and banded by Alabama Audubon staff at the 2026 Red Mountain Park Bioblitz.
A meme image featuring a man with a lamprey attached to his forehead with the title "HOW TO ABSORB THE WISDOM OF THE ANCESTORS 1 - FIND ANCESTOR....2 - ATTACH TO BRAIN".
Photo of a live specimen of the gar-like African distichodontid fish, Belonophago hutsebouti.
Scientists discovered a huge tooth embedded in the neck of a fossil of a four-meter-long Polycotylus from the Mooreville Chalk of Alabama. Credit: University of Tennessee
Photo of a taxidermied Alligator Gar on display at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in Jackson, Mississippi.
Pokémon themed card featuring fossil shark teeth from Squalicorax.
Green Mardi Gras bead necklace with a medallion of the infamous sketch of the Crichton Leprechaun.
Screen capture of a Sightengine.com results page detecting that a submitted photo of a Bluefin Tuna is AI-generated.
Illustration of a Dumb Gulper Shark (Centrophorus harrissoni).
A white luchador mask with the letters "G", "A" and "R" sewn on to it for sale on Ebay.
Cover and sample pages of a new book entitled "Handbook of Freshwater Fishes of West Asia" by Jörg Freyhof , Baran Yoğurtçuoğlu , Arash Jouladeh-Roudbar and Cüneyt Kaya.
Amia calva, pectoral fin and girdle with cartilage dissolved and bones disarticulated by soaking in a 1:1 solution of chlorine bleach and water. Anterior facing left; lateral view of most bones, ventral view of posttemporal and extrascapular.
The differences between the dinosaur species Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus rex, which likely lived in the same ecosystem during the late Cretaceous period. (Image credit: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences)
Whiteia anniae sp. nov. in right lateral view, Holotype (CHU 2016). (a), Whole specimen. (b), closeup of the calcified lung (indicated by lower arrows) and lateral line (indicated by upper arrows). (c), a scale near the head. (d), anterior tips of jaws with arrows indicating the fangs in anterior coronoids. (e), denticles on the last ray of the anterior dorsal fin.
Live picture of Moxoostoma antelunare, Apalachicola Redhorse by David Werneke.
Close-up of the graphic on a t-shirt of a hotrod car that belonged to John Friel,
Carapace of the new, ~65-million-year-old crab Costacopluma nicksabani with a 2 mm scale bar. Photo: Dr. Adiel Klompmaker
Composite photographs showing examples of representative fishes from four families of Lefteye Flounders.
Dorsal, lateral, and ventral views of Chiloglanis kinsuka, new species, holotype, AMNH 283315, 69.7 mm SL, female, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, Kinsuka Rapids. Photo by T.R. Vigliotta. Scale bar equals 0.5 cm. Inset photo, lower right: coloration in life, AMNH 268960.
A photograph of a juvenile Timber Rattle snake coiled up on the ground with some grass and an oak leaf in the background.
Photo John Friel fossil hunting in the creek. He is kneeling and holding a small fossil in his hands.
Live photographs of representative specimens of African Labeo species from the Congo and Lower Guinea ichthyofaunal provinces. a) Labeo nasus, b) Labeo falcipinnis, c) Labeo greenii, d) Labeo parvus, e) Labeo weeksii, f) Labeo mbimbii, g) Labeo sp. 18, f) Labeo lukulae. Photos d, e, and g were taken in a photarium (photo tank) and the remaining photos were taken in plain air.
An illustration from a publication showing a comparison of the 3D reconstruction of the snout of a fossil dipnoan fish and the trace fossil made by the snout of this fish.
3D printed model of Sacabambaspis janvieri
Sinocyclocheilus wanlanensis sp. nov., GXU2020000062, holotype, 86.74 mm SL. (A) Live specimen (not holotype); (B) lateral view of head in preserved specimen; (C) dorsal view of preserved specimen.
Freshly-preserved specimen of Denticeps clupeoides (SAIAB 748770 from Benin), 42.1 mm S.L. Photo by R. Bills.
A parody of the Jaws movie poster created by the artist Ray Troll, which features the Paleozoic Buzz Saw Shark, Helicoprion.
An illustration of a fighter jet compared to an ostracoderm fish with similar control surfaces, colored in yellow on each.
Phenotypic analysis of body standard length and gut length data. a) Phenotypic survey of individuals raised under common diet and housing conditions supports a genetic basis of normalized intestine length variation by species. Letters in parentheses indicate trophic level of species (C, carnivore; H, herbivore; O, omnivore). Inset fish images are representative individuals of parental species for hybrid cross. b) Binning intestine length data by trophic level of species shows that carnivores have significantly shorter intestines than omnivores or herbivores, but omnivores and herbivores are not significantly different from each other. The hybrid F2 mapping population (MmAkF2) exhibits intermediate normalized intestine length distinct from both carnivore and omnivore–herbivore species bins (ANOVA with Tukey's HSD, different letters indicate significance at P < 0.05). c) Standard body length and d) gut length in the parental species (N = 10 each) of the hybrid cross, and female (N = 218) and male (N = 230) individuals of the hybrid F2 population (t-test, ***P < 0.001, **P < 0.01). e) Scatter plot of standard length vs gut length for individuals in the F2 mapping population (circles), and the parental samples (squares: M. mbenjii; triangles: A. koningsi). The linear regression line of the model GL∼SL with confidence interval is shown for the F2 individuals. f) Residuals of the model GL∼SL are not significantly different by sex in the F2 hybrids. All sampled F2 individuals (N = 495) are presented in a) and b). Only the F2 individuals with unambiguous sex calls and used for mapping (N = 448) are included in c–e).
