#morphospace

[callowaysinks]

This but in the context of Mike Levin's work on bioelectric patterning and how bodies know and forget their own shapes

https://www.youtube.com/live/TK2o_ObVt-E?si=DbQs3E2b-atAMssx

a wikipedia poem on software entropy

[mesmericmonad]

I think my somatic morphospace idea is possible...

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 3, 2025

Synaptic weight dynamics underlying memory consolidation: Implications for learning rules, circuit organization, and circuit function. Bhasin, B. J., Raymond, J. L., & Goldman, M. S. (2024). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(41), e2406010121.

Characterization of the temporal stability of ToM and pain functional brain networks carry distinct developmental signatures during naturalistic viewing. Bhavna, K., Ghosh, N., Banerjee, R., & Roy, D. (2024). Scientific Reports, 14, 22479.

Connectomic reconstruction predicts visual features used for navigation. Garner, D., Kind, E., Lai, J. Y. H., Nern, A., Zhao, A., Houghton, L., … Kim, S. S. (2024). Nature, 634(8032), 181–190.

Socialization causes long-lasting behavioral changes. Gil-Martí, B., Isidro-Mézcua, J., Poza-Rodriguez, A., Asti Tello, G. S., Treves, G., Turiégano, E., �� Martin, F. A. (2024). Scientific Reports, 14, 22302.

Neural pathways and computations that achieve stable contrast processing tuned to natural scenes. Gür, B., Ramirez, L., Cornean, J., Thurn, F., Molina-Obando, S., Ramos-Traslosheros, G., & Silies, M. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 8580.

Lack of optimistic bias during social evaluation learning reflects reduced positive self-beliefs in depression and social anxiety, but via distinct mechanisms. Hoffmann, J. A., Hobbs, C., Moutoussis, M., & Button, K. S. (2024). Scientific Reports, 14, 22471.

Causal involvement of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex in learning the predictability of observable actions. Kang, P., Moisa, M., Lindström, B., Soutschek, A., Ruff, C. C., & Tobler, P. N. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 8305.

A transient high-dimensional geometry affords stable conjunctive subspaces for efficient action selection. Kikumoto, A., Bhandari, A., Shibata, K., & Badre, D. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 8513.

Presaccadic Attention Enhances and Reshapes the Contrast Sensitivity Function Differentially around the Visual Field. Kwak, Y., Zhao, Y., Lu, Z.-L., Hanning, N. M., & Carrasco, M. (2024). eNeuro, 11(9), ENEURO.0243-24.2024.

Transformation of neural coding for vibrotactile stimuli along the ascending somatosensory pathway. Lee, K.-S., Loutit, A. J., de Thomas Wagner, D., Sanders, M., Prsa, M., & Huber, D. (2024). Neuron, 112(19), 3343-3353.e7.

Inhibitory plasticity supports replay generalization in the hippocampus. Liao, Z., Terada, S., Raikov, I. G., Hadjiabadi, D., Szoboszlay, M., Soltesz, I., & Losonczy, A. (2024). Nature Neuroscience, 27(10), 1987–1998.

Third-party punishment-like behavior in a rat model. Mikami, K., Kigami, Y., Doi, T., Choudhury, M. E., Nishikawa, Y., Takahashi, R., … Tanaka, J. (2024). Scientific Reports, 14, 22310.

The morphospace of the brain-cognition organisation. Pacella, V., Nozais, V., Talozzi, L., Abdallah, M., Wassermann, D., Forkel, S. J., & Thiebaut de Schotten, M. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 8452.

A Drosophila computational brain model reveals sensorimotor processing. Shiu, P. K., Sterne, G. R., Spiller, N., Franconville, R., Sandoval, A., Zhou, J., … Scott, K. (2024). Nature, 634(8032), 210–219.

Decision-making shapes dynamic inter-areal communication within macaque ventral frontal cortex. Stoll, F. M., & Rudebeck, P. H. (2024). Current Biology, 34(19), 4526-4538.e5.

Intrinsic Motivation in Dynamical Control Systems. Tiomkin, S., Nemenman, I., Polani, D., & Tishby, N. (2024). PRX Life, 2(3), 033009.

Coding of self and environment by Pacinian neurons in freely moving animals. Turecek, J., & Ginty, D. D. (2024). Neuron, 112(19), 3267-3277.e6.

