A new review investigates the ecological role of the American black bear (Ursus americanus)—the world’s most abundant large carnivore 🐻🌍 📖 Read the full review here: doi.org/10.1111/mam....

I wanted to get a video of this ghost crab but every time I got close to their hole they scuttled back in, so I tried getting clever with it. I made a little sandcastle and shoved my phone into it, hit record, and walked away. Crab was VERY suspicious of this addition to their environment.

Stop the repeal of the Roadless Rule protecting 58 million acres of U.S. National Forest. A major slice of wilderness is at risk of mining, logging and road construction. Send your comments by Sept. 19! yellowstonetoyukon.nationbuilder.com/protectroadl...

How do we measure life on Earth? 🌍🌱 The new summary report from the 2025 US-UK Forum on Measuring Biodiversity, hosted by the NAS and @royalsociety.org, explores tools, challenges, and solutions for tackling the #biodiversity crisis. Read here: bit.ly/460RB7R

Are you tracking developments in #biodiversity monitoring and its applications? We wrote a paper on addressing the challenges: Data to Decisions: the Biodiversity Monitoring Standards Framework (BMSF). Creating a cycle of trust from field data to policy reports 🧵 ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

It got quite turbulent in the atmosphere for a bit this afternoon. Sky cam.

🚀 We’re excited to share @genomecanada.ca 's new white paper on The Convergence of Genomics and Artificial Intelligence—now live This is the first in a series of publications we’ll be releasing this fall to spotlight key opportunities for Canadian genomics: genomecanada.ca/wp-content/u...

I'm recruiting two PhD positions in my lab for Fall 2026. 1) evolutionary genomics that will focus on constructing and utilizing pangenomes; 2) conservation genomics focused on pop structure and adaptation of Pacific coast Am. black bears. Details: puckettresearch.org/people/posit...

Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔 on.ft.com/3K05vhS

Inspired by Fred Rogers, @nature.com asked readers to help us 'find the helpers' amid the crisis in American science. What emerged were inspiring stories of researchers, legal experts, data hounds and government scientists who are fighting the dismantling of the US research enterprise. 🧪🧵1/6

New article covering our study on epigenetic aging in polar bears! You can also read the preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2024...

Trying to figure out the mystery of who bent over the T-post that my trail camera is attached to. There have been a couple of subtle clues.

"Urbanization" leads to frequent genome-wide signatures of selection specific to both urban & rural habitats. Read the latest paper from our group led by @jssantangelo.bsky.social & Rob Ness: academic.oup.com/evolut/advan... #urbanecology #urbanevolution 🌎 @utmbiology.bsky.social

Thrilled to have a new paper out where we use 12+ years of monitoring data to document the impacts of inbreeding on fitness in eastern massasauga rattlesnakes! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The Zotero browser plugins + its integration with RStudio & Quarto is game changing quarto.org/docs/get-sta...

Excited to share our new paper on genetic rescue in the Pacific pocket mouse! To conserve this endangered species, we sought to understand whether small populations at risk of outbreeding depression are better managed in isolation or with gene flow. @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A new PNAS Special Feature combines speciation genomics and conservation biology to address habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss. The articles explore how monitoring and restoring gene flow can support resilient ecosystems in the Anthropocene. Learn more: www.pnas.org/topic/574.

My company is hiring a computational biologist! This role is the same position as mine, and will involve building genomic prediction models, some bioinformatics, and a lot of independent research on developing new methods to improve our crop development initiatives. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...

Day 2 of #ESEB2025 🌟 We had some fantastic talks this morning at the Symposium #23 on Evolutionary Genomics & Climate Change 🌱🌎🧬 👨‍🔬 Here's Prof. Luciano Beheregaray, Associate Editor of EVA, reminding everyone of the special issue with Molecular Ecology! 📅 Deadline: February 28, 2026

I'll admit, I was skeptical when they said Gemini was just like a bunch of PhDs. But I gotta admit they nailed it.

Rapid evolution occurs, but speciation rates are nowhere near fast enough to replace the loss of entire endemic lineages. Bioinvasions & other stressors are causing global biodiversity losses that could take millions of years to fill - or are irreversible. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Plague in prairie dogs is deadly, but pdogs are evolving immunity. And some of the genes showing evidence of adaptation are the same types of genes that protect Great Gerbils & humans from plague. This suggests evolution is ~predictable, & it can help us manage species facing anthropogenic threats.

I usually tell people that *so far*, habitat loss, not climate change, has been the major driver of bird population declines... but now we're starting to get analyses directly connecting bird declines to extreme weather events fueled by climate change. 🪶 theconversation.com/70-years-of-...

