PhD position available in evolutionary genomics/bioinformatics (hoehnalab.github.io/job_adverts/...). Topic: analyzing gene expression evolution across several firefly species and linking expression changes to genomic architecture. The position is jointly supervised with @anaevolcatalan.bsky.social

Looking for a PhD opportunity? I'm hoping to recruit someone to my group at Durham University to work on a project combining fieldwork and labwork to study speciation in rubyspot damselflies: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships... Get in touch if you want to chat!

As one of those federal employees, I couldn’t agree more. “Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.”

Really cool of you to close your voice mail box before announcing this. Afraid of your constituents?

Legit thought this was crawfish with potatoes and corn from across the street

Glad to have this one out! As some of you might remember, I'd kicked around the idea for some time, but the inestimable @wrightam.bsky.social got it all pulled together properly. It's a first step - we still need to include likelihoods of stasis between first & … www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

My kids school was under a desegregation order. Guess which teacher was moved first when it was lifted?

Contact did not acquit itself as well. Engaging, interesting, but didn’t stick the landing as well

BREAKING: NBC News projects: Abigail Spanberger (D) wins Virginia Governor. Democrat Gain.

!!!!!! www.thebookseller.com/rights/picad...

The end of an era: the Tree of Life Web Project is going dark after 3 decades. Anyone interested in communicating phylogeny online should read David's account of goals, history, and future. @bembidion.bsky.social subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...

arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review. This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month. Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.

Seafood samples from the Tangipahoa River last month contained harmful levels of arsenic, but state officials say the testing didn't determine whether the arsenic detected was nontoxic organic or the carcinogenic inorganic type. @greglarose.bsky.social reports. lailluminator.com/briefs/arsen...

Nature Communications will publish ~10K papers in 2025 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov?term=%22Natu... That's ~$70M in revenue, while many of the non-profit journals that used to occupy that slot in the journal hierarchy have seen a precipitous decline in submissions in the 15 years it's existed.

Still slaps, though I’m utterly heartbroken by its prescience.

Someone has seemingly abandoned a gallon bag of fennel seeds on my stoop. Curious about why.

Discovered Husker Du when I was 16, in the wake of Nevermind, and they were my absolute North Star for years, and remain so close to my heart. Thanks so much to @thequietus.com for letting me write this. It’s quite long. thequietus.com/interviews/h...

Assessing the impact of character evolution models on phylogenetic and macroevolutionary inferences from fossil data onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @daveyfwright.bsky.social @datadryad.bsky.social

I’m too old to have held out hope it might be good.

Yaniv put a ton of work into these resources, and they're absolutely wonderful

Just in time for #FossilFriday! Our paper is out today in Palaeontology @thepalass.bsky.social Ten simple rules to follow when cleaning occurrence data in palaeobiology 🧹🦕 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Another great @palaeoverse.bsky.social team effort to offer a community resource!

The dark truth behind FormatMyPaper.com

Anyone looking for an undergrad research assistant this coming summer? I have a truly phenomenal undergrad with expertise in genetic mapping, long read sequencing & bioinformatics who wants experience in another lab before grad school. She has been in our lab for 3 years & writing her first paper!

Phil, I’m ready to be heartbroken

Stop "...writing nature’s obituary—instead of its recovery." www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New phylogeny and family-level classification of Stomiiformes (viperfishes, hatchetfishes, bristlemouths) bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Nothing like trying to photograph a bald eagle in flight to remind you that maybe nature is best enjoyed in the moment

Deep learning for mass extinction detection on fossilized phylogenies: power, limitations, and lessons for simulation-based phylodynamic inference https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.20.683352v1

Finally got around to reading something be CJ Cherryh, after reading it recommended in a LeGuin interview. A bit wordier than I prefer, but if you like Anne Leckie, it’s up your alley. Ship comes out of hyperspace in the wrong place and must make peace with the residents of the only nearby planet

Lil bud ascendant

The Ones Who Visit Omelas Without Doing a Ton of Research But Then on the Tour of Omelas They’re Like “Wait What the Fuck Did the Tour Guide Just Say”

Check out this amazing paper by @ignacioq.bsky.social et al. on the rise and fall of clades using a new fossilized birth-death model and inegrating phylogenetic and fossil occurence data. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Spotted from the car.

Having kids means you get to buy all the illustrated read-aloud editions you’ve ever wanted

Long suspected this may be true - some characters pulling double duty and resolving clades in different parts of the tree. Good to see it bear out in simulation.

Out now in Biology Letters, my latest paper tackles an apparently simple question: how many characters are needed to reconstruct a phylogeny? TL;DR: in most cases between 100 and 500, more than a substantial portion of morphological datasets, but the story is more complex... doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

Bacteria 🦠 🧫 play a crucial role in how animals become fossils! Read about how decay experiments demonstrate that bacteria from the gut dominate the thanatomicrobiome (the internal microbiome of decay) and probably control fossilisation in our new paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

World’s over, be naughty mid-day

“Faculty across Louisiana report a pervasive climate of fear. Many now hesitate to teach, research, or speak freely — worried that offhand remarks might be taken out of context and weaponized against them.” www.la-cac.org/threats-to-a...

Out on a run, makin’ a bud

“Recently you agreed to review”

New preprint led by grad student, Yu Mo! We introduce new software to calculate evolutionary rates of quantitative characters in the presence of discordance 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In honor of getting busted singing out loud on a treadmill (rancid - ruby soho), enjoy this totally bonkers interview with Community’s Danny Pudi www.runnersworld.com/runners-stor...

🎉

Continuing my tour of books I should have already read, Calling Bullshit by @carlbergstrom.com and @jevinwest.bsky.social. Just a delight - an accessible, entertaining, insightful look at various forms of BS. Much like Weapons of Math Destruction, would love a 2025 update of this one.

Got myself one of these snazzy accessories. First time Virginia voter!

Master's degree position at Towson University with Daniel Caetano on macroevolutionary and phylogenetic comparative methods! Daniel is an awesome human and a great mentor, share with your students! caetanods.weebly.com/join-the-lab...

We are hope youtu.be/7vgEWp7Voyk?...

let the gourd times roll

A bit gloomy out today. Enjoy a view from my commute on a sunnier day.