Martin R. Smith
@palaeosmith.bsky.social
Palaeontologist developing phylogenetic and stratigraphic methods to understand the origins of life's rich diversity
Hemichordate gills weren't made for breathing: vertebrates pioneered the use of gills for gas exchange journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Gills are not the primary site of gas exchange in the suspension-feeding hemichordate Protoglossus graveolens
Highlighted Article: New functional data from hemichordates provide critical support for a vertebrate origin of gas exchange at gills.
journals.biologists.com
Fast and innovative methods for building consensus trees: package ConsTree is now on CRAN constree.github.io
ConsTree: Fast Algorithms for Phylogenetic Consensus Trees
Efficient construction of phylogenetic consensus trees. Methods include strict, majority-rule, majority-rule (+), loose (combinable component / semi-strict), greedy, Adams, frequency difference, R*, a...
cran.r-project.org
Ever wondered which characters support individual clades in a tree? My new method maps phylogenetic support across a dataset. doi.org/10.1093/sysb... Try it in R: pak::pkg_install("ms609/TreeSearch@cpp-search") ?TreeSearch::ClusteringConcordance
Tree space mapping made easy: Map landscapes of phylogenetic trees in TreeDist without installing R! ms609.github.io/TreeDist/app/ (Allow a minute for the app to load.)
Shiny App
ms609.github.io
It's easier to lose a morphological trait than to gain one. When models and datasets reflect this asymmetry, phylogenetic reconstructions improve. doi.org/10.1093/sysb...
Burgess Shale-type preservation of Ediacaran Fronds www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The terminal Ediacaran Tongshan Lagerstätte from South China - Nature Communications
Here, the authors present Ediacaran fossils from the Tongshan Lagerstätte (South China), including Burgess Shale-type rangeomorphs preserved both with fronds and holdfasts. They use sedimentary and ch...
nature.com
Chromosomes point to Lophophorate monophyly www.cell.com/current-biol... I wonder what this topology means for the origins of Bryozoans?
Phoronid genome supports a monophyletic Lophophorata
The definition and membership of Lophophorata, including brachiopods, phoronids, and bryozoans, have been debated for over a century. Lewin et al. show that phoronids and bryozoans share multiple deri...
cell.com
There were at least five independent origins of lichens – and at least one had occurred by the Devonian www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
Is the anus a gonopore? Origins of the bilaterian through-gut www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Molecular evidence from xenacoelomorph gonopore formation supports homology with the bilaterian anus - Nature Ecology & Evolution
The evolutionary origin of the bilaterian gut with two openings is debated. Expression in xenacoelomorphs, the sister group to bilaterians, of genes involved in bilaterian gut patterning suggests that...
nature.com
Our new paper is out: StratoBayes: a Bayesian method for automated stratigraphic correlation and age modelling doi.org/10.5194/gchr... with @palaeosmith.bsky.social Kilian Eichenseer & Matthias Sinnesael
StratoBayes: a Bayesian method for automated stratigraphic correlation and age modelling
Abstract. Stratigraphic correlation and age modelling are fundamental to reconstructing Earth's history, biological evolution, and palaeoclimate, and underpin the exploration for subsurface resources....
doi.org
Have we reached 'peak fossil'? Sampling bias hardly affects the lizard fossil record – suggesting that new finds are unlikely to overhaul our understanding? doi.org/10.1017/pab....
Taphonomic megabiases constrain phylogenetic information in the squamate fossil record | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core
Taphonomic megabiases constrain phylogenetic information in the squamate fossil record
doi.org
Fossil mushrooms from the Cretaceous – almost fresh enough to top a pizza with! doi.org/10.1093/botl...
An early "mollusc" reconsidered: Is Shishana, in fact, a chancelloriid? Read our new paper @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
StratoBayes: our quantitative tool for automated stratigraphic correlation. Read the preprint: egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...
Is a borrowed bacterial gene key to the origins of biomineralization in animals? academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
Horizontal Transfer of msp130 Genes and the Evolution of Metazoan Biocalcification
Abstract. The formation of calcified skeletons is crucial for the development, physiology, and ecology of many marine metazoans. The evolutionary origins o
academic.oup.com
Origin of the anus: was a gonopore key to inventing the through gut? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Derived Cirratuliform annelids in Cambrian SCF deposits – possible relatives of Iotuba? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
A Cambrian arms race? www.cell.com/current-biol...
Adaptive responses in Cambrian predator and prey highlight the arms race during the rise of animals
Bicknell et al. explore the hypothesis that predation was a major ecological driver of early animal evolution. A study of the early Cambrian tommotiid Lapworthella fasciculata shows a correlation between increasing shell thickness and predation intensity (evidenced by perforations) over time, representing the oldest known microevolutionary arms race.
cell.com
Burial not required for exceptional fossilization? www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Kaolinite induces rapid authigenic mineralisation in unburied shrimps - Communications Earth & Environment
Instantaneous burial capturing animals alive may not be prerequisite for exceptional marine animal preservation and fossilization, according to experiments on marine and freshwater shrimps and cryogen...
nature.com
Low but dynamic oxygen levels as the backdrop to the Cambrian radiation www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publicati...
Low oxygen but dynamic marine redox conditions permitted the Cambrian Radiation
research.ed.ac.uk
🚨Job Alert!🚨 We are recruiting an Associate Professor in Environmental Sustainability! The post is associated with a new MSc in Environmental Sustainability which is due to start in October 2026. Please apply by 31 January, and please share this with your networks! durham.taleo.net/careersectio...
Associate Professor in Environmental Sustainability (EARTH_01)
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
durham.taleo.net
Apply now for two PhD projects modelling stratigraphy to understand the evolutionary past and geological future iapetus2.ac.uk/studentships... iapetus2.ac.uk/studentships...
Computational innovation for the energy transition: Bayesian stratigraphic correlation of subsurface data
iapetus2.ac.uk
