Felix Javier

Reminder that my lab is seeking graduate students for fall 2026. As part of @oupaleobiology.bsky.social, my lab uses a combination of fossils, statistical phylogenetics, fieldwork, & computational approaches to investigate macroevolutionary dynamics in the marine biosphere. Link w/ more info below:

Please consider supporting this petition to save the Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution at the University of Leicester. Leicester palaeontologists have made huge contributions to the field, including identifying the first Ediacaran fossils and the conodont animal!
tinyurl.com/t3zesk88

Royal Society B cover with AI generated image of endocasts.

AI slop gracing the cover of Royal Society B. Not only in AI yellow but scientifically nonsensical. Come on. I'm certain human photographs and artworks were ignored to platform ... this.

I am recruiting graduate students to my genomics-focused lab in EEB at Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Please spread the word if you know any students with an interest in a computational focus to genomics research! evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...

NEW pub in @science.org 🥳

Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?

For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.

We provide new evidence suggesting that...

🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

WE ARE RECRUITING PHD STUDENTS!!!

We have three(!) funded PhD studentships advertising presently. If any of these are of interest, please reach out! Thread below with links to more information on each project.

#Drosophila #Evolution #Immunity #SelfishGene #Aphids

Thread with links below 🧵 1/4

Committee meeting went great!

Pleased to share our latest paper led by @tomlewin.bsky.social, now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! We present the first chromosome-level genome of a phoronid and show that shared chromosomal fusions unite phoronids and bryozoans as sister groups.
www.cell.com/current-biol...

An orange cladobranch nudibranch with white tips on rhinophores and tentacles. The slug has a white stripe on the body and some blue dots at the tip of the cerata. It is sitting on an orange sponge.

A dorid nudibranch sea slug. The slug has a cream yellow mantle skirt with a thin black edge. The foot is white. The gills, center of the slug and rhinophores are orange. There is a wavy black line around the orange part of the center of the slug's body.

A very colorful dorid nudibranch. The slug has a brown body with orange stripes. The gills and rhinophores are bright orange. There are also some yellow and blue areas around the head and tail.

An adorable white dorid nudibranch. The slug has black rhinophores and yellow spots that vary in size on the dorsal part of the body. The gills are white with black trim.

Some lovely nudibranchs for #seaslugday. These photos are from this summer when I was scuba diving in Komodo National Park, Indonesia. #invertebrates 🦑

salamander phylogeny with representative limb bones and their cross-sections

New PhD preprint! We studied the effects of habitat and multi-stage life cycles on salamander limb bones! Aquatic and terrestrial spp. have divergent morphs + semi-aquatic and multi-phasic spp. do their own thing + decoupled external and internal shape promote diversity. 🧪🦎

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Alison Davis Rabosky, Director of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, poses in the museum’s Herpetology archives at the University of Michigan’s Research Museums Center.

Thais Vasconcelos, Director of the University of Michigan Herbarium, poses at the University of Michigan’s Research Museums Center.

Great pair of articles in this morning's Ann Arbor News highlighting the outstanding new leadership of the U-M Museum of Zoology and U-M Herbarium: Alison Davis Rabosky (left) and Thais Vasconcelos (right). 🍄🌿🌺🐚🪲🐟🐸🐍🐦🐿️

I presented at the @cientificolatino.com Pathways to the Ph.D. Conference (sponsored by MIT) with Alexander Umanzor! Our talk, “Crafting a Competitive Graduate School Application: Telling Your Story with Impact,” sparked great conversations with future grad students.

The UNIDE Student Advisory Board (SAB) is now recruiting for 2025. Undergraduate and graduate students in ecology or environmental science fields are eligible to apply.
This paid, remote opportunity ($1000 stipend) runs Nov–June, 2–4 hrs/month! unidecology.org/sab-applicat...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

🚨GRFP DEADLINE ALERT!🚨 I missed this in my original solicitation read-through, so FYI 📣LETTERS ARE DUE BEFORE PROPOSALS📣 this year!

"Reference letters are due Friday, November 7 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET)."

www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

The UNIDE Student Advisory Board (SAB) is now recruiting for 2025. Undergraduate and graduate students in ecology or environmental science fields are eligible to apply.
This paid, remote opportunity ($1000 stipend) runs Nov–June, 2–4 hrs/month! unidecology.org/sab-applicat...

📣 🧪 Update: #GRFP petition went to #NSF and OSTP (w/ the growing* comments list) yesterday.

We are now working to get these impacts in front of Congress, so PLEASE keep signing/sharing the petition!

*nearly 900!

@danielbolnick.bsky.social @joshuasweitz.bsky.social @jasonwilliamsny.bsky.social

it only tuesday 🫩

Phylogeny of Aneides and Plethodon with animal photos

Phylomorphospace showing body shape variation

Morphospace of toe bones and box lots showing estimated gripping force

Representative SEM images of salamander feet

Excited to share the first paper from my PhD!

We looked at what traits help Aneides salamanders excel at climbing using museum specimens, CT scans, SEM, and more! No claws or toe pads, so how do they do it? In short, with long limbs, big feet and grippy toes! 🦎🧪

DM for PDF

doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

We made a video for UNIDE! Go check it out www.instagram.com/share/BASSx9...

Does anybody know of any fellowships for students in EEB?

The 5th International Workshop on Symbiotic Copepoda was undoubtably a major success! We couldn’t have asked for better hosts at CEMACS, Malaysia. We miss you already!

Just completed the 5th International Workshop on Symbiotic Copepoda in Malaysia! Gained hands-on skills in copepod taxonomy, field collection, specimen dissection, and parasite data analysis plus presented my Lepeophtheirus ID key project.

"Data and code available upon request" is the academic equivalent of "Please ask staff about allergens".

A picture of an electrical box with an extremely rad skateboarding frog with curved letters on top that say willimantic. It is... extremely rad. The words superimposed over the image say "Calling all Eastern CT artists" We're making a biodiversity mural in willimantic

Artists of bluesky!

@skypeascientist.bsky.social & Willimantic Public Art are collabing on a community mural in Willimantic, CT in spring.

We're looking for Eastern CT artists who'd like to work on the project! The artist will be selected *by the community*.

Apply here: forms.gle/2tjJmdXcF6wy...

Just gave my first presentation as a PhD student!
I shared my work on developing an interactive identification key for Lepeophtheirus, a genus of parasitic copepods and brought along a 3D printed model to bring these tiny parasites to life.

NONE in Life science?! NONE?!

Big things coming up! I’ll be presenting at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Parasitologists and heading to Malaysia for the 5th International Workshop on Symbiotic Copepoda 🎉🪱🦐

🐠💥2 year postdoc in fish sensory ecology!! 💥🐟
If you’re into animal colour, collective behaviour, predator-prey interactions, enjoy behavioural experiments and fieldwork, please apply! Based in Oxford with fieldwork in northwest Thailand (and elsewhere). Please repost! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNM294/p...