I'm looking at Huehnergard & Rubin's "Phyla and Waves", which is very helpful, but it doesn't seem to mention any specific attempts to wave-ify Semitic.
October 14, 2026 at 4:33 AM
I'm looking at Huehnergard & Rubin's "Phyla and Waves", which is very helpful, but it doesn't seem to mention any specific attempts to wave-ify Semitic.
What a beautiful world, where the walls between kingdoms and phyla and genera and species are broken down, where anything can become anything else, and yet we must destroy it
October 12, 2026 at 11:56 AM
What a beautiful world, where the walls between kingdoms and phyla and genera and species are broken down, where anything can become anything else, and yet we must destroy it
Another lil' guy for the pile. This one is 「GHOST OF A CHANCE」; a Guardian Spirit for my oracle girl Phyla. She's a young orphan girl who talks to ghost so she can cheat at fortune reading. Phyla art by LumiMellow. linktr.ee/lumimellow
The Spirit was initially a plush toy that came to life #PixelArt
The Spirit was initially a plush toy that came to life #PixelArt
October 11, 2026 at 4:09 PM
Another lil' guy for the pile. This one is 「GHOST OF A CHANCE」; a Guardian Spirit for my oracle girl Phyla. She's a young orphan girl who talks to ghost so she can cheat at fortune reading. Phyla art by LumiMellow. linktr.ee/lumimellow
The Spirit was initially a plush toy that came to life #PixelArt
The Spirit was initially a plush toy that came to life #PixelArt
Jonathan Bailey as Nova (Richard Rider) would be fun.
Build up to Annihilis and the Annihilation Wave. Use Nova and a new Guardians of the Galaxy roster (Star Lord, Adam Warlock, Moondragon, Phyla-Vell, Rocket Raccoon and Groot) to really establish the Cosmic side of the MCU before Annihilus comes.
Build up to Annihilis and the Annihilation Wave. Use Nova and a new Guardians of the Galaxy roster (Star Lord, Adam Warlock, Moondragon, Phyla-Vell, Rocket Raccoon and Groot) to really establish the Cosmic side of the MCU before Annihilus comes.
October 11, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Jonathan Bailey as Nova (Richard Rider) would be fun.
Build up to Annihilis and the Annihilation Wave. Use Nova and a new Guardians of the Galaxy roster (Star Lord, Adam Warlock, Moondragon, Phyla-Vell, Rocket Raccoon and Groot) to really establish the Cosmic side of the MCU before Annihilus comes.
Build up to Annihilis and the Annihilation Wave. Use Nova and a new Guardians of the Galaxy roster (Star Lord, Adam Warlock, Moondragon, Phyla-Vell, Rocket Raccoon and Groot) to really establish the Cosmic side of the MCU before Annihilus comes.
October 13, 2026 at 2:11 AM
"The Cambrian explosion is an interval of time beginning approximately 538.8 million years ago in the Cambrian period [...]. The fossil record of this period contains the first appearances of practically every animal phyla, implying that nearly all animal life has its origin during this radiation."
October 10, 2026 at 2:46 AM
"The Cambrian explosion is an interval of time beginning approximately 538.8 million years ago in the Cambrian period [...]. The fossil record of this period contains the first appearances of practically every animal phyla, implying that nearly all animal life has its origin during this radiation."
Toda su familia es blanca. Mar-Vell, Phyla-Vell...
October 6, 2026 at 4:04 PM
Toda su familia es blanca. Mar-Vell, Phyla-Vell...
I found the big textural differences between phyla unintuitive, so went down a rabbit hole. If I understood what I found, the key facts are a) that most eukaryote DNA isn't coding proteins at all and b) H Joel Jeffrey invented these cool viz in 1989 (see next post). They puzzled ppl then too.
Visualising the distribution of substrings in the genomes of different organisms.
Going up to depth eight by recursively splitting into quadrants, we get these fractal-like pictures.
Going up to depth eight by recursively splitting into quadrants, we get these fractal-like pictures.
October 3, 2026 at 3:26 PM
I found the big textural differences between phyla unintuitive, so went down a rabbit hole. If I understood what I found, the key facts are a) that most eukaryote DNA isn't coding proteins at all and b) H Joel Jeffrey invented these cool viz in 1989 (see next post). They puzzled ppl then too.
Reminds me of one of my professors' challenges when learning marine invertebrate diversity: try to pick animals representing five phyla you'd eat in a stew.
How much of the tree of life did you eat? Phylodiet scores a meal by phylogenetic diversity: type what you ate and it builds the dated tree of the organisms in it, from ~3,300 edible eukaryotes, back 2 billion years. Last night's dinner, below. 🧵
mjhickerson.github.io/phylodiet/app/phylodiet.html
mjhickerson.github.io/phylodiet/app/phylodiet.html
October 2, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Reminds me of one of my professors' challenges when learning marine invertebrate diversity: try to pick animals representing five phyla you'd eat in a stew.
