Very excited to share that our latest paper is out in Science! We show that the type specimen of Nanotyrannus—an isolated skull—is fully grown, showing that it is not a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex but a distinct species (1/12)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Super excited and thrilled to see this work come out in Nature today. 🥹@tdcapellini.bsky.social Thank you so much for your amazing mentorship throughout the project, and to all my co-authors who helped take this work to the next level.

The evolution of hominin bipedalism in two steps - Nature The human pelvis exhibits distinct spatiotemporal ossification patterns and an ilium cartilage growth plate that is shifted perpendicularly compared with those of other mammals and non-human primates—...

1) I am delighted to present this terrific tour de force research conducted by my post-doc Dr. Gayani Senevirathne @gayani.bsky.social and published today in Nature -
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reorganization of the theropod wrist preceded the origin of avian flight - Nature The forelimbs of two Late Cretaceous theropod dinosaurs show the presence of the pisiform bone, previously thought to have been lost early in theropod evolution and regained in birds during the evolut...

New paper today about the evolution of the wrist along the dinosaur to bird transition: a bird-like configuration appeared in predatory dinosaurs first, as suggested by new exceptionally preserved hands of oviraptors and troodontids
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The evolutionary origin of sensitive dental structures Fossil data shed light on a debate about when vertebrate dental tissues arose by assigning an early sensory structure to arthropods rather than to vertebrates.

Thrilled to have co-written a News & Views with P. Janvier on Haridy et al.’s recent Nature paper. They reveal that Anatolepis, once thought to have the oldest dental tissue, is actually Cambrian arthropod sensory armor!
Paper: nature.com/articles/s41...
N&V: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The origin of vertebrate teeth and evolution of sensory exoskeletons - Nature Re-examination of the presumed Cambrian fossil fish Anatolepis reveals previous misidentification of aglaspidid sensory structures as dentine, a vertebrate sensory tissue, showing it to be a...

Glad to share a new paper led by @yara_haridy and @NeilShubin Lab on the early evolution of teeth! Modern and fossil data point at an ancestrally sensorial function for the earliest dentine
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Chicago Archaeopteryx informs on the early evolution of the avian bauplan - Nature Analysis of the 'Chicago' Archaeopteryx, a nearly complete and uncrushed specimen, reveals details of the skeleton, soft tissues and plumage of this taxon, providing information on the evolution to av...

Glad to see the formal description of the Chicago specimen of #Archaeopteryx finally out in @nature.com! Troodontid and early bird features in the palate and evidence of tertiary feathers
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Synovial joints were present in the common ancestor of jawed fish but lacking in jawless fish Synovial joints are characterized by lubricated articular surfaces separated by a cavity, providing mobility and load-bearing, but when did they evolve? This comparative and developmental study reveal...

Super excited to share our @plosbiology.org paper with @neilshubin.bsky.social and Yara Haridy,

“Synovial joints were present in the common ancestor of jawed fish but lacking in jawless fish”

Paper: plos.io/3CTC8La

Primer by @crumplab.bsky.social: plos.io/4kkhXa6

I hope you enjoy reading it!

Top: Immunostaining reveals aggrecan (yellow) at the articular surfaces in the pelvic joint of an embryonic little skate (stage 33). The nucleus is stained using DAPI and is shown in red. Bottom: Phylogenetic tree adapted from Donoghue and Keating, annotated to show that synovial joints exist in extant jawed vertebrates (gnathostomes), but the study’s results do not support their existence in cyclostomes. The presence of reciprocally shaped and cavitated joints in the dermal skeleton of antiarchs suggests that joints that function by relative sliding (similar to synovial joints) first originated in stem gnathostomes.

When did synovial joints evolve? @neelimasharma.bsky.social @neilshubin.bsky.social &co reveal that stable, mobile & lubricated joints were present in the common ancestor of jawed fishes but lacking in jawless ones 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/3CTC8La

New paper led by @neelimasharma.bsky.social on the lab! The evolutionary origin of highly mobile joints!

@philipcball.bsky.social gets a bit spicier in places than I did, "it can be hard to avoid the suspicion that sometimes its (omics data) collection serves to postpone the awkward time when some sense must be made of it all."

And I like it :)

UC San Diego Biologist and Collaborators Receive $1 Million Keck Award A multi-institutional research team that includes UC San Diego biologist Kim Cooper has been awarded a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to study the role of inflammation in animals, whic...

With gratitude to the Keck Foundation, we get to work on a project with Dana Rashid (MSU) and Susan Chapman (Clemson U) that was inspired by Dana's studies of the dino-bird transition.

today.ucsd.edu/story/uc-san...

#BioBasics: What are Gene Regulatory Networks? The Sauka-Spengler Lab explores the blueprint and circuitry driving cells

Ever wondered how your #genes know when to turn on or off? 🧬🔌 In our latest #BioBasics episode, @juliannahaug.bsky.social, a researcher in the Sauka-Spengler Lab, explains gene regulatory networks — the circuits that control gene activity.

Watch + learn more: bit.ly/4jYJmxR

Gene editing technology began by people studying salt marshes. Ozempic began by folks studying the venom of Gila Monsters. Support for basic science has empowered us to understand our world. Tethering it to applications health has transformed and saved countless lives.

