Our new @science.org paper is out! Cuckoos and hosts are locked in a coevolutionary arms race over egg mimicry. But how are these egg types inherited, and could this drive speciation? We sequenced hundreds of genomes to find out! doi.org/10.1126/scie... 🧵1/6

Scientific breakthroughs are rarely unique; someone else would’ve made them soon enough. But when prominent scientists cause harm, that harm isn’t inevitable; the world might simply have been better had the harm not been inflicted. liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...

Our paper on tinamou evolution is finally out in @systbiol.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...

If you vote today, nyc, there’s a special sticker for #Halloween. It’s not a democracy sausage but it’s a New York pigeon sticker! (They allegedly run out of these fast so get on that broomstick!)

New for #Evol2026: Research Synthesis Working Groups! Each funded group will present a symposium at the meeting, collaborate on a publication, and establish a lasting research network. Submit your proposal by January 6! www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

"The project that was terminated was on this hummingbird, the white-necked jacobin....I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary." Researcher @jjinsing.bsky.social interviewed by @carlzimmer.com #birds #nature #science #fundscience #nonbinary 🧪

FL is moving forward w/ plan to end all childhood vaccine mandates. Starting with hepatitis B, chickenpox, and the bacteria causing meningitis and pneumonia. Then next year GOP FL legislature is expected to revisit 1977 law re: whooping cough, measles, polio, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus.

Beautiful and heartbreaking. Christmas Island also has the wonderful migrating red crabs 🦀 (Gecarcoidea natalis) which are threatened* by introduced species. Island ecosystems are precious! *colloquialism because they don't have an IUCN assessment and might not before it's too late

New Collection Study Grants for students and postdocs to come visit the @burkemuseum.bsky.social! Applications due 12/15/25. www.burkemuseum.org/collections-...

For anyone who needs to pass these on: www.alieward.com/ologies/geno... www.alieward.com/ologies/revo... www.alieward.com/ologies/arti... www.alieward.com/ologies/cons... www.alieward.com/ologies/trol... www.alieward.com/ologies/crit... www.alieward.com/ologies/blat...

We will be trying to build cohorts across programs (@harvardoeb.bsky.social, Human Evolutionary Biology, @harvardmcb.bsky.social) via combined social events and possibly classes. Working on this as we speak.

🚨Our new package {galaxias} is released in R & Python today! 🚨 📦 galaxias makes it easy to standardise data to Darwin Core, the accepted format for sharing ecological data with infrastructures like @gbif.org and the Atlas of Living Australia galaxias.ala.org.au #rstats #python 🧪🌏🐟 A thread 🧵👇

Happy to share my first postdoc work published in @funecology.bsky.social ! A huge thank-you to @oliverdemuth.bsky.social @lizzysteell.bsky.social @fieldpalaeo.bsky.social @grumpydrfabre.bsky.social and to @snsf.ch besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

My lab is hiring a 2-yr hummingbird evolution and genomics postdoc and a 1-yr salaried research and lab tech. Both with full U. Wyoming benefits. Please spread the word! Info below. Best consideration date Nov 1, start dates early Spring 2026.

No better reason to join Bluesky then to say the first chapter of my PhD is out as a preprint! New surgeonfish phylogeny, ecomorphological relationships, evolutionary shape correlations-with NEW method to accurately account for phylogenetic covariation among shapes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our paper on the temporal genomics of Ethiopian birds has been highlighted (and gotten the cover) in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social Article: doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf163 Highlight: doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf175 w/ @bourgeoisyann.bsky.social, @lcampillo.bsky.social, and others not on bsky

Tip rate estimates can predict future diversification, but are unreliable and context dependent https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.680809v1

The most important paper in evolutionary biology I'd never heard of: 1/ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

It feels crazy even saying out loud everything that they're doing but this is all really happening.

I just got back from Madagascar a few days ago (way more on that later, I promise!) and now my first PhD chapter on Malagasy birds is officially out! Guess its time to actually write that thread that I’ve been putting off for months…

It's funny I remembered where I put it at 10PM AFTER Labor Day is mostly over, but after having lost if for several years, I finally found the diverse fish graphic I made in 2018. It always bothering me that the school of fish was the same type. That erases the modern, diverse labor movement.

This is the way.

Excited to share the first paper from my PhD! We looked at what traits help Aneides salamanders excel at climbing using museum specimens, CT scans, SEM, and more! No claws or toe pads, so how do they do it? In short, with long limbs, big feet and grippy toes! 🦎🧪 DM for PDF doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Should Walz have stacked the deck with his alleged cronies instead of making picks that would have actually benefitted the U? We already have an easy answer for that. The question of how we get better picks next time is more interesting.

