Hey Philadelphia!! Do you want this mural on your building?? Here’s what we’re looking for: You must own the building. Must be in Philly The flatter the surface the better! The more people that will see it the better. We want to install in September Email me if that's you SkypeAScientist@gmail.com

link.growkudos.com/1eecw54o9vk

Jellyfish and relatives repeatedly evolved the same genetic changes across 600 million years

We compared thousands of genes across 86 species of jellyfish and their relatives to ask how often natural selection appears to have produced the same changes in proteins in different lineages. These repeated changes were surprisingly widespread. They were somewhat less common in more distantly related species, but remained more frequent than expected by chance even in lineages that separated more than 600 million years ago. Yet pairs of species that had independently evolved the same conspicuous traits—eyes, loss of the jellyfish stage, or upright colonies—did not share more repeated protein changes than other pairs. Instead, the changes were concentrated in genes involved in metabolism, immunity, and processing foreign chemicals. These results suggest that evolution often repeats at the molecular level, but this repetition reflects complex interactions between organisms and their environments rather than being tightly linked to the same obvious traits.

link.growkudos.com

New preprints! 1/3 Spider venom glands are modified salivary glands which have recruited appendage and myogenic programs from other the developmental programs of other organs. Led by Giulia Zancolli, with @yehumoran.bsky.social doi.org/10.64898/202...

EEB Mentor Match is now open! But apps due soon (8/17). Mentees: get help applying for grad school or fellowships in ecology & evolution. Mentors: senior grads, post-docs, or faculty in these fields willing to give advice Org by Diversity Cmte of @asn-amnat.bsky.social Pls share! eebmentormatch.com

EEB Mentor Match

Visit the post for more.

eebmentormatch.com

Berger et al. (2026-07, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) Adaptive molecular convergence is pervasive across deep time and largely decoupled from phenotypic convergence doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

McDermott et al. (2026-07, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences) 「動物における対称性の進化に対する形態系統学的アプローチ」 A morphological phylogenetic approach to the evolution of symmetry in animals doi.org/10.1098/rspb... うおおおおおおお！！！！！

Adaptive molecular convergence is pervasive across deep time and largely decoupled from phenotypic convergence https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42520128/

Happy to share that this paper led by @caberger.bsky.social with @stoilovamarina.bsky.social @rebeccavarney.bsky.social @pcart.bsky.social Sam Abrams and Maria Pia is published -- Unexpectedly predictable molecular evolution with diverse ecologies 🧪 🧬 🌊 #Molevol #EvoBio www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Todd Oakley@ostratodd.bsky.social · 3mo ago

We started by studying gene reuse in eyes over deep time -- but were astonished to find adaptive molecular convergence to be rampant and not directly related to important traits, including eyes. Led by PD Cory Berger www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

UC Davis Ecology & Evolution Grad Preview Program is accepting applications until July 20th! It's a fully virtual program where you are paired with a grad student mentor and learn about what grad school entails, how to apply, and what student life is like! Please share widely!

🧵 Here is a time-lapse video of bioluminescent ostracods that we used as data in a just-posted preprint. What's going on?

Really excited to share that my first PhD chapter is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! 🕷️👀 We show that visually hunting spiders have repeatedly evolved forward-facing eyes, highlighting the remarkable evolutionary flexibility of their modular visual system. doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Hunting ecology predicts eye arrangements in the modular visual system of spiders

Pande et al. show that visually hunting spiders have convergently evolved forward-facing eyes. The positions and orientations of the eyes show the greatest morphological disparity and fastest evolutio...

cell.com

In quick succession, a fun behavior project with data collected by co-authors before I even knew what an ostracod was! Also happy for another paper with JG Morin, who discovered these ostracods in 1979. Good to have a citation for how these lil shrimp with big lights actually defend themselves

Bioluminescence Giant Squid

ALT: Bioluminescence Giant Squid

static.klipy.com

First postdoc paper and first Nematostella project! By using the dynamic expression pattern of minicollagens, we describe the transcriptional profile during biogenesis for two major stinging cell types: nematocytes and spirocytes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #StunningStella

Minicollagen expression dynamics reveal a transcriptional program for cnidogenesis in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis

Cnidae are explosive harpoon-like organelles localized within stinging cells, or cnidocytes, of the phylum Cnidaria (jellyfish, hydroids, sea anemones, and corals). These unique Golgi-derived vesicula...

biorxiv.org

The formatted paper is now out in MBE - describing OPTICS software to predict color sensitivy based on opsin sequence alone: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

Todd Oakley@ostratodd.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🧵 New paper! We’re excited to release OPTICS: software that immediately predicts color sensitivity from any opsin protein sequence. In other words: give OPTICS any opsin sequence, and it predicts the wavelength of light the pigment is most sensitive to 🌈👁️ academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

Seth Frazer & @ostratodd.bsky.social advance ML modeling of the opsin genotype–phenotype map, introducing the Opsin Phenotype Tool for Inference of Color Sensitivity platform, and present the Mine-N-Match (MNM) pipeline. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag138 #evobio #molbio

I am recruiting Ph.D. students this cycle. Students interested in deep-sea fishes and phylogenetic comparative methods are an especially good fit.

