Sandra Álvarez

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).

MENI is back! Join us in Dublin this August 2026 for our 3rd Meeting for Microbial Evolution in Ireland. We are delighted to have @rachelmwheatley.bsky.social @drrebeccajhall.bsky.social @jpjhall.bsky.social and @tweethinking.bsky.social join us as keynote speakers this year. miniurl.com/MENI

Really exciting results coming in, looking forward to sharing more soon! ✨

Sandy talking about the workflow for timetree inference with geometric morphometrics data at UCL Illuminated.

The table shows the items we used as part of our scientific activity for this outreach event at UCL Illuminated: various skull casts from different species and an activity that uses dinosaur species for familiarising with landmarking and the usage of morphology for the study of evolution.

Nath & Sandy ready for talking about the usage of morphology and DNA for the study of evolution during UCL Illuminated as part of their outreach scientific activity -- we were there from 17.30h to 22.00h!

We enjoyed sharing our passion for science at UCL Illuminated, showcasing how morphology & DNA are used to study evolution! Thanks to everyone who stopped by; @nateomics.bsky.social & I enjoyed discussing topics from dinosaurs, landmarking & Procrustes to Bayesian methods & genomes! 🦴🦖🧬💻 #UCL200

Applications to join the Computational Approaches to Early Evolution workshop are still accepted! Do not miss your chance to attend this event full of discussions on the computational methods for studying early life! 🦠💻🧬

forms.oist.jp/form/computa...

Computational Approaches to Early Evolution

Join us for interesting discussions at the Computational Approaches to Early Evolution workshop next year in April at OIST in Onna, Okinawa! 🦠💻🧬 Registrations open until January 2nd '26, do not miss it! More info & registration details in the link below! 🔽
www.oist.jp/conference/c...

Pre-Christmas moleclular-clock shenanigans with @sabifo4.bsky.social @mariodosreis.bsky.social @zihengyang.bsky.social

Adaptive radiation of pelagiarian fishes at the K/Pg boundary led to rapid diversification of mandible morphology Abstract. Mandibles represent a key evolutionary innovation that has enabled jawed vertebrates to adapt and diversify in response to a range of food source

New paper! Here we look at shape evolution of the mandible in Pelagiaria, a group of open-ocean fishes that includes tuna and mackerel. We find that shape disparity accumulated rapidly at the origin of the clade at around the K/Pg boundary... academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

So grateful to be back for another year! 💫 Big thanks to all the participants who joined us on this phylogenomics journey. We hope you find these resources helpful for your analyses, best of luck! 💻🧬

Very happy to kick off the 5th edition of the #Phylogenomics course with @kaplipa.bsky.social , Tomas Flouri, @sabifo4.bsky.social , @zihengyang.bsky.social , and a wonderfully diverse cohort of attendees from all around the globe!

Ziheng Yang's and Mario dos Reis' research groups, and visitors, at the Grant Museum of Zoology at University College London. Left to right: Jiayi Ji, Chi Zhang, Yuttapong Thawornwattana, Lucas Freitas, Zihui Yang, Ziheng Yang, Yuqing Peng (bottom), Siri Olsen (top), Laura Mulvey, Mario dos Reis (bottom), Asif Tamuri (top), Sandra Álvarez-Carretero.

Wrapping up our annual joint lab meeting with a visit to the Grant Museum of Zoology at UCL was such a highlight! Always inspiring to reconnect with longtime colleagues, new team members, and collaborators💫

Happy to share Jialin's first publication. She did a great job exploring the transition to land in animals. Co-supervised by the great Jordi Paps and me and in collaboration with Davide Pisani and @phil-donoghue.bsky.social

Back from this great workshop at Beijing Normal University! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to bring this event to life, it has been a great success!💫 Special thanks to Cai-jin Chen for climbing the Great Wall with me, truly unforgettable! 谢谢🌹

Students, if you join us for the lecture, we will be hosting a Student Committee-sponsored reception and you'll be entitled to a FREE drink 🍻

The receptions will be held jointly, so you'll have the opportunity to meet other students and members of the Association.

Join us! tinyurl.com/28u2u2z8

The emergence of metabolisms through Earth history and implications for biospheric evolution | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences We investigate the evolution of microbial metabolisms from the last universal common ancestor to the extant biota through comparative phylogenomics, reconciling the evolution of the genes that underpi...

