Max Telford maxjtelford - Bluesky Statics

rambaut/figtree Automatically exported from code.google.com/p/figtree - rambaut/figtree

The first version of FigTree was released nearly 20 years ago and it is still widely used (including by me). But there are currently 85 issues on the GitHub repo (github.com/rambaut/figt...) and some of them I don’t really like the look of.

28.02.2026 19:01 — 👍 133 🔁 39 💬 4 📌 1

This is so important. BHL is absolutely brilliant.

28.02.2026 12:06 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

YES!

26.02.2026 17:27 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Meanwhile somewhere there is a rival group organising a Poriferapalooza.

24.02.2026 18:24 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Entomology technician post in my lab in London (position is for 11 months starting August 2026). The work is about sentience and cognition in a variety of insect species. Thank you for sharing (and applying)! qmul-jobs.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

24.02.2026 15:19 — 👍 27 🔁 30 💬 0 📌 1

Happy 38th birthday to the #LTEE!
#BOTD in 1988.
Keep on evolving!

#science #evolution #microbiology

24.02.2026 15:20 — 👍 186 🔁 47 💬 4 📌 6

Ils sont fous ces Québecois!

20.02.2026 11:35 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Fabulous!

20.02.2026 10:43 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Blimey!

19.02.2026 10:46 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

YouTube video by NDTV Author Adrian Wolfson Warns Of ‘Second Genesis’ In New Book 'On The Future Of Species'

It was a great pleasure to be interviewed by #NDTV on the #Tech360 show by the brilliant host #AayushAilawadi where I discussed my new book #OnTheFutureOfSpecies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWHv...

16.02.2026 18:09 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Eponges ou cténophores ? Duel au plus profond du vivant pour le titre de premier animal La controverse secoue les spécialistes de l’arbre de la vie. Deux camps s’affrontent, avec chacun sa lignée marine favorite. D’un côté, la créature la plus sommaire du règne animal ; de l’autre, des p...

The sponge / ctenophores debate reaches Le Monde. www.lemonde.fr/sciences/art...

17.02.2026 08:57 — 👍 13 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

No evidence that haplodiploidy favors the evolution of eusociality | PNAS The potential role of haplodiploid sex determination in promoting the evolution of altruism and eusociality has been the subject of intense debate ...

📄 No evidence that haplodiploidy favors the evolution of eusociality 🐝🐜

⬇️
www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

16.02.2026 14:06 — 👍 23 🔁 13 💬 0 📌 2

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science Edge - Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon - was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds, writes Virginia Heffernan. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-lo...

Shudder… www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-bi...

15.02.2026 18:34 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

With a nice shout-out for our Genomic Code paper proposing that the genome instantiates a generative model of the organism www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

13.02.2026 11:43 — 👍 13 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 0

Congratulations to @arnausebe.bsky.social, Premi Ciutat de Barcelona 2025 in the category of Life Sciences and Medicine. The award ceremony will take place today at the historic Saló de Cent and was presided over by the Mayor of Barcelona. Full story: www.crg.eu/en/news/arna...

11.02.2026 07:52 — 👍 20 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Today, UCL turns 200. 🎉 For two centuries, our community has opened doors, challenged convention and pushed the boundaries of knowledge across every discipline. Thank you to everyone who’s been part of the UCL story, here’s to the next century. ✨

#UCL200 #LoveUCL

11.02.2026 08:04 — 👍 139 🔁 80 💬 3 📌 26

Phylogenetic Accuracy Under Non-Stationary and Non-Homogeneous Conditions: A Simulation Study Abstract. Phylogenetic inference typically assumes that the data has evolved under Stationary, Reversible and Homogeneous (SRH) conditions. Many empirical

Naser-Khdour et al. (2026-02, Systematic Biology) (open access)
Phylogenetic Accuracy Under Non-Stationary and Non-Homogeneous Conditions: A Simulation Study
doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

07.02.2026 07:45 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

THE WONDER OF LIFE ON EARTH - published today www.panmacmillan.com/authors/henr...

05.02.2026 07:10 — 👍 18 🔁 7 💬 2 📌 0

Generous praise (in passing) for The Tree of Life in the TLS.

