Happy birthday Sir David! 🌊 @zoologymuseum.bsky.social @camzoology.bsky.social

We're delighted to see Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ Tours return to The Polar Museum! 🌈 @scottpolar.bsky.social Join a FREE tour this Saturday 9 May, 1pm, and discover fascinating queer stories from the collection based on new archival research. Book your place: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1988316268....

UK folks: don't forget that today is elections day for some if you are able to vote. Polls are open from 7am-10pm & if in queue by 10pm you can still vote. Look up your polling site and candidate list here: www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter... and don't forget to bring ID if in England!

My episode of ABC Conversations aired again today. I spoke to Richard Fidler about the wonders of the #platypus, how Europeans came to know them, and how they've been unfairly written off as weird and primitive - all stories from my #PlatypusMatters book. Listen here: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

🦟Infectious disease has shaped the deep history of our species, as new research co-authored by members of our Evolutionary Ecology Group reveals. @eegcam.bsky.social @mikleonardi.bsky.social @ceciliapad.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Compliments to your colleagues too. I'm a fan of History and Geography of Human Genes, so I found the history and stories you reconstructed fascinating. Knowing Cavalli Sforza a bit, I think he would have appreciated it too.

A fascinating paper, and one worth reading as we enter a period likely to see accelerated spread of malaria back into areas from which it had been eradicated.

#geoanthropology #genetics #evolution "It was not just humans who adapted to different regions and environments, their pathogens did too." Wonderful work indeed, and well-written paper, tks for the OA.

This is absolutely fascinating, and well worth a read.

I am so happy to share our #newpaper on how human #distribution in #Africa was shaped by #malaria for tens of thousands of years. A wonderful work led by @margheritac17.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social and @eegcam.bsky.social. I loved contributing! #prehistory #humanevolution #disease 1/2

1/5 Well over three years of work and I’m thrilled to see it out today in Science Advances: the cover feature no less! Using an innovative pipeline, we show that malaria shaped the spatial organization of human groups in sub-Saharan Africa over the last 74,000 years. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🦟 Out and on a shiny new cover of Science Advances: we use a novel approach to study malaria impact on early human groups - malaria wasn't just a threat, it shaped human habitat choice in sub-Saharan Africa in the past 74,000 years. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

If you want to know more about our study on the impact of #malaria on human #distribution for the last 74k years go check this great thread by @elliescerri.bsky.social! 🦟👣 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

New preprint from the lab!

Just heard of another major British Palaeolithic site falling through the planning & protection net and being green-lit for development. That's 3 confirmed in 3 years, with 2 others I'm investigating. The failure to schedule Palaeolithic sites & the erosion of planning protections are to blame. 🚨🦣🏺

1/3 New recommendation: Fusco, Habte, Leplongeon, Ménard, Manica, Spinapolice, Leonardi (2025). The environmental context of the Middle-to-Late Stone Age Transition in eastern Africa: seasonality as a key factor. v2 peer-reviewed and recommended by PCI Archaeology doi.org/10.1101/2024...

I am so happy that the work done by @mariannafusco.bsky.social is now accepted on @pciarchaeology.bsky.social 🌟 We explore potential links between the shape and size of #MSA lithic tools and #climate variability through the year 🌧️🌞🪨 I loved working with Marianna and @enzaspinapolice.bsky.social !❤️

The revelation that endometriosis is linked to autoimmune disorders is opening up a whole new way to treat this painful and poorly understood condition

I couldn’t be more excited about being given the chance to present some of the work we do at @eegcam.bsky.social this November & to listen to the talks by such an incredible line up of speakers! 🤩

The distribution of early human settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa might have been influenced by avoidance of mosquitoes that spread malaria A new #prelight of Alejandra Leffer's group talks about the preprint by @margheritac17.bsky.social , and the team.

🚨🧬New #preprint and R package from the lab out in @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social🧬🚨: 'tidygenclust' combines the functionality of ADMIXTURE, fastmixture and Clumppling into R - allowing for reproducible clustering analyses and plotting all in one place! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thank you @prelights.bsky.social & Alejandra Leffer's group for choosing our preprint on @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social and for this chance to talk about human- #malaria coevolution!🦟 @eegcam.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social @MPI_GEA

News flash! ⚡ GBIF establishes an international task group led by Dr Lydia Jennings on Indigenous data governance to offer input and guidance for implementing the #CAREPrinciples within the GBIF network 🌱 Read more: 🔗 https://gbif.link/IDG#CAREPrinciples @localcontexts.bsky.social

#Newpaper: the African Humid period through the lenses of pollen-based and mechanistic-based #palaeoclimate reconstructions! Thanks @ecologypast.bsky.social, @markuslfischer.bsky.social, @paleoclimategirl.bsky.social and all coauthors!