The role of training variability for model-based and model-free learning of an arbitrary visuomotor mapping. Velázquez-Vargas, C. A., Daw, N. D., & Taylor, J. A. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(9), e1012471.

Rejecting unfairness enhances the implicit sense of agency in the human brain. Wang, Y., & Zhou, J. (2024). Scientific Reports, 14, 22822.

Impaired motor-to-sensory transformation mediates auditory hallucinations. Yang, F., Zhu, H., Cao, X., Li, H., Fang, X., Yu, L., … Tian, X. (2024). PLOS Biology, 22(10), e3002836.

[perkwunos]

Physicists are very comfortable with patterns arising from mathematical causes such as symmetries. Biologists instead typically land on one of two sources of patterns that are acceptable: heredity and environment. Heredity provides a long history, backed by selection via interaction with an external environment, of shaping a chemical medium (DNA) that is thought to explain why specific patterns (rather than alternatives) are observed. Many interesting questions exist about the origin of useful solutions – a pre-requisite for being able to select them from a pool of less useful ones, but here I want to focus on a source of order that pervades the living and non-living world: that studied by the discipline we call mathematics. … Consider the remarkable and beautiful (also life-like) pattern seen in the Halley plot kinds of fractals (Figure 6). That entire highly specific form is encoded in the very simple formula in complex numbers, and can be revealed by a simple algorithm. The fact that this highly complex pattern is indicated by a very short description of a function provides an un-ending richness from a small seed. I propose that it’s better to think of it not as a kind of infinite compression, but rather as the function serving as an index or a pointer into a morphospace of possible shapes. This idea will be developed further below, casting physical objects (such as embryos and biobots) as other types of pointers into the Platonic space. What sets the nature of this shape – where does it come from? There is no history of selection, no prior events in our universe that determine it. Like pi, e, and many other remarkable constants, forms emerge from mathematics in ways that cannot be explained by any kind of history or properties of the physical world – they would be this way even if the physical world was entirely different. … I argue that this breaks the closure of the physical world, as these mathematical facts impinge on physics and dynamics that are the substrate of evolution. It is a non-physicalist approach to the project of looking for sources of information and influence when we try to understand and guide biology (and the other disciplines that build on it).

Michael Levin, “Ingressing Minds: Causal Patterns Beyond Genetics and Environment in Natural, Synthetic, and Hybrid Embodiments”

[entomoblog]

Évolution convergente trouvée chez des centaines d'espèces de phasmes

See on Scoop.it - EntomoNews

Des chercheurs ont découvert que les phasmes développent des caractéristiques physiques différentes en fonction de la nature de leur habitat. Cette régularité permet de prédire l'évolution de ces insectes, à partir de vingt schémas identifiés.

  Les phasmes peuvent prendre 20 formes corporelles qui se répètent à travers l'évolution

Elodie Falco Publié le 30/12/2024 à 6h32

  Divergence time and environmental similarity predict the strength of morphological convergence in stick and leaf insects | PNAS, 23.12.2024 https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2319485121

  ------

NDÉ

Traduction

  Importance

Les phasmidés (insectes-bâtons et insectes-feuilles) illustrent le pouvoir extraordinaire de la sélection naturelle pour façonner les phénotypes des organismes. Les animaux eux-mêmes sont des exemples charismatiques de crypsis et de mascarade ; et notre caractérisation de leur radiation adaptative révèle des douzaines de cas de convergence, les lignées s'étant adaptées à des changements d'habitat similaires en développant à plusieurs reprises des formes corporelles similaires. Nos résultats montrent que la similitude des conditions environnementales rencontrées par les organismes - la proximité des niches envahies - et le temps écoulé depuis la divergence permettent de prédire la force de la convergence morphologique. La radiation des phasmidés révèle un processus évolutif étonnamment prévisible, même lorsque les lignées évoluent indépendamment depuis des dizaines de millions d'années.

Résumé

L'évolution indépendante de caractères similaires dans des lignées vivant dans des environnements similaires (évolution convergente ou répétée) est souvent considérée comme une preuve de l'adaptation par la sélection naturelle et utilisée pour illustrer la prévisibilité de l'évolution. Pourtant, la convergence est rarement parfaite pour deux raisons.

  Premièrement, les environnements peuvent ne pas être aussi similaires qu'ils le paraissent.

  Deuxièmement, les réponses à la sélection dépendent de la variation génétique disponible et des lignées indépendantes peuvent différer en ce qui concerne les allèles, les antécédents génétiques et même les mécanismes de développement responsables des phénotypes en question.

