Andy Foote
@andrewfoote.bsky.social
📤 1643
📥 792
📝 81
Evolutionary biologist using ancient and modern DNA to study evolution through time and space.
pinned post!
The Evolution of Cetacean Societies Edited by
@darrencroft.bsky.social
@ellengarland.bsky.social
and.bsky.social
@stephanielking.bsky.social
and myself Preorder available now
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Will share more details closer to release date
#whale
#dolphin
#animalbehaviour
11 months ago
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Filipa Samarra
3 days ago
Proud supervisor moment. The last chapter of
@annaselbmann.bsky.social
PhD is now published, well done Anna!! 👏👏 Find out more👇
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Center for Whale Research
6 days ago
Join us Sat, Feb 7 for a FREE virtual book launch of 'The Evolution of Cetacean Societies'. Live Q&A + cover BTS. 🕕 18:00 GMT / 10am PT 🎟️ Free with registration 🔗
www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...
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Henry North
11 days ago
I'll be talking about the use of genomic data for inferring and forecasting the spread of invasive pests 🐛 in conversation with Renata Retkute, who uses epidemiological models to tackle the same problem. This Friday at 13:30, David Attenborough Building & online
www.tickettailor.com/events/globa...
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Register – The Dynamics of Agricultural Pests: leveraging data from genome to landscapes – David Attenborough Building
The Dynamics of Agricultural Pests: leveraging data from genome to landscapes – David Attenborough Building, Fri 30 Jan 2026 - Up to 40% of food crops are lost due to plant pests and diseases each yea...
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/globalfoodsystems/2031068
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Max Reuter
11 days ago
Do you like your learned society and what it does for you and your research community? Then publish in their journal! This paper by
@nicolasgaltier.bsky.social
& Co shows that it will only do good, and comes with a handy database of academy-friendly journals. 👇
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Claudia Bank
17 days ago
Last chance to apply - the deadline is tomorrow!
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Éadin O'Mahony, PhD
18 days ago
New paper on the social learning of bubble net feeding by humpbacks in British Columbia, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B 🐋
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
#marmam
@bcwhales.bsky.social
@seamammalresearch.bsky.social
@lrendell.bsky.social
@uniofstandrews.bsky.social
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The diffusion of cooperative and solo bubble net feeding in Canadian Pacific humpback whales
Abstract. Animal culture, information and behaviours acquired and shared by social learning are a form of biodiversity with intrinsic and practical value.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/293/2063/20252409/479678/The-diffusion-of-cooperative-and-solo-bubble-net
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Stefaniya Kamenova
20 days ago
If you haven't already done so, do fill out this EU public consultation about the future of the European Research Area. Everything that matters to us is in there - funding, employment stability, AI regulations, open science, etc.
ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet...
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European Commission - Have your say
European Commission - Have your say
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14608-European-Research-Area-ERA-Act/public-consultation_en
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Tina Saupe
23 days ago
We developed/optimised the protocol to enrich low aDNA content libraries using Twist panels. 🎣🧬👩🔬
#aDNA
#Labwork
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Genome Biology and Evolution
about 1 month ago
In a new GBE Review,
@david-peede.bsky.social
et al. overview the SMC model and extensions, discuss examples of discoveries made with the help of SMC-based inference, and comment on the assumptions, benefits, and drawbacks of various methods. 🔗
doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...
#genome
#evolution
#compbio
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Not Just Ne Ne-More: New Applications for SMC from Ecology to Phylogenies
Abstract. Genomes contain the mutational footprint of an organism’s evolutionary history, shaped by diverse forces including ecological factors, selective
https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf229
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Musings on museomics (
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
) in a commentary on Clark et al. (
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
) who compared genomes of museum specimens of ponyfish collected in 1908, with samples collected in 2018, spanning anthropogenic habitat change. They found declines in genetic diversity and Ne.
about 1 month ago
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Antoine Stier
about 1 month ago
Please repost: 🚨Field assistant position 🐧 We offer a 14-months field assistant position through the French Polar Institute to work on king penguin ecophysiology and behavioral ecology. Requirements: EU citizen < 30yo having experience with harsh fieldwork & wild bird/mammal handling/sampling.
