Tom Near
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tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near
@tjnear.bsky.social
570 followers 240 following 270 posts
Parent, husband, ichthyologist, professor, FirstGen, Chicagoan, New Havenite. www.nearlab.org/
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tjnear.bsky.social
Tom Near @tjnear.bsky.social · Jun 30
In this video I discuss the challenges of converting the ray-finned fish phylogeny into a taxonomy. I am quite critical of recent Linnaean rank efforts that create confusion and instability

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q66l...

Let me know what you think
Challenges & Solutions in Converting Phylogenies to Taxonomies in Ray-Finned Fishes (Actinopterygii)
YouTube video by Lead Line Down
www.youtube.com
tjnear.bsky.social
Εξοδος from USA to Ελλάδα. Wandering the Plaka and slope of Acropolis, Athens, Greece waiting for check in time at the hotel.
September 18, 2026 at 2:38 PM
tjnear.bsky.social
A giant & inspiration. Met when I was a grad student and as a post doc we were in a NCEAS working group. I told him I was interviewing for a faculty position at Yale. After getting the job, dept. chair said I had an unsolicited recommendation. I suspect he was the culprit. Thank you, Bob!
September 15, 2026 at 4:21 PM
tjnear.bsky.social
Packing up for a trip to Greece. Excited to exercise my humanities muscles!
September 15, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Tom Near
draliceclement.bsky.social
Oops, I hadn’t even shared a link to our latest paper…. “Hard-object feeding adaptations infer relative predator-prey size relationships in #Devonian #placoderms” from @theskullywaglab.bsky.social et al.
www.nature.com/articles/s41... published in Scientific Reports 🐟 🦷 🩻 #FEA
Hard-object feeding adaptations infer relative predator-prey size relationships in Devonian placoderms - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Hard-object feeding adaptations infer relative predator-prey size relationships in Devonian placoderms
www.nature.com
September 14, 2026 at 8:23 PM
tjnear.bsky.social
Woot Woot! Prof. Coughlan crushing it! #YaleEEB!
botsocamerica.bsky.social Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · 10d
🌿 Congratulations to Dr. Jenn Coughlan (Yale University), recipient of the 2026 BSA Emerging Leader Award! We're honored to recognize them as a rising star in our community. 👏

Learn more at www.botany.org (click Awards).

#BSA2026AwardsBlitz #IamaBotanist #PlantPeopleFTW
A portrait of Jennifer Coughlan wearing dark-framed glasses and a navy shirt patterned with cranes, pineapples, and blue flowers, smiling in front of a sunlit brick wall. The text reads: "Botanical Society of America 2026 Emerging Leader Award, Jennifer Coughlan, Yale University." A QR code and the text "Learn more about the Emerging Leader Award here!" appear at the bottom, along with the Botanical Society of America logo. The graphic has a border of pale green agave leaves.
September 14, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Tom Near
sirjoscha.bsky.social
1/4 🐢 What should fossil turtle systematics look like ten years from now?

Walter Joyce & I offer our personal answer in a new review paper: "Transforming Turtle Systematics: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Path Ahead"

Out now in @journalsystpal.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Figure 1 from our paper, highlighting turtle ecology across phylogeny
September 14, 2026 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Tom Near
botsocamerica.bsky.social
🌿 Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Leslie (Stanford University), the first-ever recipient of the BSA Mid-Career Excellence in Research Award! His work spans paleobotany, phylogenetics, & structural botany.

Learn more at www.botany.org (click Awards).

#BSA2026AwardsBlitz #IamaBotanist #PlantPeopleFTW
A portrait of Andrew Leslie wearing a gray button-up shirt over a teal collar, smiling in front of a sandstone building with greenery overhead. The text reads: "Botanical Society of America 2026 Mid-Career Excellence in Research Award, Andrew Leslie, Stanford University." A QR code and the text "Learn more about the Mid-Career Excellence in Research Award here!" appear at the bottom, along with the Botanical Society of America logo. The graphic has a border of green leaves.
September 14, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Tom Near
jmhuie.bsky.social
I heard you like clingfishes! Check out our new preprint on the evolution and ecomorphology of their adhesive discs and skull!

doi.org/10.64898/202...
A smattering of clingfish skulls visualized with CT scans
September 11, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Tom Near
neohibolites.bsky.social
Happy to see these results mirroring my thoughts on the subject. 🐟🧪

cichlidae.com/article.php?...
September 11, 2026 at 12:32 PM
tjnear.bsky.social
1/3 New preprint from #NearLab led by @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social Here we show species-rich freshwater fish adaptive radiations (notably cichlids, but also killifishes, pupfishes, and livebearers) were enabled by a shared mechanism: retained saltwater (marine salinity) tolerance
September 11, 2026 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Tom Near
taylorblack.bsky.social
SO PROUD! @brynnjohnson13.bsky.social’s paper on temp dependent competition in secondary contact zones in darters is ofFISHally out in @journal-evo.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
As an extra hurrah related to this work, I had the opportunity to paint a corresponding journal cover!
September 9, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Tom Near
sicbjournals.bsky.social
IOB

"While freshwater #sculpins (Cottidae, Perciformes) are usually #benthic, two genera in Lake Baikal, Comephorus and Cottocomephorus, have independently evolved into mid-water niches."

from
B A Gutierrez et al

doi.org/10.1093/iob/...

