BUT HONEY BADGER DON'T CARE, HE IS ADAPTED WITH REPTILE VENOM RESISTENCE!!!! #IBeenTanglingCobraSinceYouWereAnEggBoi (Drabeck et al. 2015) #2026MMM

The extinct auroch was domesticated into modern cattle, but some modern cattle breeds are more genetically similar to the auroch. Park et all found modern British and Irish cattle are more similar to a 6,750-year-old British auroch than the other Eurasian breeds doi.org/10.1186/s130... #2026MMM

Our new experimental evolution study across 30+ locations using the plant Arabidopsis thaliana —— we direct "see" adaptation and extinction to different climates at the genetic as it happens! Read it in Science dx.doi.org/10.1126/scie... @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social @hhmi-science.bsky.social

Brand new episode: snow leopards & BAG CATS with the beloved Megafelinologist Dr. @biologistimogene.bsky.social. OH IT'S SO GOOD. www.alieward.com/ologies/mega...

SWEET 16 WINNERS: #2026MMM Steller's Sea Cow, Aurochs, Humpback Whale, Hippopotamus, Lions, Nile Crocodile, Honey Badger and Gila Monster! Please join us TOMORROW (3/26) at 8PM EST for the ELITE TRAIT!!

But as Torn Ear Lion steps forward, his back foot crushes into urine-damp mud, catching mold in the fur between the lion's back paw toe beans. (Golan & Pringle 2017) #2026MMM

LAST BATTLE OF THE NIGHT! 2-seed Lions (Panthera leo) vs. 6-seed Library Cat (Felis catus) #2026MMM

#2026MMM if you liked the art tonight, please sit tight as the Art Team fixes our Erminea store as fast as we can! Bookmark it and be ready! ermineainc.org/shop/

Yo Peto’s Paradox in the house tonight! #2026MMM

This is what March Mammal Madness is all about! #2026MMM

Called it! PACHYDERMATA FIGHTTTTTT!!! #2026MMM

#RIP Grey fox. Sarcoptic mange devastates wolves, coyotes & red foxes. In wolves, immunity & skin barrier genes explain who survives. Grey foxes are remarkably mange-resistant. With the new grey fox reference genome, we have the tools to discover why! #2026MMM pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

#2026MMM #SweetSixteen #ExtinctionDivision #TeamBaiji Art by Mary C. Freisner @maryfreisner.bsky.social

#2026MMM #SweetSixteen #ExtinctionDivision #TeamStellersSeaCow Art by Valeria Pellicer @veppart.bsky.social

#2026MMM #SweetSixteen #LibraryDivision #TeamNileCrocodile Art by Charon Henning @oddangel.bsky.social

True river dolphins across the world's rivers are not all related. The extinct Baiji from East Asia was more closely related to the South American river dolphins in the genus Inia than to the Ganges river dolphin or Susu from South Asia doi.org/10.1371/jour... #2026MMM

Using coalescent demographic reconstructions, Zhou et al found that the extinct Baiji had undergone a bottleneck at the beginning of the Holocene but populations were recovering in the last 10,000 years until recent extinction from human activities doi.org/10.1038/ncom... #2026MMM #RIP

UP NEXT: 1-seed Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) vs. 10-seed Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) #2026MMM

👀 Absolute banger paper. Leveraging cattle/pig GWAS/eQTL to help explain the missing regulatory gap in humans. Consistent with previous works, selection makes identifying relevant eQTLs in humans challenging. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Humans are such a horrible study system, it’s a shame they’re us

The Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology still holds 46% of the Native American ancestors in its collections, falling short of a 2022 pledge to complete the repatriation of all ancestors within 3 years. Shalini N. Ramchune reports. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

The department of anthropology at CU Boulder had the pleasure of hosting @gahousman.bsky.social for the last few days. Dr. Housman gave an excellent talk on primate functional genetics and met with many of our trainees and faculty.

Special Issue on Genetic Rescue is out 🎉🎉🎉 The 21 papers on the SI highlight how evolutionary biology can enhance resilience & long-term survival of biodiversity. Introducing genetically diverse individuals can boost fitness in small, isolated populations 🧬🌿 doi.org/10.1111/eva.70225

#2026MMM #BoneyardDivision #TeamShrike Art by Charon Henning @oddangel.bsky.social

UP NEXT: 5th-seeded Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer) vs. 13th-seeded Yallara (Macrotis leucura) from the Extinction is Forever Division #2026MMM #2026mmm

Most domestic cattle harbor mitochondrial haplotype T, but a few Near East harbor haplotype Q. Bonfiglio et al discovered haplogroup R, which is found only in Italy and may indicate a secondary event of local Auroch domestication or admixture doi.org/10.1371/jour... #2026MMM

Ancient DNA can give us insight into the immune system to understand how well a species tolerated disease and and its impact on extinction. Peel et al found the thylacine immune repertoire was typically mammalian and highly similar to other marsupials doi.org/10.1007/s002... #2026MMM

#2026MMM #ExtinctionDivision #TeamBaiji Art by Mary C. Freisner @maryfreisner.bsky.social

