Late to the party, but I'm so excited about the first paper from our lab: ✨Unique genetic bases of repeated life-history divergence associated with high altitude adaptation in Mimulus perennials ✨ This work was led by the ABSOLUTE ROCKSTAR Hongfei Chen!

Excited to share the first paper from my PhD! We looked at what traits help Aneides salamanders excel at climbing using museum specimens, CT scans, SEM, and more! No claws or toe pads, so how do they do it? In short, with long limbs, big feet and grippy toes! 🦎🧪 DM for PDF doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Tadpoles have...TEETH?! An evolutionary novelty of anuran tadpoles, the taxonomic distribution of keratinized labial teeth remains a mystery. Yet here, variation in row number was studied in a phylogenetic context! If you're bitten by a tadpole do you turn into a frog..? 🌍🧪👇

🚨Woo our new paper now out in accepted form in @systbiol.bsky.social - We use phylogenetic analyses to argue that the evolution of diverse social contexts has reshaped avian life histories. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Decided there's not enough lizards in the #ColorsOfSkullAnatomy collection 🦎 So, new to the gang: Phyllurus platurus (southern leaf tail gecko). An Aussie lizard of course, and one of the 1st specimens I scanned at Florida Museum in 2021 www.graysvertebrateanatomy.com/leaftail-gecko-skull-anatomy/

Hey look! Glowing fishes evolved over and over again. Lots of color of glow. @emilycarr.bsky.social led a team that included 5 FHL folks @jmhuie.bsky.social @lampichthys.bsky.social and @karlycohen.bsky.social. The oldest glowy fish is an eel at 100MYA. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations to this year’s R. C. Lewontin Early Award recipients! www.evolutionsociety.org/news/display...

Paper alert 🚨 Our 1rst paper with @vivienl.bsky.social and colleagues is out in Functional Ecology! In this paper, we investigated how complete metamorphosis promotes morphological and functional diversity in Caudata.Want to know more? Read this👇 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

This is just a partial glimpse of the destruction of American science by Trump and the GOP.

New from the Near Lab, a super collaboration led by @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social Phylogenomics and evolutionary history of the iconic reef fish clade wrasses and parrotfishes (Labridae) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu6149

Congratulations to lab member Gabi Alves Ferreira who lead us in this fun project! She modeled how range shifts of neotropical frogs with climate change will change phylogenetic diversity and endemism in the new communities. So great to see this published #ProudPI 💪🐸 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

When I CT scanned this diamondback rattlesnake specimen, I found a surprise rodent inside 🐍🐁 The #oVertTCN CT data is available for download on MorphoSource here: www.morphosource.org/concern/medi...

Live near New Haven, CT, and looking for something interesting to do April 23? I am giving the Bass Distinguished Lecture, titled “The World Without Evolution?” taking place Wednesday, April 23 at 5 pm in O.C. Marsh Hall. The event is free and open to the public. peabody.yale.edu/news/hendry_...

We polled Nature readers to ask if they were thinking of leaving the US for jobs abroad. Three-quarters of them (who said they were US-based scientists) said yes. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Reproductive barriers can evolve despite gene flow. A combination of genomics and behavioural assays shows two mitonuclear incompatibilities originated via ancient hybridization that underlie hybrid inviability in a pair of closely related swordtail fishes www.nature.com/articles/s41...

First-generation students have unique needs, which can be amplified when they enter graduate programmes. A Comment article in Nature Reviews Psychology argues that faculty members need to be aware of the needs of this population and how to support them. https://go.nature.com/3FkQDs1 #Academicsky 🧪

1/35 New paper out! @jamesTstroud and I dive into why long-term studies are crucial for understanding evolution. They reveal processes impossible to detect in short timescales and capture rare events that transform our understanding of evolutionary dynamics. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to share this new paper! We explored the relationships of head shape and feeding mechanics in dinosaurs. A cascade of changes from big brains, to reoriented muscles, to a breakdown of linkages resulted in avian powered kinesis, but not until neognathes. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Chris Thacker and I have published a new review on the phylogenetics and biology of acanthopterygian fishes. This lineage includes more than 19,100 species, comprising nearly one third of all species of vertebrate animals! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

So excited to see this paper finally out! Part of the Paleobiology 50th anniversary issue, we cover the history of the field, morphometrics, morphospaces, new approaches to evolutionary models & disparity, incorporating climate, the importance of fossils & more. Check it out! doi.org/10.1017/pab....

Interested in trait evolution and/or connecting micro and macroevolution? The Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics Workshop has returned, now at Mountain Lake Biological Station, VA, June 9-13th! Deadline for application April 4th, 5pm EST. More info here: eqgw.github.io

Parallel Sensory Compensation following Independent Subterranean Colonization by Groundwater Salamanders (Eurycea ) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.02.640989v1

Huge loss for students and researchers. The benefits for students to be paid to do research is obvious. At many institutions that are not research intensive, this is a not just an undergrad experience, it’s a critical chance for professors to do research. (I ran an REU program for 3 years.)

