Leroy Núñez, Ph.D.

With Trump’s authoritarianism at our doorstep and billionaire greed in our backyard, we need someone who won't let AIPAC, real estate developers, & corporate PACs dictate how hard we fight back.

Today, I'm launching my campaign for Congress in #NY13 with @justicedems support!

New species 🚨, not one, not two, 13 new bush frogs from Northeast India!!!
One of the exciting revisions I've been involved in for a few years now is out today. It is led by @bitupan-herp.bsky.social, a PhD. student who will soon be a doctor.

Available now in @asn-amnat.bsky.social ! Taking on some big-scale natural history: processed >40k @inaturalist.bsky.social images of Monarda fistulosa using computer vision to query for flower presence and phenotype flower color: doi.org/10.1086/739413

Newly identified species of Tanzanian tree toad leapfrog the tadpole stage and give birth to toadlets | CNN Researchers have newly described three extremely rare species of toad that leapfrog over the egg-to-tadpole stage and give birth to toadlets.

Live birth in toads! Is a thing! Three newly described species of tree toads give birth to toadlets, ~40 or more at a pop and each just a few millimeters long. They were previously all lumped together as Nectophrynoides viviparus, until new analysis identified them as three different species 🐸🧪

Very happy that our new paper on the odd, looped optic nerves of chameleons is now out! It turns out having highly mobile eyes require some pretty specialized connections! doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Origin and Early Evolution of Squamates and Their Kin: From Fossils to Genomes Squamates (lizards, including snakes) are the most diverse group of terrestrial vertebrates on Earth today and have an evolutionary history dating back to at least the Middle Triassic (ca. 242 Mya). D...

Our big squamate origins and early evolution review is now fully published as open access! with @marcanthonytollis.bsky.social and F. Burbrink

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Genome Biology and Evolution | November 2025 cover

The November cover of Genome Biology and Evolution features @raularayadonoso.bsky.social @kenrokusumi.bsky.social @anthonygeneva.bsky.social et al., who studied how structural rearrangements and selection promote phenotypic evolution in Anolis.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf196

#genome #evolution

New research in #RESSystematicEnt

Systematic and taxonomic revision of emerald and tigertail #dragonflies (#Anisoptera: #Synthemistidae and #Corduliidae)
doi.org/10.1111/syen.70000

#Phylogenetics #Biogeography #Taxonomy #Libelluloidea
@gkergoat.bsky.social @wiley.com

Speaking next on arboreal snakes, Brianna Mims! 🐍 #BINHMS

Dream Job Alert !

Herpetology Collections Manager at the University of Michigan - manage one of the largest reptile and amphibian collections in the world in state-of-the-art facilities in the best college town in the world. #herpetology

careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

Join the lab The Caetano lab at Towson University (Maryland, USA) is seeking a Master's degree student to start in Fall 2026. A Research Assistant (RA) position is available to the student during part (or all) of....

Master's degree position at Towson University with Daniel Caetano on macroevolutionary and phylogenetic comparative methods! Daniel is an awesome human and a great mentor, share with your students!
caetanods.weebly.com/join-the-lab...

A job ad with multiple images, including the exterior of the museum, a view of collections (jars on shelves), and pictures of some cool, tropical fish but I don't know enough about fish to describe them other than to say they're pretty colors of yellow and blue/green

🚨We're hiring! The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is seeking a tenure-track split position as Assistant Curator of Ichthyology and Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences. Please retweet & share with colleagues! 🐟🐠🧪

Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/174674

Evolutionary rate incongruences in squamates reveal contrasting patterns of evolutionary novelties and innovation Abstract. Understanding the rate of phenotypic evolution can reveal fundamental aspects of organismal evolutionary trajectories. Hence, several studies hav

Our latest paper, now how to conciliate apparently discrepant evolutionary rate patterns in squamates, but which may well apply to any study system with Stephanie Pierce and
@7brumas.bsky.social
#macroevolution

academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Black in Natural History Museums | AMNH Black in Natural History Museums highlights 17 modern and historical Black scientists, artists, and curators.

Come one come all! Our new #BINHM exhibit is up at the #AMNH! @blackinnhms.bsky.social www.amnh.org/exhibitions/...

