Resolving data deficiency in a cryptic skink: distribution, threats and an Endangered conservation status for the Bungle Bungle robust slider (Lerista bunglebungle) connectsci.au/pc/article/d...

Can we improve translocation management for conservation? Xenia Münger, Carly Cook & Carlo Pacioni ran simulations and showed an increase in genetic diversity from translocations; introduced variation may outweigh the loss of local variation. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...

Second thoughts about first principles in biology: Trends in Ecology & Evolution www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

How important is mitochondrial DNA in conservation? Jack Brand, @dk-dowling.bsky.social and co-authors argue that ignoring mtDNA risks unintended maladaptation and that mitochondrial and nuclear genetics should be considered jointly in conservation planning. www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Rhiannon Eastment @bbmwong.bsky.social and colleagues found no difference in growth and reproduction of weedfish exposed to a pervasive oestrogenic pollutant found in female contraceptive pills. watermark02.silverchair.com/xaag062.pdf?...

Tiny, depigmented, blind, slender isopods called Microcerberidae have finally had confirmation that they belong in the order Asellota. Christophe Douady, Kelly Merrin and co-authors have used sequence data for 8 slow evolving nuclear genes to confirm this onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

A case study of a 22-year-old patient with cystic fibrosis and identified for phage therapy, found pre-existing phage antibodies. These antibodies may have contributed to clinical failure by effectively neutralizing the phage. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @jeremyjbarr.bsky.social

Does it matter if single celled organisms are getting smaller as the world gets hotter? @djmmeeg.bsky.social and colleagues found that size-function relationships have been mis-estimated with worrying consequences for global carbon pumps. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42087558/

Annual lab group photo tradition initiated - here’s the Evolutionary & Conservation Genomics Group, May 2026. I am so lucky to work with these fabulous folks! @monashbiol.bsky.social @monashscience.bsky.social

How does having a large neighbour affect resource acquisition in sand gobies? Topi Lehtonen @bbmwong.bsky.social and Natarsha Babic found that males were able to adjust their resource-holding strategies in response to environmental and social conditions. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

What can muscles tell us about prey capture and locomotion? Riya Bidaye Alistair Evans and colleagues took advantage of roadkill of 3 species of dasyurids. The results support the known trend of conserved forelimb musculature in marsupials. anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Congratulations to Sean Layh, artist and @monashbiol.bsky.social @monashscience.bsky.social @monashuniversity.bsky.social graduate, on winning the Packing Room prize at this year’s Archibald at the Art Gallery of NSW! 🎨

How do we manage data deficient species? Luke Bonifacio and colleagues have found lots of gaps in the management of these taxa but after receiving some data practitioners were more likely to specifically manage these species. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Facundo Romani and co-authors have investigated the role of transcription factors in order to uncover the ancestral roles that they played in early stages of land plant evolution. academic.oup.com/plphys/advan...

Storme De Scally et al describe how genomic and biological characterisation of bacteriophages help us better understand bacteria-phage ecological and evolutionary dynamics in natural and synthetic communities. @mikejmcd.bsky.social @jeremyjbarr.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Luciano Beheregaray and colleagues have put together a special issue on genetic rescue. The articles identify opportunities and limitations and underscore its potential to improve resilience, adaptive capacity, and the long- term persistence of biodiversity. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

can we disentangle the effects of clonality and hybridity and quantify the relative degree to which these characteristics contribute to differences in mitochondrial function, organismal performance and fitness? Randy Klabacka and co. suggest some strategies royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Rethinking mitochondrial heteroplasmy: selection, conflict and adaptation url: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Can we improve our understanding and predict species' invasion processes? Andhika Putra urges invasion biologists to integrate genomic and phenotypic data into multivariate frameworks to better understand their respective roles in driving the invasion process. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Exposure to an antidepressant can affect spatial learning in male guppies pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.... @jackmanera.bsky.social @bbmwong.bsky.social

How can Australia's area-based conservation be more strategically targeted in order to contribute to achieving the biodiversity goals? James Watson and co-authors tackle this question here: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

A recent study on connectivity between populations of the Red-Tailed Tropic bird suggests that occasional long-distance movements between Great Barrier Reef and northwestern Australia occurs. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

How will evolution affect survival and yields of common fisheries species? A recent study by Jan Kozlowski, @djmmeeg.bsky.social @craig-white.bsky.social found that fish will evolve to survive warmer temperatures AND smaller sizes, reducing fisheries yields by ~50% www.science.org/doi/full/10....

