A last minute decision to "do something" for my birthday today involved a foray around Djidi-djidi Ridge near Julimar State Forest, and was blown away by the amazing diversity of wildflowers on display at the moment!

🐟Out now🧬: our latest paper on WA f.w. fish ]species delimitation, integrating allozymes (!), mtDNA and genomics across three genera. Although diversification patterns varied, we found some important biogeo. features, including Margaret and Shannon R. Check it out: www.publish.csiro.au/MF/MF24257

A while back, I had a lovely chat on the ACS Tiny Matters podcast about the controversy around the "dire wolf de-extinction" and what it means (or doesn't!) for conservation. Available on a bunch of platforms here (I start yapping at about 15:20): www.acs.org/pressroom/ti...

Looking for a #PhD project (or know someone who is)? I'm currently recruiting for a student to work on #conservation and #PopulationGenomics of two freshwater #fish using whole genome and ddRAD data: more info in the flyer below! #PopGen #ConsGen #Biodiversity 🐟🧪🧬

Today is #nationalthreatenedspecies Day. This picture represents the halfway point of a long and heartbreaking project to create a visual display of Australia's 2200+ critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable and extinct plants and animals #redlist #threatenedspecies

Looking for a #PhD project (or know someone who is)? I'm currently recruiting for a student to work on #conservation and #PopulationGenomics of two freshwater #fish using whole genome and ddRAD data: more info in the flyer below! #PopGen #ConsGen #Biodiversity 🐟🧪🧬

Congratulations to this little champ for taking out the title of "Australia's most underrated animal". www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08... Re-sharing recent research in #AusMammalogy that illustrates one of the many reasons why rakali is so deserving! @ausmammals.bsky.social #NationalScienceWeek

FUCK YES #TEAMRAKALI 🐀

Always a delight to see a study species in the wild: spotted this charming quenda down in Mandurah this weekend who was busted having a snuffle in the dirt.

So we have this database for wildlife disease surveillance, and we made a data standard, and an R and Python package to help you clean your data, and two years in we just still cannot get first adopters, so here’s my new bit: I will personally Venmo you $20 of my personal money to share a dataset

You already know what the correct answer is:

Come and do a PhD with me! 🎓 🌏 🧑‍💻 🏙️ 🗺️ 🌿 🪶🧪 I have TWO projects eligible the 2025 Curtin University RTP scholarship round: Benchmarking biodiversity outcomes for nature positive urban development: research.curtin.edu.au/hdr-r-projec... #wildOz #urbanNature

The Dark Side of Being a Female Shark Researcher | Scientific American

Finding a fungus that looks like crème brûlée feels like perfect adaptation to target me, specifically... 🤤

Our paper on #genetic management of the #endangered Macquarie perch is published 🐟 🥳 !!! We present a framework for #metapopulation management and our pipeline JeDi (for estimation of unbiased het, pi and Dxy from RRseq data) 🧬 @monashbiol.bsky.social #Bioinformatics doi.org/10.1111/mec....

The cold, wet weather might not be ideal for some outdoors activities: but it's great for fungi forays! Here's some spotted around Yanchep National Park over the weekend.

How your email found me (or, more accurately, why it didn't):

ad to come, but I'm looking for an M.S. student to study the conservation genomics of swift foxes on the American Prairie Reserve in Montana beginning 9/1. this is a collaboration w/ Smithsonian & Justine Becker; strong candidates will have prior genomics experience and be up for remote fieldwork

Listen up ornithologists. You have just TWO days left to submit your abstract for the Australasian Ornithological Conference in Perth on November 18. Don’t have FOMO - get that abstract in now! Hit up www.aoc.org.au

Nothing like having the native biodiversity advertise the local wildlife park: greeted at David Fleay Wildlife Park yesterday morning. 🐦

Next at #ICCB2025 our symposium on using non-invasive & museum genetic samples for conservation. First up is @kymottewell.bsky.social on using scat DNA for ghost bat individual ID and #consgen. The ghost bat is Australia’s largest carnivorous bat (*bat in photo not to scale!)

For those who came along, hope you all enjoyed the show! It was an absolute blast to have a full set of Conservationist Comedians! #ICCB2025 @iccb2025.bsky.social

📣 New quoll science, looking at the genetic outcomes of a translocation of eastern quolls in Tasmania! 🧪🧬 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🧵Thread below ⬇️

Always great to see genetics being explicitly incorporated into translocation/rewilding programs: some awesome research into urban and sky island rewilding by Patrick Finnerty at @iccb2025.bsky.social #ICCB2025

Thanks all who came along to my talk at @iccb2025.bsky.social #ICCB2025 yesterday! Great to share some our work integrating conservation genetics and community science to reintroduce threatened species. More to come soon, hopefully!