  Ces deux obstacles à la convergence sont censés augmenter avec le temps qui sépare deux lignées, ce qui rend difficile le discernement de leur importance relative.

  Nous avons quantifié la similarité environnementale et l'étendue de la convergence pour montrer comment l'habitat et le temps de divergence contribuent chacun aux schémas d'évolution morphologique observés chez 212 espèces d'insectes-bâtons et d'insectes-feuilles (ordre des Phasmatodea).

  Des dizaines de lignées de phasmidés ont colonisé indépendamment des habitats similaires, évoluant à plusieurs reprises dans des directions parallèles sur un morphospace à 23 traits, bien que l'ampleur et la direction de ces changements varient. Les lignées convergeant vers des environnements plus similaires se sont rapprochées sur la morphosphère, tout comme les lignées étroitement apparentées, et les lignées étroitement apparentées ont suivi des trajectoires d'évolution plus parallèles pour y parvenir que les lignées plus éloignées.

  Fait remarquable, après avoir pris en compte la similarité des habitats, nous montrons que le temps de divergence a réduit l'étendue de la convergence à un taux constant sur plus de 100 My de séparation, ce qui suggère que même l'ampleur de la contingence peut être prévisible, si l'on dispose d'un laps de temps suffisant.

  Traduit avec DeepL.com (version gratuite)

  [Image] A stick insect, not doing a very good job of looking like a stick.

Image credit: Mark Brandon/Shutterstock.com

  via "Extraordinary Power Of Natural Selection": Convergent Evolution Found In Hundreds Of Stick Insect Species | IFLScience, 31.12.2024 https://www.iflscience.com/extraordinary-power-of-natural-selection-convergent-evolution-found-in-hundreds-of-stick-insect-species-77430

[foggynightdonut]

Cambrian explosion is about disparity not diversity. In the Cambrian fossil record, morphological disparity precedes diversity.

What disparity means by Stephen C. Meyer: "the challenge Meyer makes. It’s about disparity, not diversity"

But again, that is not the challenge Meyer makes. It’s about disparity, not diversity. They can call it small, but the morphospace includes at least 20, and up to 30, new body plans, each distinctive, bearing complex systems like muscles, nerves, digestive systems, sensory systems, locomotion, and reproductive systems with no precursors in the Precambrian. They all appear suddenly. Where are the “intermediate taxa”? They are nowhere in the rock record, 158 years after Darwin had hoped they would be found.

So that’s the situation going on six years after Meyer’s challenge. Marshall tried a few practice punches after the book came out, but then left. Bloggers have hooted and hollered from the stands, nothing more. Meyer still stands alone in the ring. He wins by default.

cc: In the context of Stephen C. Meyer’s argument, “disparity” refers to significant differences or variations that exist between organisms or biological systems. Meyer’s challenge often focuses on the notion that the vast differences observed in the biological world—especially in the fossil record and in the complexity of life forms—pose a significant problem for certain evolutionary theories.

When Meyer says "It’s about disparity, not diversity," he is emphasizing that the core issue is not merely the variety of species or forms (diversity) but the profound and often abrupt differences (disparity) between major groups or types of organisms. For Meyer, these disparities—such as the sudden appearance of complex body plans in the Cambrian Explosion—are more challenging for naturalistic explanations than the mere existence of a wide range of species.

In summary, Meyer is highlighting that the striking differences in biological forms and structures (disparity) are a key focus of his argument, rather than just the fact that there are many different species (diversity).

[covenawhite66]

Mycelia are made up of thousands of interconnected, microscopic, finger-like cells called hyphae that grow into vast networks called.

Hyphae collects water at nutrients. The reason for the different shapes of Hyphae that exist in nature is because they allow faster growth than the Hyphae shapes evolution rejected.

Morphology typically affects many critical functions that cells perform. The study looks at the morphology of tip growing cells and how they could have evolved differently "Theoretical morphospace,”

[excessively-english-jd]

I just want to point out that they are currently being misleading about the conservation aspect. Articles keep claiming they have cloned 15 red wolves, but according to their website, they have not.

They have cloned "ghost wolves", which are a coyote population with high red wolf content. They used the phrase "within red wolf morphospace" which means... basically that they think they look enough like red wolves. They say they've done this to try and introduce diverse genetics, which is going to be happening much further down the line after more genetic tinkering and selective breeding, from what I can tell.