New paper out in #marinepollutionbulletin from my PhD research on using thermal imaging drones to spot entanglements in fur seals! OA www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @monashuniversity.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social @phillipislandnatureparks

How do organisms maintain fitness in a fluctuating environment? @upama.bsky.social and colleagues found that trade-offs in reproductive allocation in mosquito fish depend on sex and age. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec... @bbmwong.bsky.social @mikejennions.bsky.social

Brooke Zanco and co-authors found flies fed low cholesterol diets have greater levels of gut permeability and epithelial cell disorganisation than those fed high cholesterol diets. Lifespan was maximised on a high cholesterol diet www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Andre Alves et al used isogenic lines of D. melanogaster to analyse the source of genetic variation for egg laying plasticity. They looked at how ovariole number, food intake, and protein-to-egg conversion efficiency impacted fecundity. academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

A recent review demonstrates that rivers exert a pervasive influence on seabird ecology. The authors conclude that rivers and their plumes are critical coastal features shaping seabird habitat use, diet, health, and demographic outcomes. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Check out the press release on how locality data from social media can capture faster and broader expansion of an #invasive #butterfly species in Asia and Australia. (6/6) @monashscience.bsky.social www.monash.edu/science/news...

Weijie Wen and colleagues highlight that intricate gut phage bacteria-bacteria crosstalk may dictate disease severity, offering new insights into personalized treatments for Crohn’s disease. www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Sally Potter et al use museum specimens to study the connectiveness and genetic diversity of rock wallabies in the arid areas of Australia. Island populations have low genetic diversity compared to more recently fragmented mainland populations. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Do little penguins always forage in the same areas? Lilia Guillet et al tracked 422 little penguins over 13 years and found penguins consistently spent more time in the productive areas but in poor years they foraged farther from the colony, with lower breeding success. hal.science/hal-05495230...

How big is small when talking about patch size? And does it change if you are looking at biodiversity versus ecosystem services? David Deane and colleagues describe an objective method for discerning patch size in terms of ecological phenomena. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Vagrancy is the occurrence of an individual out-side its regular, known geographical range. Simon Gorta et al studied gadfly petrels, and found potential for vagrancy events to provide insight when assessing seabirds as indicators of environmental change onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

A very cool molecular machine, the bacteriophage JS1, has taught us several surprising things doi.org/10.1128/mbio... #MicroSky @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social @macsys.bsky.social

JS1 is a #phage that does not respect host species boundaries, but it does look stylish as it binds, enters in and kills them all. doi.org/10.1128/mbio... @macsys.bsky.social @staph-papers.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social

#IDWGS Dr Lesley Alton studies how animal adapt to climate warming @monashbiol.bsky.social Her advice to future scientists: “Be curious and take maths.” Read more 👉 www.monash.edu/science/news...

PopBio on the Dark Side shines a light on population biology researchers based in the Asia-Pacific, i.e., the ‘dark side’ when seminars are streaming from other time zones. We meet on the last Thursday of every month 1pm AEST. forms.gle/gPZmcBnFYcWk... or follow us @pop-bio.bsky.social

Our team at @monashbiol.bsky.social have had some exciting grant wins over Dec/Jan! First up, Honours student Emily Blackburn was awarded the Daniel Gilmore Scholarship in support of her research on the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum: www.biosis.com.au/emily-blackb... #ozmammals

PhD student Tucksaorn (Orn) Bhummakasikara was awarded a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment for her project "Genomics to inform recovery and management of the threatened Australian Pookila"! @monashbiol.bsky.social #ozmammals #ozrodents

PhD student Camille Kynoch (cosupervised in our lab) was awarded a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment for her project "Breeding on Borrowed Time: Managing Flatback Sea Turtles Amid Climate Driven Male Scarcity". @monashbiol.bsky.social www.ecolsoc.org.au/grants-award...

What's more fun than writing this paper is the brilliant minds of @plosbiology.org @roliroberts.bsky.social coming up with ways to deal with BlueSky's censorship. Men with surfboards, could this paper be anymore aussie? @ceb-uwa.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social @biologyanu.bsky.social

We know bees are important, but do we know how to identify them? Robert Moore, Vanessa Kellerman, Scarlett Howard and co-authors have a new web-based tool that makes bee identification simple, rapid, and accessible. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Additive genetic variance for fitness maintained by balancing selection url: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

Juan Valbuena-Fernandez and co-authors find that urgent integration of climate projections into conservation planning, alongside enhanced protections against illegal trade, is critical to safeguarding bluetongue lizard species.

How well can we replicate physiological responses across species and across universities? Lesley Alton & co. found that metabolic scaling relationship and the mass-independent rates of energy use in response to food restriction was consistent across universities. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41552934/

Information sharing matters. This is open access. Isabelle Onley, Phil Cassey and Melodie McGeoch are Australian.

January issue: Perspective from Melodie McGeoch on how ecological drivers are shaping terrestrial biodiversity change in Antarctica. 🧪🌎 Web link: go.nature.com/3ZgxzSu Readcube: rdcu.be/eZInQ

When, and how, should we do a Rapid Evidence Assessment? Angus Webb Carly Cook & co-authors provide a standardized definition that will improve transparency and facilitate decisions about the appropriate levels of rigor required for environmental decision-making www.proquest.com/openview/146...

How do interactions between temperature, urban gradient, and light type impact the phototactic response in native and non-native bees? Emily Watson and co-authors found honeybees were faster under all conditions. doi.org/10.1016/j.ji...