If a “little toy doll(y) that toddles and coos” is on your list, Salmonid Claus is definitely going to deliver on Day 21 of #25DaysofFishmas! We end the northwest leg of our road trip with the Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma), a brightly colored fish + this week’s #SundayFishSketch mystery species!

✍️New blog post! Evolution Has No Plan: Why Organisms Don’t Rewrite Their DNA jenteottenburghs.wordpress.com/2025/12/18/e... The news articles on polar bears that are “rewriting their DNA in response to climate change” triggered me to write this blog post. Evolution has no foresight.

🎶I’m dreaming of a white(fish)-mas🎶 No need to just dream it! On Day 16 of #25DaysofFishmas, our road trip heads to the high country for the Bonneville Cisco (Prosopium gemmifer), a species of freshwater whitefish found only in Bear Lake on the border of southeast Idaho and northern Utah.

Are you a sucker for cheesy holiday movies? Well, you’re in good company! Day 17 of #25DaysofFishmas brings us the Largescale Sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus), a fish whose distinctive feeding habits and even scientific name - which means “large lips” - makes it perfect for mistletoe lovers 😘

Can professors enroll? Asking for a friend. Yes, that friend is me!

New from #NearLab The role of ecology in allopatric speciation of darters in the Central Highlands, USA shorturl.at/YEmxH

The beautiful shiner is a small fish (<3.5 in/9 cm) that's part of the Leuciscidae family (shiners, daces, minnows) and the Cyprinella genus - also known as sailfin shiners. Like many other Cyprinella species, male beautiful shiners are known for their vibrant breeding colors #25DaysofFishmas

I'm recruiting a Ph.D. student for Fall 2026. Interested in comparative studies and trait evolution in fishes? Send me an email with a CV and research interests. Please take a look at my website (jcorush.github.io ) for more information about my research. #hybridization #minnows #mudskippers

Mountain mullet is part of the Mugilidae family (grey mullets), a group whose members are mostly found in marine coastal waters worldwide. The mountain mullet goes against the flow (literally!) of its family by migrating far inland and spending most of its adult life in freshwater #25DaysofFishmas

Madtoms are kind of the Tiny Tim of the catfish family. #25DaysofFishmas

Suwannee bass is one of the smaller members of the black bass genus (Micropterus) typically growing only ~8 in/21 cm long - though females grow faster + reach larger sizes than males. Mature fish often have turquoise blue coloration on the cheeks/belly that's brighter when breeding #25DaysofFishmas

Like the 7 other living species of gars, Florida gar have unmistakable long slender bodies, beak-like jaws, and interlocking diamond-shaped scales. They’re one of the smaller gars, often ~2 ft (0.6 m) long - compare that to the alligator gar which can grow to nearly 10 ft (3 m)! #25DaysofFishmas

Rudolph, the red-eared reindeer! 🦌 With ears so bright, the Redear Sunfish (Lepomis microlophus) guides us into Day 2 of #25DaysofFishmas! This member of the sunfish family found throughout the southeastern US is a warm-water loving ray of sun on a cold winter day ☀️

The Christmas darter is one of ~200 species of darters (fish in a group called Etheostomatinae) that are all native to North America + mostly found east of the Rocky Mountains. Christmas darters are Tiny Tims, typically only growing <2 in (5 cm) long #25DaysofFishmas

🎶It’s beginning to look a lot like #Fishmas🎶 There’s no better fish to kick off this year’s #25DaysofFishmas than the aptly-named Christmas darter (Etheostoma hopkinsi)! We get our road trip started down in the southeastern US with this small species of fish who has big holiday spirit all year long

I'm recruiting a new master's student for fall 2026 in my lab at Northern Michigan University @bionmu.bsky.social ! Students with interests in evolution of freshwater fish are encouraged to apply. Please see our lab website lizmandeville.github.io and the attached advertisement for more information.

Amanda Sabatino, @jpjahner.bsky.social and I have a new paper on @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social. Amanda, in her undergraduate thesis work, found variation in Colias colour phenotypes is associated with different metrics of urbanization in Toronto. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to recruit a new PhD student for Fall 2026 in my lab at Cornell! Looking for someone interested in evolutionary genomics + fisheries/conservation applications. Quick timeline this year—reach out soon. More details: www.therkildsenlab.org/join-us.html

It begins!

Marquette being gorgeous. Good job @lakesuperior.bsky.social too

Capturing plankton for teaching on a crisp fall morning. Chilly, but beautiful!

