tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near
@tjnear.bsky.social
400 followers 140 following 110 posts
Parent, husband, ichthyologist, professor, Head Saybrook College, @Yale_EEB chair, FirstGen, Chicagoan, New Havenite. www.nearlab.org/
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near @tjnear.bsky.social · Jun 30
In this video I discuss the challenges of converting the ray-finned fish phylogeny into a taxonomy. I am quite critical of recent Linnaean rank efforts that create confusion and instability

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q66l...

Let me know what you think
Challenges & Solutions in Converting Phylogenies to Taxonomies in Ray-Finned Fishes (Actinopterygii)
YouTube video by Lead Line Down
www.youtube.com
2 8
tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near @tjnear.bsky.social · 14h
Stop on by if you are in Knoxville!
6
Reposted by Tom Near
3rdreviewer.bsky.social
Matthew Hahn @3rdreviewer.bsky.social · 1d
New preprint led by grad student, Yu Mo! We introduce new software to calculate evolutionary rates of quantitative characters in the presence of discordance

1/

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Estimating the rate of quantitative trait evolution in the presence of gene tree discordance by calculating likelihoods across trees
Quantitative traits provide insights into how phenotypes evolve across species. However, standard comparative methods often assume a single species tree and overlook the discordant gene tree histories...
www.biorxiv.org
1 17 24
Reposted by Tom Near
friel.bsky.social
John P. Friel, Ph.D. @friel.bsky.social · Jul 9
Biodiversity, Systematics, and Taxonomy of Ostariophysi (Osteichthyes, Actinopterygii): What We Know Today After Three Decades of Integration of Morphological and Molecular Data.🐟🧪

mdpi.com/2673-6500/5/...
Phylogenetic hypotheses for Cypriniformes. (a) A phylogenomic study using 219 loci and 172 species; (b) phylogenetic study based on six nuclear loci and using 81 species
9 29
Reposted by Tom Near
daveyfwright.bsky.social
Dr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · 6d
🚨We're hiring! The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is seeking a tenure-track split position as Assistant Curator of Ichthyology and Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences. Please retweet & share with colleagues! 🐟🐠🧪

Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/174674
A job ad with multiple images, including the exterior of the museum, a view of collections (jars on shelves), and pictures of some cool, tropical fish but I don't know enough about fish to describe them other than to say they're pretty colors of yellow and blue/green
2 54 62
Reposted by Tom Near
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 5d
Another fish gig!
justineasmith.bsky.social
Justine A Smith @justineasmith.bsky.social · 6d
Job Alert! Assistant Prof of Fish Ecology at
@wfcbucdavis.bsky.social, with a focus on freshwater and anadromous coldwater fishes. This is a wonderful and supportive place to work. Please share with your fishy friends! recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07351
Assistant Professor of Fish Ecology
University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!
recruit.ucdavis.edu
2 8
tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near @tjnear.bsky.social · 14d
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?”
A.I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
1 3
tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near @tjnear.bsky.social · 14d
Yale EEB Prof. Martha Muñoz presenting at the World Economic Forum!

www.weforum.org/meetings/sus...
Climate Resilience: Securing Systems, Sustaining Lives
The planet faces intensifying environmental and economic pressures, with extreme weather events escalating and ecosystem degradation impacting the well-being of 3.2 billion people. Join this session...
www.weforum.org
5
tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near @tjnear.bsky.social · 16d
Pretty stellar "I have a great job" moment...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1fZ...
Saybrook Szn⚡️ - Yale IMs
YouTube video by Sweeshi_17
www.youtube.com
tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near @tjnear.bsky.social · 16d
Play them "Gates of Steel" on 11!
1
Reposted by Tom Near
fromani.bsky.social
Facundo Romani @fromani.bsky.social · 16d
Very important paper and resource. Bryophyte genomes expanded by one order of magnitude. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics
A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.
www.nature.com
2 53 96
Reposted by Tom Near
dmacguig.bsky.social
Dan MacGuigan @dmacguig.bsky.social · 16d
Check out our new preprint! We compare sequence versus synteny approaches for resolving a challenging #phylogenetic problem. In this case, synteny is far more informative! Also includes the first chromosome-level #genome for the enigmatic #fish family Gyrinocheilidae. doi.org/10.1101/2025...
4 27 61
tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near @tjnear.bsky.social · 21d
I almost starting whooping and hollering during weekly departmental seminar...great talk but I was following the game on my phone!
Reposted by Tom Near
botsocamerica.bsky.social
Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · 22d
🌹Congratulations to Oluwatobi Oso of Yale University, winner of the 2025 Donald R. Kaplan Dissertation Award in Comparative Morphology.

Honorable mention:
Christopher Joaquín Muñoz (The University of Texas at El Paso).

botany.org/home/awards/...