There is a carefully managed population of 270 red wolves, descended from 14 individuals. This is a similar number to the Przewalski's horse, which has had great success in population increase and rewilding. While Colossal's project sounds good in theory, I do question how necessary or helpful it truly is.

I really do not trust this company as far as I can throw them. With the recent outlandish claims full of bad science (pretending we don't define species genetically???) I am starting to really doubt any claims of aiding conservation, at least in any meaningful way.

So can we vote for Dire wolves now? (I know they are grey wolf based hybrids including jackle, red wolf, timber wolf, and artic fox dna arcoding to some sources idk how accurate that entire list is so please correct me) but still 😂

Nah, those aren’t Dire Wolves, sorry. 😅

What Colossal Biosciences did was examine some Dire Wolf (Aenocyon dirus) DNA and edited 14 genes of Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) DNA to match it. They even made sure to make the animals white, using a coat coloration gene expressed in Domestic Dogs, because they believe Dire Wolves would have been white (based on no published evidence; Dire Wolves were a temperate species and their coloration was more likely similar to jackals or Dholes).

DNA contains millions of genes. You can not make 20 changes in only 14 genes and have a whole other species, let alone a whole other genus.

Despite what the company is claiming, Gray Wolves are not the closest relatives of Dire Wolves, which we know from a (peer-reviewed) DNA study done in 2021. They are more close to jackals, African Wild Dogs, and Dholes than they are to wolves. Despite being around the same size, they do not share “99.5%” of the DNA of Gray Wolves; there are hundreds of thousands of genetic differences between the species.

What Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi are are three Gray Wolves that have been genetically modified to look like pop culture “Dire Wolves” from a TV Show. They do not contain any Dire Wolf DNA and they can not and will not fill the same niche that Dire Wolves did.

Apparently, Colossal is doing legit conservation work alongside their clickbait-y work, and they use the sensationalized concepts to get funding from rich idiots and celebrities. If they can get some Elon-Musk-awesomebro-type to fund their “Dire Wolf de-extinction”, they can use that money to clone critically endangered Red Wolves (Canis rufus) on the side.

Personally, I do not trust them. What they’re doing is shady and irresponsible, and even if it’s bringing in money for conservation it’s still misleading and misinforming the public about how DNA works and about how irreversible extinction actually is. It’s taking money that could be used to save the animals we still have, and instead using it to make a hairy Asian Elephant and claim that it’s a Mammoth.

[anarchist-caravan]

The Thing’ s metaplasticity does not open spaces of possibilities, but closes them into the empty exile of its anarchical trajectivity. It does not explore morphospaces, but capriciously interrupts the flux of becoming and thus blocks the possibility of a morphospace. It fixes a totalitarian plane of consistence by acting as the definitive attractor—or black hole—for any possible or impossible form, opening a portal into a speculative universe where chaos-time and ordered forms coexist folded in quantum simultaneity. Since The Thing exists, all existing and non-existing forms are submitted to it. The Thing works as an un-forming device, imposing a radical openness that creates an abstract fugue-state, a final exit from form that “evades language, reshapes subjectivity, and, finally, establishes itself as that most familiar thing—the body”.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     The abstraction of a form is a formula—etymologically, a minor form. In our case, it is an alchemical recipe for contingent transmutation, for abject creation of a body. Clay or mud are not suitable feedstock for flesh. Every flesh-creating machine requires a bloody sacrifice: information is not enough. The humans in the film react to The Thing as they would to a common contagious disease, applying the same principle of geographic quarantine that, for millennia, has seemed adequate to prevent the expansion of plague outbursts. Yet The Thing does not behave as a typical infectious or parasitic agent. It hides into everybody’s nowhere. Perhaps it would be better to see it as an esolang “doing life in a way it has never been done before”, ,  trying to re-allocate life “to the sole thing that knows how to use it effectively, to the Shoggoth-summoning regenerative anomalization of fate, to the runaway becoming of such infinite plasticity that nature warps and dissolves before it. To The Thing .  To Capitalism.”

GERMÁN SIERRA

[harpagornis]

Multituberculate Earth: A world without lizards

The basic thesis of this project is to illustrate that groups we take for granted are only with us out of happenstance. Multituberculates instead of placentals and marsupials is a good display of this, but I went one step further. In this timeline, the last lizards died in the PETM, though snakes lived on.

