Lauren Wilson
@lnwilson.bsky.social
PhD student @griffinlabpaleo.bsky.social/@princeton.edu | studying bird evolution and development 🐣 | MS from @uafairbanks.bsky.social | she/her
Banner art: Gabriel Ugueto
https://lw0428.wixsite.com/lauren-wilson
Banner art: Gabriel Ugueto
https://lw0428.wixsite.com/lauren-wilson
Despite many cool ammonites, my favorite fossil find has to be this teeny tiny gastropod!
(I feel like he probably had a great personality)
(I feel like he probably had a great personality)
November 17, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Despite many cool ammonites, my favorite fossil find has to be this teeny tiny gastropod!
(I feel like he probably had a great personality)
(I feel like he probably had a great personality)
Thank you to editor @katewong.bsky.social for making this possible! I also cannot thank Chase Stone and @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social enough for their incredible artwork that brings these birds to life!
September 17, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Thank you to editor @katewong.bsky.social for making this possible! I also cannot thank Chase Stone and @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social enough for their incredible artwork that brings these birds to life!
Cool! Maybe we’ll bump into you in Jordan!
July 5, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Cool! Maybe we’ll bump into you in Jordan!
All around an amazing and important study from some awesome people! Be sure to check it out!
July 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
All around an amazing and important study from some awesome people! Be sure to check it out!
They show how to mitigate challenges (uncertain phylogenetic relationships, branch lengths, model choice) through real case studies – from predicting bush-cricket calling frequencies to the neuron density of T. rex brains. They also offer a guide and resources for making phylogenetic predictions.
July 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
They show how to mitigate challenges (uncertain phylogenetic relationships, branch lengths, model choice) through real case studies – from predicting bush-cricket calling frequencies to the neuron density of T. rex brains. They also offer a guide and resources for making phylogenetic predictions.
Phylogenetic predictions are also less precise for species on longer branches. The more time a species has had to evolve from a common ancestor, the more uncertain we are about its unknown traits. Phylogenetically informed predictions are, therefore, more honest reflections of uncertainty.
July 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Phylogenetic predictions are also less precise for species on longer branches. The more time a species has had to evolve from a common ancestor, the more uncertain we are about its unknown traits. Phylogenetically informed predictions are, therefore, more honest reflections of uncertainty.
Through simulations on multiple tree types and sizes, they show that phylogenetically informed predictions are more accurate than calculations from OLS and PGLS regression formulae. In the figure, you can see that the range in error (actual - predicted) is narrower for phylogenetic predictions.
July 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Through simulations on multiple tree types and sizes, they show that phylogenetically informed predictions are more accurate than calculations from OLS and PGLS regression formulae. In the figure, you can see that the range in error (actual - predicted) is narrower for phylogenetic predictions.
Methods to predict traits while accounting for phylogenetic relationships were established 25 years ago. However, many studies still calculate unknown traits from preexisting regression formulae without accounting for phylogeny during prediction.
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Using the Past to Predict the Present: Confidence Intervals for Regression Equations in Phylogenetic Comparative Methods | The American Naturalist: Vol 155, No 3
abstract: Two phylogenetic comparative methods, independent contrasts and generalized least squares models, can be used to determine the statistical relationship between two or more traits. We show th...
www.journals.uchicago.edu
July 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Methods to predict traits while accounting for phylogenetic relationships were established 25 years ago. However, many studies still calculate unknown traits from preexisting regression formulae without accounting for phylogeny during prediction.
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Predicting traits like body size is often done by calculating them from regression formulae, based on some proxy. However, this fails to account for shared ancestry among species. Both ordinary (OLS) and phylogenetic (PGLS) regression formulae ignore relatedness during the prediction process.
July 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Predicting traits like body size is often done by calculating them from regression formulae, based on some proxy. However, this fails to account for shared ancestry among species. Both ordinary (OLS) and phylogenetic (PGLS) regression formulae ignore relatedness during the prediction process.
Thank you so much!! ❄️🐣
May 31, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Thank you so much!! ❄️🐣
Thank you to the whole Tyrrell gang for inviting me up to give this talk!
And if you haven’t yet, make sure to take a look at the study, out now in Science: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
And if you haven’t yet, make sure to take a look at the study, out now in Science: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Arctic bird nesting traces back to the Cretaceous
Polar ecosystems are structured and enriched by birds, which nest there seasonally and serve as keystone ecosystem members. Despite the ecological importance of polar birds, the origins of high-latitu...
www.science.org
May 30, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Thank you to the whole Tyrrell gang for inviting me up to give this talk!
And if you haven’t yet, make sure to take a look at the study, out now in Science: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
And if you haven’t yet, make sure to take a look at the study, out now in Science: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...