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Lee Hsiang Liow (廖珕庠)
about 1 month ago
Apply for Sepkoski Grants $1000 USD if you are a paleontologist from Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Central and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia
www.paleosoc.org/sepkoski-gra...
deadline March 1
@paleosoc.bsky.social
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https://www.paleosoc.org/sepkoski-grants-international-research-program-@paleosoc.bsky.social
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Ryan Hernandez
about 1 month ago
This story is heartbreaking. Brenna Henn is a wonderful scientist, and the work their lab does is truly insightful. Anger and rage…
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/s...
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Science Magazine
about 2 months ago
A new
#ScienceAdvances
study shows that commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean over the past century reduced the genetic diversity—and possibly the evolutionary fitness—of the region’s humpback whales.
https://scim.ag/4anxPpM
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Humpback whale genomes reflect the increased efficiency of commercial whaling
Humpback whale genomes reflect shifts in whaling practices and their potential impact on the animals’ adaptive capacity.
https://scim.ag/4anxPpM
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Molly Przeworski
about 2 months ago
Happy to highlight an essay I wrote together with
@marcdemanuel.bsky.social
,
@natanaels.bsky.social
and Anastasia Stolyarova, trying to think through what sets the mutation rate of a cell type in an animal species:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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What sets the mutation rate of a cell type in an animal species?
Germline mutation rates per generation are strikingly similar across animals, despite vast differences in life histories. Analogously, in at least one somatic cell type, mutation rates at the end of l...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.19.695482v1
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bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology
about 2 months ago
demografr: A toolkit for simulation-based inference in population genetics
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.18.694482v1
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Molecular Biology and Evolution
about 2 months ago
@cademirch.bsky.social
@erikenbody.bsky.social
TB Sackton &
@russcd.bsky.social
introduce Callable Loci And More (clam), a tool that leverages callable loci to accurately estimate population genetic statistics (π, dxy, and FST). 🔗
doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf282
#evobio
#molbio
#compbio
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Efficient Estimation of Nucleotide Diversity and Divergence Using Callable Loci (and More)
Abstract. The increasing scale of population genomic datasets presents computational challenges in estimating summary statistics such as nucleotide diversi
https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf282
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Katharina J. Peters
about 2 months ago
🐬 Can friendship slow ageing? In wild bottlenose dolphins, strong social relationships aren’t just important for social life — they may actually influence biological ageing.
@liviagerber.bsky.social
#ScienceCommunication
#MarineMammals
#Ageing
#MAVELab
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
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Social bonds decrease epigenetic age in male bottlenose dolphins - Communications Biology
Across 40 years of behavioural and epigenetic data, male dolphins with stronger social relationships show lower epigenetic ages and therefore appear to age slower compared to those with weaker social ...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-09227-w
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William Perry
about 2 months ago
📢
#PhD
opportunity! Interested in
#eDNA
and protecting our
#rivers
? We are recruiting a PhD researcher to tackle a very topical challenge: Empowering citizen scientists with an eDNA toolbox to safeguard
#freshwater
fishes. Deadline: January 16th 2026.
#PhDPosition
#CardiffUniversity
bit.ly/49bl4gO
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Jonathan Pritchard
about 2 months ago
Our latest preprint revisits the classic model of mutation-selection balance. Do human recessive genes fit Haldane's 100-year old model? This work is by the wonderful
@jonj-udd.bsky.social
, and co-mentored by
@jeffspence.github.io
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Allele Frequencies at Recessive Disease Genes are Mainly Determined by Pleiotropic Effects in Heterozygotes
The classic theory of mutation-selection balance predicts the equilibrium frequency of genetic variation under negative selection. The model predicts a simple relationship between the total frequency ...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.05.692665v1
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A short note just published in Biology Letters with
@darrencroft.bsky.social
, in which we build a hypothesis on the potential genomic underpinning of a mid-life female menopause in killer whales
doi.org/10.1098/rsbl..