Yesterday, we had a fantastic time at the Scientists in Action workshop at Dixwell Q House! Our team engaged with enthusiastic middle schoolers about our research. A big thank you to everyone who made this event a success! We look forward to more opportunities to inspire young minds!

New preprint from postdoc @bpwaldron.bsky.social and coauthors! Love to get to think about salamanders sometimes with the help of real experts like Brian, was my original academic goal to be a salamander biologist and I'm largely failing. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We've got a good one for you today! This is the skull of an Indo-Pacific Blue Marlin that we caught in Okinawa. This particular fish is special because it is both the largest fish that I've ever collected, and ever scanned. S/O to @jaimiagray.bsky.social for helping out with the scan!

It’s like, raining fish species. New sardine just dropped. 🐟🦑🌎🧪 A New Species of Rainbow Sardine in the Genus Dussumieria (Teleostei: Clupeiformes: Dussumieriidae) from New Guinea and Australia www.ichthyologyandherpetology.org/ihbjbe/lhi20...

Howard University is now a R1 university, the first HBCU with a research one designation. H-U definitely knows!

We describe a new species of poison frog from the Pacific coast of Colombia -- Epipedobates currulao. A long time in the making. Describimos una nueva especie de una rana venenosa para la ciencia de la costa pacífica de colombia doi.org/10.3897/zook... Media links below | entrevistas abajo 1/5

The NIH announced it will slash billions of dollars of support to universities and research centers. This is one of the biggest attacks on science we have ever seen. It could dismantle the biomedical research system, shut down clinical trials, and halt development of treatments.

Mantis shrimp can break glass with their powerful punches. Now we know why they don't break their own claws. That and more of the best in @science.org and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

Hey BlueSky! I’ll be defending my PhD dissertation on Monday, Feb 24 from 1–2pm US ET. Message me for Zoom info if you’re interested!

SICB is back! Please follow the society's new BlueSky account: @sicb.bsky.social SICB recognizes that the scientific enterprise is only successful because of the people performing that science. Without those people, science and all of the political and economic strength that it provides, stops.

Excited for our lab's 1st Ecology paper published (open access link below). Lots of help from student co-authors. Building on prior work in wetland systems, we found that female newts consistently ate more amphibian prey! esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Happy year of the snake! I would argue that the snakes of the United States are just as varied and pretty as our birds. A few years ago I made a poster to try and prove it. Drawing this took many months and a lot of research. You can get it here: topatoco.com/collections/...

NSF PRFB POSTDOCS: Pull the remainder of this funding cycle’s stipend, all remaining research funds, and all remaining travel funds (if you have them). Do it before 5PM today. Per instructions from multiple NSF POs. If you’re not already on the PRFB slack, DM me and I’ll send you an invite

The National Science Foundation cancelled over 60 grant review panels today, effectively grinding funding of new projects to a halt. The so-far indefinite pause comes as NSF grapples with the impact Trump's executive orders will have on their grantmaking process. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

The first chapter of my dissertation is finally out. Thanks to all my co-authors and mentors. Gustavo Londoño, Martha Muñoz (@marthamunoz.bsky.social ), Don Miles (@lizardprof.bsky.social) and Rosario Castañeda doi.org/10.1093/evol... (1/5).

Very cool talk at #SICB2035 by @hcamarillo.bsky.social on plethodon “nonadaptive radiation” showing species clusters in skull morphology consistent with repeated adaptive diversification!

1/4New from the #NearLab, genomics and morphology demonstrate the famous Snail Darter, Percina tanasi, the little fish that swam to the United States Supreme Court is not a distinct species... Open access at Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Prepping to teach intro evolution for the first time- what are everyone's favorite misconceptions about evolution? I've got a few: - evolution happens to individuals - evolution happens because it's needed - evolution is hierarchical/directional/has an end point

Good piece by @natureportfolio.bsky.social. The erosion of thinking time—driven by admin, bureaucracy, industry agendas, and unrealistic output targets—stifles curiosity-led science. These pressures undermine innovation and the intellectual freedom vital for real progress. 🧪🌱🌍 #ScienceIsNotBusiness

People sometimes make fun of science that sounds stupid and random. Meanwhile, a study of lizard saliva turned into a peptide medication, which was turned into a diabetes medication, which was turned into a GLP1 weight loss drug, that just became the first therapy every approved for … sleep apnea

I have a new paper out on the evolution of hearing in toothed whales! It looks like a narrow range of high-frequency auditory sensitivity in some living dolphins and porpoises may be an ancestral physiology rather than novel specializations in select groups. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This week I’m giving thanks for the Sling-Jaw Wrasse, and it’s amazing jaw #biomechanics! 🐟🦑🧪🌿

I'm recruiting a PhD student to join my lab at the University of Dayton (Fall 2025) to study the evo-devo of tadpoles! More info here: evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...

Thrilled to share: out in @natureportfolio.bsky.social (!) just in time for Thanksgiving, the dinosaurian history of how your turkey does the twist. Fibular reduction enabled mid-drumstick mobility, unlocking extreme knee long-axis rotation in theropods 🍗🦖🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08251-w