Great talk by Diana, which was also nicely validating of continuing to use measures of inbreeding to guide conservation management decisions (studying a cute bird helps too...) #ICCB2025

That wild moment you see a figure you created for your blog on the methods slide of a talk at an international conference! 😯 #ICCB2025

Such a beautiful welcome to Turrbal country from song woman Butinga and Aunty Cathryn. Welcoming us to #ICCB2025 with first nations representatives responding in song, and delegates from 90 countries embracing the smoke, the welcome, the deep connection with Country

Taking in some of the local sights at the Sky Deck before @iccb2025.bsky.social #ICCB2025 Opening Ceremony. If you see me there, feel free to say hi: I'll be the brightly dressed man in a mullet (I'm pretty easy to spot)!

Coming to @iccb2025.bsky.social #ICCB2025 next week (or just in Brissie!) and need to fill in an evening? Why not come to Future Science Talks: Comedy Edition and hear some scientists crack some jokes! Wed 18/06, from 6pm at the BCEC, get your tix at: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/future-sci...

Heading to #ICCB2025? Come see me talk about 🐟, #ConGen🧬 and citizen science! You can find me in the Participatory & Citizen Science session: "Integrating Community and Genetics for Conservation Reintroductions of Freshwater Fishes" Mon, June 16, 14:27 - 14:31, Mezzanine Level Meeting Room M1

If you're attending the upcoming ICCB conference and interested in genetic monitoring, sign up for this free workshop!

Had a dream last night that I went birding and a robin inexplicably landed and hung out on the back of my hand while I tried to get a one-handed shot with my camera, and let me tell you the disappointment I felt when I woke up...

The latest edition of Backyard Buddies: accidentally unearthing this gorgeous southern marbled gecko in the shed (who was rehomed in a nicer shelter by our pond). 🦎 #herpers

Had a great time sharing some of my #conservation #genetics research at Pint Of Science AU last night! With cool talks on plastic-eating bacteria and managing weeds in agriculture using AI, we had a nice cross-section of tech and the #environment. Also nice to get people excited about fish!! 🧬🐟🧪

You know you have your SO trained well when, despite his general fear of moths, he makes sure to snap a pic of a cool species during his morning commute (pinging @wa-moths.bsky.social)

Struggling to find the tiny microchromosomes in draft bird genome assemblies? Our new #preprint introducing MicroFinder can help: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 below (1/n) @sangerinstitute.bsky.social

Last call ⏳🚨 If you have any elasmobranch and killer whale interaction records we want to hear about it! Please reach our team with the email below, would love to include them in our global review!

Latest contribution to my obsession with Zygaenid moths: look at this absolute lad!!

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!

Queer ecology offers a vision of the world "that is at once primordial and futuristic, in which gender is kaleidoscopic, sexualities are multiple, and the categories of male and female are fluid and transmutable. A world, in short, exactly like the one we inhabit.”

After a decade of work, one of Australia’s most threatened amphibians - the southern corroboree frog - has had its genome sequenced. The genome may unlock answers to why the species is susceptible to the invasive chytrid fungus, aiding conservation efforts for it and other susceptible frog species.

Australia’s common brushtail possum has long been neglected in terms of its taxonomy. My amazing PhD student Shelby Middleton along with a stellar supervisor team has attempted to resolve this species. Check it here: academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

Still fondly thinking about this study species sighting in the wild a few weeks ago: a Buchanan's snake-eyed skink on the trunk of a grass tree in Warwick Bushland, Perth. #herps🦎

In true academic fashion, it's weeks late (beyond reasonable interest), but decided to write up some of my thoughts and feelings about the dire wolf 'de-extinction' controversy and our moral/ethical obligations in #conservation: theg-cat.com/2025/04/22/t...

About 15-20 yrs ago, a bunch of reviews (inc. 1 by me) made predictions about the future of genomics in conservation. 1 yr ago at ICISB, Robin Waples assessed which of those predictions had been fulfilled. Sam May & Sam Rosenbaum now led the effort to turn this into a review: doi.org/10.1111/mec....

I’m recruiting a PhD student in macrogenetics at Dalhousie University 🇨🇦! Focus will be on the biogeography of vertebrate genetic diversity or urban evolutionary ecology. Full ad: www.schmidt-biodiversity-lab.org/macrogenetic... If the ad is up, applications are still open. Please share widely! 🧬🧬

📢 📢📢📢📢 Every biologist who cares about biodiversity should provide public comment on this rule proposed by the Trump administration that would REMOVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS for endangered species! This is extremely bad. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

A great (and thorough) dissection of a recent controversial paper claiming foxes and cats do not contribute to mammal extinctions in Australia. Worth a read before believing the 'palatable' and naive narrative posited by that paper...

Objectively the best marsupial of them all: no I will not be taking feedback about this statement