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Come work with me on reptile brain evolution! 🦎🧠🐍

A poster advertising the symposium. See post link for talk titles, presenters, and affiliations.

@henryweith.bsky.social and I are organizing a symposium featuring evo-devo research, taking place at the AMNH on September 25th! If you're in the NYC area, please consider attending! (RSVP: forms.gle/bA2UeAaimrh6...)

Estimating waiting distances between genealogy changes under a Multi-Species Extension of the Sequentially Markov Coalescent Abstract. Genomes are composed of a mosaic of segments inherited from different ancestors, each separated by past recombination events. Consequently, genea

super excited to share this big project with @daeaton.bsky.social out now in Systematic Biology! We derived distributions for -- given an arbitrary species tree model -- how far you have to move along a genome before observing a change in the underlying genealogy: doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

While full solicitation isn’t up, looks like we have 2025 proposal deadlines for the GRFP: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Text: Society for the Study of Evolution Graduate Research Excellence Grants. Rosemary Grant Advanced Awards, Deadline: September 15, 5:00 PM Eastern.

Proposals are due next week for the Rosemary Grant Advanced Awards! These grants provide up to $3500 US in funding for PhD students. Contact communications@evolutionsociety.org with any questions. www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

Join us! The Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History is hiring a curatorial associate! For more information : careers.amnh.org/postings/4529

Keeping it local for world lizard day- Rhineura floridana, also known as the Florida worm lizard or, brilliantly, the thunderworm, is a truly bizarre and wonderful creature. Eyeless, burrowing and restricted to the sandy soils of the sunshine state. What a fabulous weirdo!

Bird sternum evolution facilitated the origins of powered flight Nature Ecology & Evolution - An in-depth analysis of the breastbone (sternum) of bird ancestors reveals its importance in the origin and evolution of flight in dinosaurs as they evolved into...

Research Briefing: Bird sternum evolution facilitated the origins of powered flight rdcu.be/eyTdn

With many postdoc grants like the NSF PRFB, Ford Fellowship, and Hanna H. Gray fellowships disappearing, I am currently looking for grants that could fund incoming postdoctoral scholars. Here is a thread of some of them 🧵

A 3d rendering of a CT scan of a Rio Cauca caecilian with transparent body and bone colored skeleton, showing 7 baby caecilians inside, each rendered in a different color - counter-clockwise from tail to head - red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, purple.

Say hello to Florida's newest established species, Typhlonectes natans - the Rio Cauca Caecilian! You can read about their relative abundance, distribution, & natural history, in our brand new paper:

journals.ku.edu/reptilesanda...

Here is one individual I CT scanned that had 7 babies inside!

Thrilled to share that starting in late August, I'll be Natural History Museum Specialist for the History Museum at the Castle in Appleton, WI! I'll be overseeing the exhibition and programming of the nat. his. collection, which is being moved from the old Weis Earth Science Museum.

Graphical overview of the biological foundations of the proposed approach.

Application of SCINKD to identify XY chromosomes in the Christmas island skink

Application of SCINKD to identify previously unannotated sex chromosomes in the Lesser electric ray.

🚨Preprint🚨

Sex chromosome identification & genome curation from a single individual with SCINKD
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Incredible work led by @drpintothe2nd.bsky.social in collaboration w/ @drsimonegable.bsky.social @stuartvnielsen.bsky.social @tonygamble.bsky.social SE Keating & CH Smith

Strepsiptera systematics: past, present, and future Abstract. The twisted-wing parasites (Strepsiptera Kirby) are among the most obscure and enigmatic orders in the Insecta. Strepsipterans are endoparasites

Our big review paper on strepsipteran systematics for Insect Systematics and Diversity is out! Hoping it's a helpful resource for anyone who needs it.

I am recruiting PhD students to join my lab at MSU starting Fall 2026! Please spread the word and reach out if you are interested and/or want to learn more!

🚨🐸 Frog Nerds Assemble 🐸🚨

Recently we published a paper on the phylogenetics and taxonomy of Australia and New Guinea's tree frogs, the Pelodryadidae.

Link here: tinyurl.com/4udpmxsm

What does this mean for you Litoria-lovers?
There's a whole bunch more names to use!

Let me explain ...