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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Cell & Systems Biology (CSB) @uoftcellsysbiol.bsky.social · 20d

The Department of Cell & Systems Biology at University of Toronto invites applications for a full-time tenure stream position in the field of Animal Morphogenesis.
#CellBiology #DevelopmentalBiology #mechanobiology #TissueMorphogenesis
#SystemsBiology

jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

Assistant Professor - Animal Morphogenesis

jobs.utoronto.ca

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 27d

Do you like cichlids? Fossils? Fossil cichlids? Would you like to study them as part of a graduate degree at the University of Michigan, joining an NSF-funded project? Get in touch.

Multicolored CT model of a fossil cichlid skeleton. Image credit: Austin Babut (project technician).

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Maria Antonietta Tosches @matosches.bsky.social · Aug 25

Excited to share our latest work on brain evolution, where we dive into the evolution of Cajal-Retzius cells! If you are interested in cell type evolution and cerebral cortex evo-devo, please read on… www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 1/7

Evolution of Cajal-Retzius Cells in Vertebrates from an Ancient Class of Tp73+ Neurons

In the developing cerebral cortex, Cajal Retzius (CR) cells are early-born neurons that orchestrate the development of mammalian-specific cortical features. However, this cell type has not been conclu...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Royal Ontario Museum @romtoronto.bsky.social · Sep 3

Think you know shark teeth? Think again! 🦈🦷

Nathan Lujan (Curator of Fishes at ROM), and Kevin Seymour (Research Associate, Natural History) showed us many different types of shark jaws while they prepared for Sharks, opening October 11.

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Marc Robinson-Rechavi @marcrr.bsky.social · Sep 3

Update of our preprint on Inter-individual gene expression variability in fishes! We improved statistical analyses of continuous variables, and especially added machine learning on promoters which confirms cis-regulation of organ-specific expression variability.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Inter-individual gene expression variability implies stable regulation of brain-biased genes across organs

Phenotypic variation among individuals plays a key role in evolution, since variation provides the material on which natural selection can act. One important link between genetic and phenotypic variat...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Tanja Slotte @tanjaslotte.bsky.social · Sep 2

*Postdoc in Evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University*
We are recruiting a postdoc for a large interdisciplinary project to investigate evolutionary drivers and genomic consequences of pollen evolution in response to pollination mode shifts in flowering plants. 1/5

su.varbi.com/what:job/job...

Purple pollen visible in a dissected flower of Linum grandiflorum, flowering flax, an insect-pollinated species.

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Sep 2

Modelling sleep states in zebrafish, and conservation of multi-stage sleep in fish! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Zebrafish sleep displays distinct sub-states

Sleep is an essential and evolutionarily-conserved behavior. While mammals and several other species have been shown to exhibit well-defined sleep sub-states, some of which have been ascribed specific...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

Now published @natecoevo.nature.com with @annika-nichols.bsky.social, our latest on the evolution of 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱 across 𝟲𝟬 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 of cichlid fishes! doi.org/10.1038/s415...
with members of the @schierlab.bsky.social and Salzburger labs, as well as the burgeoning Shafer lab @uoftcellsysbiol.bsky.social

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Sep 1

Beautiful figures!! Can't wait to dig in to this one!

Emily Troyer @fishfetisher.bsky.social · Sep 1

Excited to announce that the 1st paper from my postdoc is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social ! Using a large dataset of 3D preserved fossils, we explore the diversification of jaws in early bony fishes. 1/15
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Macroevolutionary role reversals in the earliest radiation of bony fishes

Troyer et al. examine lower jaw evolution in Silurian-Devonian bony fishes and find substantial differences in patterns of morphological disparity, rates of shape evolution, and functional diversity b...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

This is just the first effort of our foray into cichlid behaviour and genetics! If you are interested in working on the evolution, genomics, and neurobiology of sleep and chronobiology @uoftcellsysbiol.bsky.social in beautiful Toronto, please reach out! shafer-lab.netlify.app

Sleep Evolution Group

A highly-customizable Hugo research group theme powered by Wowchemy website builder.

shafer-lab.netlify.app

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Nature Ecology & Evolution @natecoevo.nature.com · Aug 27

Analysis of behavioural, ecomorphological and genomic data of Lake Tanganyika cichlids reveals remarkable diversity of temporal niche partitioning

