I rarely think much about the Acknowledgments section. This time I do. It reflects how much collective effort went into this paper and our dedication to Ela Hau, who tragically passed away while we were finalizing this work. J Anim Ecol – heritable glucocorticoid plasticity bit.ly/4anJXqc

Researchers report creating RNAs that can generate a sort of mirror image of themselves and use that template to generate the original. Learn more: https://scim.ag/46F2BHN

💥Ignite: Caloric restriction-mediated reproductive lifespan extension across multiple strains of the clonal aquatic plant Lemna turionifera 📷 © Robert A. Laird vist.ly/4q3f9 #Aging #CaloricRestriction #IntraSpecificVariation #Lemnacea #Lemnoideae #Longevity

Proud to present: Suitcase Science, a new outreach format containing 6 assignments to take on a journey to schools in the region, to teach kids about terns, how to study them, their fascinating behaviour and some of the things that threaten them. Wanna book us? Drop me a line. :-)

I am looking for a PhD student to join my new Socio-Eco-Evo group, hosted in Katie Peichel's Evolutionary Ecology Division @ University of Bern. We're offering a fully funded 4-year position, studying social plasticity and behavioral adaptation among stickleback in Greenland. Please share around!

Co-authorship 'rules' are tricky and often unfair. Isn't it crazy that Franz X. Süssmayr, who wrote about half of the so-called "Mozart Requiem" and Franco Alfano, who wrote a third of Turandot, didn't even make it to the Acknowledgements...? 🤔

I've seen these animations here and there on the net, but I just found their source: this amazing YouTube channel by @drewberry.bsky.social , which is a goldmine. From malaria lifecycle to signal transduction - full of super cool stuff! youtu.be/Xe-83tBcxhs?...

Furic et al. Warm and cool temperatures decrease early‐life telomere length in wild pied flycatchers nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #ornithology

Field excursion to Hortobágy after the PhD Conference on Evolution and Biodiversity at the University of Debrecen in Hungary.

From modern tools for ecological monitoring to smart ways to make sense of messy real-world data - including occupancy & N-mixture models - this presentation showed how quantitative ecology can help tackle the biodiversity crisis. A stimulating talk by Brett Sandercock @bksandercock.bsky.social

🚨 Last call for abstracts! 🚨 Only 7 days left to submit your abstract for the EOU Fledglings Meeting 2026 🐣 🗓 Deadline: 16 January 2026 🎤 Oral & poster presentations welcome 🌍 Conference for early-career ornithologists 👉https://eounion.org/fledglings Don’t miss out — we’d love to see your work! ✨🦉

Tamas Szekely (l) introducing Robert Thomson (r) from @africanornithology.bsky.social. Robert gave a fascinating talk about how Sociable Weavers act as ecosystem engineers in the Kalahari. Their massive nests drive biodiversity & species interactions, featuring the remarkable African Pygmy Falcons.

Eva B. Thorstad @evathorstad.bsky.social from @ninanatureresearch.bsky.social talks about conservation issues in the Atlantic coast and beyond, at the Evolution & Biodiversity PhD conference in Debrecen

Jacint Tökölyi from @evozoodeb.bsky.social explains that freshwater hydra die in sterilized water: they need bacteria for a healthy microbiome. Evolution & Biodiversity PhD conference in Debrecen

Oliver Krüger talking about how eagle owl population recovery affects biodiversity and community structure at the Evolution & Biodiversity PhD conference in Debrecen, @evozoodeb.bsky.social

Nowadays snow became rare in Hungary, so it's a refreshing setting for the Evolution & Biodiversity PhD conference taking place these days (Jan 8-11) in Debrecen, coorganised by @evozoodeb.bsky.social I'll post some highlights from the meeting.

Are peer reviewers influenced by their work being cited?

A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication

📢 I'm hiring! 3-year postdoc in theoretical evolutionary ecology at University of Helsinki 🇫🇮 Apply: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki-Postdoctoral-Researcher-in-Theoretical-Evolutionary-Biology/1348955157/ #AcademicJobs #Postdoc #EvolutionaryEcology #TheoreticalEcology #ScienceJobs #AcademicChatter

We've been teaching a course where students need to find a question, design an expmnt, collect field data, analyse, write it up and then assess each other through peer review. This is the first year when this fell apart due to AI use at all stages (but data collection) to replace critical thinking.