Some days, this is my job. Scouting for a field lab.

My car cloned itself while I was at work! But I’m confused as an evolutionary biologist bc I thought only hybrids did that, and it’s electric! Is my car a plant? Was it parthenogenesis, gynogenesis, or kleptogenesis? Mysteries abound!

Peer review ✍️, when done properly, remains an excellent mean to improve manuscripts ✔️. Special thanks to two anonymous reviewers that helped us put together this new version! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Still possible to apply to this #post-doc position at CESAB #Montpellier. Application closing date: September 15th 2025 (12:00 PM CET) How taking intraspecific diversity and evolutionary processes into account in translocation-based programs. Please share widely #PopGen #NbS #Biodiversity

Very cool! The more we learn about the biology of sex determination, the more interesting and complicated it gets. (I rescind my previous snarky comments that birds are "simple and boring" in this department.)

Shirley Chen's paper from my lab on the dilution and amplification hypotheses regarding the biodiversity-disease relationship. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

This is a books recommendation thread. The air is smoky and things are dark right now, but I just finished a lovely book (“To Be Taught, If Fortunate”, by Becky Chambers). I’ve been really enjoying beautiful speculative fiction. What have you read recently that you love?

Today the air quality index where I live is 168 due to drifting smoke from wildfires. I canceled my trail run. My kid is mad at me for not letting her attend soccer camp, but really, we should all be mad at our leaders. We need climate science and clean energy policies, not cuts.

I'm thrilled to share more cool fish genetics, led by former MSc student Amanda Meuser, and with former student Amy Pitura and collaborator @erynmcfarlane.bsky.social. This one is about minnow hybrids! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Applications now open for the SSE GREG Rosemary Grant Advanced Awards! These grants provide up to $3500 to expand your dissertation work. Submit your proposal by September 15! www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

It's easy! Save their numbers in your phone and make calling a habit. Call the ones you agree with and the ones you don't - positive feedback when they do the right thing is just as important as critical feedback when they're doing something you don't like.

Michiganders, I just called my Republican congressional representative to express my opposition to the budget bill, and got right through to a staffer. That's not right, his phone should be ringing constantly. If you're in the UP, represented by Bergman, and oppose the budget bill, give him a call!

Job alert! We have a postdoc position available in the Stelkens Lab at Stockholm University. Join us and apply experimental evolution and comparative genomics in the model system yeast to test for parallel climate adaptation. Apply through this link: su.varbi.com/en/what:job/... Deadline 15 August.

Delighted to post some cool science - a collaboration with my former grad students Cassandre and Jill, and collaborator extraordinaire @erynmcfarlane.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1093/jher...

Minnow trapping by bicycle!

Guess Mikey’s distance and win QSC swag!!

A good reminder in this hectic world

The USGS coop units are so essential to fish and wildlife management/conservation. I have been so lucky to work with these talented and dedicated researchers over the years, and am beyond sad and infuriated about these proposed cuts.

I'm hiring! Postdoc available in my lab in Ecological Genomics. northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/careers/job/... I will start reviewing applications mid-July. 🧪🧑‍🔬🖥️🧬🦑. Please share widely, thanks!

Contact your Congress critters! Let’s make some noise.

📢New article: COVID-19 proved that Universities could make Post-Secondary Education more Accessible; They are just choosing not to #HigherEd 🧪🍁

3,000 people turned out today in Marquette! This is for a small city where the temp hovered around freezing with the wind whipping off Lake Superior. We put on our coats, hats, and snow pants and got out there.

We have a 4-year fully funded PhD position available! Research topics include but are not limited to 1) Parallel evolution of climate adaptation in Europe and South America 2) The genetic architecture of temperature adaptation 3) The evolution of pathogenicity su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

RNA xkcd.com/3056

Biology is so awesome and this is a very well-written and accessible article about just how incredibly complicated sex determination is in nature: www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-ba...

This Valentine’s Day it’s more important than ever to support and defend JEDI. Happy Valentine’s Day to all the rebels out there fighting to protect human rights, democracy, and science

I’m proud to be a member of SSE today! This is an important message.

Yes, I am totally countering my doomscrolling by reading escapist fantasy novels…

Good riddance January. Between all the horrible things happening in the world and having covid, one of the few bright spots was that I read a lot of good books. So I’m starting a 2025 reading thread.