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Widespread temporal niche partitioning in an adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes - Nature Ecology & Evolution

An analysis of behavioural, eco-morphological and genomic data in 60 species of Lake Tanganyika cichlids reveals a remarkable diversity of temporal activity patterns across species, suggesting that te...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

Thanks to Andrew Conith for writing a fantastic @natecoevo.nature.com News & Views for our study! doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

Thanks to Andrew Conith for writing a fantastic @natecoevo.nature.com News & Views for our study! doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

This is just the first effort of our foray into cichlid behaviour and genetics! If you are interested in working on the evolution, genomics, and neurobiology of sleep and chronobiology @uoftcellsysbiol.bsky.social in beautiful Toronto, please reach out! shafer-lab.netlify.app

Sleep Evolution Group

A highly-customizable Hugo research group theme powered by Wowchemy website builder.

shafer-lab.netlify.app

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

Thanks to all my coauthors, including my first two grad students in Toronto, Amelia & Ayasha; thanks to @schierlab.bsky.social and Walter Salzburger as always for everything; and many huge thanks to @annika-nichols.bsky.social, who is my co-first-author and forever friend and colleague!!

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

Finally, we took advantage of extensive genomic data already generated by the Salzburger group to link activity and sleep phenotypes to genomic loci - intriguingly, they were not enriched for clock genes as hypothesised, but synaptic genes, and genes associated with neurological diseases in humans!

Figure from the paper showing the genomic associations we identified with sleep and activity patterns

Plot showing the association between a SNP nearby the gene crcp and nocturnal activity across cichlids; along with a plot showing the genotype to phenotype relationship at that same SNP

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

We hypothesise that these activity patterns represent a novel axis upon which these species diversified, leading to multiple temporal versions of each eco-morphological niche, and facilitating their rapid adaptive diversification!

Plots demonstrating that temporal activity niches are not confined to specific eco-morphological niches, and examples of diurnal, nocturnal, and crepuscular piscivorous fishes

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

Some, like the algivorous O. boops, sleep 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝟮 𝗵𝗿𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗮𝘆, whereas others, like the mud hole dwelling L. signatus, 𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝟭𝟱 𝗵𝗿𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗮𝘆!

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

(above video) we tracked hundreds of individual fish in the lab across 6 days and 6 nights from 60 species of cichlids from Lake Tanganyika - and discovered that they exhibit all known activity patterns (diurnal, nocturnal, crepuscular, and cathemeral)...

Figure showing the phylogenetic relationships between the species in our study, as well as example diurnal, nocturnal, crepuscular, and cathemeral species activity patterns

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 28

Now published @natecoevo.nature.com with @annika-nichols.bsky.social, our latest on the evolution of 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱 across 𝟲𝟬 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 of cichlid fishes! doi.org/10.1038/s415...
with members of the @schierlab.bsky.social and Salzburger labs, as well as the burgeoning Shafer lab @uoftcellsysbiol.bsky.social

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Matthew Hughes @matthewhughes.bsky.social · Aug 14

The Internet was once a shining beacon of potential and opportunity. Then it was destroyed.

My latest newsletter is over 10,000 words about how it happened, who's responsible, and how we can build a better, fairer Internet.

whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-the-in...

How The Internet Died

Dissecting a tragedy of the commons

whatwelost.substack.com

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Joey Bernhardt @joeybernhardt.bsky.social · Aug 14

Please help us spread the word! Please amplify!

We are searching for an associate or full professor (Canada Excellence Research Chair) in Biodiversity Genomics at the University of Guelph! 🐟🌿🦠🐜🐸🐝

Applications are due October 6 2025.

careers.uoguelph.ca/job/Guelph-C...

#AcademicJobs #EvoBio

Canada Excellence Research Chair in Biodiversity Genomics

careers.uoguelph.ca

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · Jul 24

You link #phenotype 🦜 to #genotype 🧬 with #comparative #genomics 💻?

This #review is for you 📜: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

We review new #methods, remaining #challenges and #future directions and highlight recent key studies.

Thanks @hillermich.bsky.social!

Please share! 🙂

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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · Aug 2

Required reading! Looks great Leon!

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Reposted by Maxwell Shafer

Felix Baier @felixbaier.bsky.social · Jul 23

🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com!

We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️

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