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Reposted by Laura Mulvey

Alessio Capobianco @acapomorphic.bsky.social · 14h

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...

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Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 13h

Bacteria 🦠 🧫 play a crucial role in how animals become fossils!
Read about how decay experiments demonstrate that bacteria from the gut dominate the thanatomicrobiome (the internal microbiome of decay) and probably control fossilisation in our new paper!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The relationship between microbial community succession, decay, and anatomical character loss in non‐biomineralized animals

A fundamental assumption of hypothesis-driven decay experiments is that, during decay, the loss of anatomy follows a sequence broadly controlled by the intrinsic compositional properties of tissues. ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Rebecca Cooper @rebeccasaurus.bsky.social · Aug 8

Really happy to see chapter 2 of my PhD published today in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. DeepDiveR is an R package to assist with deep learning inference of biodiversity change through time 🤿🦊 Thanks to @bethanyjallen.bsky.social & Daniele Silvestro for the collaboration

doi.org/10.1111/2041...

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bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · Jun 27

A covarion model for phylogenetic estimation using discrete morphological datasets https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.20.660793v1

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April Wright @wrightam.bsky.social · Jun 22

@lauramulvey.bsky.social absolutely killing it talking about the difference between model adequacy and model selection and describing lightweight methods to assess adequacy. #evol2025

Paper here academic.oup.com/sysbio/artic...

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Elizabeth M Dowding @thefairestfowl.bsky.social · May 16

Sometimes in a fossil policy workshop you have to take a strong stand.

@thepalass.bsky.social

European Australian lifts leg onto window sill and holds aloft a Workshop invitation.

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Jeff Thompson @echinerd.bsky.social · May 12

Interested in Developmental biology? Imaging? Marine invertebrate body plans? Then this three year postdoc in my group @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social is for you! Join our team to decypher how signalling molecules shape skeletal phenotype in juvenile sea urchins. jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

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Dr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · May 7

"...simulation studies demonstrate that empirical expertise is key to obtaining reliable results when using FBD models. It is therefore crucial that fundamental stratigraphic and taxonomic research remain well supported" 👏👏👏

From fossils to phylogenies: exploring the integration of paleontological data into Bayesian phylogenetic inference | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core

From fossils to phylogenies: exploring the integration of paleontological data into Bayesian phylogenetic inference - Volume 51 Issue 1

www.cambridge.org

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Emma Dunne @emmadnn.bsky.social · Apr 23

Delighted to share our paper on data equity in #palaeobiology as part of Paleobiology's 50th anniversary issue 🥳

We look at how palaeo data is collected, stored, curated & shared, and how equity in these processes is crucial for our field's future (1/n) 🧪⚒️

doi.org/10.1017/pab....

Simplified flowchart illustrating generalised steps in palaeobiological research processes and the various factors that introduce inequity with regard to data collection, storage, study, analysis, publication, and reuse.

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Dr. Bethany Allen @bethanyjallen.bsky.social · Apr 24

📢 Tired of choosing between fossils to incorporate into your phylogenetic analysis? Us too.
💥 Check out our new preprint on incorporating stratigraphic ranges into the FBD model, implemented in BEAST2. We explore how using ranges affects the inference of dog 🐶 and penguin 🐧 trees 🌳

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · Apr 23

Enhancing Evolutionary Timelines: The Impact of Stratigraphic Range Information on Phylogenetic Inference https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.17.649084v1

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Dr. Bethany Allen @bethanyjallen.bsky.social · Apr 23

🎂 Happy 10th birthday to the fossilised birth-death model, and happy 50th birthday to Paleobiology 🎂
I had a lot of fun working on this review, led by @lauramulvey.bsky.social, in which we celebrate how the FBD has been applied and give pointers to those interested in giving it a go! 🌳

From fossils to phylogenies: exploring the integration of paleontological data into Bayesian phylogenetic inference | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core

From fossils to phylogenies: exploring the integration of paleontological data into Bayesian phylogenetic inference - Volume 51 Issue 1

doi.org

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bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · Apr 9

Combining fossil taxa with and without morphological data improves dated phylogenetic analyses https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.07.646048v1

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Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · Mar 25

Very proud to be featured alongside other excellent early career scientists in a new video by @thepalass.bsky.social!

We talk about how fossils form and how rare they are!

youtu.be/LwF7qnYFde8?...

Palaeontologists Explain: How do fossils form? Palaeontologists explain: How do fossils form?

