New paper out! 🐦📊 We realease AVONICHE, a global dataset with detailed information on the proportional use of 32 foraging niches, combining dietary categories with the behaviours and substrates used to access resources. Openly access the paper and data in GEB: doi.org/10.1111/geb....

Thrilled to share our new review online with @scottvedwards.bsky.social in @Trends Ecol & Evo! “pangenomics is rapidly transforming our ability to dissect the genetic basis of ecological and evolutionary change in natural systems.”

Currently recruiting PhD students to follow up on this result - please come to have a chat if interested #ASABWinter2025

🚨Two funded PhDs on the evolutionary ecology of antipredator colouration 🦋 with myself and Iliana Medina. One in Swansea tinyurl.com/4thtbph6 deadline Jan 12th @crocus-dla.bsky.social The other in Melbourne - deadline Jan 1st Please share among potential students!

Our new paper is out today in Journal of the Royal Society Interface (link below). All about eggshell roughness: "Scratching beyond the surface: examining macroecological patterns in avian eggshell texture". Congrats first author Marie Attard, and thank you @leverhulme.ac.uk for the funding.

Like big trait databases? Think biology should think about humans more? Fascinated by house plants? My fantastic colleagues and I are advertising a PhD project based at the University of Aberdeen on the ornamental plant trade. Come join us! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Back from #BOUasm25. I can’t praise the organisation enough? An amazing line-up of speakers! I’ve come back feeling inspired! I can now also check "seeing Cook and Darwin specimens" from my bucket list thanks to the amazing team at Tring.

Anyone looking for a Australia-based postdoc? Like animal behaviour / coding / birds? My fantastic collaborator, Iliana Medina, is advertising a position researching bird nests: unimelb.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/UoM_Ex...

We’re kicking off session 1 with a keynote from Alex Bond, “From specimens to solutions: the evolving role and current challenges of natural history collections” 💭 Andreanna Welch joins us as Chair for this session. @thelabandfield.bsky.social  #BOUasm25 #ornithology #naturalhistory

Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Excited to share our new paper where we find that the rise, decline and fall of clades is not explained by the usual suspects (diversity-dependence, ecological opportunities) but rather by species' insidious loss of macroevolutionary fitness: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/3

Hechenleitner, E.M., Martinelli, A.G., Rocher, S. et al. A long-necked early dinosaur from a newly discovered Upper Triassic basin in the Andes. Nature (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

I'm not comparing myself to Darwin "But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything."

📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Every year again, this blows my mind. At the same a gentle reminder that one upon a time there were over a BILLION passenger pigeons alone. What we are seeing now is probably just a fraction of what we had before 😱

In 2017, we discovered the whereabouts of the last known male #greatauk 👉 tinyurl.com/3nc8s74x Now we’ve confirmed where the last female resides… Spoiler: she’s at @cincymuseum.bsky.social! Read the full story here 👉 academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

Funded PhD position available 🎉 Come and work with me in Helsinki to uncover the pathways producing colourful tiger moth wings. Lots of options for genomics, CRISPR, fieldwork, behaviour experiments… Email with questions! jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Super happy to share the first chapter of my PhD, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface ✨🐀 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... Iridescence in mammals is not as rare as we thought, but it’s all created in the same way!

Hey you. Wanna apply for a fellowship on collections? the AHRC Early career fellowships in cultural & heritage institutions are open! The Natural History Museum priorities are below. If you wanna talk birds, hit me up. Collectors, colonialism, Canada, Australia & more www.ukri.org/opportunity/...

Mammal colours boring? Guess again (mostly a note to myself). Superstar Jess has been finding iridescence colours across mammals! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

New paper @biolinvasions.bsky.social led by Sarah-Sophie Weil. Can macroevolution inform contemporary invasion potential? We outline the assumptions of this approach, assess support, then test if dispersal ability can proxy for naturalisation success in several tetrapod groups. rdcu.be/eD9Tt

My feather cell type paper is finally out! doi.org/10.1111/ede.... We’ve packed a ton of stuff into this paper but I’ll go through some highlights in this thread!

My talk at #eseb2025 is over, but do come and find me if you want to talk (bird) colour!

Great thread, great paper

New bird tree who dis. www.cell.com/current-biol...