.
about 2 months ago
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Leyan Wang
2 months ago
We are excited to share our recent work on the surprising robustness of Ancestral Recombination Graph (ARG) inference tools to computational phasing errors, now available on BioRxiv:
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
. This work is co-advised by
@yundeng.bsky.social
and Rasmus Nielsen. 1/7
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Robustness of Ancestral Recombination Graph Inference Tools to Phasing Errors
Ancestral Recombination Graphs (ARGs) are fundamental population genetic structures that encode the genealogical history of a sample of haplotypes along the genome. They have recently received substan...
https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690249v1
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Judith Mank
3 months ago
Team fish - we need your help! We are trying to build a database of all the fish chromosome-scale genomes where sex chromosomes have been identified. Have you build one or some? Do you know someone who has? Can you post the link in the comments? Please spread the word and repost! Thank you!
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We made the cover of
@heredityjournal.bsky.social
! Photo by
@cherinebaumgartner.bsky.social
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2 months ago
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Buy The Evolution of Cetacean Societies book direct from uChicago press via link below and use the code UCPNEW at checkout to get 30% discount off the list price.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
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The Evolution of Cetacean Societies
From leading cetacean biologists, an up-to-date, comprehensive collection exploring advancements in our understanding of cetacean ecology, behavior, and societies. Cetaceans—whales, dolphins, and po...
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo257312594.html
2 months ago
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Stefaniya Kamenova
2 months ago
The Centre for Advanced Study Sofia is offering several quite attractive fellowship schemes for postdoctoral researchers from the social sciences and the humanities, including one specifically dedicated to Ukranian scholars. Check it out! Application deadline: 31 March 2026.
cas.bg/en/cas-sofia...
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CAS Sofia Fellowships for 2026/2027 – CAS
https://cas.bg/en/cas-sofia-fellowships-for-2026-2027/
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Nicolas Bierne
2 months ago
Improving two-step cancer treatment strategies based on evolutionary models, but above all a nice evolutionary rescue model that should be of interest to everyone.
#PopGen
#CanEcoEvo
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Dr Simon Goodman
3 months ago
New PhD studentship opportunity in my lab & with collaborators from the Pinniped Genomes Consortium. Come help us unravel the genomics of seal physiological super powers! Closing date 7th January 2026 🧪🦭🧬🌍🦑🐳
#marine
#mammals
#consgen
#popgen
#phylo
#molevol
#evolution
yes-dtn.ac.uk/research/the...
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The evolutionary genomics of life-history adaptations in pinnipeds - Yorkshire Environmental Sciences • Doctoral Training Network
Project summary Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, fur seals and walrus) are keystone marine predators, and sentinels for marine ecosystem health. Advances in genomic technology open up the possibility to u...
https://yes-dtn.ac.uk/research/the-evolutionary-genomics-of-life-history-adaptations-in-pinnipeds/
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Katerina Guschanski
3 months ago
Just over a month left to apply for scholarships on this project. We will run internal pre-selection interviews end of November, so if you consider applying, please reach out now. I can guarantee amazing scientific and intellectual environment at the Institute for Eco Evo
@edinburghup.bsky.social
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bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology
3 months ago
Elevated mutation near crossovers inhibits the evolution of recombination
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.01.685904v1
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Dr Mark E Hauber
3 months ago
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Genomic architecture of egg mimicry and its consequences for speciation in parasitic cuckoos
Host-parasite arms races facilitate rapid evolution and can fuel speciation. Cuculus cuckoos are deceptive egg mimics that exhibit a broad diversity of counterfeit egg phenotypes, representing host-ad...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt9355
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A dream postdoc on an incredible population, building on over three decades of field research, and with a brilliant and supportive PI.