Feigin et al used a complete ancient genome of the thylacine to reveal that their populations (and Tasmanian devils) started to decline slowly before human arrival to Australia making them especially vulnerable to hunting and habitat reduction doi.org/10.1038/s415... #2026MMM #RIP

UP NEXT: 3-seed Aurochs (Bos primigenius) vs. 6-seed Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus)! #2026MMM

Did you know the Baiji, the extinct Yangtze river dolphin, was more closely related to a Narwhal than to the Susu or Ganges river dolphin? Yan et al used mt genomes to establish a phylogeny of the river dolphins and found them not directly related doi.org/10.1016/j.ym... #2026MMM

Was the Sea Mink its own species or a variant of the American Mink? DNA from the American mink shows that it is not a very genetically diverse species, making less likely that cryptic variation exists within the living representatives doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... #2026MMM #RIP

EXTINCTION IS FOREVER AND THAT'S SO METAL ROUND 2 WINNERS: #2026MMM #2026mmm Steller's Sea Cow, Baiji, Aurochs, Wild Dromedary Camel, Honey Badger, Pacific Lamprey, Gila Monster, and Ossifrage Please join us WEDNESDAY 3/25 at 8PM EST for the SWEET SIXTEEN!

Really excellent paper on the genetics of caterpillar butt ornaments journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Instead of getting more Epic Fury for $200B, what if we bought solar systems for 8M US home rooftops instead? Or, if you want to blend production and resilience, solar+battery for 5.7M homes?

#AABA2026 the anthropology department at CU Boulder is hosting a get together for friends of the department (that’s you!) tonight at Colorado Campfire. Appetizers provided #aaba2026

For anyone attending AABA and posting on Bluesky the uppercase #AABA2026 is glitching and won’t show up on searches BUT it does show up on the AABA official feed if you need to find any posts. The lowercase #aaba2026 does seem to work currently.

Friends and Colleagues! I am SO excited to catch up with you all this week at #AABA2026! Here is a quick 🧵summarizing what our 🧪🧬👩🏽‍💻👨🏿‍🔬👩🏼‍🔬🧑‍💻lab will be presenting at the meetings (1/n) @umncla.bsky.social @umnanth.bsky.social www.nievescolonlab.org

The feed for the annual meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists is live! bsky.app/profile/brid... LMK if there is a post that is missing that you think should be added, or unrelated posts that don't belong. #AABA2026 #HBA2026 @bioanth.org 🧪 #BioAnth #HumanEvolution

This is awesome #2026MMM content! Listen all the way to the end to hear one of the most interesting stories of evolutionary biology. The Túngara frog song (TÚN-gah-rah is what they sound like) and risk management against predation by Carls who are drawn to certain sounds more than others.

Curated among the ASMJ collection for #2026MMM was this article about how ancient DNA scientist need better understanding of species under taxonomy. This is interesting to me because it's really a population genetics issue that's not restricted to ancient DNA academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...

Follow the Bioanthropology of Reproductive Transformation and Health (BiRTH) Lab on instagram! www.instagram.com/the_birth_la...

#2026MMM if you liked tonight's art of the #ExtinctionDivision, it's available as stickers in the Erminea shop! Proceeds earned go towards supporting the MMM Art Team! ermineainc.org/shop/

And let us thank those Natural Historians of the past and the Geneticists of today... and the Historical Ecologists... and the Teeth Researchers... and the Museum Curators for the science that let us tell these stories of the lost species #ExtinctionIsForever #2026MMM

Given tonight's #2026MMM, you might wonder how do we recover DNA from ancient animals or humans? To find out see www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_y...!

#2026MMM EXTINCTION IS FOREVER ROUND 1 WINNERS: Steller's Sea Cow, Saudi Gazelle, Baiji, Yallara, Thylacine, Aurochs, Sea Mink, and Wild Dromedary Camel! Please join us Wednesday 3/18 at 8PM EST for Round 1 of That's So Metal!

💀 IS FOREVER EMOJI BATTLE #2026MMM Round 1 🐮🆚🐭:🐭🍽️👶🏼/🐮🌊🐭/🏆🐮 🐐🆚🦦:🏜️💨🦦/🦦➡️🪨/🏆🐐 🐬🆚🐀:🌋🐕🐀/🐀🏊‍♂️🪨/🏆🐬 🦭🆚🦘:🏌️‍♂️🦭😴/🦘🏖️😬/🏆🦘 🐯🆚🐹:🪄🐹🙂/🐯🍽️🐹/🏆🐯 🐂🆚🐁:🐁🍽️🌾/🦶🐁😰/🏆🐂 🐺🆚🧥:🐺🧥🐧/🧥😡🐺/🏆🧥 🐪🆚🦇:〽️🦇🐀/🦇🆙👋/🏆🐪

No matters who wins, we humans already lost. But we can still save their relatives #2026MMM

Sea Mink INTIMIDATES Faulkland Island Wolf!!! #UpsetCity #MightyMustelid #2026MMM

The Falkland Islands = las Islas Malvinas for all my confused latin American comrades #2026MMM