Todd Oakley

@ostratodd.bsky.social

1938 Followers 1740 Following

I am an evolutionary and marine biologist interested in how new structures and functions originate during evolution. Eyes, vision; photophores, bioluminescence. Macroevolution. Phylogenetics. Molecular Evolution. Integrative and Comparative Biology.

Slope graph where almost all paired comparisons are higher in night than day for metabolic rate
Bar chart showing large vessels with highest metabolic rate, medium vessels with intermediate rate, and small vessels with lowest metabolic rate. Small vessels had lower activity during the day than at night
A graduated cylinder with a screw capped top fused to it
Blue streaks are time-lapse video of luxorine ostracod courtship signals. Red is from fiber optic sensors. Blue is in columns because they occur in sealed graduated cylinders
Box jellyfish Tripedalia cystophora. Photo by David Liitschwager taken in the lab of Todd Oakley at UCSB
Green dots on black background in a donut shape
An individual Valella valella on a rock on a Santa Barbara beach
Person standing in a hollow fallen sequoia
Dave Horne and Todd Oakley in a verdant selfie
Title pages of two classic books on bioluminescence
Screen shot of God @godpod.bsky.social
Phylogeny of chitons shows two different types of eyes each evolved twice
In 10 of 10 comparisons, clades with luminous courtship have more species than the most closely related clade without
Lobster tail in an anemone
Long exposure of courtship displays of luxorine ostracods with a coral in the foreground. Blue wisps spiral above the sea floor.
A cardinal fish spits out a bioluminescent ostracod. Video by Trevor Rivers and Niko Hensley
Looks like a cardinal fish that tried to eat a se firefly and is now glowing electric blue
UCSB’s campus point at sunset with surfers riding waves
Low tide at ucsb with students on Rocky tidepools
Macaque taxidermy with arms outstretched as if power walking, head turned sideways with a look of utter surprise
Figure showing how the full moon rises at sunset and rises 50 minutes later each night, with less illumination each night until the new moon. After new moon, it’s in the sky at sunset and sets 50 minutes later each night, growing in illumination until full again.
Crystal shell on black lab bench surface
Long exposure photo of bioluminescent courtship signals of sea fireflies by Kyle McBurnie. Magical blue wisps hang in the black ocean over corals
A diagram of an ostracod its upper lip that produces bioluminescence. The lip has secretory nozzles and tusks that secrete mucus laced with light
In the dark, a cardinalfish, is lit up when it bites a bioluminescent ostracod. The fish spits out the ostracod with a floating ring of bioluminscence, as the ostracod zips down to the bottom of view leaving a bright trail of blue
Histogram showing mean about 492 nm with wide scatter from 460-525 nm as predictions of Tripedalia lambda max
George McFly finally stands up to Biff in Back to the Future, the movies own Critical Junction
Morphospace graph of chiton shell slits and aesthetes showing morphospace gap
Chiton phylogeny showing 4 origins of 2 eye types
Chiton on a rock with USVI beach blurred in the background. Photo by Doug Eernisse
Diagram of 2 eye types in chitons
Back to the Future Movie poster
Bar charts showing position 181 and 261 show very different l-max values depending on the amino acid at that position
Scatter plot of known and predicted l-max values shows R^2 of 0.968
Histogram of sequences counted by wavelength of l-max
Coal Oil Point tide pools on a clear day
A female ostracod of species Photeros annecohenae is a smooth oval with bristly antennae visible on one end and a large charismatic compound eye visible. An ethereal blue light streams downward from the animal, its bioluminescent mucus. Photo by E. Lowndes
The Swanson’s and I at Leigh Marine Lab
Evolution of ecdysozoa novelty symposium Nov 5
Crescent shaped light
Help students dive deeper You know firsthand how life-changing underwater exploration can be. It offers an extraordinary view of the world and presents endless scientific research questions that provide a greater understanding of our ocean environment. At this critical time for our planet, we hope you will join UC Santa Barbara in support of a new program designed to give our diverse student body more opportunities to become scientifically certified SCUBA divers. For many students, getting certified in SCUBA diving can be daunting — physically, mentally, and financially. Significant barriers exist to gaining all the training, equipment, and certifications required to conduct research underwater, especially for underrepresented students who may have no previous exposure to the ocean or SCUBA as a research tool. Diversity in Diving launched last year in recognition that some of the brightest emerging environmental scientists face barriers to becoming scientifically certified SCUBA divers
A group of cyprinida ostracods under a dissecting microscope
Oakley research word cloud. Eyes evolution opsin
Green dots are glow worms on a dark background in a NZ cave
White kitten with black spots and wide eyes playing
An Australasian gannet glides over the ocean, evenly with the horizon
A mass of plankton under a scope
Bäckaskog Castle in Sweden