New preprint, building on the thesis of my former undergrad @cstreitferdt.bsky.social: doi.org/10.64898/202... We present evidence that conjunctival pigmentation (peripheral to the iris) in terrestrial mammals is importantly driven by demands of UV protection. Quick thread 🧵1/5.

This is an excellent piece and thread. This point is really important— I don't think most people outside of academia realize that separate from normal processing fees in high-impact journals, we actually have to pay to make our own papers open access. This is only sometimes covered by institutions.

Humans have many unusual traditions. But did you know animals’ strange behaviors can become culture too? Out now in Current Biology (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) we show the rise and spread of a surprising tradition: interspecies infant abduction. Interactive timeline (www.ab.mpg.de/671374) 🧵 (1/12)

🦇👶 batble 👶🦇 @ahanaaurora.bsky.social et al. ( @berlinbatlab.bsky.social) show in @elife.bsky.social that feedback from moms shapes baby bat babbling via "longitudinal ... recordings & behavioral monitoring of ... mother-pup pairs across [multiple colonies]" 🤯 lotta data! #prattle 💬 #bioacoustics

🚨Shrew paper alert!🚨 In @elife.bsky.social, in this paper led by @labdavalos.bsky.social we found that shrews reprogram their hypothalamus to shrink in winter, tweaking gene expression to save energy and survive the cold! 👉🏼 doi.org/10.7554/eLif... @dechman.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

For German and French speakers interested in animal culture, this doco will be well worth 43 mins of your time. For everyone else, great tits solving puzzle boxes speak for themselves 🐦🧩🧠@lucymaplin.bsky.social @mchimento.bsky.social www.arte.tv/de/videos/11...

🚨 Out this week in @pnas.org 🚨 The flagship paper from my PhD @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @livingingroups.bsky.social - We show surprising statistical similarities in animal behaviour across states, individuals, and even species. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (🧵 1/10)

Tool use in insects: Assassin bugs apply resin to their forelegs before a stingless bee hunt. This makes the bees attack the bug in just the right position to be caught! Videos will worth watching www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Wild! “Researchers have concluded that too many older fish have been removed from these waters, preventing the knowledge of the best spawning grounds being passed to younger, less experienced fish.”

If you happen to see a friend across the street, odds are you might raise an arm and wiggle your hand to say hello. Cuttlefish apparently do something similar—and that’s not the only arm gesture they use to communicate. Learn more: scim.ag/4j5nmQv

Due to the whites of the eye, humans have a uniquely communicative gaze. Other primates have dark eyes, hiding their gaze from conspecifics. We cooperate, they compete. Common knowledge – right? Yes, but it’s incorrect, as we argue in our new paper 🧵🧪1/11 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Neophobia Hypothesis: nest decoration in birds may reduce predation by corvids | doi.org/10.1098/rsos... | Royal Society Open Science | #ornithology 🪶

It’s finally out!! Our new study shows that wild geladas seem to recognize prosocial vocal affiliation to victims of aggression! A key insight into the evolution of empathy in primates 🔊🐒 @geladasbridges.bsky.social @ethos-research.bsky.social journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

"Findings suggest that compositionality [the capacity to combine meaningful elements into larger meaningful structures] is a prominent feature of the bonobo vocal system revealing stronger parallels with human language than previously thought." Fascinating work by @berthetmelissa.bsky.social et al.🧪

« If we cut or limit funding for curiosity-driven research, we risk shutting down the pipeline of future innovation. While the outcomes of basic science may seem unclear or esoteric at first, such work frequently forms the bedrock of future technologies, treatments, and therapies. »