THATS WHAT I'M SAYING.
For reference, only one "Phylum" (one level below Kingdom) contains Vertebrates, the Chordates.
These are all (or most) animal phyla.
Yeah, the term's fucked up, I hate it 💀
For reference, only one "Phylum" (one level below Kingdom) contains Vertebrates, the Chordates.
These are all (or most) animal phyla.
Yeah, the term's fucked up, I hate it 💀
October 1, 2026 at 11:42 PM
THATS WHAT I'M SAYING.
For reference, only one "Phylum" (one level below Kingdom) contains Vertebrates, the Chordates.
These are all (or most) animal phyla.
Yeah, the term's fucked up, I hate it 💀
For reference, only one "Phylum" (one level below Kingdom) contains Vertebrates, the Chordates.
These are all (or most) animal phyla.
Yeah, the term's fucked up, I hate it 💀
More poppies, phacelia and phyla nodiflora please
October 1, 2026 at 3:23 AM
More poppies, phacelia and phyla nodiflora please
Synergy between Enterobacteriaceae and diet mediates competition between dominant Bacteroidales in the human gut
->Nature | More on "Gut microbiota and dietary glycans" at BigEarthData.ai
->Nature | More on "Gut microbiota and dietary glycans" at BigEarthData.ai
Synergy between Enterobacteriaceae and diet mediates competition between dominant Bacteroidales in the human gut
To investigate the specific factors that drive the predominance of Prevotellaceae within a bacterial gut community, we designed a synthetic commensal community comprising 21 human gut isolates representing the 4 major phyla of the human microbiota (Fig. 1a and Supplementary Table 1; see Methods). We tested a total of 94 dietary components, including 79 complex dietary glycans from diverse sources for their effect on gut community structure and composition (Fig. 1b). We included 15 essential vitamins into our analysis due to their potential influence on bacterial competition in the gut community22. The community was grown in modified Gifu anaerobic medium (mGAM), a rich medium where the main defined carbohydrate sources are starch (0.5%) and glucose (0.05%). The glycans were added to mGAM at a concentration range of 0.04–0.2%, and the vitamins were added at their specific physiological supplementation ranges in dietary interventions (Supplementary Table 2; see Methods). The communities were first assembled in mGAM, and the relative abundance of each member was quantified using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing at the initial timepoint (Input) and at passage 3 (P3) once the community had stabilized. Bacteroidaceae (represented by 5 species from the Bacteroides genus: Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Bacteroides fragilis, Bacteroides uniformis, Bacteroides ovatus...
www.nature.com
October 2, 2026 at 4:56 PM
RNASeek: A Cross-Phyla Generative Foundation Model for Multipurpose RNA Modeling and Reinforcement Learning-Based Design https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.24.754173v1
September 28, 2026 at 7:46 AM
RNASeek: A Cross-Phyla Generative Foundation Model for Multipurpose RNA Modeling and Reinforcement Learning-Based Design https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.24.754173v1
RNASeek: A Cross-Phyla Generative Foundation Model for Multipurpose RNA Modeling and Reinforcement Learning-Based Design https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.24.754173v1
September 28, 2026 at 7:46 AM
RNASeek: A Cross-Phyla Generative Foundation Model for Multipurpose RNA Modeling and Reinforcement Learning-Based Design https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.24.754173v1
Precise structural and functional organization of the olfactory bulb neuropil early in development, revealed by volume EM, dense reconstruction and 2P calcium imaging in zebrafish. Great work by Ruth and others in collaboration with @michalwj.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Fine ultrastructural organization of glomerular neuropil in the developing zebrafish olfactory bulb
Across animal phyla, odor information is represented in the first olfactory processing center by combinatorial activation of discrete glomeruli. To examine how this organization of olfactory processin...
www.biorxiv.org
September 26, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Precise structural and functional organization of the olfactory bulb neuropil early in development, revealed by volume EM, dense reconstruction and 2P calcium imaging in zebrafish. Great work by Ruth and others in collaboration with @michalwj.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
There’s certainly a confusing mess of sessile and wormy forms near the origin of many phyla. I suppose that could be down to a lot of parallelism, reversals etc before the body plans got more developmentally constrained.
September 27, 2026 at 8:41 AM
There’s certainly a confusing mess of sessile and wormy forms near the origin of many phyla. I suppose that could be down to a lot of parallelism, reversals etc before the body plans got more developmentally constrained.
But the other animals (competitors/prey) already exist, and that make it far less likely for a high in the order split to happen.
So the thesis (dozens of phyla existed which completely disappeared) was falsified. But the reasoning about why they would have disappeared was sound.
So the thesis (dozens of phyla existed which completely disappeared) was falsified. But the reasoning about why they would have disappeared was sound.
