bifrost: an R package for scalable inference of phylogenetic shifts in multivariate evolutionary dynamics www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04...

📢 Content submissions for the 6th SORTEE Conference (13-14 Oct 2026) are now OPEN #SORTEE2026

Submit your proposal for an unconference, hackathon or workshop by June 7th via sortee.org/upcoming

SORTEE members can attend for free. Join us sortee.org/join/

Retention of a female-specific growth hormone receptor gene correlates with reverse sexual size dimorphism in birds www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04...

Background check: Mutational input to size variation depends on ancestor's breeding value www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04...

WINDEX: A hierarchical integration of site- and window-based statistics for characterizing the footprint of positive selection in genome-wide population genetic data www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...

Seminars

Our #PhD students are enjoying meeting #PopGen Seminar speaker @ulrichtechnau.bsky.social tomorrow! He will tell us about "Evolution of bilaterian traits and mechanisms of cell type diversification: insights from cnidarians". Full schedule+streaming details popgen-vienna.at/news/seminars/ #evolution

How do cell lineages evolve, and how does that shape trait evolution?

Join our symposium Tracing Evolution Through Cell Lineages (Plön, 12–14 October). Hear perspectives from leading scientists and contribute with your own.
Read more at: bit.ly/3PCSkpQ

#EvoDevo #DevBio #StemCell #evolution

An Empirical Bayes approach for the study of phenotypic evolution from high-dimensional data www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...

PASEDB community 🤩

We are excited to announce our first Research Webinar series called:

⭐️EvoDevo Mondays⭐️

Save the date - April 13

With our amazing speakers @luiza-o-saad.bsky.social and João Francisco Botelho

Session chair Professor Natalia Pabón-Mora

#PASEDB #EvoDevoMondays #EvoDevo

Negative allometry of egg size among 29 species of drosophilid flies www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...

Bridging developmental and statistical approaches to variation and evolution | PNAS Phenotypic variation is the raw material for evolutionary diversification and adaptation. However, a critical gap remains in evolutionary theory be...

How does development shape the variation evolution can act on?

In our new paper in @pnas.org , we bridge developmental dynamics and quantitative genetics, linking dynamical models of phenotype formation with the statistical parameters used to study evolutionary change

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Does anyone have a tutorial on how to properly keep a thread on bluesky? I feel like when I reply it does not keep everything together. Do I just include the other authors on the thread?

Ben,
In your specification of MCMCglmm you do not actually have random slopes, do you want me to write that out? Or am I missing what you mean?
@vdveenb.bsky.social

Sorry for any typos. Had to do it quick. Got to get out of bed and get to the lab now.

I hope this works ( @vdveenb.bsky.social @bbolker.bsky.social )

Let me right it out in LaTeX and send an image of it. I don't think that bluesky can handle LaTeX? (I am so bad at bluesky-ing).

I was going to send you the tutorial that @bbolker.bsky.social and I wrote with this information, but it looks like he is in the process of modifying it (for class?)

Do you mean in the context like this?

~ us(trait):randomPredictor?

This would be super-useful though!

jarrod.bio.ed.ac.uk/CourseNotes....

See chapter 5, on multi-response traits (or just search "trait'), starts on page 91 or so.

re: "trait" as a reserved variable

"There are two reserved variables: units which index rows of the response variable and trait which index columns of the response variable"

the vignette gives more information. I will see if I can find an online copy and point out the details in it.

trait is a reserved word in the syntax of MCMCglmm, so that it knows that this is a multi-response model.

## fit multi-type model (don't scale count var) form_MMLM2 <- cbind(femur_s, tibia_s, tarsus_s, SCT) ~ trait:(genotype*temp) - 1 m2 <- MCMCglmm(form_MMLM2, random=~ us(trait):line, rcov=~ us(trait):units, data= as.data.frame(dll_data), family = rep(c("gaussian", "poisson"), times = c(3, 1)), nitt= 10000, burnin= 2000, thin=10)

@vdveenb.bsky.social where is the best venue for asking `gllvm` questions? Wanted to see if I could use the devel version to fit a multitype model equivalent to the following MCMCglmm specification (i.e. two different 'rows' grouping variables, each with random slopes) @idworkin.bsky.social ...

This editorial discusses the critical value of human-generated scientific writing in the era of large language models (LLMs), arguing that writing is essential to structured thinking and research comprehension. Writing as Thinking: The act of writing structure's thoughts, sorting research data, and identifying the main message, unlike LLMs which may lack true understanding or accountability. LLM Hallucinations: LLM-generated text requires rigorous verification because these models can produce incorrect information or fake references. Human vs. AI Roles: While LLMs are useful tools for brainstorming, improving grammar, or overcoming writer's block, human researchers must maintain control to engage in the creative task of shaping a compelling narrative.

Writing forces your brain to coordinate memory, reasoning, and meaning-making simultaneously.

Every time you write, you rewire toward clearer thinking. Every time you let an LLM do it, you rewire toward consumption.

go.bsky.app/C14uXVa

Society for the Study of Evolution Site description

Are you a grad student attending #Evol2026? Submit your talk for the SSE Hamilton Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation! Finalists will present their talks during the virtual portion of the meeting. Apply during registration. Deadline April 15! shorturl.at/qDIP4 @evolmtg.bsky.social

Society for the Study of Evolution Site description

Are you interested in receiving light-touch English language editing for your next @journal-evo.bsky.social or @evolletters.bsky.social manuscript? Check out our Evolution English Language Support program to learn how to receive free support! www.evolutionsociety.org/publications...

Society for the Study of Evolution Site description

📢 Now accepting proposals for the Graduate Research Excellence Grants! These provide evolutionary biology research funds for early and advanced Master’s and PhD students. Applicants must be members of SSE. Deadline: May 18, 2026
www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

The distribution of fitness effects of new mutations in regulatory regions of the D. melanogaster genome www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...

I will let my funding agency know immediately.

MBE | The role of society journals in protecting the scientific record

MBE Editors-in-Chief Claudia Russo and Brandon Gaut publish a new editorial on the role of society journals in protecting the scientific record.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag022

#evobio #molbio #societyjournal

@claurusso.bsky.social @bsgaut.bsky.social