Lizards were actually strongly impacted by the KT event. Many groups, like the famous marine mosasaurs and the weird chewing polyglyphanodonts, simply couldn’t make it anymore than non-avian dinosaurs did, ad those groups that did survive were highly affected. Indeed, in our timeline it took ten million years for lizard diversity to approach anything close to the condition prior to the asteroid impact.

They were also insanely lucky at that. Because at least two other groups of tetrapods encroached into lizard-like niches:

The sphenodonts, the other main group within Lepidosauria, started the Mesozoic great but declined across the Cretaceous, likely victims to the biotic turnovers induced by the spread of flowering plants. However, the Late Cretaceous of South America still held a large diversity of species both within Opisthodontia and the tuatara-line, with one even making it to the Paleocene. There’s also a possible sphenodont from the Paleocene of Morocco, showing that non-tuatara sphenodonts were fairly widespread until relatively recently. Indeed, a recent study shows that they at no point competed directly with squamates, occupying an unique place in the lepidosaur morphospace, so other factors must be at play for their diversity fluctuations.

The allocaudates are a group of amphibians with uncertain affinities (they’re not closely related to frogs and salamanders for one) which in our timeline lived until surpirisingly recently, in the Italian Pleistocene. They are covered with scales and at least some forms had chameleon-like tongues, so they were clearly more functionally similar to lizards than to moren amphibians like salamanders.

In our timeline, we just missed allocaudates before they went extinct (unless they’re hiding in some baraccopoli) and sphenodonts are currently represented only by a single species in New Zealand, the tuatara. They clearly missed a window of opportunity, especially since both groups were more diverse in the Paleocene.

In this timeline, this window is not wasted and both allocaudates and sphenodonts capitalize on small sized ectothermic niches, the latter doing so for the first time. Allocaudates aggressively spread across the north hemisphere while sphenodontians do so across the southern continents, with Afro-Arabia being a “middle ground” since both lineages were present there and then. Lizards cannot bounce back with so many other dry-skinned cold blooded gremlins walking about, and soon they are not an awful enough shape to die out in the PETM; whatever few forms remains will not pass the Grand Coupure.

The Eocene was thus a golden age for both sphenodontians and allocaudates; in the warm rainforest world, they quickly became cosmopolitan either due to land bridges or simply by rafting like most reptiles and amphibians do, though there was still clear faunal provincialism between the hemispheres. Broadly speaking sphenodontians came to occupy niches more associated with “robust” lizards like skinks and acrodonts while allocaudates came into a variety of niches akin to lacertids, geckoes, varanids and chameleons, though both groups have played at ome of the other’s roles particularly on isolated landmasses where the other group’s diversity was lower. Eocene forms could grow to enormous sizes, some sphenodontians occupying large herbivorous niches while some Komodo dragon sized allocaudates inspired terror in the forest floors.

The Grand Coupure brought about several losses, particularly of the Eocene giants, but both groups remain diverse across the planet. For now, the Oligocene retains mostly just small sized survivors, but as it progresses conditions become more suitable for new breeds of dragons…

In spite of all this, one lineage of squamates remains. Snakes were the only squamates to diversify early on the Cenozoic in response to mammalian and bird prey, and as such they remain here, gladly doing what they do best.

[typhlonectes]

Evolutionary pressures of aerial insectivory reflected in anurognathid pterosaurs

Alexander D. Clark, David W.E. Hone

Abstract

Across the evolution of powered flight, the ecological niche of aerial insectivore has been occupied by members of the three volant vertebrate clades—Aves and Chiroptera, and the first known volant vertebrates, pterosaurs.

However, morphological and quantitative evidence to support pterosaurs exhibiting this ecology remains scant. Anurognathids are an unusual group of pterosaurs in which the skull exhibits the unique morphology of being mediolaterally expanded, so much so that their skulls may be wider than rostrocaudally long. 

Here, we conduct quantitative comparative cranial measurements and dental morphology in anurognathids against extant avian and chiropteran taxa, respectively, with ecologies and behaviors that are similar to predicted putative behaviors of anurognathids. Comparative analyses of both skull and dental morphology suggest anurognathid specimens in similar morphospaces as insectivorous crepuscular and nocturnal extant volant taxa. 

Our results support that this unique group of pterosaurs likely occupied a niche of mid-flight insectivorous capture in low-light conditions.

Read the paper here: 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.13814

[techonologiemedia-blog]

Une extinction de masse est régie par la «morphospace»

Une extinction de masse est régie par la «morphospace»

Une théorie nous dit qu’après une extinction massive, un événement dans lequel la diversité des espèces est considérablement réduite, la nature devrait rebondir avec une vague de créativité.

Une extinction massive devrait permettre à la nature de rebondir

Les espèces devraient proliférer rapidement pour remplir les écosystèmes désolés, ce que l’on appelle le rayonnement adaptatif. Les archives…

[neurosciborg]

In my opinion, many overestimate the likely complexity of the programs it will take to shift high computational networks to greater autonomy—which is the key to greater sociability.

[evoldir]

Fwd: Graduate Position: UHelsinki.CompPhylogenetics

Begin forwarded message: > From: evoldir@evol.biology.mcmaster.ca > Subject: Graduate Position: UHelsinki.CompPhylogenetics > Date: 10 February 2021 at 07:48:14 GMT > To: rdmpage@gmail.com > > > > Finnish Museum of Natural History is looking for a > > DOCTORAL STUDENT > > to join Tarasov Lab for a 3-year fixed-term full-time PhD position in > comparative phylogenetics. The starting date can be negotiated and will > take place July-October 2021. > > The University of Helsinki (https://ift.tt/1HpYzhq) is an > international scientific community of 40,000 students and researchers. It > is one of the key multidisciplinary research universities in Europe > and ranks among the top 100 international universities in the world. > The Finnish Museum of Natural History (https://ift.tt/2xF7vGb), which > is part of the University of Helsinki, is a leading unit of systematic > and evolutionary biology in Finland and a host to a vibrant community > of researchers.  We are looking for a highly motivated doctoral student > to join the research group of Dr. Sergei Tarasov and a broad network of > collaborators. You will work on a project, funded through the three-year > research grant program of the University of Helsinki. In your role as > a doctoral student you will aim at (i) developing a new phylogenetic > method for reconstructing ancestral species ranges, and (ii) assessing > the range evolution in the context of ecological and multidimensional > phenotypic data. The latter will also require developing a new approach > for modeling diffusion in hyperdimensional morphospace.  You will work > in tight collaboration with the Labขs ongoing project on evolution > of Malagasy dung beetles. The appointee will be encouraged to commit > short visits to our collaborators abroad and will participate in the > supervision of undergraduate students.  This interdisciplinary project > is an exciting opportunity to conduct research on statistical modeling, > evolution and biosystematics. > > ABOUT YOU > A successfull candidate should have: > - MSc degree (or equivalent) in biology, computer science, statistics, >  bioinformatics or a related field > - strong background/interest in phylogenetics, computer science or >  computational biology > - motivation to develop and apply new phylogenetic methods > - Good written and oral communication skills in English > > The following skills are considered advantageous but are not required: > - Programming in R > - Good understanding of statistics and stochastic processes > - Research experience and publications > > Applicants are expected to acquire the doctoral student status > in the Doctoral Programme in Wildlife Biology at the University > of Helsinki during the standard 6-month probationary period > (https://ift.tt/2Z5KlnC). > > ABOUT US > You will work together with the projectขs Principal Investigator and the > collaborators. You will be responsible for the theoretical and applied > research, data analysis, writing research articles and participation in > academic conferences. > > The salary is based on the demands level chart for teaching and research > personnel in the salary system of the Finnish universities. Doctoral > students typically start from level 2 and advance to level 3, when > the research work and studies have advanced according to the plan > and the publication work has begun, and eventually to level 4, when > the time to completing the thesis is about one year. In addition, > the appointee will be paid a salary component based on personal work > performance. In total, the starting gross salary of a doctoral student > is typically about 2200-2400 EUR per month.  The University of Helsinki > offers comprehensive services to its employees, including occupational > health care and health insurance, sports facilities, and opportunities > for professional development. The International Staff Services office > (https://ift.tt/2fy4dHd) > assists employees from abroad with their transition to work and life > in Finland.  Please submit your application through the University > of Helsinki Recruitment System via the link Apply for the position > (https://ift.tt/371HMrf). > Applicants who are employees of the University of Helsinki are requested > to submit their application via the SAP HR portal, saphr.it.helsinki.fi. > > The attachment required for the application include (in a single > pdf-file): > - Cover letter describing motivation and research interests (max. 1 >  page) > - CV, publication list included > - Contact details of two potential referees. > > The closing date for applications is March 10th, 2021 (23:59 EET). > > For more information about the position, please contact the PI Sergei > Tarasov: > Email:sergei.tarasov@helsinki.fi > Lab Website:https://ift.tt/3a6309r > > For more information on Doctoral Programme in Wildlife Biology, please see > https://ift.tt/36YqOtZ... > > Cheers, Sergei > > > Sergei Tarasov, Ph.D. > Curator of Coleoptera (beetles) > FinnishMuseum of Natural History(LUOMUS) > P.O. Box 17 (Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13) > FI-00014 University of Helsinki > Phone: +358 294128853 > Email: sergei.tarasov@helsinki.fi > Website: https://ift.tt/3a6309r > > "Tarasov, Sergei" > via IFTTT

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Alethoalaornis agitornis

By Scott Reid on @drawingwithdinosaurs

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Name: Alethoalaornis agitornis

Name Meaning: True Wing Bird 

First Described: 2007

Described By: Li et al. 

Classification: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostylia, Ornithothoraces, Enantiornithes

Alethoalaornis is a poorly discussed Enantiornithine from the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, China, living approximately 120 million years ago, in the Aptian age of the Late Cretaceous. It is known from a complete skeleton and some other specimens, and it was very similar to Enantiornis. It also had fairly thick wing bones, indicating a more robust wing structure than other Enantiornithines. However, its morphospace with regards to the wing - meaning its morphology - indicates that it was more of a gliding bird, able to produce powerful flaps and then glide for most of its aerial movement. Otherwise it had very typical features compared to other birds in its formation, and would have been a typical member of the Jehol Biota. It was probably killed due to volcanic activity. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiufotang_Formation

http://www.paleofile.com/Dinosaurs/Aves/Alethoalaornis.asp

Li L., D. Hu, Y. Duan, E. Gong, L. Hou. 2007. Alethoalaornithidae fam. nov.: a new family of enantiornithine bird from the Lower Cretaceous of western Liaoning. Acta Palaeontological Sinica 46: 365 - 372. 

O’Connor, J., L. M. Chiappe. 2011. A revision of enantiornithine (Aves: Ornithothoraces) skull morphology. Journal of Systematic Paleontology 9 (1): 135 - 157. 

Wang X., A. J. McGowan, G. J. Dyke. 2011. Avian Wing Proportions and Flight Styles: First Step towards Predicting the Flight Modes of Mesozoic Birds. PLoS ONE 6 (12): e28672. 

Wang X., Z. Zihui. 2011. Enantiornithine Birds in China. Acta Palaeontological Sinica 85 (6): 1211 - 1223. 

Shout out goes to @smo108!

[biojournalclub-blog]

Species diversity vs. morphological disparity in the light of evolutionary developmental biology

A. Minelli, Annals of Botany (2016).

Background: Two indicators of a clade’s success are its diversity (number of included species) and its disparity (extent of morphospace occupied by its members). Many large genera show high diversity with low disparity, while others such as Euphorbia and Drosophila are highly diverse but also exhibit high disparity. The largest genera are often characterized by key innovations that often, but not necessarily, coincide with their diagnostic apomorphies. In terms of their contribution to speciation, apomorphies are either permissive (e.g. flightlessness) or generative (e.g. nectariferous spurs).

Scope Except for Drosophila, virtually no genus among those with the highest diversity or disparity includes species currently studied as model species in developmental genetics or evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). An evo-devo approach is, however, potentially important to understand how diversity and disparity could rapidly increase in the largest genera currently accepted by taxonomists. The most promising directions for future research and a set of key questions to be addressed are presented in this review.

Conclusions From an evo-devo perspective, the evolution of clades with high diversity and/or disparity can be addressed from three main perspectives: (1) evolvability, in terms of release from previous constraints and of the presence of genetic or developmental conditions favouring multiple parallel occurrences of a given evolutionary transition and its reversal; (2) phenotypic plasticity as a facilitator of speciation; and (3) modularity, heterochrony and a coupling between the complexity of the life cycle and the evolution of diversity and disparity in a clade. This simple preliminary analysis suggests a set of topics that deserve priority for scrutiny, including the possible role of saltational evolution in the origination of high diversity and/or disparity, the predictability of morphological evolution following release from a former constraint, and the extent and the possible causes of a positive correlation between diversity and disparity and the complexity of the life cycle.

link to paper