Pollen-based reconstructions and a mechanistic climate model tell a similar story on the Africa Humid Period; @mikleonardi.bsky.social‬ and Andrea contributed to a proxy-model comparison paper led by @ecologypast.bsky.social‬ in Quatern. Int.: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

It’s our most controversial episode yet! What do Josh and Natalie think is OVERRATED? Do you agree??? m.youtube.com/watch?v=2IKx...

Hindcasted species distribution modelling of baboons illuminates potential refugia across Africa and Arabia, with predicted maxima and minima of habitable ranges pulsed by orbital precession and obliquity expressed within the last precessional cycle. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

US EPA science shutdown endangers health of people and planet 🌎 🌐 theconversation.com/the-us-envir...

You can also now see it as part of the Richard Owen: A Natural Legacy display in the @nhm-london.bsky.social ‘s free Images of Nature gallery alongside other original #illustrations from Owen’s fascinating drawings collection #naturalhistory #art #gallery #echidna #anatomy

Fabulous news that @martamlahr.bsky.social has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy 🍾🍾🍾

Molecules from 20-million-year-old rhino's teeth are among the oldest ever sequenced. New @nature.com paper by Professor Andrea Manica and @mikleonardi.bsky.social @eegcam.bsky.social out now: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Read more here: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Andrea and @mikleonardi.bsky.social contributed to a @nature.com paper recovering phylogenetically informative proteins from a ~21M year rhino: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very pleased to see our paper published online at Climate of the Past: cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/... We present model-data comparisons of Late Quaternary climate across the Northern Hemisphere, showing that increasing model resolution has little net effect on coherence with pollen proxies 😊

New paper in collaboration with @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social and @jblinkhorn.bsky.social, with several of us involved (@mikleonardi.bsky.social @margheritac17.bsky.social @andreavpozzi.bsky.social) shows that downscaling palaeoclimate models doesn't necessarily improve coherence with proxy data.

Last week, Andrea sat down with Dr Chris Smith of Naked Scientists to talk about our paper on the expansion of the human niche 70k year ago: www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/int...

Yesterday it was staff party day at @nhm-london.bsky.social. Coolest event ever 😍

Eine neue Nature-Studie erklärt, warum frühe Wanderungsversuche des Menschen nicht gelangen. Die Menschheit musste zunächst in Afrika lernen, verschiedene Arten von Habitaten zu erschließen. Grundlage der Arbeit ist die Datenbank „ROAD“ unserer Forschungsstelle ROCEEH. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An invaluable software for #popgen! Congrats @eviecarter41.bsky.social, @eegcam.bsky.social and colleagues for this tool! 🧬

Sharing ideas might have helped Homo sapiens adapt for life outside Africa www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

Around 70,000 years ago, our ancestors in Africa began exploiting different habitats. Flexibility to survive in deserts to rainforests enabled their successful spread ‘Out of Africa’. Find out more about the study co-led by Andrea Manica @eegcam.bsky.social 👇 bit.ly/4e6i9H7

Here is a thread detailing the main findings of the paper by the key people driving this study!

About 70,000 years ago, a new study suggests, our species learned to live just about anywhere. Later, that ability helped our ancestors expand from Africa across the world. Here’s my story on the human niche [Gift link] nyti.ms/3ZBc7ID

Thank you @wbanks33.bsky.social for this insight on our paper!

after 6 years, finally out in @nature.com! ‪Huge expansion of the human #niche in Africa ~70kya likely equipped later #outofAfrica dispersals with unique ecological flexibility co-led with Emily Hallett @eegcam.bsky.social & @elliescerri.bsky.social #prehistory #humanevolution #paleoecology #SDM

#newpaper now out in @nature.com! A huge expansion of the human niche in Africa ~70 kya likely equipped later #outofAfrica dispersals with a unique ecological flexibility. www.nature.com/articles/s41... led by Emily Hallett, @mikleonardi.bsky.social, Andrea Manica, @elliescerri.bsky.social 1/4

A huge congratulations to @ceciliapad.bsky.social and @eegcam.bsky.social! 🤗👏

🚨 NEW preprint🚨 Our latest study @HPS MPI-GEA @elliescerri.bsky.social & @eegcam.bsky.social models #malaria risk over the past 74,000 years revealing its powerful role in shaping human habitat choice and dispersal since the late Pleistocene in sub-Saharan Africa 🦟🌍 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I really like this preprint. There is a lot to reflect on, which I'll do at greater length. An observation: Multiregional evolution drew upon very similar metapopulation modeling in the 1990s and early 2000s, e.g. work from me, Alan Templeton, and John Relethford. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨 New research by Palaeotrails' @sarah-paris.bsky.social beautifully connects Neolithic infant burials in Thailand with today’s evolving conversations around perinatal loss. "This isn't just about pigment—it's about belonging." From ancient ochre to Ronaldo's 7th-minute tribute—grief unites. 🕊️