YouTube video by The Palaeontological Association

youtu.be

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Sandra Álvarez @sabifo4.bsky.social · Mar 14

The clock is ticking 🕔! Pre-registration will close today March 14th (17:00h GMT+0), do not miss your chance to join us at the SystAssn-SRUK/CERU Bayesian Phylogenetics Workshop! 💻🧬

Sandra Álvarez @sabifo4.bsky.social · Feb 28

The deadline to apply for student travel bursaries to attend the SystAssn-SRUK/CERU Bayesian Phylogenetics Workshop 💻🧬 is approaching: March 3rd! Pre-registration will be open until March 14th.

Do not miss the deadlines, submit your application before it is too late!
sruk.org.uk/ceru-events/...

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Jeff Thompson @echinerd.bsky.social · Mar 12

Like morphometrics, micro-CT scanning, and morphological evolution? Then please consider applying for our 18 month postdoc position at the university of Southampton! Details here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMF402/r...

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April Wright @wrightam.bsky.social · Mar 7

And finally have it in preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In it, we (@basantakhakurel.bsky.social, @brenenwynd.bsky.social, @peterjwagner3.bsky.social, and Christian Kammerer) took a look at estimating a phylogenetic tree of dicynodonts using both discrete and continuous characters.

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Niklas Hohmann @niklashohmann.bsky.social · Feb 20

🚨New Publication🚨
Seamlessly integrate #stratigraphy, #taphonomy, #ecology and evolutionary biology to build your modeling pipelines for stratigraphic #paleobiology
Published in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social , R package available on CRAN
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

StratPal: An R package for creating stratigraphic paleobiology modelling pipelines

The fossil record is an important source of information to understand biological processes that take place over timescales not accessible to human observation or experiments. Fossil data are not a...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Merle Greif @merlegreif.bsky.social · Jan 29

As my very first post here on Bluesky I am happy to share our article in Royal Society about tooth wear and diet in the large Devonian chondrichthyan Ctenacanthus concinnus from Morocco

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

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Lee Hsiang Liow （廖珕庠） @lhliow.bsky.social · Jan 13

Come be my colleague! Calling zoologists of all stripes! This is a pretty open search! If you research is cool and forward looking and if you care about good science questions and collections please apply!

Arild Johnsen @arildj.bsky.social · Jan 9

Are you a zoologist with a collection-based research profile, working on a taxon that is typically stored in a wet collection, and looking for a permanent job? Check out this job opportunity at the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo.
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Associate Professor in Zoology (268410) | University of Oslo

Job title: Associate Professor in Zoology (268410), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Sunday, February 23, 2025

www.jobbnorge.no

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Mario dos Reis @mariodosreis.bsky.social · Jan 6

A reminder that we have two open PhD projects on Bayesian phylogenetics in the lab:

One with the new TREE Doctoral Landscape Awards: www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/int... (deadline 20th Jan)

And another with CSC: www.findaphd.com/phds/project... (deadline 29th Jan)

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Orlando Schwery @oschwery.bsky.social · Jan 5

🚨New #phylo paper alert!🚨 🌲+🔥= speciation? This one has been a bit of a journey, but thanks to lead author Dan Turck's expertise on #conifers it has turned out as quite the treasure-trove of conifer evolution! (reading-access link on my website)

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Jan 5

Fire in the #tree: The origin & distribution of fire–adapted traits within #conifers & their influence on speciation rates across the conifer phylogeny

New #AJB research by Daniel Turck, @oschwery.bsky.social, Luke Harmon & David Tank

doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience

Ancestral state reconstructions of fire adaptations among conifers. (A) Thick Bark. (B) Serotinous Cones. (C) Seedling Grass Stage (Pinus only). (D) Post Fire Resprouting Ability.

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bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · Dec 24

Assessing the impact of character evolution models on phylogenetic and macroevolutionary inferences from fossil data https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.23.630137v1

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Rachel Warnock @rachelwarnock.bsky.social · Dec 24

Happy Christmas!

A normal distribution drawn on graph paper decorated like a Christmas tree. Along the x-axis it says happy Xmas

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Laura Mulvey @lauramulvey.bsky.social · Dec 20

Check out the tutorial for posterior predictive simulations on the revbayes website
revbayes.github.io/tutorials/pp...

RevBayes: Assessing Phylogenetic Reliability Using RevBayes and $P^{3}$

revbayes.github.io

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Laura Mulvey @lauramulvey.bsky.social · Dec 20

Huge thank you to all my co-authors for their help and guidance throughout this project @rachelwarnock.bsky.social, @wrightam.bsky.social, @hoehna.bsky.social, @jembrown.bsky.social, and Mike May 6/n

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