Daohan "Rex" Jiang

@rexjiang.bsky.social

1342 Followers 720 Following

Evolutionary biologist. Postdoc @oistedu.bsky.social. Evolutionary theories, complex traits, macroevolution. Views are my own. Website: https://rexjiang385518549.wordpress.com/ iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/rexjiang

Specimen of a large butterfly. It has white wings with black spots and stripes. It’s mounted on a wooden base on which a butterfly’s wing pattern is carved.
A large butterfly landing on a plant, gently flapping its wings. Its wings have a white base color and black stripes.
A blue hermit crab without a snail shell on a sandy beach.
A teenager named Ikoma (protagonist Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress) is being infected by a kind of zombie virus after being attacked by a zombie-like creature known as Kabane. Most of his body is transformed into zombie. He is trying to hang himself to stop the virus from passing through his neck and spreading into his brain.
A box crab hiding in shallow water. It’s partially buried in sand. There is seagrass in the surrounding water.
Two fiddler crabs. The individual will a mostly blue body, dark colored legs, and a brightly colored right claw (the male) first entered a little hole on the skerry. The individual with a black-and-white body and red legs (the female) followed the first into the hole.
A large bat flied past the camera and vanished into the trees. Some crows followed.
A beetle with a vibrant color scheme consisting of green, red, dark blue, and white areas.
A specimen of a Japanese spider crab displayed in the Shanghai Natural History Museum. According to the sign, it was captured from the Tokyo Bay in 1896 and once in the collection of the Royal Asiatic Society, before eventually transferred to the Shanghai Natural History Museum.
A goby, likely an ornate sandgoby (Istigobius ornatus) in an intertidal pond.
Goose barnacles attached to a glass bottle on a beach.
Variance in regulator expression across species at the end of the simulation, plotted against d_selection (blue), compared to the corresponding curve from simulations with constant C (black curve and dots; the same as those in Fig. 1C).
Figure 1: (A-B) Schematic illustrations for the evolution of novel regulator expression programs in response to selection on the phenotypic state. Axes represent two principal components of regulator expression. Red curves with arrows represent trajectories of evolution in different lineages. (A) The optimal state can be produced by various regulator expression programs, which fall along the gray line. Independent lineages (species) that evolved under the same regime of selection ended up at different points along the line, resulting in variation in regulator expression across lineages. (B) The optimal state can only be produced by a specific regulator expression program, which is represented by the gray dot. Different species evolved towards the only solution and there is little variation in expression programs among them. (C-D) Relationship between evolution of the regulator expression program and complexity of the optimal phenotypic state (quantified by the number of traits subject to selection, d_selection). (C) Variance in regulator expression across species at the end of the simulation, plotted against d_selection. (D) Divergence from the ancestral expression program at the end of the simulation, averaged across species and plotted against d_selection. Each data point in (C) and (D) corresponds to a simulated scenario where a unique set of traits were under selection. Each curve in (C) and (D) is a locally estimated scatterplot smoothing (LOESS) curve, with the gray area representing the 95% confidence interval (CI). Cell images representing optimal phenotypes in (A) and (B) are from Irasutoya (https://www.irasutoya.com/.)
Specimen of a beetle of genus Acantholophus and a miniature figure of a Borealopelta.
A goby, likely a frillfin goby (genus Bathygobius), in shallow water of intertidal zone.
Six gacha figures of Cretaceous animals, each with a display base. Top row: Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex. Middle row: Triceratops and a different T. rex. Bottom row: Elasmosaurus and Velociraptor.
Dorsal view of a blueberry hermit crab (Coenobita purpureus) without a snail shell.
An oriental magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) feeding on meat meant for birds of prey in a big cage.
A black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) feeding on a fish that appeared to be a mud loach. It picked up the fish with its bill, adjusted the angle, and devoured the fish at last. This took place in the roof-less outdoor area of the enclosure for Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinereus) in the Shanghai Zoo.
Komodo dragon, resting in the enclosure.
A Chinese alligator resting on a little island in a pool. There are two more alligators in the water.
Fossils of two pterosaurs. Both are toothless and short-tailed. The one on the left has a deeper skull whereas the other has relatively slender snout.
Mounted skeleton of a plesiosaur, likely a member of the family Elasmosauridae. Behind it is the skeleton of a Polycotylus. Beneath it is the head of a Tsintaosaurus mount.
A life sized model of a Spinosaurus. It is based on an outdated reconstruction, bearing long hind limbs.
At the center of the scene are models of basal tyrannosauroids Guanlong (bigger, crested one) and Dilong. At the upper left corner of the photo is a model skeleton of a large predatory fish, likely a Xiphactinus. At the upper right is a model skeleton of a theropod dinosaur, presumably a Velociraptor. Behind them are model skeletons of saber-toothed cats, presumably Smilodon.
Skulls of the prehistoric elephant Platybelodon, representing the “Platybelodon Fauna”.
Skin of a brown bear.
Merchandise sold at the Shanghai Natural History Museum. The 2nd and 4th from let in the top row are stickers based on a deformed lion taxidermy.
A lion taxidermy with deformed face, viewed from the front. Beside it is a female lion. On the left side of the scene is a tiger. In the front are two cloud leopards.
Two cervical vertebrae of Ruyangosaurus giganteus.
Reconstructed skeleton of Ruyangosaurus giganteus. Its feet are surrounded by glass walls. Its neck is supported by two metal rods. A few whale skeletons are hung above it.
Fossil specimen of an early turtle, Odontochelys semitestacea. The ventral side is facing up, showing its belly armor. The species lacks dorsal armor, which has been interpreted as evidence that turtles first evolved belly armor.
Fossil specimen of Sinosauropteryx lingyuanensis.
Holotype of the four-winged dromeasaurid Microtaptor gui.
Eggs and embryonic skeleton of Beineilong sinensis.
Fossilized remains of a oviraptorosaur associated with an egg (grey, middle of the picture).
Mounted skeleton of Gigantoraptor erlianensis. The large skeleton in the background is that of a Tsintaosaurus, which bears an outdated crest reconstruction. Reconstructed skeletons of several smaller dinosaurs are displayed in the same area.
A video featuring tyrannosauroids and ceratopsians from China. It started with a face-off between Guanlong and Yinlong. A pack of Psittacosaurus came and was attacked by a pack of Dilong. A Protoceratops drove the Dilong away but was attacked by an Alectrosaurus. A Sinoceratops knocked down the Alextrosaurus. At last, a Zhuchengtyrannus came and a had an upper hand as it fought the Sinoceratops. The video concluded with the Sinoceratops escaping and the Zhuchengtyrannus chasing, both running out of the frame.