Dr. Stepfanie Aguillon 😷
banner
s-m-aguillon.bsky.social
Dr. Stepfanie Aguillon 😷
@s-m-aguillon.bsky.social
Asst Prof at UCLA | genomics, hybridization, & speciation 🧬🐤🐟 | cross-stitching extraordinaire 🪡 | lover of the desert 🌵| dog enthusiast 🐕 | she/her

Opinions are my own.

www.stepfanieaguillon.com
Intriguingly, compared to other Great Plains hybrid zones, we find just a few recent-generation hybrids! With many more individuals that seem to be backcrossed with the parental species. #ornithology #hybridization #speciation #evolution
September 12, 2025 at 3:49 PM
This was a really fun collaboration with Garth Spellman who collected these samples and originally sequenced them with just a few genes! We found that the hybrid zone transitions quite sharply from black-headed to rose-breasted in South Dakota. #ornithology #hybridization #speciation #evolution
September 12, 2025 at 3:49 PM
The first Aguillon Lab paper is officially out in early view at Evolution!! Led by postdoc @devonderaad.bsky.social, we’ve explored the hybrid zone between black-headed and rose-breasted grosbeaks in the Great Plains. #ornithology #hybridization #speciation #evolution doi.org/10.1093/evol...
September 12, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Excited to be heading to St. Louis for #AOS2025! Be on the lookout for talks from our lab!:
- Jenna McCullough (PD) and Jonah Alderson (grad) are up against each other on Wed. morning
- Claire Geiman (grad) will present a poster Wed evening
- Devon DeRaad (PD) will give a talk on Thur afternoon
August 11, 2025 at 11:35 PM
The lab has ✨things✨! 😍
November 19, 2024 at 7:51 PM
With so many new followers, it's time for a re-introduction! Hello! I'm Stepfanie and I recently started as an Assistant Professor at UCLA. I study speciation (primarily in birds) and mostly post about science, DEI, COVID precautions, and crafts.
November 16, 2024 at 11:37 PM
I'm so excited to be starting up my new lab at UCLA! Thanks to @mwtingley.bsky.social for the official name tag!

Check out coyotebrushstudios.com for a variety of California plant and animal related artwork like this acorn woodpecker

#evolution #ornithology #NewPI
September 9, 2024 at 6:28 PM
I'm excited to give an @asn-amnat.bsky.social Early Career Investigator talk at #Evol2024! Come check out the award talk session on Sunday from 4:15-5:45pm (Rm 516C) to learn about what I've been up to during my postdoc and what my lab will be working on now that it's open!
July 24, 2024 at 10:33 PM
So exciting to see this great study led by Tris Dodge out as a preprint!! Tris explores the genetic and behavioral basis of the false-gravid spot in Xiphophorus birchmanni using an elegant suite of experiments! #evolution 🧬🖥️
May 15, 2024 at 4:00 AM
We find that an ancient hybridization event has MOVED a mitonuclear incompatibility from one pair of hybridizing species (X. malinche & X. birchmanni) INTO our focal species (X. cortezi & X. birchmanni)!! This incompatibility causes similar phenotypic/genotypic effects in our hybrids 🧬🖥️ #evolution
April 24, 2024 at 4:25 PM
We explore a ton of different reproductive barriers—from assortative mating to sperm morphology to genetic incompatibilities—between X. cortezi and X. birchmanni. We start by describing a new hybrid population and also produce F1s and F2s between these species in the lab. 🧬🖥️ #evolution
April 24, 2024 at 4:13 PM
One surprising finding is that niche models suggest limited invasion potential in Southern California, but this differs from what community scientists are finding! There has actually been a RAPID expansion of these birds across the LA area in the last decade #ornithology
March 4, 2024 at 6:14 PM
Exciting new paper led by Devon DeRaad is out today in Biological Invasions! We used genomic data to identify the source of introduced white-eyes in California and Hawaii, and perform niche modeling to understand the invasion potential in SoCal! #ornithology 🧬🖥️

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
March 4, 2024 at 6:08 PM
Just opened a new houseplant game… Planted! 🌱🌱
February 18, 2024 at 4:49 AM
I’m always cross-stitching!! 🪡🧵 Here are some recent finishes and a work in progress…
February 16, 2024 at 6:33 AM
To deal with the stress of the job market, I started doing the NYTimes crossword again in March… Started getting back into it for real in May when my partner got interested again too. We’ve officially hit a 100 day streak with tomorrow’s Monday! 🧩#AcademicSky
December 18, 2023 at 2:03 AM
TBH I’m very impressed with my solving time for this Wednesday’s crossword 😁
September 20, 2023 at 2:48 AM
I’ve sadly (finally) made the decision to leave Twitter… but I’m happy so many of the folks I was missing are here!! I’ll make my first post here the same as my last post there:

I’m starting a faculty job at UCLA next summer! I’m super excited for this next stage of my career and life 🥳
August 20, 2023 at 7:10 PM