Some addition to my ever-growing reading list...

Controlled settings may offer limited insight into the complexities of ageing in natural and variable ecosystems, and why (and how) ageing patterns vary so widely across individuals, populations, and species. We call for more research on ecology of ageing! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Excited for this one. Hannah’s research is top-notch and she’s a great speaker!

1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age @hannahdugdale.bsky.social @lummaalab.bsky.social @erikpostma.bsky.social

🚨🚨Job! 🚨🚨Permanent (75% time) job! We are a pretty awesome research group & seek a manager who deals with everything: personnel tasks, organizing retreats, preparing code for teaching / data structures for research... Fluency in German & English essential. stellenboerse.uni-mainz.de#/jgu/job/51527

I politely declined MDPI Birds’ “editorial board” invitation. Twice. No reply, just more invites. I now realise I was the academic equivalent of someone wiring money to a Nigerian widow... Lesson learned. Spam filter on.

Wheatears are very cool (and sometimes hard to ID in the field). This is an interesting paper describing the genetic background behind their colour variation. Good stuff for another daily avian hybridisation story @jenteo.bsky.social :)

Body surface temperatures as biomarkers of physiological environmental adaptation in wild birds and mammals | onlinelibrary.wiley.... | Biological Reviews | #ornithology 🪶

www.nature.com/articles/s41... @asrc-gc.bsky.social #NSFfunded with data from from 6 different continents

Evolutionary theory meets ballistics: longevity researchers pondering how cannons shaped extrinsic mortality patterns back in the day. @englishse.bsky.social has a model in mind, @eivimeycook.bsky.social prefers a metaanalysis, @kokkonut.bsky.social maybe thinking if they could shoot kokkonuts...? 🙂

A fantastic few days of ageing talks, great people, and excellent food! Massive thanks to (Hanna!) @kokkonut.bsky.social, Margaux Bieuville, Victor Ronget, and the fantastic people at The Gutenberg Workshops in the Life Sciences

Just back from The Evolution of Ageing workshop — once again a fabulous meeting! Inspiring talks, great discussions, fun socials. Shoutouts to the organizers for making it happen again!

**PhD POSITIONS** I am recruiting 1-2 PhD students to work on sociality and cognition in Monk Parakeets, starting Fall 2026. Full ad is here: hobsonresearch.com/index.php/20... (please help spread the word!)

A little lab getaway to beautiful Oradea — just about an hour from our department @evozoodeb.bsky.social

Welcome to the new EOU President, Peter Pap, holding the traditional symbol of office! #EOU2025

This is very cool. The creature and the story as well. www.inaturalist.org/blog/115291-...

Birds are dinosaurs

Something to try out in the next semester! I'm curious how it works for students compared to AVIDA.

🌟 You’re invited! 🌟 Join us for #ABL2025, a FREE online conference on 13–14 November! Connect with scientists worldwide, share your work in a friendly, inclusive place and enjoy talks, posters, and plenaries, all streamed live on YouTube 📅 Submit your abstract by 7 Sep 🔗 ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org

Our latest study has been published in Avian Research! 🐦 You can read the full paper from the link below. Hope you enjoy it. Happy reading! doi.org/10.1016/j.av...

New out at Frontiers in Animal Science: Amino acid supplementation supports growth and reproductive development under dietary restriction. doi.org/10.3389/fani...

"This study on house sparrows shows the differential fitness consequences of immigrants and residents, the fitness of their offspring based on parental background, and the annual and lifetime contributions of immigrants to local populations.." buff.ly/rFvyhH7

My 1000th iNaturalist observation was a graceful breeding white tern. My 1000th species could hardly be more different: island vs. mainland, tree vs. ground, white vs. black, slender vs. chubby—and thriving vs. dead (likely killed by a feral cat).😟 These contrasts highlight diversity & fragility.

Chicago Archaeopteryx informs on the early evolution of the avian bauplan www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The biggest "meta-analysis" ever? - 17 million effect sizes - elifesciences.org/articles/95857 With wonderful @coreytcallaghan.bsky.social and Will Cornwell We question the abundance-occupancy relationships using ebird data - we find ~ zero correlation

Kudos. A Science paper as the outcome of a master thesis... not bad! 🫡

That was a super cool session! 👏

Where is 'transformative'? 😁