#BSA2025AwardsBlitz #IamaBotanist
Dark gray poster with a red floral border. Text reads: “BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA, Donald R. Kaplan Dissertation Award in Comparative Morphology, 2025 Recipients.” Centered is a portrait of Oluwatobi Oso, smiling outdoors in a tan coat, Yale University. Below, under “Honorable Mention,” is a smaller portrait of Christopher Joaquín Muñoz, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, with text: “The University of Texas at El Paso.” BSA logo in bottom corner.
1 5 17
Reposted by Tom Near
emiliapsantos.bsky.social
Emília Santos @emiliapsantos.bsky.social · 22d
Very proud of this extremely collaborative piece: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Here, we show that divergence in visual systems - in response to differences in the light environment - leads to rapid divergence in sexually selected colour traits. Work brilliantly led by Madeleine Carruthers. 🐟👀🎨
Rapid Divergence of Visual Systems and Signaling Traits to Contrasting Light Regimes During Early Speciation of African Crater Lake Cichlid Fish
Abstract. Sensory adaptation is widely hypothesized to drive ecological speciation, yet empirical evidence from natural populations undergoing early stage
academic.oup.com
1 20 37
Reposted by Tom Near
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 26d
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).
2 57 68
Reposted by Tom Near
crouxevo.bsky.social
Camille Roux @crouxevo.bsky.social · 26d
Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants
3 110 190
Reposted by Tom Near
alexaroblesgil.bsky.social
Alexa Robles-Gil @alexaroblesgil.bsky.social · Sep 8
The bumpy snailfish, discovered 10,000 feet down off the coast of California, shows that not all denizens of the abyss are frightening. (I watched the video more than 10 times.)

My latest for @nytimes.com (gift link!)

#marinelife

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/s...
A New, ‘Adorable’ Deep-Sea Fish Swims Into View
www.nytimes.com
1 11 46
Reposted by Tom Near
natureportfolio.nature.com
Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · Sep 8
Why are some species widespread while others are found only in small, isolated areas? A study in Nature Communications shows that species with narrow ranges, and thus higher extinction risk, are often island-restricted, poor dispersers, and have evolved relatively recently. #evosky 🧪
Evolutionary age correlates with range size across plants and animals - Nature Communications
Why are some species widespread while others are found only in small, isolated areas? This study shows that species with narrow ranges, and thus higher extinction risk, are often island-restricted, poor dispersers, and have evolved relatively recently.
go.nature.com
22 53
Reposted by Tom Near
jonathan-gdon.bsky.social
Jonny Gordon @jonathan-gdon.bsky.social · Sep 4
Human-driven extinction event not yet the "sixth mass extinction", but is very likely the largest extinction event of the last 66 million yrs. 🌏 🧪

Read about it in our new paper led by @jackhhatfield.bsky.social
and Katie Davis @anthropocenebio.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
The Greatest Extinction Event in 66 Million Years? Contextualising Anthropogenic Extinctions
Species and ecosystems are changing rapidly in response to human actions, but how does this compare with the deeper past? We review and compare the current extinction event to those over the last 66 ....
doi.org
7 51 130
Reposted by Tom Near
chrisgoatley.bsky.social
Chris Goatley @chrisgoatley.bsky.social · Sep 4
New species alert! A Pascua goby from the Coral Sea. This genus now contains four species. Two from the Eastern Pacific and two from Australia, with more than 5,500km separating them. Lots of fun describing my second new species. #TeamFish #Fish
doi.org/10.3390/fish...
1 5 14
Reposted by Tom Near
triggerloop.bsky.social
Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · Sep 3
Look at this crazy thing!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature
In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...
www.nature.com
4 65 150
Reposted by Tom Near
johnwares.bsky.social
John Wares @johnwares.bsky.social · Sep 2
Colleague Bud Freeman on GPB talking about new species of bass www.gpb.org/news/2025/09...
Researchers discover two new species of bass in Georgia
Researchers in Georgia and South Carolina have identified two new species of bass, previously mistaken for the more common redeye bass living in the South.
www.gpb.org
4 7
Reposted by Tom Near
fishfetisher.bsky.social
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
8 67 180
tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near @tjnear.bsky.social · Aug 27
YaleNews coverage on our study of how North American cavefishes lost their eyes...we wanted to channel Kipling's Just So Stories (1902), but the science was good enough! @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social‬ www.nearlab.org

news.yale.edu/2025/08/27/d...
Dark ages: Genomic analysis shows how cavefish lost their eyes
In a new study, Yale researchers used genomic analysis to show when cavefishes lost their eyes, which provides a method for dating cave systems.
news.yale.edu
5
Reposted by Tom Near
molbioevol.bsky.social
Molecular Biology and Evolution @molbioevol.bsky.social · Aug 25
@chasedbrownstein.bsky.social @tjnear.bsky.social et al. reveal that amblyopsid fishes colonized caves at least four times from ancestors adapted to low-light environments, and use genomic data to infer ages of subterranean ecosystems in N. America.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf185

#evobio #molbio
Convergent Evolution in Amblyopsid Cavefishes and the Age of Eastern North American Subterranean Ecosystems
Abstract. Genomes provide tools for reconstructing organismal evolution and larger Earth system processes. Although genome sequences have been jointly anal
doi.org
4 6