Job reminder: lectureship in Marine Conservation available at Hull. Deadline is the 19th. We're friendly and you can still buy a house on an academic salary here. 🧪 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQF022/l...

That sexual selection is one of the primary drivers in evolution is well established. Studies of Mesozoic #dinosaurs and #pterosaurs, however, have been dominated by the view that the variation, extravagance and diversity seen in these animals is not due to the pressures of sexual selection, but...

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #DivingForFood so here are some plunge diving gannets from the North Sea in 2025. Note the upper bird in image 2 has a fishhook embedded in its wing and is trailing fishing line #birds #ukbirds #seabirds

Speaking as someone who was involved in the sexual selection argument referred to here, along with @tetzoo.bsky.social and @davehone.bsky.social, I reckon Horner got thoroughly and convincingly panned. One of my main takeaways was how little actual biology some of these senior palaeo guys know... 🧪

Why this new 'spiny dragon' dinosaur found in China is such a huge deal ... a new article at Discover Wildlife www.discoverwildlife.com/dinosaurs/ha... #dinosaurs

Last week the cliffs were empty. Now the gannets and guillemots are back at @rspb.bsky.social Bempton Cliffs. I declare ornithological spring to have started. #birds #ukbirds #ukwildlife #seabirds

Female kestrel with her unfortunate breakfast from @rspb.bsky.social Bempton Cliffs this morning. No gannets on the cliffs yet but quite a few lurking offshore. It feels like the whole place is waiting... #birds #ukbirds #ukwildlife

Have always been a keen user of the em-dash, now I'm using it even more and imagining people being confused as to whether I've used ChatGPT to generate a three line email. #AI #Slop

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Remember when people were saying that preprint servers would make journals irrelevant? 🧪

Sheffield merely the latest university to claim that legally withdrawing your labour should actually be postponing your labour, and punishing people further. Here’s how strikes work: 1. You legally stop working for a period of time. You don’t get paid. 2. Win or lose you go back to work.

POSTDOC ALERT🚨 Two exciting social evolution postdoc positions live today! We're looking for two excellent field biologists. Join us to explore the evolution of sociality in wasps across Africa. Apply by 11th January. Collaboration with @dustinrubenstein.com @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

Even Springer Nature can get things right on occasion. 🧪 #Dinosaurs #Nanotyrannus www.instagram.com/reels/DSr-mP...

Marsh harriers from Blacktoft Sands on Sunday. It was absolutely bloody freezing in the hide. #birds #ukbirds #ukwildlife #wildlifephotography.

In the foothills of the western Alps in southeastern France, horned alpine ibex roam the limestone cliffs ... a region once home to thriving populations of wild horses, bison, roe deer, gray wolves, Eurasian lynx, and four species of vultures news.mongabay.com/2025/11/fran... #rewilding

As an early Christmas gift, @journal-evo.bsky.social accepted @kenstoyama.bsky.social and my paper on macroevolutionary patterns of ornament evolution in birds of paradise! 🦚 Check it out here: academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

I took a lot of photos in 2025. I tried to get it down to a top 10 but that was a bit too difficult so I have a top 25. All taken in the UK or South Africa. #wildlife #wildlifephotgraphy #birds #ukbirds 1) Some birds from Tophill Low

Come and join me and my colleagues at the Department of Biology, #LundUniversity in #sweden! We have am open position as Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Biodiversity. Apply here no later than February 11 2026: https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:848749/type:job/where:4/apply:1

@qmul.bsky.social I know I’ve previously said I’m grateful for all the times the college has done something egregiously nasty and made me glad I decided to leave, but it’s been a few years now. You can stop, I’ll be fine.

