Alex Skeels
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alexskeels.bsky.social
Alex Skeels
@alexskeels.bsky.social
ARC DECRA Fellow based at the Australian National University - Ngunnawal & Ngambri /Canberra 🐨 Evolution of Biodiversity 🌸🌏🏵️ He/Him

website: alexskeels.github.io
Reposted by Alex Skeels
We'll be hosting a joint Crossing the Palaeontological–Ecological Gap (CPEG) meeting & Conservation Paleobiology Symposium @ucl.ac.uk in London in August 2027, which aims to bridge spatial and temporal gradients between palaeontology, ecology, and conservation: www.ucl.ac.uk/mathematical...
December 8, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
Check out our review/perspective piece on phylogenetic diversification analysis, intended for the 75th anniversary of
@systbiol.bsky.social. I had the privilege of working with great coauthors, @fhenaodiaz.bsky.social, @tvasconcelos.bsky.social and @roszenil.bsky.social!
doi.org/10.1093/sysb...
December 5, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
True toads (Bufonidae) originated in South America and invaded Africa via the Antarctic in the Cenozoic! (which was temperate/sub-tropical at the time). Super cool.

🐸🐸🐸

royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
Earth history and trait innovation drive the global radiation of modern toads
Abstract. The distributions of species radiations reflect environmental changes driven by both Earth history (geological processes) and the evolution of bi
royalsocietypublishing.org
December 5, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
Putting on my hat as @asn-amnat.bsky.social ASN President for a minute for a string of announcements, please share widely!!!

1. Student research awards are open for applications, to fund research expenses for 10 graduate students ($2000 each)
nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Student Research Award
<p>The ASN Student Research Awards support research by student members that advances the goals of the society: the conceptual unification of ecology, evolution, and behavior. Each award consists of a ...
nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
Utrecht Paleogeography model in prep!

We're integrating our detailed reconstructions of orogenic belts and lost subducted plates into one plate tectonic and paleogeography model. We'll launch the updated Paleolatitude.org soon, and more tools for geodynamic, paleoclimate, and paleobiology studies!
November 6, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
Splendid isolation with migration: Diversity dynamics of South American mammals https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.28.691169v1
November 30, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
While birds and bats both developed adaptations for flight, the way they went about it is so fundamentally different it affects their possible ecological adaptation. Specifically, birds can easily shift to a walking lifestyle, bats can't. 🧪

Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 29, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
Check out our new preprint, led by @melinaleite.bsky.social “Dispersion tests in generalised linear mixed-effects models - a methods comparison and practical guide” ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
November 18, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
Kudos to the scientists who contributed the evidence to show that feral horses cause irreparable damage to ecosystems. This bill protected an invasive species in one of Australia's most important alpine national parks; repealing it is a major win for the environment www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...
Controversial 'Brumby Bill' recognising horses' heritage value dumped
A widely criticised bill recognising the heritage value of wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park will be scrapped in a move celebrated by the Invasive Species Council.
www.abc.net.au
November 29, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
"Here we show substantial declines in the rates of collection of specimen data over recent decades, from analysis of over 150 million records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) spanning more than two centuries"
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪 #Macroecology #EvoBio #Paleobio
November 25, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
📢 deeptime 📦 v. 2.3.1 is now on #CRAN:

- pos arg is now recycled in coord_geo() ♻️
- fixed reverse arg for coord_geo_radial() 🍩
- pattern code/name dictionary 📖
- new logo! ✨

Patch notes 👉 williamgearty.com/deeptime/news/

Docs 👉 williamgearty.com/deeptime/

#rstats #dataviz #geology #deeptime
November 26, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
🚨 #DECRA #DE26 announcement:

❗️Outcomes announced publicly for Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2026❗️

See ARC's RMS for list ➡️ https://rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/Download/Report/a3f6be6e-33f7-4fb5-98a6-7526aaa184cf/285