"Imagine a DAPI-like stain, but for the extracellular matrix." That's basically how this work was pitched to me by Kayvon and Antonio a year or so ago. Now the final product really delivers. Read about their versatile label for ECM in living tissues here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

CellOracle

In silico transcription factor KO via cell type-specific Gene-Regulatory Network modeling

#Nature 2023
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Quantifying the configurational complexity of biological systems in multivariate ‘complexity space’ | Journal of The Royal Society Interface An increasing number of evolutionary studies seek to quantify the morphological complexity of organisms, particularly those comprising serially homologous elements at different hierarchical levels of ...

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
This looks right up my street, can't wait to read!

NSF Implementation of Recent Executive Orders Information for the NSF community regarding executive orders.

NSF has created an Executive Order Implementation webpage to ensure the widest dissemination of information and updates. We will continue to communicate with you as we receive additional guidance.

new.nsf.gov/executive-or...

Top: hourglass pattern of increasing then decreasing divergence over molar development, with the stages BUD, CAP, BEL (maximum divergence), DIF and SEC. Bottom: illustration of gene processes influencing this pattern, from left to right: image of embryo with “shared: limbs, scales, glands; lung, kidney”; “immunity genes (influx of blood)”; image of embryo and of tooth with “shared: secretion; intrinsic: mineralisation”.

We are excited to share our work on molar #EvoDevo 🦷 in mouse and hamster 🐁, led by the amazing team of Marie Sémon and Sophie Pantalacci. We find an inverted hourglass pattern, with a maximum of evolutionary divergence at the bell stage.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01....

Metabolic activities are selective modulators for individual segmentation clock processes - Nature Communications Metabolism has been considered an attractive candidate as a global modulator of the tempo of multiple developmental processes, including somite segmentation timing. Here they demonstrate that metaboli...

Latest from the lab!
I've been seeking the ultimate modulator that regulates the tempo of multiple developmental processes simultaneously, and metabolism has been an attractive candidate for such a global tempo modulator.
However, I was wrong. 1/
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy #FluorescenceFriday to those who celebrate! Here's a beautiful quail neural tube and somites labelled for microtubules 🟠 and actin 🔵. Imaged by Power-RA Siew Zhuan Tan. #devbio 🧪🔬👩‍🔬

Stowers Institute Postdoc selected as HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellow YouTube video by Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Postdoc in @planaria1.bsky.social Lab, @rileynoceros.bsky.social, joins the 2024 class of @hhmi.bsky.social #HannaGrayFellows! Her work on how some vertebrates “pause” their development could transform our understanding of #evolution & human #medicine – listen as she explains: bit.ly/4g8xWED

I am very proud of the work that went into this new Sanger Lab publication. This paper was led by postdoc Marta Marchini and a number of my lab's undergraduate students, each of which contributed unique skills or effort to the completion of this project.

Sonic hedgehog and fibroblast growth factor 8 regulate the evolution of amniote facial proportions - Communications Biology The function of two genes, Sonic hedgehog and Fibroblast growth factor 8, have changed greatly during amniote facial evolution. The expression of these genes can explain variation in the proportion of...

Pretty neat story here by Marta Marchini, @thomsanger.bsky.social and coauthors. Our first look at the role of FGF and HH signaling in the lizard face (Anolis), with big implications for the ancestral amniote condition

1/n

www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Dear #neuralcrest afficionados Please Apply for the Neural Crest and Cranial Placodes GRC - the current application numbers put it at risk for cancellation going forward. Come to beautiful Tuscany and engage with interesting science! www.grc.org/neural-crest...

Ancient fish fossil suggests ‘living skeletons’ evolved 460 million years ago X-ray analysis of bony scale shows vertebrates developed ability to remodel and repair bone much earlier than thought

Great to see old pals and new results at #SICB2025, including Yara Haridy's deep dive into some of the earliest bony skeletons: www.science.org/content/arti...

🚨New Diamond 💎 Open Access Journal in Paleontology 🦴🐚!🚨

Send us your manuscripts 📜 and publish fully open access 🔓 entirely for free!

#openacess #paleontology #free #palaeontology #diamond #open

Eventually, we studied development of sticky toes! We found similar derived developmental patterns of convergently evolved #toepads, despite approximately 200 million years of independent evolution!
@tonygamble.bsky.social @thomsanger.bsky.social
#GeckoEvoDevo
academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...

Variation in whale (Cetacea) inner ear anatomy reveals the early evolution of “specialized” high‐frequency hearing sensitivity Our findings support sensitivity to low-frequency sound in the archaeocete Zygorhiza kochii and an early toothed mysticete cf. Aetiocetus. Narrow-band high-frequency hearing was present in Oligocene ...

I have a new paper out on the evolution of hearing in toothed whales! It looks like a narrow range of high-frequency auditory sensitivity in some living dolphins and porpoises may be an ancestral physiology rather than novel specializations in select groups.

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

TRISCO

A solid step closer to 3D #SpatialTranscriptomics 😎

Optimized probe-based 3D RNA imaging in whole organs

isHCR
Tris 500 mM
4'C
Validated probe list in Table S1
Brain Heart Lung Kidney

@peruhlen.bsky.social @science.org 2024
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...