I updated collegetables.info with latest IPEDS data, also added visualizations on graduation rates and "demographic cliff." Check also the naive Bayesian #rstats collegetables.info/predict.html page that may help students find good options. All free, open source, etc.

The last five months with Claude Code have completely changed how we work. matsen.group/agentic.html details: • How agents work (& why it matters) • Git Flow with agents • Using agents for science • The human-agent interface Questions? What has your experience been?

Check out this new paper in Systematic Biology! Aside from the author list including leaders in the field who happen to be some of my favorite scientists, this paper discusses * both * phylogeny inference incorporating continuous characters AND dicynodont evolution. How cool is that? 🧪

Interested in using continuous traits for phylogenetic estimation? We took a hard look at this in a well-studied clade. There’s a lot of promise to these data, but still much work to do to be able to make full use of them doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

By shifting water to a higher elevation, the giant Three Gorges Dam caused the Earth to spin more slowly. www.wired.com/story/can-a-...

Congratulations to Joe Felsenstein on being awarded the 2026 Mendel Medal!

If you're a #teacher interested in a great #openaccess write up on reading #phylogenetic trees, check out www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/system... created by @jonhendricks.bsky.social and Elizabeth Hermsen.

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

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...

Nice, intelligent review of my book "The Tree of Life" in Nature Ecology and Evolution by @bethanyjallen.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.amazon.co.uk/Tree-Life-So... Out in USA next Tuesday! www.amazon.com/Tree-Life-So...

🚨New paper out in Palaeontology! Check it out if you're interested morphological evolution, fossil phylogenetics, and macroevolution 🧪 "Assessing the impact of character evolution models on phylogenetic and macroevolutionary inferences from fossil data"

The dark truth behind FormatMyPaper.com

We call this hypotheses the 'Zarathustran hypothesis', following Nietzsche’s idea that the maintenance of life does not merely follow from conservation, but rather from constant renovation, movement, and expansion. 3/3

I’m really happy to see Kat’s first dissertation chapter published! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Excited to share our new paper where we find that the rise, decline and fall of clades is not explained by the usual suspects (diversity-dependence, ecological opportunities) but rather by species' insidious loss of macroevolutionary fitness: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/3

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...

Our paper on perceptions of punctuated equilibrium - including suggestions for how to teach about this essential evolutionary concept - is now available online! doi.org/10.1017/pab....

We hope that our contribution will not only be a useful reference for all researchers wanting to perform a tip-dating analysis on their favorite group of organisms, but also a starting point of discussion to further improve this class of methods and its application to empirical data!

Non-exhaustive list of things you can find in our paper: - A survey of all fossil tip-dating studies published until 2023 - A flowchart with all the steps to set up a tip-dating analysis - Detailed discussion of all the elements making up a tip-dating analysis, from molecular alignment to FBD models

Ever wondered how to incorporate fossils as tips in a phylogenetic tree? Our new paper provides a comprehensive guide! #EarlyFossilFriday #FossilFriday #TipDating #Phylogeny #EvolutionaryBiology

Practical Guide and Review of Fossil Tip-Dating in Phylogenetics https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40990492/

Incredibly proud and also very emotional to see this new paper published in @systbiol.bsky.social. The study was lead by Pierre Cockx, who sadly passed away in July. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

New from #BiologyLetters: Combining fossil taxa with and without morphological data improves dated phylogenetic analyses buff.ly/abJm5Zv | #Evolution #Palaeontology #Taxonomy

I am recruiting a PhD student this application cycle to explore questions on the evolution of morphological variation and phylogenetics. I'm especially seeking folks interested in fossil marine inverts. Please reach out to me if interested! Portal opens Nov. 1 eeb.utoronto.ca/education/gr...

Excited to share a new paper! "Sorting of ancestral polymorphism and its impact on morphological phylogenetics and macroevolution". Part of some work I've been doing on modelling the evolution of polymorphic traits in fossil echinoderms. academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

"Living organisms are assumed to produce same-species offspring. Here, we report a shift from this norm..." Haldane was right. Nature is awesome in its capacity to get weird! 🧪

The Occurrence Birth-Death Diffusion Process: Unraveling Diversification Histories with Fossils and Heterogeneous Rates https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.26.672414v1

Impact of Partition Models on Phylogenetic Inference and Divergence Times of Lampyridae from Mitochondrial Genomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.19.671050v1

Don’t threaten me with a good time!

Final words of the last #ESEB2025 plenary by @jmappes.bsky.social: "Science moves forward when we keep both our curiosity and our humility"

Know anyone looking for a funded MS thesis project focused on native fish conservation? Send them this ad. NDOW and U. of Nevada-Reno are going to be learning more about this newly described species. (Note that the application deadline is quickly approaching.)

Unfortunately, I couldn't join in person #eseb2025, but the organizers kindly accommodated a video. Posted here in case you missed it! youtu.be/n9Ls9-8p8x0?...

Extremely proud to be part of this project integrating stratigraphic paleobiology with phylogenetics. Go and chat to Nik if you’re at #ESEB25 or check out his poster via the link below!

hi friends, let me know if you'd like a zoom link for my defense next week!

Registration is now open for #SSB2026! I'm so excited to see many of you here in Baton Rouge in January! We're going to hear great talks, discuss the immeasurable value of natural history collections, and continue to strengthen our scientific community. ssb2026.github.io @systbiol.bsky.social

Our paper describing our new improved GFmix models for phylogenetic inference that capture site-and-branch heterogeneity in amino acid composition. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Phylogenetic networks empower biodiversity research | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Registration for the SSB breakout meeting in Baton Rouge, LA in Jan. 2026 will be opening soon! Registrants need to be SSB members, so make sure to check on your membership today and join/renew if needed: www.systbio.org Check here regularly for updates: ssb2026.github.io @systbiol.bsky.social

Check out our new paper! We find cavefish colonized caves 3x and global cooling events may have influenced these events. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

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...

Research Suggests Life On Earth Began Full 20 Minutes Earlier Than Previously Thought theonion.com/researc...

📣 The Mendes Lab is recruiting PhD students in statistical phylogenetics! Interested, or know someone who might be? Details here 👉 tinyurl.com/542wyfb9 — please share!

Hello palaeontologists. After a bunch of work @thepalass.bsky.social has a new website. We're still fiddling to get emails working, but if anyone wants to check it out and report e.g. broken links, feedback would be warmly welcomed palass.org 🫡🧪⚒️

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

🆕 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

And here it is: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Such a @basantakhakurel.bsky.social thing to promise something “in the coming weeks” and then turn around and have it done like the next day #evol2025

This is today! 👇 Join me in a few hours to hear about what phylodynamic models can teach us about dinosaur evolution!

@basantakhakurel.bsky.social Doing such a great talk, clearly explaining his convarion model for morphological characters and its performance relative to Mk Model. Preprint coming soon!

With apologies to @zachweinersmith.bsky.social , I fly out for #Evol2025 tomorrow, and thus:

Excited for the first day of virtual #evol2025? The workshop day is always important for our community, especially early-career members. Think you might want to organize a workshop someday? Now is your chance - The SSB standalone is coming up in January! #ssb2026