/bot
November 25, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
"72% of past continental areas across the Cenozoic lack accessible sedimentary rocks..remaining 28%..disproportionately derived from regions that experienced tropical, temperate, and arid climates..cold and polar climates are underrepresented."
doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio #Paleobio
November 21, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
I’ve released a tool to sketch and edit phylogenetic trees!
yawak.jp/PhyloWeaver/

Load a Newick file and intuitively add/remove/resize branches.
Useful for quick conceptual trees, extracting subtrees, or turning ideas into Newick.
PhyloWeaver – Interactive phylogenetic tree editor
Edit and visualize phylogenetic trees directly in your browser. PhyloWeaver lets you interactively rearrange tree topologies and export high-quality figures for publications and presentations.
yawak.jp
November 18, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
Kissing evolved at least 21 million years ago. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @matildabrindle.bsky.social
November 19, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
📢 rphylopic 📦 1.6.0 is now on #CRAN!

- resolve_phylopic() retries failing API calls 🔄
- geom_phylopic()/add_phylopic() work with ggplot2 4.0.0 🪛
- add_phylopic_tree() wraps add_phylopic() for base R trees 🪾
- get_phylopic() can get og source files from #PhyloPic 👤

rphylopic.palaeoverse.org
#Rstats
November 18, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Not this again...
“CSIRO has announced it will slash up to 350 jobs as the national science agency grapples with long-term financial challenges … with current funding failing to keep pace with the rising costs of running a modern science agency.”

Not “challenges”. They’re choices. 😡
CSIRO to cut up to 350 research jobs in major overhaul
After 440 positions were slashed last year, the CSIRO has announced more staff cuts across the country in a bid to remain financially viable.
www.abc.net.au
November 18, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
“CSIRO has announced it will slash up to 350 jobs as the national science agency grapples with long-term financial challenges … with current funding failing to keep pace with the rising costs of running a modern science agency.”

Not “challenges”. They’re choices. 😡
CSIRO to cut up to 350 research jobs in major overhaul
After 440 positions were slashed last year, the CSIRO has announced more staff cuts across the country in a bid to remain financially viable.
www.abc.net.au
November 18, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
That's more than 1,100 jobs lost at the CSIRO over the last two years.

"Combined, the staff association estimates that equates to cutting the agency’s size by a third."

This is more cuts to the CSIRO than was attempted by the Abbott government.

www.smh.com.au/national/csi...
CSIRO to slash hundreds of jobs in cost-saving drive
The staff association at the nation’s leading scientific research organisation says the latest round of cuts marks “a sad day for publicly funded science”.
www.smh.com.au
November 18, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
Here is a link to the corresponding paper, which does not require the Utrecht University login:
www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Leny Montheil et al. (2025) @commsearth.nature.com, including @vanhinsbergen.bsky.social
Please check out the quoted post for an overview of this new paper! 👇🏻
🧪 ⚒️
#PaleoSky
November 15, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
This is the reconstruction that comes with our new Nature Communications Earth & Environment paper on Caribbean biogeography.

With Leny Montheil, Mélody Philippon, Franck Audemard, Lydian Boschman, Richard Wessels, Sylvie Leroy et al

#UtrechtPaleogeographicModel

www.nature.com/articles/s43...
November 15, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
November 13, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
Hot off the press! From the PhD thesis of @lopezreyeska.bsky.social where we explored the connection between biogeographic processes and climatic niche dynamics in spiny lizards 👇
November 7, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Reposted by Alex Skeels
Very happy to finally see this out in @pnas.org. Great work (masterfully) led by my dear friend @gabrielmoulatlet.bsky.social on a classic question on range sizes, climatic niches and dominance for plants at the global scale!

Thanks for the collab, Gabriel!
in "General laws of biodiversity: Climatic niches predict plant range size and ecological dominance globally", we provide key insights into species’ vulnerability to environmental change and the processes that structure biodiversity at global scales.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
General laws of biodiversity: Climatic niches predict plant range size and ecological dominance globally | PNAS
A longstanding question in ecology asks whether or not species that achieve large geographic ranges also have large climatic niche breadths. Using ...
www.pnas.org
November 12, 2025 at 6:21 PM