New research in #ScienceAdvances shows that some songbirds have such bright-looking feathers by having a backdrop of black or white plumage underneath their bright feathers—an illusionary tactic of color also used by painters. Learn more in #ScienceAdviser: scim.ag/46ZaPeM

Is 2025 (red lines) a good butterfly year? Yes, on Dutch Butterfly Monitoring transects there are more butterflies than in 2023 and 2024. Numbers almost exactly equal 2022. But look at the 1990s. Compared to then it is a poor butterfly year. Shifting baselines!

Excited to advertise a shared PhD position at KU Leuven (Belgium) and Mondsee (Austria) with @markusmoest.bsky.social on the genetic basis, plasticity and evolution of melanization in Daphnia from alpine lakes. Apply here: www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo...

Our new preprint @scottvedwards.bsky.social 🧬🐦 Long-read genomes show songbird germline-restricted chromosomes (GRCs; expelled from somatic cells) are 70 % repeats and packed with active LTR retroviruses. A hidden reservoir for TE-driven innovation/diversification! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Can macroevolutionary indices be used to inform contemporary extinction risk? We explore this question in an Ecology Letters review out today. Led by Sarah-Sophie Weil and Laure Gallien, it should be a useful resource for anyone using these approaches. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Do I know someone who can help me with slides on plant diversity? I know nothing about plants, but my son is turning into Linnaeus, spending hours looking at flowers and classifying plant families (correctly). I would like to help him out (instead of the other way around 🤣).

A complete and dynamic tree of birds - out today in PNAS! Teamwork with @eliotmiller.bsky.social and others at @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social and Open Tree of Life to put together current relationships across all birds. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

⏰ DEADLINE IS TOMORROW (15 April) ⏰ Submit your abstract now! 🚨 #BOUasm25 | A day at the museum: collections-based ornithological research in a changing world 📅 18 Nov 2025 | Natural History Museum, London 🔗 bou.org.uk/event/a-d...#BOUasm25 #ornithology 🪶🧪

Our paper, on viewing condition and the evolution of plumage colour, is published! This was several years of work, building on our study of woodcock communication. Working with @sheardcat.bsky.social and John was a particular privilege. 🪶🧪#ornithology royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Bird colouration varies a tremendous amount. But why? In a new paper, @j-dunning.net , John Endler, & I look at the relationship between plumage and viewing conditions in 2610 species of birds, finding strong, non-sexual effects (esp. on females). 📷Zak Pohlen (tanager), Darren Clark (thrush)

At most, if we are being generous, that "dire wolf" announcement amounts to something like this.

PhD position on Evolution of Seasonal Camouflage in my group. Fully funded 4 year position in Stockholm University and SciLifeLab! :-) su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Adopt a goose hybrid! Due to university budget cuts, my experiment with captive goose hybrids will be terminated. To avoid culling the birds, I hope to relocate them a new and warm home. If you are interested in adopting a goose hybrid, you can reach out by DM or mail.

A call to arms for eBirders and iNaturalists. 🚨 We want your bird photos! If you photograph feeding birds with flowers, fruit, seeds or prey, upload the image with locality details. We are data-harvesting species, size and type of food/prey to study foodwebs and species interactions. Thanks! 🧪🌐🪶

Awesome paper lead by @jgoldenbergevo.bsky.social explained in a great thread! Makes me miss reptiles again.

Color evolution wasn’t inevitable - was it? In a recent article for @uk.theconversation.com, I explore some of the latest research on how animals and plants co-evolved to bring vibrant colors into our world theconversation.com/why-did-life...

We are very excited to share our new paper in Science! We show that a diverse group of Jurassic and Cretaceous mammals all had darkly-colored fur. Well how did we do this? Let' start at the beginning! 🧵 (1/6) @science.org

I would love to give more seminars this year! If your department, lab, or group is looking for a talk on bird colouration, I’d love to chat.

In our newest paper we highlight the similarities and differences in biomineralization patterns of different animals eggshells! pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/A...

I would love to give more seminars this year! If your department, lab, or group is looking for a talk on bird colouration, I’d love to chat.

It's hard to believe the Keeling Curve has been taken down. Even with what we expect, it's shocking

Macroevolution of body extremities reveals an integrated phenotypic response of coloration and morphology to temperature in a large clade of Neotropical passerines (Furnariida) | doi.org/10.1093/orni... | Ornithology | #ornithology 🪶

Turns out my son's swimming trunks fluoresce. Must be designed on purpose as in fluorescent animals. My guess: to specifically prevent drowning in a swimming pool with black lights. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...