#science #pelagic #adaptations
Fig. 1 Benthic-to-pelagic transitions during the Baikal sculpin #adaptive radiation. (A) Bathymetric map of Lake Baikal [data from (De Batist et al. 2006 )]. (B) The adaptive radiation of the Baikal sculpins from a shallow benthic common ancestor into bathybenthic, ben- thopelagic, and #pelagic species. (C) Cladogram and skull reconstructions at optimum brightness for each scan from selected species of Baikal #sculpins. Red indicates pelagic (filled circle, Comephorus ) or benthopelagic (unfilled circle, Cottocomephorus ) species, gray indicates benthic species and black benthopelagic species. Cladogram and habitat associations adapted from ancestral state reconstructions in (Sandel et al. 2025 ). Skeleton brightness optimized for each scan. Scale bars in C represent 10 mm.
September 9, 2026 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Tom Near
lizmillermacroevo.bsky.social
Do you like snailfishes? lumpsuckers? clingfishes? New phylogeny dropped, and to toot our own horn it's really good!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
new phylogeny including snailfishes, lumpsuckers, rock-climbing gobies, and clingfishes showing forms of pelvic suction disc evolution
September 4, 2026 at 7:26 PM
tjnear.bsky.social
A great story. Congratulations, Prof. Lundelius

www.youtube.com/watch?v=93T7...
Ernie's Last Paper
YouTube video by The University of Texas at Austin
www.youtube.com
August 30, 2026 at 8:35 PM
tjnear.bsky.social
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins is running for governor of Alaska. He was not a biology major, but he took my ichthyology course about 15 years ago. He was a standout student and an outstanding person. He has my endorsement!

www.nytimes.com/2026/08/29/u...
One Democrat to Face Three Republicans for Alaska Governor (Gift Article)
The second-place finisher in a primary where the top four advance to the November ballot said he would drop out of the race so voters could coalesce behind a single Democratic candidate.
www.nytimes.com
August 30, 2026 at 6:38 PM
tjnear.bsky.social
Plant biologists take note!
August 30, 2026 at 2:09 PM
tjnear.bsky.social
1/11 🐟 2nd new preprint today from
@chasedbrownstein.bsky.social
We investigated how losing the swim bladder, the organ that most fishes use to control their buoyancy, has shaped the diversity of ray-finned fishes over 90 million years of Earth history. The results surprised us. 🧵
August 29, 2026 at 7:02 PM
tjnear.bsky.social
1/7 🐟🧬 New preprint! "The largest radiations of freshwater fishes initiated at the K-Pg boundary" Phylogeny of Otocephala: Clupeiformes, Alepeocephaliformes, & Ostariophysi 144 species, UCEs + whole genomes, Bayesian dating. 11,700+ species covered. Here is what we found 🧵👇
August 29, 2026 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Tom Near
cbo.bsky.social
Science is under direct political attack. But we cannot defend it with a naive fantasy of the science that we've inherited.

In @bostonreview.bsky.social's “How to Save Science” forum, I argue that “trust us, we’re scientists” is not a proper social contract.

www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-to...
August 26, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Tom Near
draliceclement.bsky.social
New #lungfish just dropped! Welcome to the world, Jumisodus latus, a #Devonian lungfish from the Famennian of #Latvia! Named for the Latvian figure 'Jumis', god of fertility and harvest, whose symbol represents the tooth plate outline in this new taxon...

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
A new Late Devonian dipnoan from the Ketleri Formation of Latvia
Dipnoans (lungfishes) reached their peak of taxonomic diversity and morphological disparity during the Devonian Period, followed by a pronounced decline in both thereafter. The Late Devonian (Famen...
www.tandfonline.com
August 25, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Tom Near
caseywdunn.bsky.social
My new book, Phylogenetic Biology, is now published. Available online for free at dunnlab.org/phylogenetic... . Physical copies can be purchased at shop.lightningsource.com/b/085?params... or your favorite bookstore.
August 25, 2026 at 1:32 PM
tjnear.bsky.social
This is a posting by my academic department a few months ago. Just seeing it now...because I was getting ready to move into our new house. Pictured alongside my great colleague and dear friend.

eeb.yale.edu/news/profess...
August 22, 2026 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Tom Near
cbo.bsky.social
1/8: 🚨New Paper🚨

"Structural causal influence captures the forces of social inequality in models of infectious disease."

Published in 'Biology Letters' (@royalsocietypublishing.org)

Coverage here:
www.santafe.edu/news-center/...

Paper link here:
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article...
August 20, 2026 at 6:37 AM
Reposted by Tom Near
thefishbotherer.bsky.social
New paper on saber-toothed blennies! Wherever we went we got bit by these feisty little #fishes so we started wondering what their whole deal was. We have 2 endemic Hawaiian species and we wanted to know where they came from. Many years and many more bites we finally have a bit of an answer. 🐟️ 🦑 🧪
Origins and relationships of endemic Hawaiian sabre‐toothed blennies in the genus <fi>Plagiotremus</fi> (Blennioidei: Blenniidae)
A deep dive into several species of Indo-Pacific fangblenny
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 17, 2026 at 6:38 PM