April Wright
@wrightam.bsky.social
Statistical phylogenetics and the fossil record. Researcher, professor and mentor at a PUI. Mother, reader, runner. Congenital optimist. Minnesotan Virginian.
Pinned
Reposted by April Wright
when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean
November 25, 2025 at 4:46 PM
when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean
Reposted by April Wright
I will add the following: our students lack the research skills required to audit an LLM essay for errors. They don’t arrive on campus with these skills; we teach it to them over four long years. So throwing freshmen in the deep end and saying “swim your way to a shore of rectitude” is folly.
November 24, 2025 at 1:23 PM
I will add the following: our students lack the research skills required to audit an LLM essay for errors. They don’t arrive on campus with these skills; we teach it to them over four long years. So throwing freshmen in the deep end and saying “swim your way to a shore of rectitude” is folly.
"Her wit was as sharp as her convictions, and her honesty was refreshing and rare."
A wonderfully written (by @gbaucom.bsky.social) obituary for my grad school friend and Auburn University Prof. Vanessa Koelling, who passed away last week.
www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/m...
A wonderfully written (by @gbaucom.bsky.social) obituary for my grad school friend and Auburn University Prof. Vanessa Koelling, who passed away last week.
www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/m...
Vanessa Koelling Obituary - Montgomery, AL
Celebrate the life of Vanessa Koelling, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Leak Memory Chapel.
www.dignitymemorial.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:33 AM
A cop just yelled at my kids to stop climbing trees in the park, and he’s just jealous.
You know what? Tinned fish picnic is the perfect dinner. Unfortunately, we’re at a Christmas tree lighting, and the tree is not yet lit, so it was impossible to photograph.
Chili crisp tuna, yellow curry mackerel, fresh bread, a salad, and hot chocolate
Chili crisp tuna, yellow curry mackerel, fresh bread, a salad, and hot chocolate
November 22, 2025 at 11:39 PM
A cop just yelled at my kids to stop climbing trees in the park, and he’s just jealous.
You know what? Tinned fish picnic is the perfect dinner. Unfortunately, we’re at a Christmas tree lighting, and the tree is not yet lit, so it was impossible to photograph.
Chili crisp tuna, yellow curry mackerel, fresh bread, a salad, and hot chocolate
Chili crisp tuna, yellow curry mackerel, fresh bread, a salad, and hot chocolate
November 22, 2025 at 10:58 PM
You know what? Tinned fish picnic is the perfect dinner. Unfortunately, we’re at a Christmas tree lighting, and the tree is not yet lit, so it was impossible to photograph.
Chili crisp tuna, yellow curry mackerel, fresh bread, a salad, and hot chocolate
Chili crisp tuna, yellow curry mackerel, fresh bread, a salad, and hot chocolate
Reposted by April Wright
MAMDANI: And I just think that there are barriers, barricades, to helping Americans that we can break down
TRUMP: Uh huh
MAMDANI: And breaking down barriers? Reminds me of a certain Broadway show *smiling widely* where they worked together to break a barricade?
TRUMP: *sitting bolt upright* Phantom
TRUMP: Uh huh
MAMDANI: And breaking down barriers? Reminds me of a certain Broadway show *smiling widely* where they worked together to break a barricade?
TRUMP: *sitting bolt upright* Phantom
November 21, 2025 at 10:17 PM
MAMDANI: And I just think that there are barriers, barricades, to helping Americans that we can break down
TRUMP: Uh huh
MAMDANI: And breaking down barriers? Reminds me of a certain Broadway show *smiling widely* where they worked together to break a barricade?
TRUMP: *sitting bolt upright* Phantom
TRUMP: Uh huh
MAMDANI: And breaking down barriers? Reminds me of a certain Broadway show *smiling widely* where they worked together to break a barricade?
TRUMP: *sitting bolt upright* Phantom
Walking to my kids’ school. Saw an eagle go overhead. Maybe 90 seconds later, it comes back with a rabbit
This is the stuff you just don’t notice when you have to drive. Walkable communities forever.
This is the stuff you just don’t notice when you have to drive. Walkable communities forever.
November 21, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Walking to my kids’ school. Saw an eagle go overhead. Maybe 90 seconds later, it comes back with a rabbit
This is the stuff you just don’t notice when you have to drive. Walkable communities forever.
This is the stuff you just don’t notice when you have to drive. Walkable communities forever.
Just finished this last night after having been on the library waitlist for ages. Wonderful book. Very fresh take on magic, and insightful on academia.
Definitely recommend if you’ve got complicated family feelings with the upcoming holidays.
Definitely recommend if you’ve got complicated family feelings with the upcoming holidays.
I'm so grateful for recent responses to Lessons in Magic and Disaster!!!
First, bookseller Rowan Julian with @novelneighbor.bsky.social in St Louis calls Lessons "a firecracker of a book" and "one of my favorites of 2025" in an utterly wonderful shelf-talker.
🧵
First, bookseller Rowan Julian with @novelneighbor.bsky.social in St Louis calls Lessons "a firecracker of a book" and "one of my favorites of 2025" in an utterly wonderful shelf-talker.
🧵
November 21, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Just finished this last night after having been on the library waitlist for ages. Wonderful book. Very fresh take on magic, and insightful on academia.
Definitely recommend if you’ve got complicated family feelings with the upcoming holidays.
Definitely recommend if you’ve got complicated family feelings with the upcoming holidays.