Interested in #macroevolution, #macroecology, and mountain biodiversity? I'm recruiting a #postdoc for an NSF-funded project at Yale, in collaboration with Martha Muñoz (Yale) and Maya Stokes (Florida State University). I'll be at #Evol2026 and happy to chat! Link below

🧵 New paper! We’re excited to release OPTICS: software that immediately predicts color sensitivity from any opsin protein sequence. In other words: give OPTICS any opsin sequence, and it predicts the wavelength of light the pigment is most sensitive to 🌈👁️ academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

Accessible and Robust Machine Learning Approaches to Improve the Opsin Genotype-Phenotype Map

Abstract. Predicting phenotypes from genetic variation is a central challenge in biology. Here, machine learning (ML) offers great promise, but its use is

academic.oup.com

#SMBE2026 S02: Powers and pitfalls of artificial intelligence for molecular evolution and phylogenetics 🗓️ Mon Jun 29, 10:20am 🔗 smbe2026.org/programme

Muñoz-Mérida & Muñoz-Pajares introduce the concept of the pan-functionome — the full set of protein functions encoded by the proteome of individuals belonging to a taxonomic group — and explore its evolutionary implications. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag121 #evobio #molbio

I’m obliged to pass on our study of light spectrum 🌈 variation in fireflies onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... by former PhD student Margot Popecki 😊

The Role of Pigments in Light Color Variation of the Firefly Photinus pyralis

We tested the novel hypothesis that genes encoding enzymes and transporters in pigment pathways (“pigment genes”) produce pigments in the firefly light organ that filter bioluminescent light, tuning ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

We @lowelab.bsky.social had a blast hosting @ostratodd.bsky.social at the Hopkins Marine Station! A fantastic day talking all things bioluminescence, ostracods, chitons, repeatability, contigency, phylogeny, courtship, mentoring, surfing, baseball, brewing and all The first of many visits I hope!

Now accepting applications for our 2027 Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution! These awards support students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs to conduct #ecology and #evolution research. Deadline is June 30, 2026: bit.ly/4umYKZd #science

Applications for 2027 Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution Now Open

The Simons Foundation’s Life Sciences division is now accepting applications for its 2027 Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution.

bit.ly

We started by studying gene reuse in eyes over deep time -- but were astonished to find adaptive molecular convergence to be rampant and not directly related to important traits, including eyes. Led by PD Cory Berger www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New preprint from the group on the evolution of retinal cell types. Check the summary by Dario @dariotommasini.bsky.social !

Dario Tommasini@dariotommasini.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Inhibitory neurons are among the most transcriptomically diverse class of neurons in the CNS, with some brain regions having 60+ distinct cell types. Do humans share the same repertoire as rodents? Birds? Fish? 1/13

My group at Science has been running a big campaign to engineer new channelrhodopsins. Excited to share the first results from it today: a suite of highly sensitive new opsins. We call them "WAChRs". Everyday indoor office lighting is enough to activate them pretty strongly.

Symbiotic entrenchment through ecological Catch-22: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Symbiotic entrenchment through ecological Catch-22

A symbiotic rove beetle develops a stealth phenotype by silencing production of its hydrocarbon pheromones, enabling it to infiltrate ant colonies, steal ant pheromones, and achieve social acceptance ...

cell.com

Neil H. Shubin has been elected as the next NAS President! A leading evolutionary biologist and science communicator, Shubin will succeed Marcia McNutt on July 1. The Academy also named Cherry Murray as International Secretary and elected new councilors. Read more: www.nasonline.org/news/2026_pr...

📣 Welcome to DPCB! We’re SICB’s Division of Phylogenetics & Comparative Biology — the home for tree-thinking, evolutionary relationships, and comparative approaches across organisms. #DPCB #SICB2026 #Phylogenetics

🌟 Whether you build trees, test models, or work with traits, DPCB is your home for comparative and phylogenetic science. Follow, connect, and say hi — we’re glad you’re here! #DPCB #PhylogeneticsCommunity #TreeThinking