Hey y'all. I'm a month late to this, but I wanted to share that one of my PhD chapters was published in Systematic Biology with my advisor, Frank Burbrink. Here, we explore how ecological opportunity influences phenotypic evolution in North American natricid snakes. 🧵/8

Text: Society for the Study of Evolution Graduate Research Excellence Grants, Apply by May 18, 2026.

Proposals are due May 18 for this year’s Graduate Research Excellence Grants! Up to $2500 for 1st and 2nd year grad students and up to $3500 for 3rd years and above. Learn more and apply now! www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

PhyKIT v2.1.44 can now plot quartet pie charts on a phylogeny

Quartet discordance can be calculated from gene trees or parsed from ASTRAL output (-t 2)

Another feature kindly suggested by @latincassia.bsky.social!

I'm super grateful for user feedback and the opportunity to address community needs

It may not feel like spring has sprung, but we’re busy busy SSBees! 🌸🐝

Due this Friday:

Grad student research awards: www.systbio.org/graduate-stu...

Mini-ARTS: www.systbio.org/mini-arts-aw...

One month warning:

Ernst Mayr: www.systbio.org/ernst-mayr-a...

GitHub - nhu92/SPrOUT: A computational pipeline designed for predicting species taxonomic information from single and mixed plant samples, using target sequencing arrays. A computational pipeline designed for predicting species taxonomic information from single and mixed plant samples, using target sequencing arrays. - nhu92/SPrOUT

Github page: github.com/nhu92/SPrOUT

logo for SPrOUT: Species Prediction of Unknown Taxa - a line drawing of a plant with two green leaves emerging from a flask containing multiple DNA helices. Logo designed by Lisa Limeri, with images from the Noun Project flask from Noun Project user Humam flower from Noun Project user Vanicon studio DNA from Noun Project user Akhmad Zaini

Figure from the linked preprint, showing the relationship between the number of Angiosperms353 reference genes and Accuracy of detecting plant families in mixed reads. Based on several z-score values, SPrOUT is generally at 98% accuracy with fewer than 100 genes.

New from our lab! Introducing SPrOUT: Species Prediction of Unknown Taxa.

We developed and tested a novel method to ID plants in mixed DNA with Angiosperms353 using cumulative phylogenetic distances. >98% accuracy to family level for in silico and real test data.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The Evolution Meetings logo, stating that the meeting will be online May 20-22, 2026 and in-person June 20-24 2026

The 2026 Ernst Mayr Award Competition is open! This is SSB's student talk award. Students selected to compete will deliver their talk during the virtual Evolution meetings May 20-22, 2026.

Applications close April 15, 2026.

For information on registration, see: www.systbio.org/ernst-mayr-a...

So I pleased to announce the conceptual spawn of FigTree: PearTree (acronym still to be finalised). If you want to dive right in it is hosted as a web app here: artic-network.github.io/peartree (click the “Example...” button for immediate candy and then click every button you can find).

Giant chromosomes of a tiny plant—the complete telomere-to-telomere genome assembly of the simple thalloid liverwort Apopellia endiviifolia (Jungermanniopsida, Marchantiophyta) AbstractBackground. The liverwort Apopellia endiviifolia, a dioicous, simple thalloid species, is notable for its cryptic diversity, habitat adaptability,

Tiny plant, giant genome! 🌱🧬

We’re excited to share the final version of our paper in @GigaScience: the first complete telomere-to-telomere (T2T) assembly of the liverwort Apopellia endiviifolia.
Thanks @ncn.gov.pl

Check out the full open-access study here: doi.org/10.1093/giga...

Davis Summer Population Genomics Program Want to learn population genetics? Please fill out this form to indicate your potential interest in a 2-week intensive online summer population genetics course taught by Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra and Graham...

Fun news! @gcbias.bsky.social and I are teaching a 2-week online population genetics workshop this summer to raise money for the Center for Population Biology at UC Davis. We're trying to gauge interest -- please fill this out if you might be interested! And please share broadly!

Interested in learning about hornworts? Check out the on-line hornwort class
www.eaglehill.us/programs/sem...

Go Bulls! 🤘🏼

BHL Transition Update #6: Fundraising Campaign – Support the Future of Open Biodiversity Knowledge The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is launching a new public fundraising campaign to help us navigate our transition to independence. This is our first major campaign since the announcement th…

🚀 Big news from BHL! 🌱
We’ve launched our Transition Fundraising Campaign to help BHL navigate the move to independence and secure a sustainable, global future for open biodiversity knowledge. #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL #OpenAccess

🔗 Read more and donate: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/10/dona...

An historic illustration of of two brown stripy butterflies and a caterpillar on a plant with white flowers.

🌱 Help secure the future of the Biodiversity Heritage Library! 🙏
Your donation will keep biodiversity knowledge open, connected, and growing, and fund the dedicated staff who make it all possible. 📖 👩‍💻 🌱 🌏 🧪
🔗 Donate: ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/BHLDona...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL

If you are fond of bryophytes, be welcome to join the Bryology starter pack. Say hi so I can add you
#Botany #PlantScience

go.bsky.app/C2v8MT4

Community scientists digitized over a quarter-million items and records at the Field Museum Volunteers and members of the “Collections Club” of the Field Museum provide a blueprint for how community scientists can help researchers around the world.

🤩 At the #Collections Club community #scientists initiative at the #FieldMuseum, volunteers have processed over 300,000 #scientific #specimens, records & objects to make valuable #data accessible to #researchers worldwide. 👏

More about the latest paper in our #journal via the @pensoft.net blog 👇

Trying a new platform