Utilizing longitudinal telomere data from captive zebra finches, we have shown that birds with shorter lifespans show faster telomere shortening, particularly among the longer telomeres in the genome. 🐦🧬⌛ academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

Larger broods beg more, parents feed more – but chicks still grow more slowly, suggesting that the energetic costs of competition are to blame. 🐣 brill.com/view/journal... @gelifes.bsky.social @rug.nl

New research in #Behaviour: “Begging efficiency rather than food received causes brood size effect on growth in zebra finches” by Marianthi Tangili, Michael Briga and Simon Verhulst. @mtangili.bsky.social

New paper out on the begging behavior of cross-fostered zebra finch nestlings raised in small and large broods 🐣 brill.com/view/journal...

Congratulations to Dr @euantheyoung.bsky.social who defended his PhD yesterday on 'Family matters: The role of trade-offs in shaping human life-histories and health' research.rug.nl/en/publicati... @rug.nl supervised with @erikpostma.bsky.social @lummaalab.bsky.social 🎉

"Asynchrony of ageing among traits in a wild bird population" doi.org/10.32942/X27...

Extremely proud of my good friend and colleague @euantheyoung.bsky.social whose work is featured in @nrc.nl. Read bellow for some excellent science and fascinating results. 👪🤰👶🧬

13/ And since I have you here, it's time for some shameless plugging! I defend my PhD ( :O ) next week, and if you are interested in more of what I got up to over the past few years, you can check out an @nrc.nl here: www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age @hannahdugdale.bsky.social @lummaalab.bsky.social @erikpostma.bsky.social

Very excited about this work now out in @molecology! We test whether🐦with ⬆️dispersal propensity differ in the nº CpGs across the genome, with the hypothesis that⬆️CpGs allow for⬆️epigenetically-driven plasticity facilitating environmental coping onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🚨 New paper alert! We find a small fraction of all CpG sites to show age-related changes in DNA methylation with the majority of them being located on the haploid, female-specific W chromosome in two passerines. 🐦🧬⌛ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Come & work with us - fully funded 4 year PhD on Social Ageing: Social environment effects on senescence, using an epigenetic clock www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor... @rug.nl @david-s-richardson.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social @seychelleswarbler.bsky.social photo: @charlisdavies.bsky.social

Having older siblings affects a child’s chance of survival – but the precise effect depends on the older siblings’ sex and age go.nature.com/46oaaCU

Long-term effects of early-life adversity on DNA methylation in zebra finches https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.23.649997v1

How did the #COVID-19 pandemic shape scientific productivity? Stephanie Meirmans, @maurineneiman.bsky.social, Shalene Singh-Shepherd @royalsocietypublishing.org and I crunched the submission and acceptance data for 25 journals in #Ecology&Evolution: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... @uniexecec.bsky.social

New paper alert🚨 We used calibrated Sentinel-1 backscatter coefficients to estimate grass biomass, woody canopy volume and tree basal area in the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem. zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

In my ✨academic influencer ✨ era #TopViewedArticle @wiley.com

Glad to see that our efforts for accessible, transparent and reproducible research are being recognized! @unigroningen.bsky.social #openresearch #openscience #rug

1/11 New preprint out with @hannahdugdale.bsky.social, @lummaalab.bsky.social, and @erikpostma.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Why do we age? And can a “natural experiment” during the Great Finnish Famine with long-term data help provide some answers?

Begging costs rather than food received cause brood size effect on growth in zebra finches https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.29.635459v1

🚨 New preprint alert! More siblings, fiercer competition, extra food—but stunted growth! 🐦🍕📏 In zebra finches raised in large broods, increased energy spent on begging—not less food—causes reduced growth. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...