Gayani Senevirathne

Neil H. Shubin has been elected as the next NAS President! A leading evolutionary biologist and science communicator, Shubin will succeed Marcia McNutt on July 1. The Academy also named Cherry Murray as International Secretary and elected new councilors. Read more: www.nasonline.org/news/2026_pr...

Join me in Antarctica in 2026!! Looking forward to this trip.
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Details here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7jlie...

New methodological approaches and insights gained toward understanding the evolved human skeleton Modern humans exhibit marked musculoskeletal changes when compared to those of our African ape relatives, such as chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. …

Pleased to announce our new review on human musculoskeletal evolution lead by my post-doc @gayani.bsky.social. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bowhead whale. Illustration by Uko Gorter/American Cetacean Society

How bowhead whales live for centuries—and how we might borrow some of their biology to extend our healthy lifespan. Gift link to my new column: nyti.ms/4hyD9ry

Neil Shubin: defender of American science Our podcast on science and technology. We speak to the polar palaeontologist poised to lead America’s National Academy of Sciences

“It’s too easy to be swamped by a short-term political and social environment.” Neil Shubin tells “Babbage” why he remains optimistic about science in America

Neil Shubin (2) - Denis Duboule (2025-2026) YouTube video by Sciences de la vie - Collège de France

Catch my new lecture at the Collège de France entitled “The Origin of Walking.” Thanks to @denisduboule.bsky.social for hosting!

💙🧪

m.youtube.com/watch?v=fNim...

Capellini Lab is hiring!!!!! It’s been a fantastic place to learn and grow. If you have questions about postdoc life here, email me, and I am happy to share my experience. 😊

Thanks Katie Kavanagh for this nice news piece on our work!!! @gayani.bsky.social

Thanks Nature for this terrific coverage of our work! @gayani.bsky.social

Thank you!

The evolution of hominin bipedalism in two steps - Nature The human pelvis exhibits distinct spatiotemporal ossification patterns and an ilium cartilage growth plate that is shifted perpendicularly compared with those of other mammals and non-human primates—two key adaptations that underlie bipedalism.

Nature research paper: The evolution of hominin bipedalism in two steps

go.nature.com/46bBfsQ

How humans became upright: key changes to our pelvis found Genetic and anatomical data reveal how the human pelvis acquired its unique shape, enabling our ancestors to walk on two legs.

Researchers have mapped the key structural changes in the pelvis that enabled early humans to first walk on two legs and accommodate giving birth to a big-brained baby

go.nature.com/4lMH1pm

Study shows how the human pelvis was reshaped for upright walking Comparisons of pelvic development in human and primate embryos reveals key steps in human evolution

Study shows how the human pelvis was reshaped for upright walking | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

This paper is a 'must read' it's a beautifully comprehensive analysis of the human pelvic growth plate, ossification, and musculature. An incredible example of making the most of precious samples.

Two Genetic Leaps That Set Us Walking New research traces the pelvic transformation that let humans rise from the trees

New research shows the human pelvis didn’t evolve gradually—it flipped its growth pattern 90° and rewired bone formation. These shifts let our ancestors walk upright and birth big-brained babies. #HumanEvolution #Anthropology #Bipedalism

Uncovering the Genes That Let Our Ancestors Walk Upright

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/s...

Thank you so much for this wonderful story about our work!

Uncovering the Genes That Let Our Ancestors Walk Upright

New research by @gayani.bsky.social et al. on the evolution of bipedalism, sci comm by @carlzimmer.com. One cool finding among others: "The ilium is slow to switch from cartilage to bone, lagging about 15 weeks behind the rest of the skeleton." #anthropology #humanevolution 🧪

The evolution of hominin bipedalism in two steps - Nature The human pelvis exhibits distinct spatiotemporal ossification patterns and an ilium cartilage growth plate that is shifted perpendicularly compared with those of other mammals and non-human primates—...

Judging from the back pains affecting all humans chez Gee, bipedalism was a very bad move. A new paper in @nature.com explains how the development of the pelvis shifted when the human frame switched through a right angle www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Super excited and thrilled to see this work come out in Nature today. 🥹@tdcapellini.bsky.social Thank you so much for your amazing mentorship throughout the project, and to all my co-authors who helped take this work to the next level.

The evolution of hominin bipedalism in two steps - Nature The human pelvis exhibits distinct spatiotemporal ossification patterns and an ilium cartilage growth plate that is shifted perpendicularly compared with those of other mammals and non-human primates—...

1) I am delighted to present this terrific tour de force research conducted by my post-doc Dr. Gayani Senevirathne @gayani.bsky.social and published today in Nature -
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

'Missing links' of evolution, explained When we look at the world around us, we see a wondrous variety of living things. How do species evolve into all these different forms? UChicago scientists explain.

Missing links in evolution explained

news.uchicago.edu/explainer/mi...

New from the lab! Announcing MORPHOVIEW a powerful tool to quantify in high throughput the 3D structures of cells and tissues during organ morphogenesis. Great work by Sam Norris. 🧪

https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dvdy.70061

🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com!

We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️

Congratulations @neilshubin.bsky.social! This is so amazing! I can’t think of anyone more suited to this position than you!

Some personal news…

Cool work by Shubin Lab, as always! Congrats to Yara, Neil @neilshubin.bsky.social, and the rest of the team. The scans look fantastic.

Human-chimpanzee tetraploid system defines mechanisms of species-specific neural gene regulation A major challenge in human evolutionary biology is to pinpoint genetic differences that underlie human-specific traits, such as increased neuron number and differences in cognitive behaviors. We used human-chimpanzee tetraploid cells to distinguish gene expression changes due to cis -acting sequence variants that change local gene regulation, from trans expression changes due to species differences in the cellular environment. In neural progenitor cells, examination of both cis and trans changes – combined with CRISPR inhibition and transcription factor motif analyses – identified cis -acting, species-specific gene regulatory changes, including to TNIK , FOSL2 , and MAZ , with widespread trans effects on neurogenesis-related gene programs. In excitatory neurons, we identified POU3F2 as a key cis -regulated gene with trans effects on synaptic gene expression and neuronal firing. This study identifies cis -acting genomic changes that cause cascading trans gene regulatory effects to contribute to human neural specializations, and provides a general framework for discovering genetic differences underlying human traits. ### Competing Interest Statement C.A.W. is on the SAB of Bioskyrb Genomics (cash, equity) and Mosaica Therapeutics (cash, equity), and is an advisor to Maze Therapeutics (equity), but these have no relevance to this work. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

We just posted two preprints on uncovering the genetic bases of species-specific differences in neural progenitors, excitatory neurons, and upon neuronal stimulation using the human-chimpanzee tetraploid system. Please check them out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our preprint is out! Kudos to @josanesousa.bsky.social, @gabrielalima19.bsky.social, @perezlouise.bsky.social and undergraduate prodigy Hannah Shof! By comparing Polypterus fin and axolotl limb we find shared and new regeneration programs. @lsuscience.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Best Books We Read This Week Reviews of notable new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

The New Yorker selects ENDS OF THE EARTH as one of the "Best Books We Read This Week!" 🧪 💙📗

www.newyorker.com/best-books-2...