iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Stay tuned for a turtle-y new podcast 🐢 coming soon to the @disealab.bsky.social Sea Lab Sidebar series... In the meantime, you can check out the current episodes about Seahorses, Dolphins, and Seagrass 🌊🐟🐬🌱 www.disl.edu/podcast/

A selfie at the podcast mic with Dauphin Island Sea Lab Public Relations Director Angela Levins.

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Marsh periwinkle snails (Littoraria irrorata) settling in to their temporary home after volunteering to participate in my Marine Ecology class’ mark-recapture exercise this week. 🐌 🖊️ 🧮 Special thanks to Matt Boehm for adding snail jungle gyms to the tanks to help them feel right at home 🪜🛝

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Awesome intertidal oyster restoration work underway on Dauphin Island thanks to the @disealab.bsky.social Studies of Marine Ecology & Evolution lab, with @leesmee.bsky.social & missmarinebio.bsky.social & some muddy volunteers You can check it out at the Christopher Blankenship Eco-Tourism Area 🌊🦪🛶

The oyster restoration team passing bags of oyster shell through the muddy marsh to build a base for future reef building

Bagged oyster shell placed near the end of the boardwalk at the Christopher Blankenship Eco-Tourism Area & Kayak Launch

A Town of Dauphin Island sign at the park that reads: "Dauphin Island | Sunset Capital of Alabama | Christopher Blankenship Eco-Tourism Area & Kayak Launch"

View of the oyster restoration work near the boardwalk from across the marsh

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Fantastic lineup of workshops this morning! Machine learning, genomics, and biologging knowledge dropped by some stellar teams, including these goobers. 🧑‍💻👩‍🔬🗺️🧬 #ISTS44

Matt Lettrich, myself, and Tiffany Dawson posed for a group selfie among the tropical foliage while we raved about how thoughtful and engaged our workshop participants were.

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

The #ISTS44 sea turtle epibionts crew I’m planning to embark on a journey to understand the diatom communities on sea turtle carapaces and what they can tell us about sea turtle migration.

A group of sea turtle epibiont enthusiasts posing for a group photo with a sign that reads “Workshop 14: Epibiont insights”

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

I’ll be posting this week from the International Sea Turtle Society symposium in Hawai’i Day 1 was full of fantastic workshops: in the morning I attended one about applying for research permits to study turtles, and my afternoon was all about sea turtle epibionts 🌊🐢 #ISTS44 #ISTS2026 #seaturtle

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

✨🌊Marine Science research opportunity for undergraduates🌊✨ Join us summer 2026 at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, located on the beautiful Gulf coast of Alabama. Housing & stipend provided. More at www.disl.edu/univ-prog/ns... @disealab.bsky.social #NSF #REU #UndergraduateResearch

A flyer for the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Research Experience for Undergraduates with images of students doing hands-on lab work, kayaking, and presenting their research. Flyer text below:

Research Experience for Undergraduates
Marine Science Fellowships
25 May - 31 July 2016

Eight undergraduate fellowships
• Ecology of marine and estuarine invertebrates & fishes
• Marsh & seagrass ecology
• Microbial ecology
• Molecular biology and genetics
• Biogeochemistry
• Benthic ecology
• Physical oceanography
• Toxicology
• Plankton ecology
• Marine mammal ecology
• Aquatic animal medicine

On-site housing
Travel & food allowance
$7,000 stipend

Research experience with a faculty mentor
Professional development
Field trips

DISLREU@disl.edu

Dauphin Island Sea Lab
101 Bienville Blvd
Dauphin Island, AL 36528

Phone: 251-861-2141

Funded by: NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates Program and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab

Apply Today: www.disl.edu/univ-prog/nsf-reu

Students at 2 or 4 year colleges & universities, nontraditional, veterans, and all others are encouraged to apply

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Having a full suite of reference genomes allows for all kinds of cool analyses. Look at how much synteny there is among the sea turtles (first 6 shown, I don't know where Kemp's ran off to). That's despite the fact that leatherbacks (in blue) diverged from the other species >50 million years ago!

Figure 2 from Arantes et al. 2025 shows a gene synteny plot for 6 sea turtle species, along with the Chinese pond turtle, Goode's thornscrub tortoise, European pond turtle, red-eared slider, and Mississippi diamondback terrapin. There is extremely high synteny among the sea turtle species. Below is a phylogeny with estimated divergence times for each species above (plus a few more). Leatherbacks diverged from the hard-shelled sea turtles in the ~late cretaceous.

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Now that the publication is officially out, boosting the announcement that we now have high-quality reference genomes for all 7 sea turtle species. Congrats to the team that made this a reality! New haplotype-resolved assemblies for 5 of the 7 available from doi.org/10.1093/giga...

Image of a swimming green turtle with the text: "Data release | Complete reference genomes of all sea turtles!" Below is a list of logos from the contributing groups, including the Vertebrate Genomes Project, Revive & Restore, Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife Research, UMass Amherst, CSIRO, and NOAA.

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Did you miss the #GulfCon abstract submission deadline? No you didn't! The abstract submission portal is open and accepting abstracts through Nov. 21. app.sessionboard.com/submit/2026-...

An aerial view of downtown Mobile along the Mobile River overlaid with informational text about the upcoming conference: Gulf Conference 2026 | May 4-7 ~ Mobile, Alabama | Now Open! Registration

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

It was a beautiful day to be on the water with the ADCNR gillnet sampling program in Grand Bay and by the west end of Dauphin Island. The Marine Resources Division collects fisheries-independent data throughout the year to monitor fish populations & guide #FisheriesManagement decisions.🌊🐟

Two of the field crew from the Marine Resources Division haul a gillnet back on board the vessel to see what fish and at what sizes are in the area

The water was clear enough to see the ripples in the the sand below

A small pinfish is brought on board for measuring before being released back in the bay

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

#GulfCon sessions include: Living Resources; Resilience of Natural & Human Systems; Data Collection & Synthesis; Science, Practice, & Policy Workshops include: Examining Gulf Species Declines; Gulf Literacy Principles; Collaborative Modeling for Stakeholder-Driven Science Image from NatGeo

Illustration of the ecosystems and marine life found in the Gulf. Pelicans fly above mangroves and marsh. Coastal fish and inverts inhabit shallow reefs, while tuna, sea turtles, and a whale shark swim offshore below and among Sargassum. Image by National Geographic.

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

The 2026 Gulf Conference will be here in Mobile, AL from May 4-7 Open to coastal scientists & stakeholders in government, academia, non-profit, and private sectors to discuss current Gulf research and help plan for the future of the Gulf. Abstracts due Nov 7 gulfofamericaalliance.org/gulfcon2026

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

✨Life Update✨: I'm excited to announce that I've started a new position as Senior Marine Scientist at Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Stay tuned for new scientific adventures from the Gulf coast of Alabama 🌊🐢👩‍🔬 @disealab.bsky.social

Obligatory selfie in front of an official sign reading "Dauphin Island Sea Lab", complete with a knobbly old oak tree and a couple palmettos in the background.

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Moment of zen brought to you by Great Smoky Mountains National Park ⛰️

Sunlight filters through a leafy green canopy onto a narrow trail through the forest, bordered by mosses and ferns

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Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social · 29/07/2024

If you’re attending #Evol2024 🇨🇦 and have an interest in long-distance migration 🗺️ , whole genome analyses 🧬 , or sea turtles 🌊 🐢 - stop by poster I1 this evening to chat!

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