I hope to take a PhD student in 2026 to study siphonophores. Please reach out if you are interested in applying this fall. For examples of recent lab projects see www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... and academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Once upon a time, large bone-crushing dogs roamed across our continent. @restingdinoface.bsky.social takes a colorful look back at the lives of the successful carnivores. www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

Going from reading almost exclusively simulation studies and theory papers to almost exclusively canid systematics/fossil description papers has been an interesting experience! Anyway look at this cool paper about Plio-Pleistocene European foxes! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

They're listening to my private conversations somehow, I'm certain of it. Holy crap I'm excited 🤩

Updated preprint! Thanks to suggestions from reviewers, we have some new insights on using continuous traits in phylogenetic estimation. And a lot more about dicynodont taxonomy. Seriously, google dicynodonts and tell me you don't want to know what's happening there www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

here are some space fireworks, happy 4th of july 🎆🌌

We’re hiring! Join us at maraujo lab as a #PhD candidate to model species abundances using cutting-edge ecological and statistical tools. Based at @mncn-csic.bsky.social @mncn-bgcg.bsky.social and @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social. 🔗 www.maraujolab.eu/2025/07/04/p... #SpeciesDistributionModels

Having to write an R script to write another script makes me feel like I am in limbo

When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Very cool paper! Glad to see Bluesky helping me find new cool science hot off the press 🍞

🆕 Preprint now on bioRxiv! We introduce a covarion model for phylogenetic inference using discrete morphological data, addressing lineage- and character-specific rate heterogeneity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #phylogenetics #morphology #covarion #evolution

#MolluscMonday Ordovician orthoconic nautiloid in a paving stone at Hampton Court Palace. The section intersects the siphuncular tube on the right hand-side just below the living chamber.

Excellent analysis & commentary by @johnhawks.net on 2024 study of 1.5 mya fossil hominin footprints in Kenya showing 2 different species of humans (Homo erectus & Paranthropus boisei) walking in the same direction, & possibly separated by only a few hours. Ichnology FTW! 🧪🐾🪨

For those who followed me without knowing me (thank you and nice to meet you!), it’s very important for you to know that I am unhealthily obsessed with horseshoe crabs. I don’t even study them at all, and they’ve just been my favorite animal since I found out they existed. They’re the coolest!

1/13 Time to talk about dogs and fossilized birth-death models! Here is a quick run-down of my #Evol2025 talk. 🧵

Thank you so much to all the new and old friends I had the pleasure of speaking to at #Evol2025. Hope I can establish lots of new collaborations and, even more importantly, new connections with these talented folks. See y’all in Cleveland!!

A horseshoe crab and its final footprints preserved in 149.4 million year old limestone from Solnhofen, Germany 😢 On display in the Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum #fossils #FossilFriday #geology ⚒️🧪

It’s the last day of Evolution 2025! We hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have. The Super Social is tonight at the State Botanical Gardens! See you there? 🎉 #Evol2025 @sse-evolution.bsky.social @systbiol.bsky.social @asn-amnat.bsky.social

Lots of cool talks happening in a few hours for the last sessions of #Evol2025! Nicolás Castillo Rodríguez from @roszenil.bsky.social’s group will be talking about the evolution of Bromeliaceae in sky island systems (Phylogenetic Comparative Methods, Olympia 1, 4pm) +

🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 Brazilians at #Evol2025! 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 Creature comforts is closed today, so I’ll take that opportunity to rectify my mistake of scheduling something at the same time as the SSB mixer and say let’s just meet there! Little King's Shuffle Club: maps.app.goo.gl/M6qsf1q9kRQE...

Last but not least, I will be sharing some work on a model I have been developing for chromosome evolution today! Be there or be square! I'll be presenting at 4:45 in Phylogenetic Theory! #Evol2025

My talk might be done, but if you’re still looking for cool talks at #Evol2025, come watch Isabel Novick talk about the population genetics of webbing clothes moths at 4:30pm in Biogeography III (Athena CD)!!

Thank you so much for everyone who came to my #Evol2025 talk! For those who couldn’t make it, I’m planning to upload it to my website and make a little thread here about the work, so stay tuned 🐕

Ok I just realized the SSB mixer is also tomorrow at 7:30pm sooooo I guess the answer is bar hop???

Speaking of what to do tomorrow, hope to see y’all bright and early to hear about canids and fossilized birth-death models! #Evol2025

Brazilians at #Evol2025! @mjanuario.bsky.social and I are planning ab informal meetup tomorrow after the poster session (~7:30pm) at Creature comforts, a brewery 10 min from the conference center. Non-Brazilians who want to mingle and hear some Portuguese are always welcome!! 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

Hope you were able to catch @mjanuario.bsky.social’s #Evol2025 talk about his evolution education package, evolved! My friends are so smart

La Brea telling the truth. 🧪

And day two of #Evol2025 is off! There’s still time to catch @corriemoreau.bsky.social’s @systbiol.bsky.social presidential address—trust me, it’ll be worth it!

Happening this Sunday morning (6/22) at 8:30am if you are at #Evol2025! My talk is titled "An inordinate fondness for ants: What evolution has taught me about change, resilience, and communication" Hope to see y'all there!

Come watch my talk at #Evol2025 this Monday @ 9:45am, at the Phylogenetic Methods Development I section. I'll be talking about methodological considerations on inferring a complete phylogenetic tree of Canidae. Who doesn't want to hear about dogs??? (and fossilized birth-death models, obviously...)

Just created my Bluesky! Let's hope I use it more than twitter. Hope you follow me if you want to hear about Bayesian phylogenetics with fossils, state-dependent diversification, and canids!!