Very happy to announce our new paper on the evolution of metabolism is out now! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

With @tweethinking.bsky.social @sabifo4.bsky.social @ssolo.bsky.social Davide Pisani, Tim Lenton and @phil-donoghue.bsky.social

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More than grateful to the CoME25 organisers for inviting me one more year, it is always so much fun!! Ευχαριστώ πάρα πολύ και τα λέμε σύντομα! 💙

Post viva celebrations with Dr Jiayi Yi. Left to right: Hernán Burbano, Jiayi Ji, Simon Martins, and Ziheng Yang.

Post viva celebrations with Dr Jiayi Yi. Jiayi holding one of his PhD presents: a PhD mug and a cute chipmunk plush.

Post viva celebrations with Dr Jiayi Yi. Jiayi showing his new chipmunk plush.

Congratulations Dr Jiayi Ji!! 🥳Thanks to examiners @hernanaburbano.bsky.social and Simon Martin, now time to enjoy the long weekend! 🎉

Had so much fun at the SystAssn-SRUK/CERU Bayesian Phylogenetics Workshop! 💫 Hope that everyone who attended this event enjoyed the two-day journey on theory, methods, and applications of Bayesian Phylogenetics and... Hopefully see you all again soon in future events! 💻🧬

Really pleased to be part of this project which shows that aerobic bacteria arose in the Archaean, long before the GOE - after which aerobes proliferated through HGT. Fun @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social collab including @tweethinking.bsky.social @sabifo4.bsky.social @emoody.bsky.social Davide Pisani

The Physalia Phylogenomics course is back this December! Join us for a computational journey on phylogeny and timetree inference with genomic datasets 🧬 💻

More information about the course and how you can register on the post below ⬇️

The clock is ticking 🕔! Pre-registration will close today March 14th (17:00h GMT+0), do not miss your chance to join us at the SystAssn-SRUK/CERU Bayesian Phylogenetics Workshop! 💻🧬

Thanks to all organisers that have made the Workshop of Computational Genomics possible and all the participants that have joined us both in person and online -- we have had such a great time in Hong Kong! 🌹 Hope to see you all again in future meetings 🤗 Next stop: 🚗 Shenzhen!

Applications for student travel bursaries will only be considered if you are part of at least one of the Societies funding the event: The Systematics Association or the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK. More details on their websites:
sruk.org.uk/ceru-events/...
systass.org/workshop-bay...

The deadline to apply for student travel bursaries to attend the SystAssn-SRUK/CERU Bayesian Phylogenetics Workshop 💻🧬 is approaching: March 3rd! Pre-registration will be open until March 14th.

Do not miss the deadlines, submit your application before it is too late!
sruk.org.uk/ceru-events/...

LinneSys: Systematics Research Fund LinneSys: Systematics Research Fund The Councils of The Linnean Society of London and The Systematics Association jointly administer this fund for the benefit of systematics research. The Fund has …

Looking for funds for a small systematics-focused project?

You have until 23:59 GMT+0 MONDAY, MARCH 10TH to apply to the LinneSys scheme!

You can apply for up to 1500GBP, you just need to be a member of @systassn.bsky.social or @linneansociety.bsky.social!

Details here: systass.org/linnesys/

Evolution Committee - SRUK/CERU Future Events To launch the SRUK/CERU Evolution Committee, we have partnered with the Systematics Association to co-organise a workshop on Bayesian phylogenetics! This two day event will be run by exp...

This activity co-organised with @systassn.bsky.social is the one with which @pablomurod.bsky.social , @martapina.bsky.social, and I are launching the SRUK/CERU Evolution committee! We are looking for volunteers to join us, check our site and get in touch if interested! 🍏🧬
sruk.org.uk/initiatives/...

Introduction to Bayesian inference; practical sessions focused on the usage of MCMCtree, BPP, and PhyloBayes; discussion sessions... Does this sound like something you would like to delve into over a two-day workshop? 💻🧬 Then pre-register your interest to join before March 14th! More details below 🔽

Persistence selection between simulated biogeochemical cycle variants for their distinct effects on the Earth system | PNAS The average long-term impact of Darwinian evolution on Earth’s habitability remains extremely uncertain. Recent attempts to reconcile this uncertai...

Our latest: a Richard Boyle (Exeter) production, using simulations to show how differential selection of biogeochemical cycles can lead to planetary homeostasis, with some empirical data from @emoody.bsky.social and @sabifo4.bsky.social @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social

When you supervise students, you have the opportunity to witness how they learn and grow both at an academic and personal level. Thank you, Morena, it was wonderful seeing you progress and lead this project, congratulations!! 🎉 These are the moments that make you love academia 💙 (2/2)

Would you like to learn more about the evolutionary history of sea spiders? You may want to read our latest study led by Morena @morena99.bsky.social, who has nicely summarised the key findings of our research in the quoted thread below 🔽 (1/2)