One of the techniques the students learn to use on our #Wildlife #Conservation #MSc field course in #SouthAfrica is camera trapping to estimate mammal biodiversity. Sometimes the videos are more interesting than other times #leopard @uniofhull.bsky.social

Students on our ur #MSc #Wildlife #Conservation fieldcourse in the #KrugerNationalPark met these two fine fellows within about 10 minutes of each other @uniofhull.bsky.social #Wilddog #Lion #WildlifePhotography

A bit of scorpion hunting with a UV torch is always a good way to spend an evening. #HullWildlifeConservation #MSc #Wildlife #Conservation #Arachnid

Onthophagus rangifer, one of the most extraordinary horned dung beetles you might ever see. From a baited pitfall trap near Skukuza on our #MSc #Wildlife #Conservation field course in the #Kruger park. #HullWildlifeConservation #insects #coleoptera #wildlifephotography @uniofhull.bsky.social

Students on our #Msc #Wildlife #Conservation learning how elephants alter biodiversity and tree cover in the #krugernationalpark #HullWildlifeConservation. Exclusion experiments tell us how herbivores affect ecological comunities. When the herbivores are 🐘 you need serious gear to keep 'em out.

Just spent a significant amount of time walking through the bush in the Kruger Park, accompanied by a man with a rifle, searching for enough fresh elephant poo to fill a bucket. Yes this is my job. Yes they pay me to do this.🧪

WCS Celebrates Historic and Sweeping Trade Protections for Sharks and Rays Adopted at CITES CoP20 > Newsroom | All CITES shark and ray proposals pass – marking the most comprehensive advance in global shark conservation in CITES history.

She’s back! Wisdom is now at least 75 years old. Wonderful.

What do you think the primary goal of applied ecological/conservation research is? 1️⃣ Diagnose threats and impacts 2️⃣ Understand ecological processes 3️⃣ Inform management or policy 4️⃣ Something else (comment below) 📊 Show results

Black cat in front of a hot fire through a thermal scope.

Funded PhD studentship available on the way that mating system affects coevolutionary processes with natural enemies. #ecoevo #sexualselection looking for a great candidate spread the word! www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 🧪

This is fascism.

Bedtime for democracy...

The impact of climate change on sexually selected traits and it's consequences for evolutionary fitness www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Genomics and development of an exaggerated sexual trait in stalk-eyed flies www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Join us! 🧬🪰🎉🔬 We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies. Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!

I've been avoiding reading articles on the death of James Watson, co-discoverer of #DNA's structure. That is, until I saw that @statnews.com published one by Sharon Begley, a renowned science writer who passed in 2021. Yes, you read that right. www.statnews.com/2025/11/07/j... 🧪 (1/5)

Quote from the late and unlamented James Watson: “Anyone who would hire an ecologist is out of his mind”. I find myself proud to be a member of a group that he disliked. 🧪

Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!

So given recent news I’ve been doing a bit of reading on James Watson. It’s hard to find anything positive to say about this sexist and racist bigot who happened to get in on the scientific discovery of the century. 🧪

PhD position at the University of Bristol (with me!) entitled 'The legacy impacts of extreme climate events on animal behaviour, physiology, and fitness'. Fully funded and is available for UK-domiciled students of black heritage. Please reach out with any questions. tinyurl.com/5n7s8yp9

Nature suggests you use their "Manuscript Adviser" bot to get advice before submitting I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:

Interested in doing a PhD in theoretical ecology and evolution? Come join us in Bern!

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Is Madagascar possibly home to a giant, black fossa - about twice the size of the scientifically recognized species? The article at Tet Zoo now has a good number of reader comments ... tetzoo.com/blog/2025/10... #mammals #carnivorans #carnivora

Bloody hell. #academia #academicfreedom #repression #china

🦀 news (with apologies for subjecting you to that horrible pun in the headline...) www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Homage to Xavier Bou: little swifts at the Olifants River high-water bridge, Kruger National Park. Unstacked from video taken with an Iphone 14. #birds #photography #SouthAfrica #iPhone

Just want to thank @qmul.bsky.social for once again giving me confidence that my decision to leave was correct www.reddit.com/r/AskAcademi... #academia #phd