September 26, 2026 at 5:25 PM
But the other animals (competitors/prey) already exist, and that make it far less likely for a high in the order split to happen.
So the thesis (dozens of phyla existed which completely disappeared) was falsified. But the reasoning about why they would have disappeared was sound.
So the thesis (dozens of phyla existed which completely disappeared) was falsified. But the reasoning about why they would have disappeared was sound.
They just didn't have the tools/context to see which phylum things belonged in. So it wasn't new phyla everywhere (though there were a couple).
BUT, it did show that early in evolution there was more room to experiment (even inside a phylum) because of less competitive pressure.
BUT, it did show that early in evolution there was more room to experiment (even inside a phylum) because of less competitive pressure.
September 26, 2026 at 5:25 PM
They just didn't have the tools/context to see which phylum things belonged in. So it wasn't new phyla everywhere (though there were a couple).
BUT, it did show that early in evolution there was more room to experiment (even inside a phylum) because of less competitive pressure.
BUT, it did show that early in evolution there was more room to experiment (even inside a phylum) because of less competitive pressure.
Ok, so long story short, they made some leaps because of poor methodology/new materials.
They were looking at specimens from the Burgess Shale (so Anamolcaris, Hallucigenia, etc.) and they were seeing new phyla EVERYWHERE.
Only it wasn't so.
They were looking at specimens from the Burgess Shale (so Anamolcaris, Hallucigenia, etc.) and they were seeing new phyla EVERYWHERE.
Only it wasn't so.
September 26, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Ok, so long story short, they made some leaps because of poor methodology/new materials.
They were looking at specimens from the Burgess Shale (so Anamolcaris, Hallucigenia, etc.) and they were seeing new phyla EVERYWHERE.
Only it wasn't so.
They were looking at specimens from the Burgess Shale (so Anamolcaris, Hallucigenia, etc.) and they were seeing new phyla EVERYWHERE.
Only it wasn't so.
How many species of algae are there? A reprise. Four
kingdoms, 14 phyla, 63 classes and still growing
www.algaebase.org/pages/Journa...
kingdoms, 14 phyla, 63 classes and still growing
www.algaebase.org/pages/Journa...
www.algaebase.org
September 24, 2026 at 10:50 AM
How many species of algae are there? A reprise. Four
kingdoms, 14 phyla, 63 classes and still growing
www.algaebase.org/pages/Journa...
kingdoms, 14 phyla, 63 classes and still growing
www.algaebase.org/pages/Journa...
Extensive horizontal gene transfer drives microbial adaptation and diversification in Kermadec Trench hadal microbiomes www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs 🌊
Extensive horizontal gene transfer drives microbial adaptation and diversification in Kermadec Trench hadal microbiomes - Nature Communications
This study uses metagenomics and in situ metatranscriptomics to explore microbial ecology from deep sea hadal trenches. They find that viruses and magnetotactic bacteria possibly help distant phyla sh...
www.nature.com
September 23, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Extensive horizontal gene transfer drives microbial adaptation and diversification in Kermadec Trench hadal microbiomes www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs 🌊
Extensive horizontal gene transfer drives microbial adaptation and diversification in Kermadec Trench hadal microbiomes | Nature Communications
Extensive horizontal gene transfer drives microbial adaptation and diversification in Kermadec Trench hadal microbiomes - Nature Communications
This study uses metagenomics and in situ metatranscriptomics to explore microbial ecology from deep sea hadal trenches. They find that viruses and magnetotactic bacteria possibly help distant phyla share functional genes to survive extreme pressure and starvation.
www.nature.com
September 23, 2026 at 5:05 AM
Extensive horizontal gene transfer drives microbial adaptation and diversification in Kermadec Trench hadal microbiomes | Nature Communications
The closest relatives to the vertebrates of the 37 animal phyla are the echinoderms (sea stars). They don’t have brains.
🧪 Huge news!
We've always thought the brain was a single organ.
This study says it is two!
We assumed the brain grows from a single type of starter cell. Instead, two separate cell lineages develop side by side: one builds the front and middle of the brain, the other builds the back.
#Medsky 🧠
We've always thought the brain was a single organ.
This study says it is two!
We assumed the brain grows from a single type of starter cell. Instead, two separate cell lineages develop side by side: one builds the front and middle of the brain, the other builds the back.
#Medsky 🧠
Two parallel neural ectoderm progenitors contribute to the developing brain - Nature Neuroscience
This study shows that the brain arises from two distinct progenitors: one forms the forebrain and midbrain, whereas the other generates the hindbrain. These insights enable the generation of human hin...
www.nature.com
September 22, 2026 at 2:23 AM
The closest relatives to the vertebrates of the 37 animal phyla are the echinoderms (sea stars). They don’t have brains.