Hope to see you all on August 27th at 15:00UTC (10:00AM Central) for my @palaeoverse.bsky.social lecture! Details on how to register here: palaeoverse.org/events/ I'll be talking about inferring and dealing with budding phylogenetic trees, including a full tutorial!! Hope to see you all there!

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

Splash looking for her boyfriend, a very handsome English Setter, up the road from us. She drags me to his place every walk

Wheeler et al. (2026-07, Molecular Biology and Evolution) Improved gene tree inference from removing alignment errors both from focal genes and when training substitution models doi.org/10.1093/molb...

Improved gene tree inference from removing alignment errors both from focal genes and when training substitution models

Abstract. Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA) is a key step in phylogenetic analysis and is prone to error. Unfortunately, algorithms that remove likely alig

doi.org

I keep forgetting that my husband bought the super spicy one and applying as normal

April Wright@wrightam.bsky.social · 3w ago

I added too much chili crisp to my mac and cheese and I am going To Die.

Standing among code fragments like Chewbacca standing amongst the broken pieces of the Millennium Falcon

Super excited that our paper led by @sandinmm.eurosky.social in PNAS is out! We show that crown-group eukaryotes were already taxonomically and ecologically diverse throughout the Mesoproterozoic, revealing complex communities well before the Neoproterozoic radiation. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Environmental phylogenetics supports a steady diversification of crown eukaryotes starting from the mid-Proterozoic | PNAS

Molecular clock and preservation of early microfossil assemblages suggest that eukaryotes were present and already diverse more than ~1600 million ...

pnas.org

I added too much chili crisp to my mac and cheese and I am going To Die.

"Three roles for background natural history in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology: (1) as spark (motivating research questions and hypothesis), (2) as scaffold (supporting the conduct of studies), and (3) as substrate (serving as raw material for new research)." www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Spark, Scaffold, Substrate: The Multiple Hidden Roles of Natural History in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | The American Naturalist: Vol 0, No 0

AbstractOver the last 30 years, as ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) has become more theoretical, experimental, and data driven, there has been a growing worry that the space for natural history ...

journals.uchicago.edu

Coming to #JMIH26 this week? If you don’t have lunch plans Saturday, come to the NSF info session at noon in Maurepas! We’ll have a presentation, and plenty of time to answer all your questions!

Been in New Orleans less than 24 hours and already got assaulted by a Salt Life roid rager in front of the hotel. Good to be home.

However weird you think Minnesota is, it’s so much weirder I gotta get home for the Solstice next year

Loon courtship dance: Peak Minnesota?

YouTube video by WTIP North Shore Community Radio and Media

youtube.com

Thanks so much, Brian. I’ve benefited from an amazing team from the prior organizers, current ones, Karen, the councils and the societies Parting advice: meeting organizers or council must decide what to maximize and how to know when it has succeeded. You really gotta nerd out and introspect

She was trying to cross a busy street here in Alexandria and I love her $250 bucks in supplies later, I can very much say this crab could not have found a better sucker to rescue her off the street

Nighthawk (Birthday 8/10 🎂) 𓅣🌏🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️☭@socialistpuffin.bsky.social · last mo.

see a crab, post a crab

Headed home from #evol2026, my last one as the Chief Meeting Organizer. I have so much gratitude to this community of amazing people. I hope you all feel as energized as I do. I didn’t get many pictures, so please enjoy this groundhog I saw by the Noble Beast

“Collections are something done by past generations for future generations to preserve information” Dr. Jessica Ware, now discussing improving access to natural history collections at #evol2026

🌀 Beyond preservation: morphological analysis of Lower #Jurassic serpenticone #ammonoids The family serves as a crucial model for studying serpenticone morphology across various taxa. 📄 DOI: doi.org/10.18261/let... #Paleontology #Ammonoids #Stratigraphy #Paleobiology #Geology #Mesozoic

Beyond preservation: morphological analysis of Lower Jurassic serpenticone ammonoids

The Lower Jurassic family Echioceratidae comprises ammonoids crucial for upper Sinemurian biostratigraphy and is a good model for studying the serpenticone morphology present in a wide variety of grou...

doi.org

Pro-tip, #evol2026: the Red Line Train from the airport to the convention center area is 2 bucks. The view as it the Old River Valley opens up into Cleveland is pretty dope. Really looking forward to my train ride this afternoon.

Soon, we can stop saying this so much in my house

And don’t forget that if you upload your presentation in pptx format, you can take advantage of live captioning during your talk

Indeed: www.evolutionmeetings.org/online-progr... From the app or online program, you can also export a PDF of your itinerary, and print if you’d rather have paper copy

Program

The 2026 Virtual Event has concluded. Recorded talks are available via ​ YouTube

evolutionmeetings.org

Sweating through the absolute disaster weather in the DC metro and longing to be at #evol2026, where the expected highs next weekend are in the 70s

The hermit crab I found trying to cross a busy street yesterday seems happy in her new digs If an owner doesn’t come forward, we’ll be getting her some buddies this weekend

The broader implication extends beyond flowering plants. Many famous "rocks vs. clocks" debates may not require choosing sides. The challenge is finding better ways to let fossils and molecules speak to each other. Link to our latest: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Integrated analysis of fossils and molecular divergence time estimates a latest Jurassic origin of angiosperms - Nature Plants

Using extensive fossil occurrence data and Bayesian Brownian Bridge modelling, this study derives data-driven calibration densities for molecular clocks and suggests a Late Jurassic origin of flowerin...

nature.com

Ruolin WU@ruolinwu.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Jurassic Gap shrinks dramatically. Rather than fossils and molecular clocks being in fundamental conflict, they may have been talking past each other. When fossil evidence is incorporated more comprehensively, the two records tell a much more consistent story of flowering plant evolution.

I reached a critical mass of my favorite authors admitting to straight plagiarizing Zamyatin’s “We” that I picked up and read it. I guess this must be the feeling one has if one consumed a lot of elves-and-orcs fiction before reading Lord of the Rings. Much more visceral and human, though.

I stopped on my run to cool off in the shade and was rewarded justly

Box One is a bit of a banger

Andrej Spiridonov@andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The concise history of modeling character evolution. Handy timeline. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... 🧪 #EvoBio #Paleobio

“It’s my weekend, too. I get to have a weekend,” I tell myself as I cuddle up with a book in the roots of a big oak tree at the school year-end family picnic

Overleaf labs making it possible to share a .bib across projects! Very helpful stuff for avoiding an issue where you haven’t grabbed the latest .bib from GitHub and now your versions are out of sync … www.overleaf.com/labs/partici...

Log in to Overleaf

An online LaTeX editor that’s easy to use. No installation, real-time collaboration, version control, hundreds of LaTeX templates, and more.

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