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3 months ago
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This is a bloody awful situation. If anyone has experience of how to deal with this please reach out to Kim
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3 months ago
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Hanna Kokko
3 months ago
A young PI here in Mainz has a fabulous PhD position that will be filled soon! By you? Keywords: Social insects, ageing, gene expression.
www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb10-evoluti...
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Behavioural Ecology and Social Evolution
https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb10-evolutionary-biology/
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A great opportunity to work with great colleagues (Marie Louis and Outi Tervo) on the beautiful Faroes on an ambitious eDNA study of marine mammals.
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3 months ago
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New paper out in Heredity: 'Evidence of long-term purging of mutation burden in killer whale genomes'. Time calibration of purging was through inclusion of an ancient (7.5Kyr) genome which was close to directly ancestral to the present-day population with signature of purging.
rdcu.be/eM25j
3 months ago
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Ricardo J Pereira
3 months ago
Join us tomorrow either at the
@smnstuttgart.bsky.social
or online to learn what 20,000 years old bones of crows 🐦⬛ can tell us about the evolution of color pattern!
@kombiota.bsky.social
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Darren Croft
4 months ago
MSc by Res opportunity - developing behavioural indicators to inform killer whale conservation with
@exeter.ac.uk
@whaleresearch.bsky.social
@seadocsociety.bsky.social
People from underrepresented groups in marine science encouraged to apply. Deadline 19Dec
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
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Reto Burri
4 months ago
1/9 New in
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado8005
How does genetic architecture constrain evolutionary trajectories? To address this question, we inferred the genetic architecture of convergent plumage coloration and its evolutionary history in wheatears.
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A mosaic of modular variation at a single gene underpins convergent plumage coloration
The reshuffling of genomic variation from multiple origins is an important contributor to phenotypic diversification, yet insights into the evolutionary trajectories of this combinatorial process and ...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado8005
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Kjetill S Jakobsen
4 months ago
Article alert: Maurstad, Hoff; Cerca et al. Reference genome bias in light of species-specific chromosomal reorganization and translocations. Now out in Genome Biol. Congrats to Sissel and the team😀
doi.org/10.1186/s130...
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Reference genome bias in light of species-specific chromosomal reorganization and translocations - Genome Biology
Background Whole-genome sequencing efforts, have during the past decade, unveiled the central role of genomic rearrangements—such as chromosomal inversions—in evolutionary processes, including local a...
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-025-03761-w
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Jukka-Pekka Verta
4 months ago
PhD OPPORTUNITY! 🔬🔖 Still one more day to apply for our fully-funded PhD position in Norway! Please share widely 🙏
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4 months ago
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Erin Sikorsky
4 months ago
Oof, one of my heroes.
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Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/obituaries/jane-goodall-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qE8.cvsn.6tQscnCLRMHN&smid=url-share
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ICP2026 Stockholm
4 months ago
🦴🧬🦴🧬🦴 Abstract submission is now open for the 1st International Conference on Palaeogenomics! June 23–26 2026, in Stockholm. Join researchers from across the field for 4 days and >100 talks (+ poster sessions)! Submit abstracts here 👉
icp2026.palaeogenomics.org/abstracts/
Deadline: Nov 30th
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POPGROUP59
4 months ago
Exciting news! The next
#PopGroup
meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris. This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics. More info:
populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk
See you there !
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Population Genetics group 59
https://populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk/
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Emma Luck
4 months ago
I am pleased to share our new review paper detailing killer whale interactions with commercial fisheries in Frontiers in Marine Science!
www.frontiersin.org/journals/mar...
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Edward Elderman
4 months ago
This only happens to you once
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Darren Croft
5 months ago
We are hiring (Post number 2) - join us as a graduate research assistant to support killer whale research. Collaboration with
@samellisq.bsky.social
@drwhale.bsky.social
Prof Dan Franks (York) start 1st Nov (or ASAP) end 31st Oct 2028. Apps close on 19th Oct.
jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
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This is a rare opportunity to work with an incredible dataset building on over five decades of field studies on the Southern Resident killer whale population, and led by an amazing team.
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5 months ago
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