Lukas Musher

Come join me and other great colleagues at @ib_unam !! We’re searching for a new orno 🦅 🦢 🦉 systematics researcher/prof. for the largest bird collection in Mexico. See details herein www.ib.unam.mx/ibunam/Convo... Amigxs ornitólogxs! Habemus búsqueda de nuevx investigadorx! Apliquen!

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-025-02455-w

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-025-02455-w

ntSynt: multi-genome synteny detection using minimizer graph mappings
doi.org/10.1186/s129...

A colorful legacy of hybridization in wood-warblers includes frequent sharing of carotenoid genes among species and genera Introgression between species can shape evolutionary trajectories in important ways. This study of the entire family of the colorful wood-warblers (Parulidae) uses whole-genome sequencing to reveal fr...

New paper out. If you like colorful birds, hybridization, and phylogenetics, read on! 🧵https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003501

Opportunities ***PhD and MSc openings – Movement ecology and conservation*** I will periodically support graduate students, postdocs, and other staff through the Biology Department at the University of New…

I’m recruiting a PhD and MSC student for fall 2026 working on the movement ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls in SW forests and rocky canyonlands. Exciting partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Great vibrant lab group, high impact research! 🦉

gavinmjones.com/opportunities/

GitHub - lukemusher/tinamou-chromosomal-characteristics Contribute to lukemusher/tinamou-chromosomal-characteristics development by creating an account on GitHub.

Scripts are here: github.com/lukemusher/t...

Oops… yes. I’m still getting them online for a journal submission. Will post here once done.

I have a new preprint demonstrating a genome-architecture-aware approach to inferring species trees and introgression landscapes from a small number of genomes. If you are interested in phylogenomics, birds, or hybridization, this is for you! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The genomic landscape of asymmetric introgression tracks chromosomal characteristics in tinamous (Aves: Tinamidae) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.26.690533v1

A figure showing the "core" and "periphery" of lowland forest in South America, a figure showing the genetic structure of our population genetic simulations, and a figure of three alternate divergence histories simulated.

Look forward to more about Solomon Island phylogeography in the future, but in the mean time, @lukemusher.bsky.social and I have a pre-print that highlights how a similar phenomenon can occur on continents (with bias in both topology and branch lengths): doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Figure with a photo of a member of then Solomons Monarch complex, a map of the Solomon Islands (divided into four island groups, Makira being the most isolated), and a principal component analysis highlighting the distinct between-island-group structure, with moderate structure within the New Georgia Group and weaker structure within the Bukida group (highlighted in an inset).

Just out in Systematic Biology, we explore the role of gene flow in island phylogeography of the Solomons Black-and-white Monarch complex. doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

Up first, strong genetic structure between islands groups and weak (but present!) structure between Pleistocene-connected islands (🧵)

Vocalize @ me for the pdf

Our paper on tinamou evolution is finally out in @systbiol.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Diagram showing the evolutionary relationships among tinamous, a group of superficially partridge-like birds more closely related to ostriches and emus.

Phylogeny of tinamous based on whole-genomes and fossils: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... 🪶🧪 (📷Musher et al.)

The biogeographic and genomic signatures of dynamic river networks for terrestrial species in Amazonia Amazonia contains Earth's largest freshwater basin, largest contiguous stretch of tropical forest, and most species-rich terrestrial biota on Earth. Rivers are key geographic features that drive dive...

My new paper on Amazonian biogeography and genomics is out in early view in Biological Reviews!

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

Great question!

Whole-genome phylogenomics of the tinamous (Aves: Tinamidae): comparing gene tree estimation error b... bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

We have a new preprint in the whole-genome phylogenomics of tinamous! We compare gene tree estimation error for protein-coding and ultraconserved elements and find these two data types behave quite differently. Also a new species! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

3 articles, Oct 30

Women remain underrepresented in academia www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Toxic workplaces are main reason women leave academic jobs www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Women faculty feel pushed from academia by poor workplace climate
www.science.org/content/arti... #WomenInStem

Women more likely to leave academia due to work place climate than due to work family conflict.

Hermit crab (Pagurus prideaux) on the substrate looking up at you. Instead of a shell it is covered in an orange anemone (Calliactis palliata) with pink spots. Coming off that are neon pink silly strings, which are the anemone's tentacles! Photo by Darryl Meyer https://www.flickr.com/photos/27988477@N02/3992801991/in/photostream/

Hermit crab (Sympagurus dofleini) in the deep sea. It is facing to the side, with a purple striped sea anemone (Stylobates) covering its posterior, with the anemone's tentacles facing down. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/waf/okeanos-animal-guide/Paguroidea015.html

4 different views of the carcinoecium produced by the anemone Stylobates aeneus, which look exactly like a snail shell. But they are not. Image by Chong Chen https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207492582127068&set=a.10200283324540134&type=3

Did you think hermit crabs always live in snail shells? 🧪🦀

Some deep sea hermit species live symbiotically with anemones that DISSOLVE the shell and SECRETE a new one ("carcinoecium") made of chitin! The carcinoecium has evolved at least 3 times! Photo credits in alt text. @megdaly.bsky.social

Hi folks! I’m an evolutionary biologist who studies speciation, genomics, and biogeography of birds and their ectoparasites. I’m currently a postdoc at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

I am!

With @thamnobravo.bsky.social and @rafamarcondes.bsky.social along with Greg Thom, Glaucia Del-Rio, and Robb Brummfield.

Our paper on how phylogeographic signal covaries with recombination and selection landscapes out in Systematic Biology! Read about how extrinsic factors like river capture interact with genomic processes to drive diversification of an Amazonian bird here: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...