Matt Kolmann

Matt Kolmann

Toronto, Ontario

University of Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum

PhD Candidate

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field workfield researchBiodiversity HotspotsstingraysGuyanaintroductionbackgroundfinchesDarwintheorybiogeographypalynologymolecular phylogeneticsfossilsAmazon
Published on Nov 03, 2016

Our first paper on chewing in floppy-jawed critters is out!

So our first paper on insect-feeding in stingrays was released in Proceedings of the Royal Society: Part B and it got a lot of press. Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/news...National Geographic: ...

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Published on Jul 15, 2016

A hearty thanks from a floppy-jawed-fish zoologist

Hi all,Thank you all so much for donating to the project - in grad school one rarely gets much positive feedback, at least under the deluge of negative reviews, extensive edits, and advisor 'feedba...

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Published on Jun 28, 2016

So what about rays that feed on mollusks?

Someone recently asked me how I might go about studying the jaws of freshwater rays which consume hard prey - well my beginning interests were in these sorts of things - (turns out, I really like s...

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Published on Jun 21, 2016

Catching rays (not the solar kind) in South America

I was exceedingly lucky to be invited on my first trip to South America by my advisor Nathan Lovejoy and my committee member, Hernán López-Fernández, the curator of fishes at the Royal Ontario Muse...

field work
field research
Biodiversity Hotspots
stingrays
Guyana
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Published on Jun 12, 2016

Freshwater rays: a study system for adaptive evolution?

I became interested in freshwater stingrays and how they feed through a couple of happenstance revelations.  The first was learning about the family Potamotrygonidae.  I was an MSc student at Flori...

introduction
background
finches
Darwin
stingrays
theory
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Published on Jun 11, 2016

Part Dos - Why the hell are there stingrays in the Amazon?!

The South America that the first ancestors of the freshwater rays found was very different than the one we see today.  The Andes didn’t start to form until around 90 million years ago (mya).  The c...

introduction
background
stingrays
biogeography
palynology
molecular phylogenetics
fossils
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Published on Jun 10, 2016

'Viva la evolución!' Stingrays invaded South America

The New World freshwater rays, the Potamotrygonidae – literally the ‘river rays’ in ancient Greek – have been the focus of considerable evolutionary interest and even controversy over the last 20 y...

introduction
background
stingrays
Amazon
biogeography
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I wonder if that's why the have an electric organ in their tails? as a decoy?
Nov 10, 2016
Project: Tooth plates in chimaeras and their relationship to teeth in sharks
nice!!!
Nov 10, 2016
Project: Tooth plates in chimaeras and their relationship to teeth in sharks
Reply to:Christina TranChristina Tran
There is absolutely no homologous structure in our jaws. Or the jaws of anything else we're aware of (stay tuned with regards to that sentiment!) - although the ligament in which the angular cartilage develops is present in all sharks and rays. Our lower jaw is composed mostly of a single bone,...more
Nov 03, 2016
Project: Eating tough stuff with floppy jaws - how do freshwater rays eat cr...