Written by Brooke Long-Fox, Data Curation Scientist at MorphoBank

On September 17, MorphoBank hosted the second annual MorphoBank Connects, a free virtual conference fully sponsored by Phoenix Bioinformatics. The event brought together researchers and members of the MorphoBank community to share research, explore new features and workflows, and discuss how morphological data can support Open Science and FAIR data practices.

Seventeen participants joined MorphoBank Connects 2026 from across the United States and around the world, with attendees joining from locations including Arizona, California, Florida, Ohio, Tennessee, Mexico, UK, Egypt, and China.

This year’s program featured research presentations by Dr. Kelsey M. Jenkins and Dr. Xikun Song, followed by a workshop highlighting new MorphoBank features and updates and open office hours for project support and community questions.

MorphoBank Connects is designed to showcase the breadth of ways researchers can use MorphoBank — not only as an Open Access repository for morphological character matrices, but also as a collaborative workspace and platform for making morphological research more accessible, reusable, and reproducible.

 

Participants at MorphoBank Connects 2026, the second annual virtual conference hosted by MorphoBank.

Exploring reptile hearing with Kelsey Jenkins

Dr. Kelsey M. Jenkins of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History presented The Early Evolution of the Reptile Tympanum, examining the early evolution of hearing in reptiles. Watch this space for more details once the project is made publicly available, and the related article is published.

From hadal trenches to whale falls with Xikun Song

Dr. Xikun Song of the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, presented From Hadal Fauna to Whale Falls: Deep-Sea Biodiversity at Extreme Depths. His presentation highlighted two recently published MorphoBank projects documenting biodiversity in some of the deepest marine environments on earth. 

MorphoBank Project 5921 documents hard-substrate communities from depths of 9,000-10,898 meters in the Kermadec and Mariana trenches, including 32 new species across six phyla. Filamentous foraminiferans were a dominant component of these communities, with similar assemblages documented across seven regions in Oceania.

MorphoBank Project 6064 documents a whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone at depths of 4,616-7,001 meters. Across approximately 1,200 kilometers, the project records five modern and 476 fossil cetaceans, together with whale-fall communities comprising 35 species, including brittle stars, bone-boring worms, and chemosynthetic bivalves. 

Connecting research through MorphoBank

Together, this year’s presentations demonstrated the breadth of research that MorphoBank can support, from reconstructing sensory evolution hundreds of millions of years ago to documenting biodiversity in some of the deepest parts of the ocean.

Although the two projects addressed very different biological questions, both illustrated the value of connecting morphological data to the research they support and making those data accessible for future discovery, verification, and reuse.

New features, project support, and community discussion

Following the research presentations, attendees participated in the MorphoBank Workshop: New Features and Updates, which introduced recent developments on the platform and provided practical guidance for working with MorphoBank.

The event concluded with MorphoBank Office Hours and Community Q&A, giving participants an opportunity to ask questions about their own projects, discuss workflows, and receive direct support from the MorphoBank team.

At the speakers’ request, recordings of the presentations by Drs. Jenkins and Song are not publicly available.

 

 

More details

MorphoBank Connects 2026 participant locations.

Looking ahead to MorphoBank Connects 2027

MorphoBank Connects will return on Thursday, September 16, 2027.

We invite researchers using MorphoBank in traditional and non-traditional ways to share their work. Presentations might highlight novel research applications, advanced workflows and tools, creative uses of morphological data, collaborative projects, or approaches that strengthen FAIR and Open Science practices.

If you or someone on your research team may be interested in presenting at MorphoBank Connects 2027, complete our presenter interest form.

Help us improve MorphoBank Connects

If you attended MorphoBank Connects 2026, we’d appreciate your feedback. Your responses to this short survey will help us plan and shape future events:

Participants who attended MorphoBank Connects 2026 live can also request a certificate of participation for the conference and/or workshop.

Stay connected with MorphoBank

Have questions about MorphoBank, need assistance with a project, or want to get in touch with our team? Contact us at: