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Ziv E. Lieberman

@formicula.bsky.social

ants. emmets. mires 🞚 systematics🞚evolutionary morphology & anatomy🞚 paleoentomology🞚biogeography🞚3D imaging PhD candidate at UC Davis || views & statements my own {they|them} ☄

116 Posts175 Follower181 Folgt
Albert Ch. Soewongsono@albertchristian.bsky.social · 5d ago

A new preprint w/ @landismj.bsky.social that I’m excited to share! We develop a theoretical framework linking evolutionary scenarios to mathematical constraints on parameters that produce given stationary frequencies in state-dependent speciation-extinction models. We call these “rulesets.” #EvoBio

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 6d ago

On the mapping between evolutionary scenarios and governing rules in state-dependent speciation-extinction models https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.24.754193v1

Ziv E. Lieberman@formicula.bsky.social · last wk.

A very nicely stated and demonstrated reiteration of some principles which we should all recognize, but often don't get enough attention, consistency, or precision in discussion. These lineages still deserve study - but we should be temperate about premises and conclusions.

Joseph W. Brown@josephwb.bsky.social · last wk.

Early-diverging lineages provide little information about ancestors academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... From @phylieu.bsky.social @sinkingdiatom.bsky.social @omearabrian.bsky.social

Andy Farke@andyfarke.bsky.social · 3w ago

Student Collections Study Award for Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County - next cycle of applications due October 1. Details at their website: nhm.org/student-coll... - the Alf Museum is also close by, so it's a good visit us, too, once you are in the area!

Student Collections Study Award

The NHM Collections Study Awards provide funding for undergraduate and graduate students to visit and study the collections of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the La Brea Tar Pits & ...

nhm.org

Ziv E. Lieberman@formicula.bsky.social · last mo.

Much of this could also be said for other areas of fundamental research like taxonomy and descriptive morphology, which have been referred to as 'non-scientific' to to their exploratory nature.

Andy Farke@andyfarke.bsky.social · last mo.

Your big data is only a big data set because a whole bunch of people did the insignificant, unworthy of your time, not important enough to publish, effort to build & maintain collections over the years, which you then scooped up into your dataset for a proper "big picture" study. <6/n>

Ziv E. Lieberman@formicula.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Paleontology people! Is there a term for 'rock fossils' which is inclusive of adpression, compression, and impression fossils? I have not found one, and I am looking for a way to refer to these fossil in contrast to amber fossils, which is agnostic to the specific preservation.

Priscilla Lau@prilau.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our paper (also, my first first-author paper) is now available in MEE early view! In this study, we introduced a state-dependent Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model we implemented in RevBayes to test adaptive hypotheses in macroevolution. (1/3) besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

An efficient Bayesian phylogenetic approach for joint inference of continuous and discrete trait evolution under a state‐dependent Ornstein–Uhlenbeck model

Macroevolutionary adaptation of a continuous trait to different discrete states across species can be modelled using a phylogenetic state-dependent Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) process. Existing infere...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra@jrossibarra.bsky.social · 2mo ago

UC Davis will no longer pay the difference so that GRFP recipients earn the same as other students. So mid-PhD students will lose nearly 25% of salary & new students will make less than their peers. Apply for the GRFP, it’s a wonderful help to your career. Just don’t come here if you get one.

Ted McCormick@tedmccormick.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Uninterested in leading a pile-on but no, AI does not “have access” to everything ever published. Not archival material, obviously, but not secondary material either. Nor across times nor languages. AI is not human knowledge personified. It’s exactly not that, in fact. It’s not even a search engine.

Hoyaboya@hoyaboya1.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Lozano et al. (2026-05, Journal of Molecular Evolution) (open access) Concatenation, Conflict, and Complexity: Genealogical Heterogeneity Mimics Substitutional Heterogeneity for Nucleotide Model Selection doi.org/10.1007/s002...

