Another quick spotlight of my new paper with @kenstoyama.bsky.social ; within the ~40 bird of paradise species, the ribbon-tailed astrapia has the longest tail of any passeriform at up to ~1.2m, while the short-tailed paradigalla has just a 5cm tail at a similar body size! doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Check out our new paper on the evolution of sexual size and shape dimorphism in the birds of paradise! Great collaboration with @thomasmacgillavry.bsky.social

I’m really concerned about early career scientists using generative AI in writing, because writing is how we think and reflect. There’s almost nothing *more* human than that, and to give that gift away to a machine is almost unconscionable to me

We visited Independencia island in Peru some weeks ago. Besides beautiful landscapes, we were impressed by how the local population of Microlophus lizards illustrates the island syndrome. Males were large, colorful, highly territorial, bold, and most missed fingers/toes. Densities were high.

We need a Butlerian Jihad

As always, Ted Chiang is great in this interview. cdh.princeton.edu/blog/2025/08...

If you are applying to a PhD, don't use an LLM in composing your proposal. If you are doing a PhD, don't use an LLM to do the writing and reading and thinking for you. Sorry, I am going to die on this hill.

Happy to share our latest paper in which we use a new big phylogeny of birds to analyze the relationships between dispersal, geographic range size and diversification rates across all birds. See also post by ‪@sheardcat.bsky.social‬ and @josephtobias.bsky.social www.cell.com/current-biol...

First we removed people's names from awards. Now, we want to remove journal names when referencing people's work. Soon we will remove people's names from their own papers. The dehumanization of science.

In this new Historical Perspective, Ken S. Toyama describes how the original definition of Rensch's rule, which has been overlooked for decades, can impact the way we study sexual dimorphism. Read now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

My historical perspective on Rensch's rule now Ahead of Print @asn-amnat.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

I wrote a post for @anoleannals.bsky.social about my latest paper with @jblosos.bsky.social @anthony-herrel.bsky.social and Luke Mahler on anole bite force and Rensch's rule. Read it here! www.anoleannals.org/2025/01/17/a...

What does sexual size dimorphism (SSD) mean in terms of combat performance differences between the sexes? We explored this question looking at bite force in Anolis lizards in this new @jevbio.bsky.social paper: academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...