Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

We often talk about THE whole genome duplication in yeasts, but we find new evidence of additional whole genome duplications in other yeast species! Check out this preprint led by @kylethedavid.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New York Times story with profiles of researchers whose grants were terminated. [Gift Link] www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...

An excellent article in the NYTimes about the impending demise of the last U.S. Antarctic research vessel, the N.B. Palmer, featuring US and overseas colleagues (including @polarrobs.bsky.social). Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/c...

I said what I said

Thrilled to share that the final chapter of my PhD with @rokaslab.bsky.social is now out in @natcomms.nature.com 🎉 Read it to find out how population structure impacts pathogenicity in Aspergillus flavus, a fungus that infects humans 🧪 rdcu.be/eAToj

This weekend me and @evolutionvu.bsky.social collaborated with some local girl scouts to run an advanced evolution simulator, saw some cool convergence as well as a plesiomorphy that hung around way longer than I thought it would

When the final sentence of the abstract begins with "Taken together,"

oh okay

Had a great time celebrating the centennial of the Scopes trial with a trip to Dayton, hallowed ground for an evolutionary biologist! Thanks to @evolutionvu.bsky.social for organizing!

Plant grafting is so cool it makes me jealous. Like what do you mean you can just mash two species together

Kyle David @kylethedavid.bsky.social discusses two new genome 🧬 duplications 🧬🧬 in the yeast subphylum With three WGD clades, we can ask what are the causes and consequences of WGD in yeast @evolutionvu.bsky.social @rokaslab.bsky.social #Evol2025 #Evol24

Nice argument. Unfortunately, I've already depicted you as the fungal cultivating minima caste and me as the neuroparsin-A upregulated soldier major caste

“Shrimps is bugs” is a funny meme, but there’s some truth in the reverse version, “Bugs is shrimps” 🐛🦐 Since insects are literally a group of terrestrial crustacean. And among all the insects, bristletails are probably the most shrimp-like in my opinion!

How many paths lead to evolutionary innovation? How versatile are genomic toolkits? Excited to announce my new @pnas.org paper addressing these questions in collaboration with @rokaslab.bsky.social, @hittingerlab.bsky.social, and the Pennell lab! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

NIH funding supporting the HMMER and Infernal software projects has been terminated. NIH states that our work, as well as all other federally funded research at Harvard, is of no benefit to the US.

Spot the difference

Get Me To God's Country

Force A, Lynch M, Pickett FB, Amores A, Yan YL, Postlethwait J (April 1999). "Preservation of duplicate genes by complementary, degenerative mutations". Genetics. 151 (4): 1531–45.

I try to maintain a professional presence on this app and keep personal updates to a minimum, but I'm proud to announce @haleybiont.bsky.social and I became Discus grandparents over the weekend!

Stable whole gene duplication—persisting over evolutionary timescales—shown in the Long Termm Evolution Experiment. 🌱🐋🦫🦋🧪🗃️🧠 #EvoBio

Stuck in traffic behind my new favorite person in Tennessee

To update people on the NSF PRFB situation: despite the court challenge and rescinding the original memo, the NSF has continued to comply with the executive order. They have not communicated with us at all and our paychecks are still canceled indefinitely. I know people who cannot pay their rent.

oh to be a red lizard whiptail catfish (Rineloricaria sp.) resting on a leaf blowing gently in the current

I have no words. My sister lost her house to the SoCal fire, leaving her family of four with a handful of suitcases and no home. If you are feeling particularly generous, please consider this gofundme gofund.me/3752eb40

Recent MacArthur Fellow @marthamunoz.bsky.social throws down the gauntlet at the @evolutionvu.bsky.social retreat. Rates of physiological change can outpace morphological change in classic adaptive radiations, highlighting the importance of studying non-obvious traits in macroevolution!

one is contained within the other

Okay I think I’ve opened enough starter packs to get a feel for the meta, when are people going to start posting advanced and expert packs?

Do any Drosophila folks know if there are range maps available for various species?

Is science Twitter actually so back rn

Congratulations to Dr. Reese Martin on an amazing Ph.D. defense! 🎉 Reese's dissertation explored the impact of genetic pleiotropy on immune system evolution... (🧵 1/4)

Thank you Wikipedia

throwback Thursday to last year’s costume where I went as the scariest thing I could think of: all six mass extinction events

Extremely honored to be a part of the @asn-amnat.bsky.social Early Career Investigator Award Symposium at #Evol2024. Come by 516C at 3:15PM to see my talk on the ecology and evolution of novelty across genotypes, phenotypes, and environments!

Accepted with minor revisions

Twilight Ascent

First paper of my postdoc out now in PNAS! 🧵🧪 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I still don't know what a workspace image is and at this point I'm too afraid to ask

Half a million models + many duck jokes later, I'm excited to share the preprint for nQuack: biorxiv.org/content/10.1... This project started as a paragraph in a paper with @jlandisbotany.bsky.social, Rob Laport, and Tim O'Connor But morphed into a new method and package. (1/n)

Happy Darwin Day from our family to yours! 🐢🧪

temperate broadleaf forest floors are lowkey goated

Odonata have the best common names of all time like what are the rest of us even doing

ARBOREAL AMPHIPOD THIS IS NOT A DRILL www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/s...

Do I have any moots who work on Daphnia/Artemia/assorted small aquatic critters?

watch this space

One looks good on you

The hardest part of using the same Halloween costume every year is keeping up to date with the literature