A running playlist, but it’s just Wayne June’s critical hit narrations from @darkestdungeon.bsky.social
November 15, 2025 at 3:23 PM
A running playlist, but it’s just Wayne June’s critical hit narrations from @darkestdungeon.bsky.social
Reposted by April Wright
For the first time, scientists have documented an unusual defense: Some species of arachnids build giant doppelgängers on their webs, creating a frightening deception that scares off would-be killers. https://scim.ag/487Myn0
November 12, 2025 at 5:08 PM
For the first time, scientists have documented an unusual defense: Some species of arachnids build giant doppelgängers on their webs, creating a frightening deception that scares off would-be killers. https://scim.ag/487Myn0
Really fun to be developing this project at the same time Davey and Melanie were developing theirs (see Davey’s 2nd skeet). Trilobites and dicynodonts are really different animals. But some commonalities emerge from this pair of studies, namely that these data sources have divergent signal
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? 🧪
Incorporating continuous characters in joint estimation of dicynodont phylogeny
Abstract. Continuous characters have received comparatively little attention in Bayesian phylogenetic estimation. This is predominantly because they cannot
academic.oup.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Really fun to be developing this project at the same time Davey and Melanie were developing theirs (see Davey’s 2nd skeet). Trilobites and dicynodonts are really different animals. But some commonalities emerge from this pair of studies, namely that these data sources have divergent signal
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...
doi.org/10.1093/sysb...
Validate User
doi.org
November 14, 2025 at 6:47 PM
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...
doi.org/10.1093/sysb...
I didn’t see the northern lights. But I did spend a moment enjoying the stars on a crisp autumn night.
November 13, 2025 at 2:34 AM
I didn’t see the northern lights. But I did spend a moment enjoying the stars on a crisp autumn night.
Is it bad that I immediately knew what meeting must be this week?
November 12, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Is it bad that I immediately knew what meeting must be this week?
Reposted by April Wright
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
hoehnalab.github.io
November 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM
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
Reposted by April Wright
Looking for a PhD opportunity? I'm hoping to recruit someone to my group at Durham University to work on a project combining fieldwork and labwork to study speciation in rubyspot damselflies: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Get in touch if you want to chat!
Get in touch if you want to chat!
November 10, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Looking for a PhD opportunity? I'm hoping to recruit someone to my group at Durham University to work on a project combining fieldwork and labwork to study speciation in rubyspot damselflies: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Get in touch if you want to chat!
Get in touch if you want to chat!
Reposted by April Wright
As one of those federal employees, I couldn’t agree more.
“Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.”
“Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.”
Harm to SNAP recipients, federal workers, and others is real. In a normal democracy it’d make sense to prioritize reducing that harm in the short term.
In a rapidly backsliding democracy, harm is happening no matter what. Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.
In a rapidly backsliding democracy, harm is happening no matter what. Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.
two contradictory ideas that i hold in my head at the same time: 1) i think the threat to both SNAP recipients and federal workers is significant enough now that even bad deals are worth making to prevent further harm, and, 2) everyone who caves now should retire in shame
November 10, 2025 at 11:48 AM
As one of those federal employees, I couldn’t agree more.
“Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.”
“Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.”
Really cool of you to close your voice mail box before announcing this. Afraid of your constituents?
My statement on the funding deal to reopen government, protect federal employees, and vote to protect health care:
November 10, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Really cool of you to close your voice mail box before announcing this. Afraid of your constituents?
Legit thought this was crawfish with potatoes and corn from across the street
November 9, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Legit thought this was crawfish with potatoes and corn from across the street
Reposted by April Wright
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...
Distinguishing punctuated and continuous-time models of character evolution for discrete characters and the implications for macroevolutionary theory | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core
Distinguishing punctuated and continuous-time models of character evolution for discrete characters and the implications for macroevolutionary theory
www.cambridge.org
November 8, 2025 at 6:07 AM
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...
My kids school was under a desegregation order. Guess which teacher was moved first when it was lifted?
Only 48% of US high schools offer calculus.
This seems like a huge problem and an easy place where high schools embracing online courses (+/- AI) could easily benefit students.
This seems like a huge problem and an easy place where high schools embracing online courses (+/- AI) could easily benefit students.
November 6, 2025 at 5:30 PM
My kids school was under a desegregation order. Guess which teacher was moved first when it was lifted?
Contact did not acquit itself as well. Engaging, interesting, but didn’t stick the landing as well
Still slaps, though I’m utterly heartbroken by its prescience.
November 5, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Contact did not acquit itself as well. Engaging, interesting, but didn’t stick the landing as well
Reposted by April Wright
BREAKING:
NBC News projects: Abigail Spanberger (D) wins Virginia Governor. Democrat Gain.
NBC News projects: Abigail Spanberger (D) wins Virginia Governor. Democrat Gain.
November 5, 2025 at 12:55 AM
BREAKING:
NBC News projects: Abigail Spanberger (D) wins Virginia Governor. Democrat Gain.
NBC News projects: Abigail Spanberger (D) wins Virginia Governor. Democrat Gain.
Reposted by April Wright
The end of an era: the Tree of Life Web Project is going dark after 3 decades. Anyone interested in communicating phylogeny online should read David's account of goals, history, and future. @bembidion.bsky.social
subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...
subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...
The Passing of the Tree of Life Web Project
The Tree of Life Web Project began its journey almost 40 years ago, and was formally announced in early 1996. It has served thousands of pages of information about the evolutionary tree of life and…
subulatepalpomere.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:54 PM
The end of an era: the Tree of Life Web Project is going dark after 3 decades. Anyone interested in communicating phylogeny online should read David's account of goals, history, and future. @bembidion.bsky.social
subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...
subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...