#PopGen #PopulationGenomics #PopulationGenetics

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

Using ancient genomes, a study in Nature Communications uncovers the pervasive genetic influence of Iberian horses across multiple prehistoric, protohistoric, and historical periods. go.nature.com/4fxeRgU 🧬 🧪

🐾 Give your views about domestic cat populations! app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/cats/balan... The purpose of this study is to understand and prioritise concerns regarding cat populations in the UK, considering owned cats, free-living unowned cats and cats in shelters. #environment #nature

Its that time again - the list of Ecology/Evolution/Marine Bio Labs recruiting grad students for Fall 2026 is live! PIs enter your position info here: forms.gle/2XTHBP6CZGEn... Prospective students (and PIs not recruiting) share the composite list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Please share! 🧪

In this article, Young et al discuss applying the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology to classify, describe, and map ecosystems based on regional data and Indigenous knowledge.🌱 You can learn more at doi.org/10.1111/cobi... #conservation #science #IUCN #IUCNGET

Been routinely sweating to train heirloom runner beans into my sunflowers (felt like a brilliant idea). Finally had some success, only to realize the overall effect is comically ugly. At least night time temps are high enough that blossoms are dropping instead of making pods. 🫠 #gardening #heatwave

looking for successful examples of applied / practical evolutionary / population / conservation genomics courses, at the graduate or advanced undergrad level. have you taught something like this? what worked?

Tons of kudos to @eepuckett.bsky.social and Dr. Matthew Pollard (pollardmd.com) for their roles in this project

Really excited to share this paper! We show that the threat of genetic erosion doesn’t just come down to diversity, genetic load, population size, or even inbreeding— it has to do with the evolutionary context in which those patterns arise and contemporary demographic changes doi.org/10.1111/eva....

Across New York City, a series of small parks originally established in the 1850s are being revitalized with native plants. These tiny pockets of green space may help fill ciritcal habitat gaps and offer refuge for migratory birds. news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

🦠🌿🐦🧪 How can biodiversity monitoring help global efforts in disease surveillance? With ✨ fantastic ✨ colleagues from @viralemergence.org and the @geobon.org working group on One Health, we try to identify three key lessons for the future. 🧵 A short thread! academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

#evol2025 was super fun on a nerd level (I got to talk ConGen and critters with new people!), BUT it was ALSO the first time in 7(!?!) years that I got to hang with one of my oldest bffs, @namadalerwel.bsky.social Would love to see her more, but always grateful to pick up where we left off ❤️ 🦄🤘😻

The 500 additional GRFPs NSF awarded were not very evenly distributed across fields, it seems. www.science.org/content/arti...

A new study seeks to answer the question: Do large continuous forests or a number of small forest fragments provide more shelter for species biodiversity? Scientists are divided but agree that all standing forest, regardless of size, must be protected. news.mongabay.com/2025/06/prot...

Guess who figured out how to properly insert gifs? 🫣😅

What I'm going to say about the Louisiana black bear tomorrow during my talk ( #evol2025 mol ecol session 2!) makes me think about this bit from The Royal Tenenbaums-- "We" all know bears adapted to the swampy Louisiana coast are pretty special, but... maybe they aren't?? tenor.com/view/royal-t...

And if you can’t make it on the workshop day to come chat with NSF officers, join us for coffee on Tuesday, June 24 at #evol2025 No registration, just grab a coffee and come on by

if i can be y’all’s dad for a second: one of the most important things I’ve learned is that acquiring a skill is literally uncomfortable that awful moment where you feel confused and stupid and embarrassed? it means you’re about to learn something. and it’s *mandatory* if you want to get better

Tiny Diel.Niche R package update, bin.diel.times() outputs the proportion of time diel periods take up over a day (e.g., night, day, twilight) by setting prop.time = TRUE. VERY helpful if you want to quantify use of a given diel period relative to availability! #rstats 🧪 github.com/diel-project...

I SHOULD promote my talk (which I honestly think is a fun bit of science storytelling 🤓), but I'm hopping on the #evol2025 hashtag to look for potential running buddies who'll be in Athens during the conference. I've heard there are great trails, but I'm cautious about running solo.

My daughter wants to be read “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” at least half a dozen times a day. At least. As a bear biologist with a fine arts background, I gotta say— I really appreciate this illustration for abstracting a brown bear without making it a generic bear. Good job, Eric Carle

We are hiring our next senior director of conservation programs. Learn about this unique role and how to apply at: y2y.net/careers/ #YYCJobs #ConservationJobs #AlbertaJobs

Despite being the foundational level of Earth's biodiversity, genetic biodiversity remains largely unknown. 🧬 A new paper by Centre researcher Erik Zhivkoplias explore the challenges of applying biotechnology and bioinformatics to biodiversity research. www.cell.com/trends/biote...

You're invited to join Sierra Club's virtual "Endangered Species Action Hour" on May 28 to protect wildlife and endangered species. sc.org/MayActionHour

Many years ago I ventured down a “what is domestication” rabbit hole w Kathryn Lord @gregerlarson.bsky.social & Robin Allaby. This is where we ended up! @pnas.org www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...