Newly named dinosaurs of 2025 (except extant birds), arranged phylogenetically.

A new paper I’m on is out today! Primarily the work of my labmate Bassel Arnaout, we looked at the embryonic development of the skull in galliform (chicken-like) and anseriform (duck-like) birds. Contrary to the expectations proposed by von Baer’s laws of embryology, we found that distinguishing features among these birds do not always arise later in development than shared similarities.

For more details, the paper is open access and available here.

A new paper I’m on is out today! (Well, it’s been online for a month, but now it’s been properly formatted.) We analyzed over 200 characteristics in the bird wing and shoulder girdle skeleton to see how well they match the phylogenetic relationships of modern birds inferred from recent genomic studies. As it turns out… not very! In fact, the avian wing skeleton appears to exhibit exceptionally high levels of convergent evolution, probably as a result of repeated adaptation to similar functional requirements (such as flight style).

Even so, we were able to find combinations of skeletal features that characterize bird groups previously recognized only using genetic data, which will likely be helpful in identifying fossil birds given that bones of the wing and shoulder girdle are among the most commonly preserved elements in the avian fossil record.

For more details, the paper is open access and available here. (Photo above by my supervisor and coauthor Daniel Field.)

Inspired by @dimetrodone’s Ultimate Mammal Taxonomy Quiz, I’ve made a bird phylogeny quiz in similar format. A shout-out as well to @despazito’s Bird Taxonomy Quiz, which covers some overlapping topics (but not too many, I hope).

18 species of heron can be found in Taiwan. How many have you seen?

You know the Laid-Back Camp protagonists are good beans when they appreciate black-headed gulls.

2024 was a good year for new research on bird phylogeny! Time to update the trees. Further descriptions and references available here.

Newly named dinosaurs of 2024 (except extant birds), arranged phylogenetically.

A new article I’m on is out! Co-authored with Marcel van Tuinen and Daniel Field, we provide a succinct summary of current knowledge on the origins, diversification, and phylogeny of birds. This is an update of van Tuinen (2016) in the Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Biology, and will be included in the 2nd edition coming out next year.

A link to the article is here, but let me know if you require access to the full text.

Wrens, nuthatches, and treecreepers are members of Certhioidea, a group of generally small but highly charismatic birds. One of my favorite songbird clades.