04.02.2026 11:46 — 👍 10 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

CHSTM Research Seminar, 3 February 2026 Prof Matthew Cobb The life and times of Francis Crick, or why it sometimes matters who does science

If you're in Manchester this afternoon and fancy listening to me chuntering about Francis Crick and why it sometimes matters who does science, come along! Details here:

03.02.2026 11:04 — 👍 20 🔁 8 💬 1 📌 0

<i>Veneriserva pygoclava</i> There are many ways to become a parasite , and there are parasites with vastly different ancestries that end up joining the same path on th...

Wormception:
Veneriserva pygoclava is a worm with a name that translates into "Venus' servant" - but the truth is quite the opposite.
It is a polychaete worm that has evolved to live as a parasite inside the body of other polychaete worms.
#Invertebrate 🧪
dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2024/03/vene...

02.02.2026 21:46 — 👍 53 🔁 11 💬 2 📌 0

Are interphylum spiralian relationships resolvable? The phyla making up the major animal clade of Spiralia have been clear since the advent of molecular phylogenetics; the relationships between these spiralian phyla have not. The lack of consensus over the relationships between these important animal phyla might be a clue implying their emergence in an explosive radiation. Focusing on the five largest spiralian phyla (Annelida, Brachiopoda, Mollusca, Nemertea and Platyhelminthes) and using two phylogenomic datasets, we have applied site-bootstrapping and taxon-jackknifing to explore this example of taxonomic instability. Analyses on the 105 possible rooted trees relating them showed that interphylum branches are very short. Preference for rooting Spiralia on Platyhelminthes is a long-branch artefact. Most analyses on the 15 unrooted trees showed a preference for the same topology but the support over other solutions was non significant. We conclude that the spiralian phyla emerged in rapid succession resulting in a difficult to resolve radiation. The deep history we infer for Spiralia has wide ranging implications for our interpretation of Cambrian fossils and for the evolution of traits such as biomineralization, segmentation and larvae. Impact Statement Analyses of two independent phylogenomic datasets suggest an explosive radiation at the origin of Spiralia, with implications for understanding the group’s evolutionary history. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

New paper on @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social: Are interphylum spiralian relationships resolvable? doi.org/10.64898/202...

@maxjtelford.bsky.social and I tried answering this question with two independent phylogenomic datasets.

(1/7) 🧪

02.02.2026 17:03 — 👍 11 🔁 9 💬 2 📌 0

My book 'The Tree of Life' is currently only £3.99 on Kindle!

www.amazon.co.uk/Tree-Life-So...

02.02.2026 13:18 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

The bar for Valentine's day gestures has been raised very high by one Ealing local.

02.02.2026 10:50 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Nice to be in the New Scientist list of best new popular science books for 2026

02.02.2026 09:37 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Evolution of Nervous Systems Evolution of Nervous Systems, Third edition Four-volume set includes wholly new content, all chapters from the previous edition have been thoroughly u...

Jult published today, Feburary 1st 2026!! Check (if you are able) Volume 1; Chapter 4. A comprehensive look at the origin of bilaterian brains. (Volker Hartenstein, Simon G. Sprecher and Pedro Martinez). Of course, the rest is also brilliant! 😉. www.sciencedirect.com/referencewor...

01.02.2026 11:15 — 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

It was a great pleasure to talk about my book 'The Tree of Life' to Greg McNiff on his excellent podcast. You can listen here....

newbooksnetwork.com/the-tree-of-...

01.02.2026 12:27 — 👍 12 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

A Cambrian soft-bodied biota after the first Phanerozoic mass extinction - Nature The Huayuan biota exhibits extraordinary biodiversity, illuminating the impact of the Phanerozoic mass extinction around 513 million years ago and offering critical insights into the transformation of...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

28.01.2026 16:28 — 👍 9 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0

Tears of joy! SCOTLAND HAS JUST PASSED SWIFT BRICKS INTO LAW unanimously!
4 years of asking England & Scotland sorts it in a month led by ACE ⁦‪ MARK RUSKELL MSP‬⁩ ♥️The RELIEF is unreal! Tell England to follow 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿by emailing PlanningPolicyConsultation@communities.gov.uk now!WOOP!

27.01.2026 21:26 — 👍 1470 🔁 392 💬 84 📌 63

Read that as A.I. Gore. Mixed emotions.

28.01.2026 10:10 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Posts by Max Telford (@maxjtelford.bsky.social)