Derek D. Houston

I DID IT I SAW A FISHIE AND I RANG THE DOORBELL I DID A NICE THING FOR THE FUSSSSHHHHHH

Population genetic and phylogenetic analysis of pupfish (Cyprinodon, Cyprinodontidae) in the Rio Conchos and adjacent rivers reveals hidden diversity - Conservation Genetics Conservation Genetics - Understanding genetic and phylogenetic relationships among closely related species is critical for effective conservation planning. In the Rio Conchos basin of northern...

The Conchos pupfish is not a monolith! We found strong genetic divergence within Cyprinodon eximius, including the Devils River population in TX. Check out our new paper in Conservation Genetics! #fish #FishSci #TeamFish link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I'm just ignoring all their "mandatory training" links until someone important gets on my case about it

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).

Deep sea ecologist here. He's not wrong.

For an entity on campus who scolds anyone who falls for a phishing scam, my university's IT department sends out a lot of emails that look like phishing scams

Just published: A very unusual fish, described here as a new genus and species of loach, and the first groundwater-dwelling fish reported from Northeast India. Meet 𝑮𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒌 𝒏𝒂𝒌𝒂𝒏𝒂! Open access article here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

If now is not a good time for you to donate, you can still help us out by spreading the word. We have support from the CO/WY Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, but have set a lofty goal for establishing this scholarship fund. Please repost if you support the cause. Many thanks!

Friends, I’m asking for your help in raising funds for an endowed scholarship to support Western Colorado University biology students pursuing careers in fisheries and aquatic ecology. Consider making a donation to our scholarship fund. Thank you for your support!
www.classy.org/fundraiser/6...

No animal alive today is ‘primitive’ – why are so many still labeled that way? All species alive today, from chimpanzees to bacteria, are cousins that each have equally long lineages, rather than ancestors or descendants of one another.

The idea that humans sit atop an evolutionary hierarchy dates back to 1866, when a scientist drew the first tree of life with "Man" at the top. This inaccurate view still shapes how we think of the animal world, despite decades of genomic evidence proving evolution has no hierarchy.

buff.ly/055hdSo

If you want fossil "teeth" horror shows, you want Conodonts.

This somehow fit into a mouth, about 400 million years ago.

It's unclear, but something very much like this thing is probably ancestral to all vertebrates--this is our great-great-...-great grandma.

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Screen grab reading Science > Animals Whoops, Scientists May Have Severely Miscalculated the Number of Species on Earth A new study focused on cryptic species— animals that look the same but are genetically different—found that they're more widespread among vertebrates than we previously thought. BY DARREN ORF PUBLISHED: FEB 18, 2026 8:00 AM EST RADIMIN

Screen grab reading - RESEARCH ARTICLES| 04 FEB 2026 Cryptic species are widespread across vertebrates Open Access Yinpeng Zhang ORCID logo ; John J. Wiens Corresponding Author ORCID logo Author & article information Proc Biol Sci (2026) 293 (2064): 20252377 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.2377 Article history

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#CrypticSpecies

There’s more than you thought - there’s always more than you thought!

1st the coverage, then the science

www.popularmechanics.com/science/anim...

doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Manuelli, L., Clément, G., Herbin, M. et al. A dual respiratory and auditory function for the coelacanth lung. Commun Biol (2026). 🐟🧪

doi.org/10.1038/s420...

Selection-driven color variation in the aposematic strawberry poison frog, Oophaga pumilio Aguilar-Gómez et al. use exome sequencing of 347 strawberry poison frogs to uncover the genetic basis of color variation. They identify that kit, ttc39b, and bco1 underlie blue-red, yellow-red, and gr...

The last chapter of my PhD is finally out !!!! In the same species, on neighboring islands, we see radically different warning colors emerge. Evolution in action:
Selection-driven color variation in the aposematic strawberry poison frog, Oophaga pumilio: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

I JUST talked about reproduction in live-bearers an hour and a half ago. Looks like this paper is getting sent out to the class via Canvas announcement. Very cool!

Male Copulatory Structures in Reproductively Functional Female Live‐Bearing Fish Pseudopoecilia fria We recently discovered a population of the live-bearing fish Pseudopoecilia fria (Cyprinodontiformes: Poeciliidae), in which females were found to possess gonopodia, reproductive organs normally excl...

One of the coolest ichthyology discoveries I’ve heard about in a while. Large pregnant female livebearers with male reproductive organs found in the wild. Goes to show how fluid sex and sexual traits can be.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

I know that things fall through the cracks sometimes, but today I was granted an extension on a resubmission deadline for a request that I sent in a loooong time ago, for a paper that's already been published in said journal. Made me laugh.

You may laugh, but the Macbeths are a much better role model for a marriage than Romeo and Juliet. They discuss their problems (killing the king of Scotland), share their hobbies (killing the king of Scotland), and resolve their conflicts (by killing the king of Scotland).

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Four incomplete fossil fish specimens on a black background. The specimens preserve scales, vertebrae, spines, and so on, and are dark gray on lighter gray to mustard-colored slabs.

Remarkable. Report of a Brazilian spiny-rayed fish dating to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous, preceding the oldest known acanthomorphs by ~20 million years. Gondwanacanthus extends the roots of one of today's most prominent vertebrate radiations: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Species introduction woes: How human‐mediated crop transport can influence community dynamics through mutualist displacement Similar negative effects associated with community disruption may be a common consequence of the introduction of many domesticated species. While it is difficult in many biological communities to suc...

Pleased to see that our fig/nematode/fungus paper is published today in Journal of Applied Ecology. Fungal outbreaks in cultivated and wild figs exhibit a negative correlation with nematode presence, thus presenting a potential biocontrol agent.

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

Scientists being purged has never been a good thing for a society.

Healthy and sustainable fisheries have lower carbon emissions and fuel use, because fish are more abundant and easier to catch with less effort. Rebuilding fisheries and ensuring that fleet sizes are appropriate for catch level, are keys for CO2 reduction
By Hilborn et al.
doi.org/10.1111/faf....

Five cool fishes that went extinct An essay on extinctions you’ve probably never heard of.

Five freshwater fishes that went extinct.

How it happened. Why it matters.

tnature.substack.com/p/five-cool-...

#Extinction #Freshwater #Biodiversity #Conservation #EdgeEffects #NatureWriting

I am very excited to be attending this conference - I hope to see some of you there #ssb2026

Mutation–selection–drift balance models of complex diseases Genetic variation is maintained through a balance of mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift. Although this general picture is well understood, it i

Modeling the joint effects of genetic drift, mutation, and selection on loci that contribute to disease risk suggests that variation at many such loci is shaped more by their pleiotropic effects on non-disease traits than by their contribution to disease risk

Immigration is good, and we should say it’s good

I'm hiring a postdoc to work with myself, Dr Jim Lyons and the entire NOAA Firebird team on the adaptive management part of our larger project focused on the impacts of prescribed fire on Gulf Coast wetlands

Accepting applications until Feb 15th

blogs.illinois.edu/view/7426/19...