It's Minnesota State Fair time! It's time for Minnesotan folk art! Here, for example, is Saturn Devouring His Corn, in the seed art category!

FEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTT

Hey folks out there who ❤️ to #CTscan things and ❤️ museums! the @amnh.org is hiring a Laboratory Manager for their Microscopy and Imaging Facility, a.k.a. the CT lab 🧪 careers.amnh.org/postings/4550

I am disappointed that the DFL has stripped the DFL Endorsement from Senator Omar Fateh, who clearly had overwhelming support at the convention. They met privately and voted to overturn the will of Minneapolis delegates. An effort led by Mayor Jacob Frey. 1/

our paper on how light pollution affects bird vocal behavior is out today in Science!! w/ @brentpease.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Heads up 🧪science folks. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to generate some examples of issues in how Chat-GPT 5.0 answers intro bio type things. I'll stick at least some of them here in a thread so you're free to use them, rather than having to waste resources asking it stuff we know it gets wrong

The 2025-26 Eco-Evo job list is out. Good luck to those applying! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Solidarity with the maintenance, food service and janitorial workers who keep the University of Minnesota running. They should have to strike for living wages and protection from harassment.

Saw this and thought to myself "Oh no we got scooped!" Nope. This is the preprint of our manuscript. Fun collab with Laura Céspedes Arias.

Something to try out in the next semester! I'm curious how it works for students compared to AVIDA.

🚨Woo our new paper now out in accepted form in @systbiol.bsky.social - We use phylogenetic analyses to argue that the evolution of diverse social contexts has reshaped avian life histories. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Thrilled to announce version 2.0 of my poster featuring some of Madagascar's endemic frog species, to scale! This version features 176 species—40 more than version 1.1 (now retired)! Check it out! 🐸🧪 www.redbubble.com/i/poster/Som...

@aauerbach.bsky.social showcases the Crested Coua and its many populations in Madagascar - spanning multiple habitats across the island. There seem to be three distinct populations on the island that correlate with phenotype and habitat but there are still a few mysteries for these cool birds #AOS25

Excited to be heading to St. Louis for #AOS2025! Be on the lookout for talks from our lab!: - Jenna McCullough (PD) and Jonah Alderson (grad) are up against each other on Wed. morning - Claire Geiman (grad) will present a poster Wed evening - Devon DeRaad (PD) will give a talk on Thur afternoon

#AOS2025 don't miss @kevinfpbennett.bsky.social's talk at 11:15am on Wednesday in the Genomics 2 session (Ballroom C). We're cooking up some cool stuff with @mbtoomey.bsky.social on warbler carotenoid processing enzymes! 🦉🧪

There simply is no substitute for the time-, personnel-, & $$$-intensive way of providing quality education. That we don't want to pay for it, as a society, does not make this any less true, & AI cannot fix that. At best, it can poorly substitute for the real solution. bsky.app/profile/mcop...

the dependence on theft of people's work is an excellent reason to spurn generative ai, but so is the idea that ai companies, just like so many tech companies, need to get people hooked.

The first paper from my postdoc is finally out! In collaboration with @kaitlyngaynor.bsky.social and Amy Angert, we outline how behavioral plasticity influences animal species’ distributions and can improve our understanding of range shifts under climate change! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our review on the last decade+ of hybrid incompatibility research is now out! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Original thread here: bsky.app/profile/moll...

I was back home in NY last week and got to get out on the ocean for the first time in way way too long. The whales were minimally cooperative (distant humpback and fin), but a big pod of common dolphins included a melanistic individual! Also, any day with tubenoses is a very very good day.

I was back home in NY last week and got to get out on the ocean for the first time in way way too long. The whales were minimally cooperative (distant humpback and fin), but a big pod of common dolphins included a melanistic individual! Also, any day with tubenoses is a very very good day.

Interested in how new sex chromosomes evolve in birds? Our NSF-funded collaborative work with the (Daven) Presgraves lab at @urochester.bsky.social is out this week in @pnas.org. Check it out! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

University of Minnesota service workers threaten system-wide strike ahead of fall semester minnesotareformer.com/2025/08/07/u...

The 2025 @aaup.org Faculty in the South Survey is live. If you are a professor in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, or Texas it's for you. Ends 8/29 at 5pm Eastern forms.gle/v7T3BH2w9LXs...

Thinking about gulls today.