Beetle artwork by Meg McConnell
"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" - Dobzhansky 1973
Darwin's 1859 book is still the framework biology runs on, and has been for 165 years. We call that Evolution 1.0. What we're calling AI 1.1 is a newer layer on top: software that can read the literature, pull structured data out of it, and help us work through comparative problems at scales a single lab can't reach on its own. The questions haven't changed. Our reach has.
It's a good time to be working on evolutionary biology. Everything we put online is meant to be easy to reuse: agent-readable data, pipelines you can run, and honest write-ups of the cases where our methods broke. We want other researchers (and the AI tools they use) to keep going from there.
Dismantling Chromosomal Stasis Across the Eukaryotic Tree of Life
We looked at 63,682 karyotypes across 55 eukaryotic clades and found that dysploidy rates vary by a factor of 844. Even birds, often cited as the textbook example of chromosomal stasis, sit above the global median once microchromosome dynamics are accounted for. Chromosomal stasis seems to track life history, not taxonomic group.
Study Systems
Beetles
Karyotype evolution and sex chromosome systems across Coleoptera - the most species-rich order of animals.
Tomatoes
Chromosome number variation and its link to adaptation in Solanaceae, including wild and domesticated species.
Betta Fish
Genetics of aggression, color, and sexual selection - and how domestication shapes phenotypic evolution.
Chickens
Sex-linked traits and sexual antagonism in a model system for understanding domestication.
Crabs
The evolution of freshwater invasion and its genomic consequences across Brachyura.
Mammals
Broad-scale comparative analyses of sex chromosome evolution and karyotype diversity.