Campus is distractingly noisy with firecrest song.

This happens because the calcium carbonate that makes up most shells dissolves under the high pressure and unique chemical conditions of the deep ocean without active maintenance of the snail. Image from www.forbes.com/sites/allene...

Deep-sea hermit crabs from the Parapaguridae family live 1,000+ meters deep! Unlike typical hermits, they often use soft “homes” made by anemones or zoanthids instead of shells. #marinelife Image from @schmidtocean.bsky.social

🚨 ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE APPROACHING! 🚨 Only 1 week left to submit your abstract for #ExE2026! Submissions close April 1. All the details are at evoxeco.uk and below 👇

Just watched as he introduced a “friend” to his nesting site.

This morning’s mystery visitor.

First viewing of the year

Missed my connection because the train was 20 minutes late. But it's going to Edinburgh anyhow so I stayed on. And the conductor then tells me I'm "getting a freebie" because I'm supposed to be on the other train: "it's a different company". How can the railways still be such a shitshow?

How better to start the journey north to give a talk on clutch size evolution than a lap of David Lack’s old territory at Dartington Hall? The granddaddy of evolutionary ecology.

This is the very same argument that led to doubt over the legality of wild camping on large swathes of Dartmoor. The landowner proclaimed it was causing great damage to their game moors. Thankfully, the Supreme Court judges unanimously rejected this but it's sad to see it being applied to woodlands.

I am enormously uncomfortable with an argument that the public should be denied access to the UK's open spaces if the landowner claims it causes damage. Should we be blocked from the seaside because some people leave litter behind?

Blackbird gathering a huge beakful of moss and sticks outside my office, before diving into the hedge. It's begun...

Fact of the day: the Irish Gaelic word for jellyfish—smugairle róin—translates literally as 'seal snot'.

We don't notice shit in the West until it hits us in the wallet

GM orange petunias were made in the late 80s, but were banned in USA and EU cos GM. They circulated illicitly among petunia-fanciers until they were found outside a Finnish railway station in 2017. Cue THE GREAT PETUNIA MASSACRE. They were all destroyed. You can now buy them legally. More:

The internet, on scientists: They're secretive gatekeepers, they hoard esoterica/the truth, they don't want anyone in their ivory tower little clubs Actual scientists: LOOK, WE FOUND A 300 MILLION YEAR OLD FOSSILIZED CLOACCAL IMPRESSION AND THE VENT IS HORIZONTAL! PLZ READ MY 67-PAGE PAPER ABOUT IT

Early Neanderthals walked into this cave, went three football fields into the earth, created 15-foot-wide bubbles of rock, lit and tended small fires upon them. Then they left. This unique find has implications for how we underestimate many past peoples. www.johnhawks.net/p/a-look-at-...

A multi-millenial analysis of floral diversity reveals the impact of the Black Death on floral diversity and, by extension, the surprisingly positive effect of humans on European biodiversity. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Took this week's seminar speaker for a walk around campus and was able to point out a firecrest 😊

I just stood beneath a singing firecrest and I think I’ve gotten everything I needed from life. A bullfinch nest, a pine marten and a firecrest.

2026 is an exciting time for evolutionary ecology: a dedicated conference AND a dedicated Special Interest Group, with plans to make the ExE meeting an annual event, regular workshops and more to support our community! bsky.app/profile/bes-...

The kestrels are back, noisily proclaiming their nesting site behind our house 😊

The tiny Ramshorn Bagworm moth Luffia lapidella caterpillar in its case on a lichen covered gravestone, Alphington Church Exeter, Devon today.

My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com

My GP thinks it’s orange fever, and has prescribed some mermaid scales, a lion's sneeze, a unicorn horn and half a pound of cheese.

Saw one yesterday but it was too far away to be able to say that I recognised it visually. But today I did get close. The quest is over.

New teaching neurosis drops. Student: It's funny. When I listen to the lecture recording the microphone picks up you heart beating, and so I can hear when you get nervous. <sees look on my face> Oh don't worry, it's not very noticeable. 2nd Student: Oh yeah, I've totally noticed that too!

I found a tick on my leg a few hours ago 🤦‍♂️ And now this. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

I saw it! But not well enough to feel I can claim it 😮‍💨

Blue tit inspecting the entrance to the nestbox next to my office window. A little smaller and bluer than ideal, but pleasing nonetheless.

You live in a time when you can see on your phone high-res photos taken over the weekend by a nuclear-powered rover on Mars.

I have never been good at art. Does these look like little faces? Or the organelles that transformed out planet?

“Make sure you’re pointing your willy down into the toilet when you do your poo, Mummy”

Rewarded for staying late at work with some on-campus wildlife

For folks in #Ecology and #Evolution, we are hosting a conference here in Cornwall UK! Great chance for a summer staycation June 29-July 3. Plus, we've managed to make it affordable: £250 + £49/night for accommodation. #EvolBiol #EcoEvo sites.exeter.ac.uk/exe/

“There is compelling evidence demonstrating that in-round riding of golf carts reduces the physical demands of golf, with users expending less energy and covering shorter distances”.

I want to take Sports Medicine seriously, as a journal and a research field. But then it does something like this: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Noooooo way!

A stag in the field outside my shed-office has got a long rope tangled round its antlers. It’s trying to rub it off on a tree. Poor thing. Don't think there's much I can do unless it gets tangled but would be glad to be told otherwise.

Register now for the ExE 2026 Conference in Cornwall, UK, focusing on evolutionary ecology. Join exciting sessions and workshops! Spots are limited. More info: https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/exe/ #conference

“Erbivores”. Is that a continent-wide pronunciation?

John Smith Thorpe & his three sons - William, Thomas and John, with their oak tree guardian from a few years ago All died between 1865 & 1874, the boys likely of typhoid Buried at Nottingham General Cemetery

Still struggling with the science but on the plus side I've now got a pun within the pun. I don't know if my target audience exists outwith me, but they would be see a crap talk as an acceptable tradeoff.

This is gearing up to be such a fantastic conference. Filling a void in the meeting landscape that’s been ever more conspicuous. So much so that moves are already afoot to organise a sequel. So if Future You wants to boast that you’ve been to them all, you will need to register ASAP.

Struggling to come up with a title for a talk. I've got the pun sorted, but not the scientific part to follow. It feels horribly emblematic of my career.

Comparative analysis across 5,678 insect species shows that, when you control for phylogenetic bias, eusociality has not evolved at a faster rate in haplodiploid species. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Quite the straw man our verbally hapless friend has built: we *are* having an open debate. And the majority opinion is that his views are repulsive.

That moment of internal conflict where you’re having a great chat with the visiting seminar speaker and then realise the two of you are amidst a goldcrest flock and you desperately want to check for any accompanying firecrests. That.

Watching through my fingers as the department's favourite child overdoses on self-confidence and throws a bucketload of sarcasm at a professor.