Phylogenetic hypotheses for Cypriniformes. (a) A phylogenomic study using 219 loci and 172 species; (b) phylogenetic study based on six nuclear loci and using 81 species
Time-calibrated phylogenetic tree of lungfishes, showing the greatest species diversity during the Devonian period
Higher-level taxonomic patterns of relative abundances of teleosts through the Hell Creek Formation and lower half of the Tullock Member of the Fort Union Formation, Garfield County, Montana, USA. Data from the Pine Cree Park (PCP) locality of the Ravenscrag Formation, Saskatchewan, Canada was included to fill the temporal gap (Puercan 2 NALMA substage or Pu2) in the Montana record. Percent relative abundances are based on centra per locality (vertical stacked columns; see Table 1 and Brinkman et al. [2021, table 2 and figure 20] for details), with each locality identified at the top of the figure and their total sample size (N) indicated in parentheses. Taxa are listed at the bottom of the figure, with their total sample sizes (N) per geologic unit indicated in parentheses; the first value (to the left of the first forward slash) is the total sample size from the Hell Creek Formation, the middle value is from the Tullock Member, and the last value is from the PCP locality of the Ravenscrag Formation. The colorized box next to each taxon name corresponds to the colorized portions in the vertical stacked columns. See the caption for Figure 22 for an explanation of the chronostratigraphic framework. Figure modified from Brinkman et al. (2021, figure 20). Abbreviations: FH, Fox Hills Formation; K-Pg, Cretaceous-Paleogene; Ma, million years; Mbr./Fm., member or formation; NALMA, North American Land Mammal “age”; Pmag., geomagnetic polarity chron; Pu1, Pu2 (gray because Pu2 fauna has not been found in the local area), Pu3, Puercan 1, 2, 3; Strat. (m), stratigraphic position in meters relative to the K-Pg boundary; To1, Torrejonian 1.
Still shot of a scene from "Jurassic World: Rebirth" which shows fishermen handling a Dunkleosteus head
A lifesize reconstructed Deinosuchus skull mount surrounded by several UA Museums staff members.
A piece of fossiled soft-shell turtle bone with a distinctive papillous surface texture next to a centimeter-scale bar.
Photo of two fishermen butchering a Goliath Tigerfish for sale in Kisangani, DRC.
Close-up of the head of a fossil Protosphyraena nitida specimen from the Cretaceous Niobrara Formation, Smoky Hill Chalk, Gove County, Kansas, USA.
Hands holding various Cretaceous age fossil shark teeth (Scapanorhynchus, Squalicorax & Ptychodus) collected in Greene County, Alabama.
Mechanism showing the role of SV proteins in sperm drinking. In SVF, caCA12 inhibits sperm motility immediately after male ejaculation and within the gastrointestinal tract, preventing sperm from expending energy prematurely. The viscosity of SVF, combined with the enzymatic activity of caCA12, acts as a barrier, preventing sperm from diffusing into the gastrointestinal tract and so protecting sperm from digestion. After passing through the gastrointestinal tract, caCA12 is digested or removed from the sperm surface, allowing sperm to regain motility and move towards the eggs. A2M, alpha-2-macroglobulin; Ly6/uPAR, lymphocyte antigen 6/urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor.
Partial fossil remains of Protosphyraena nitida specimen from Greene County, AL.
A black and white image showing the head of a fossil hybodont shark with two pairs of cephalic spines.
Drawings of specimens of the three genera of eels of the family Nemichthyidae showing (a) a 400 mm female A. infans, (b) a 580 mm female L. yanoi with a shrimp in its stomach and (c) a 680 mm female N. scolopaceus. Scale bars show 2 mm. Arrows show the position of the anal n origin and the anus. Adapted from Nielsen and Smith (1978).
Photo of a fossil in a person's hand. The fossil is a cephalic spine from a hybodont shark the lived during the upper Cretaceous period and was found in an Alabama creek.
X-ray of snake that swallowed a door handle.
An inforgrafic showing the relationship between animal size and the shape of the fluid waste that these animals can expel from their bodies.
Illustrations showing the lateral line along fishes (A)Complete straight; (B) Complete arched; (C) Dorsally placed; (D) Ventrally placed; (E) Incomplete; (F) Disjunct; (G) Multiple and (H) Absent.
An image of an text abstract for an peer-reviewed study entitled "Wild fish use visual cues to recognize individual divers".
A photo of a dew-covered web of a Grass Spider located on a shrub's surface.
Drawings of specimens of the three genera of eels of the family Nemichthyidae showing (a) a 400 mm female A. infans, (b) a 580 mm female L. yanoi with a shrimp in its stomach and (c) a 680 mm female N. scolopaceus. Scale bars show 2 mm. Arrows show the position of the anal n origin and the anus. Adapted from Nielsen and Smith (1978).