Concatenation, Conflict, and Complexity: Genealogical Heterogeneity Mimics Substitutional Heterogeneity for Nucleotide Model Selection - Journal of Molecular Evolution

Phylogenetic conflict—particularly hidden gene-tree discordance generated by incomplete lineage sorting (ILS)—is pervasive in multilocus and phylogenomic datasets, yet its consequences for nucleotide substitution model selection remain poorly understood. Modern molecular studies increasingly collect and concatenate large sets of independent loci sampled across distant and often poorly characterized regions of the genome, creating significant potential for heterogeneity when analyzed in combination. Here, we examine whether intra-alignment genealogical conflict can influence standard model selection procedures to favor parameter-rich substitution models even when sequences evolve under a simple substitution process. Through a series of in silico case studies, we simulated sequence evolution under the simplest rate-homogeneous Jukes–Cantor (JC69) model and generated concatenated alignments as mosaics of multiple loci, each evolving on its own gene tree drawn under the multispecies coalescent. Conflict was increased by manipulating conditions expected to elevate ILS and gene-tree heterogeneity and embedding progressively more hidden genealogies within alignments while holding total alignment length constant. Despite all data being generated under JC69, model selection frequently favored more complex models, with varying sensitivity depending on the number of taxa, the expected amount of conflict, and the specific selection criterion applied. A dominant pattern was frequent inclusion of among-site rate variation parameters (+ G4 and/or + I), and under extreme conflict, model selection increasingly favored richer substitution models (e.g., SYM, GTR). Broadly, our results showed that hidden conflict can manifest as substitutional and rate heterogeneity, driving selection procedures to compensate with additional parameters in concatenated analyses under high conflict. Broadly, our study contributes to a greater understanding and appreciation of the challenges in modeling molecular evolution in the era of multilocus phylogenetics.

doi.org

Thibault Latrille@phylogenetrips.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Should we measure trait evolution in unit of time or in unit of substitutions? Our new paper in @evolletters.bsky.social looks at this from a theoretical perspective. #Evolution #Phylogenetics DOI: doi.org/10.1093/evle... 🧵 thread below 🧵

Phylograms better fit neutrally evolving traits than chronograms

Many species are characterized by trait differences between each other. For example, the brain size of different primate and human lineages varies. The que

doi.org

Alex Wild@alexwild.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I would have bet actual money that the dark rover ant, Brachymyrmex patagonicus, was supercolonial. This is a relatively recent arrival to Texas, and it's one of our most common ants now, getting into everything, in huge numbers. And I would have been very wrong.

The underdog invader: Breeding system and colony genetic structure of the dark rover ant (Brachymyrmex patagonicus Mayr)

Almost all invasive ant species studied so far form supercolonies, a dense network of interconnected nests comprising numerous queens, without aggression toward non-nestmates. Here, we show that most...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Joseph W. Brown@josephwb.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The paper: Statistical and Structural Bias in Birth-Death Models by @phylieu.bsky.social & @omearabrian.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Statistical and Structural Bias in Birth-Death Models - Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

Accurate estimation of speciation ( $$\lambda $$ λ ) and extinction ( $$\mu $$ μ ) rates from phylogenetic trees is central to studies of diversification, yet it remains unclear whether commonly used ...

link.springer.com

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Ziv E. Lieberman@formicula.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Looking for perspectives! Background: For some time I've been cooking up a document which provides etymologies for all genus-group names of ants, plus historical and sociocultural commentary. The direct inspiration is Wheeler&Wheeler's 'Myrmecological Orthoepy & Onomatology". [continued]

Neil Tsutsui@neiltsutsui.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Job alert! Post-doc position available in the Tsutsui lab at UC Berkeley. I'm specifically looking for someone optimize and scale RNA interference for invasive ant control and eradication. Happy to take questions at ntsutsui@berkeley.edu. Spread the word! aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05325

Postdoctoral Scholar – Insect Molecular Biology – ESPM (Organisms & the Environment) - Tsutsui Lab

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu