Alex Skeels
ARC DECRA Fellow based at the Australian National University - Ngunnawal & Ngambri /Canberra 🐨 Evolution of Biodiversity 🌸🌏🏵️ He/Him
website: alexskeels.github.io
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsProud to have been one of the 9,200 people who submitted that name to the contest. Lol blockclubchicago.org/2026/01/28/a...
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- Reposted by Alex Skeels🌼🎨 From the upcoming #AJB Special Issue: “Paradigm Shifts in #Flower Color." 🎨🌼 Flower clades & fruit clades: Trade-offs in color diversification across angiosperms New research by Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong, Leah Maier, Stacey Smith & Agnes Dellinger doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience
- Reposted by Alex Skeelsrspatialdata: a repository of spatial datasets & tutorials for spatial analysis & visualization in #rstats, supporting real-world applications such as estimating air pollution, quantifying disease burden, and monitoring progress toward the SDGs🌍💻📊 👉 rspatialdata.github.io
- This scans
- Bonkers! @jasonclaremp.bsky.social, this is completely untenable for early career researchers. Losses in time from security checks need to be made up in other areas of the review process.
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsWe've just created an exciting new Phylogenomics Botanist role to join our vibrant team at Botanic Gardens of Sydney and help us build the NSW Plant Tree of Life! Applications close 26 Jan 2026: iworkfor.nsw.gov.au/job/phylogen... #botanicgardens #nswflora #nswptol #phylogenomics
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- Reposted by Alex Skeels⁉️The ARC has delayed outcomes of ALL grants 1–4 months & increased scheduled outcome windows from 2 weeks to 3 months! This reverses 4 years of progress in providing greater certainty & ability to plan for researchers, their families & unis. Their excuse? Security checks under new ARC legislation👇
- Huge!
- New paper out! 🐦📊 We realease AVONICHE, a global dataset with detailed information on the proportional use of 32 foraging niches, combining dietary categories with the behaviours and substrates used to access resources. Openly access the paper and data in GEB: doi.org/10.1111/geb....
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsNew paper out! 🐦📊 We realease AVONICHE, a global dataset with detailed information on the proportional use of 32 foraging niches, combining dietary categories with the behaviours and substrates used to access resources. Openly access the paper and data in GEB: doi.org/10.1111/geb....
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsA data collection mission that began in 2012 is finally released as AVONICHE. Designed as a companion to AVONET bird trait database and updated to Avilist taxonomy, it’s an Open Access dataset providing updated diets and a detailed breakdown of foraging behaviours used by all bird species. 🪶🌐
- New paper out! 🐦📊 We realease AVONICHE, a global dataset with detailed information on the proportional use of 32 foraging niches, combining dietary categories with the behaviours and substrates used to access resources. Openly access the paper and data in GEB: doi.org/10.1111/geb....
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsThe 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing #academicSky theconversation.com/the-5-stages...
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- Reposted by Alex SkeelsLast Thursday @palaeoverse.bsky.social I shared some of our recent projects, exploring the application of phylogenetic methods and the exciting new wave of Bayesian diversification models. #paleobiology #paleontology #macroevolution youtu.be/vd-E4E6iFNg?...
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- Reposted by Alex SkeelsAnyone looking for a Australia-based postdoc? Like animal behaviour / coding / birds? My fantastic collaborator, Iliana Medina, is advertising a position researching bird nests: unimelb.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/UoM_Ex...
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- Reposted by Alex SkeelsWe'll be hosting a joint Crossing the Palaeontological–Ecological Gap (CPEG) meeting & Conservation Paleobiology Symposium @ucl.ac.uk in London in August 2027, which aims to bridge spatial and temporal gradients between palaeontology, ecology, and conservation: www.ucl.ac.uk/mathematical...
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsCheck out our review/perspective piece on phylogenetic diversification analysis, intended for the 75th anniversary of @systbiol.bsky.social. I had the privilege of working with great coauthors, @fhenaodiaz.bsky.social, @tvasconcelos.bsky.social and @roszenil.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1093/sysb...
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsTrue toads (Bufonidae) originated in South America and invaded Africa via the Antarctic in the Cenozoic! (which was temperate/sub-tropical at the time). Super cool. 🐸🐸🐸 royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsPutting on my hat as @asn-amnat.bsky.social ASN President for a minute for a string of announcements, please share widely!!! 1. Student research awards are open for applications, to fund research expenses for 10 graduate students ($2000 each) nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
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- Reposted by Alex SkeelsWhile birds and bats both developed adaptations for flight, the way they went about it is so fundamentally different it affects their possible ecological adaptation. Specifically, birds can easily shift to a walking lifestyle, bats can't. 🧪 Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsCheck out our new preprint, led by @melinaleite.bsky.social “Dispersion tests in generalised linear mixed-effects models - a methods comparison and practical guide” ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
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- Reposted by Alex Skeels"Here we show substantial declines in the rates of collection of specimen data over recent decades, from analysis of over 150 million records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) spanning more than two centuries" www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪 #Macroecology #EvoBio #Paleobio
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- Reposted by Alex Skeels🚨 #DECRA #DE26 announcement: ❗️Outcomes announced publicly for Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2026❗️ See ARC's RMS for list ➡️ rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/Download… /bot
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- Reposted by Alex SkeelsI’ve released a tool to sketch and edit phylogenetic trees! yawak.jp/PhyloWeaver/ Load a Newick file and intuitively add/remove/resize branches. Useful for quick conceptual trees, extracting subtrees, or turning ideas into Newick.
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsKissing evolved at least 21 million years ago. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @matildabrindle.bsky.social
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- Not this again...
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- Reposted by Alex SkeelsJust gonna put this here for now www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... bsky.app/profile/jlst...
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsHot off the press! From the PhD thesis of @lopezreyeska.bsky.social where we explored the connection between biogeographic processes and climatic niche dynamics in spiny lizards 👇
- Interested in the biogeography of lizards?🦎 We studied the historical biogeography of Sceloporus lizards and the link between their dispersal and climatic niches 🌎🌦️ @fabrovillalobos.bsky.social @ndimhypervol.bsky.social @biojlinnsoc.bsky.social Learn more here 👇: academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsVery happy to finally see this out in @pnas.org. Great work (masterfully) led by my dear friend @gabrielmoulatlet.bsky.social on a classic question on range sizes, climatic niches and dominance for plants at the global scale! Thanks for the collab, Gabriel!
- in "General laws of biodiversity: Climatic niches predict plant range size and ecological dominance globally", we provide key insights into species’ vulnerability to environmental change and the processes that structure biodiversity at global scales. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by Alex Skeelsin "General laws of biodiversity: Climatic niches predict plant range size and ecological dominance globally", we provide key insights into species’ vulnerability to environmental change and the processes that structure biodiversity at global scales. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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- Reposted by Alex SkeelsPhylogeny of tinamous based on whole-genomes and fossils: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... 🪶🧪 (📷Musher et al.)
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsMost major theories in ecology assume some sort of equilibrium, but only ~half of empirical tests acknowledge it & even fewer observed it in their system. Does this matter? How did the idea become so pervasive in ecology anyway? Find out in our new paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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- RIP 😢 I remember spending hours and hours on this site as an undergrad.
- The end of an era: the Tree of Life Web Project is going dark after 3 decades. Anyone interested in communicating phylogeny online should read David's account of goals, history, and future. @bembidion.bsky.social subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...
- Reposted by Alex SkeelsOur new @science.org paper is out! Cuckoos and hosts are locked in a coevolutionary arms race over egg mimicry. But how are these egg types inherited, and could this drive speciation? We sequenced hundreds of genomes to find out! doi.org/10.1126/scie... 🧵1/6
- Reposted by Alex Skeels#PCM folks: What tools are out there for forward-in-time simulation under historical biogeography models (e.g., DEC) that include simulation of both range and lineage dynamics?
