New paper: "Choosy dispersal promotes the evolution of altruism", with Emilija Barteškaitė (#OpenAccess) doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... The 'Power of Two Random Choices' principle of load balancing may explain the evolution of altruism in viscous populations @royalsocietypublishing.org #OA

New paper: "Choosy dispersal promotes the evolution of altruism", with Emilija Barteškaitė (#OpenAccess) doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... The 'Power of Two Random Choices' principle of load balancing may explain the evolution of altruism in viscous populations @royalsocietypublishing.org #OA

@kztwyman.bsky.social & @andygardner.bsky.social mathematically connect the dynamics of natural selection to optimisation to provide formal justification for viewing obligately eusocial colonies as adaptive individuals in their own right—that is, superorganism: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Happy to share that our paper ‘a formal theory of group-level adaptation for obligate eusociality’ (with @andygardner.bsky.social) is now out in @jevbio.bsky.social advances. doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... #OpenAccess #Eusociality #GroupAdaptation #FormalDarwinism

Every year #ESEB distinguishes a young evolutionary biologist with the John Maynard Smith Prize! Nominations for the 2026 prize are due by January 15th! Find out more here: eseb.org/prizes-fundi...

New paper: "A formal theory of group-level adaptation for obligate eusociality", with Kalyani Twyman (@kztwyman.bsky.social) #OpenAccess academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-... #Image #GoogleGemini @jevbio.bsky.social #OA

Many of us are using LLMs in coding and scientific writing. They are very helpful tools, but we need to be thoughtful as we integrate them into our work flows to preserve accountability, voice and trust. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan.... An editorial at @evolletters.bsky.social for discussion:

Finally on my way to #ESEB2025, a day late, following flight cancellation... Disappointed to miss 1st day of talks, but happy that S03.01 "Advances in technology..." is in @ju-morimoto.bsky.social's safe hands. Starting 10.30am, Meeting Room 129+130, with invited talk by @kokkonut.bsky.social.

New paper: "The consequences of constrained sex allocation in diploids and haplodiploids under local mate competition", with Chedhawat Chokechaipaisarn: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... @jevbio.bsky.social

Now all typeset and pretty! A little summary:

It's finally out! This paper took quite a while but I'm so excited to share now! For anyone who studies sex chromosomes, take note: we found a rare "slower X"! (dN/dS_X < dN/dS_Autos) 👀

New paper: "Faster adaptation but slower divergence of X chromosomes under paternal genome elimination" (Open Access) w/ Robert Baird, @imprintedgene.bsky.social‬, Jan Ševčík, Katy Monteith, @laurarossevo.bsky.social‬ & @ajmongue.bsky.social‬ www.nature.com/articles/s41... ‪@natcomms.nature.com‬

Very excited to share that our paper, ‘The clonality window: relatedness and the group covariance effect in the evolution of division of labour’, is out now in @journal-evo.bsky.social advances. With @andygardner.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/evol... #OpenAccess #Evolution #Multicellularity

New paper: “The clonality window: relatedness and the group covariance effect in the evolution of division of labour”, with @kztwyman.bsky.social #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/evol... @journal-evo.bsky.social #Image: #ChatGPT #Evolution #OA

Sex-ratio optima for haplodiploid parents converge in viscous populations when dispersal is density-dependent. Read 'Density-dependent dispersal reduces conflict over the sex ratio': royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #BiologyLetters #evolution

New paper with @andygardner.bsky.social and @geoffwild.bsky.social in which we ask whether the ability to recognise relatives causes individuals to be more or less cooperative overall. doi.org/10.1093/evol...

New paper: "Kin-discriminating partner choice promotes the evolution of helping" with Tom Scott (@tomwscott.bsky.social) & Geoff Wild (@geoffwild.bsky.social) #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/evol... @journal-evo.bsky.social #Image: #ChatGPT #Evolution #OA

My paper is out! "Kin competition drives the evolution of earlier metamorphosis" (#OpenAccess), with @andygardner.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70806

New paper: "Kin competition drives the evolution of earlier metamorphosis", with @bingdongevo.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Hello - how nice to be off twitter! I'm a PhD student at the University of St Andrews studying evolutionary theory (my research profile: tinyurl.com/kztwyman). Would love to connect with anyone working in evolution, theory, social behaviour etc.!

Join us for our satellite event on selfish genetic elements!

New paper: "Density-dependent dispersal reduces conflict over the sex ratio" (OpenAccess), w/ Chedhawat Chokechaipaisarn. doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... Sex-ratio optima for haplodiploid parents converge in viscous populations when dispersal is density-dependent.

One of my undergraduate students, Callum Ferrando, has just published a comic in Journal of Evolutionary Biology. You can find "Taylor's famous result" here: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... @jevbio.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social

One of my undergraduate students, Callum Ferrando, has just published a comic in Journal of Evolutionary Biology. You can find "Taylor's famous result" here: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... @jevbio.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social

New paper: "Kin selection as a modulator of human handedness: sex-specific, parental & parent-of-origin effects" (#OpenAccess), with Bing Dong & Silvia Paracchini (@silparacchini.bsky.social): doi.org/10.1017/ehs.... #OA #Image commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cu...

New paper: "Transmission of social status drives cooperation and offspring philopatry", with Antonio Rodrigues (Open Access) doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

New paper: "Sexual antagonism in sequential hermaphrodites", w/ Thomas Hitchcock (@imprintedgene.bsky.social) *Open Access* doi.org/10.1098/rspb... Image: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Am...

Our new paper on sexual antagonism in sequential hermaphrodites has now been published! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

Hi all, The annual (57th) Population Genetics group conference will be hosted in St Andrews this year (8-10th of Jan 24) General info, plenary speakers, registration and abstract submission can be found here: www.populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk We hope to see you there in the new year! :)

New paper: "A geometric approach to the evolution of altruism" (OpenAccess) sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Altruism alleles are disfavoured upon their first appearance in the population, when they are not yet shared by kin. This slows the evolution of altruism.

Registration & abstract submission now open for PopGroup 57, 8-10 Jan 2024 in St Andrews: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk

Now published online at Notes & Records (Open Access): royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

New paper: "R.A. Fisher on J.A. Cobb's The Problem of the Sex-Ratio" (OpenAccess) hdl.handle.net/10023/28453 "Fisher's principle" of the sex ratio was first given by Cobb in 1914. Here I show that Fisher was aware of Cobb's paper.