How did catastrophic black death and myxomatosis outbreaks on an isolated island affect the genomes of humans & rabbits, respectively? And how did the microbes evolve in response to this? PhD position @cpgsthlm.bsky.social with Anders Götherström and me as supervisors! su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

This is the way

New paper alert 🚨 Researchers at #CPGStlhm have analyzed ancient genomes from an Islamic cemetery in Ibiza (950–1150 CE) 🏖️ They found a highly diverse community with ancestry from Europe and North Africa! The paper was published in @natcomms.nature.com OA link www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Across 27 dromedary camel-types, DNA analysis showed that names based on coat color often didn’t match real genetic boundaries. The strongest pattern was geography: camel-types cluster broadly by origin (Asia vs. Africa). #2026MMM #RIP doi.org/10.1093/jher...

Out today is our paper 'Genomic history of early dogs in Europe', in which we uncover the identity of the dogs that lived in Europe before agriculture—during the Paleolithic & Mesolithic periods: doi.org/10.1038/s415.... A thread ⬇️ (10) @biouea.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social

"Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic" doi.org/10.1038/s415...

As promised, what follows is a behind-the-scenes story of how we came across this permafrost-mummified tissue and tried to determine which species it belonged to.

On my way to Vienna (with punctual trains!) to visit University of Vienna. I will give a talk in the Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences seminar (HEAS) series tomorrow. #aDNA #populationgenetics

We just published a brief preprint on aDNA from two Medieval Ottonic emperors. 🧬👑 We confirm via IBD segments that remains attributed to Otto "the Great" and "Saint" Heinrich are third-degree relatives. As historically attested - suggesting that they are authentic. ✅️ doi.org/10.64898/202... (1/3)

🧪 #FossilFriday Mummified baboon, Namibian cave, prob lost beyond the roosting chamber. Re: taphonomy of Homo #Naledi, this baboon was +70m in, via small tunnels, and despite humid cave it formed in arid ledge microclimate. as did a 2nd one, in <5 yrs. digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcont...

This was one of @cpgsthlm.bsky.social earliest posts on Bluesky. The results have now been published! Study led by @sofiaselvatici.bsky.social as part of her masters project. Thanks to all the collaborators. Follow the CPG account if you wanna know more about the back story. Thread incomig soon 👀

If they didnt want people to eat whole containers of ice cream they should invent ice cream that doesnt require 30 minutes of pre planning and thawing to scoop out

#AaRCademy is back with another animal #aDNA workshop. This time, @jolijnerven.bsky.social will showcase the state-of-the-art methods to explore the relatedness between our samples. Join us online on April 16th, 14:00 CET!

I am looking for prospective Bachelor/MSc students willing to embark in the development of new methods for the extraction, processing, sequencing and analysis of historical and ancient RNA molecules from museum-preserved animal specimens. Read below and apply!! ucph.jobteaser.com/en/job-offer...

🗃️ Also this one is gorgeous: Louise, held by her mother Meave, who is holding - with Richard - a hominin skull. Technosocial hominin worlds connected through time 😍

🧪 A remarkable photo from Leakey archives of Paranthropus boisei skull being discovered, still with its concretions adhering. Pic taken from this video 👇 (a nice historical-to-present-day review of Leakey-led scientific discoveries) #Fossil #palaeoanthropology www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoOT...

Job alert: open position for a Professor or Associate Professor of Computational Genomics in Health and Disease at University College London. Based in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment of UCL, and UGI, and funded by the UCL Health Strategy. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... 🧪

🚨 PhD opportunity in evolutionary genomics Interested in working with ancient DNA and genomics of carnivores to study adaptation to human-dominated landscapes? I’m looking for a candidate to apply for an FCT PhD fellowship (Portugal). 📅 Deadline: 31 March Feel free to contact me for details! 🐺🐻🦊🧬

New preprint! with @a-solernunez.bsky.social Rethinking a textbook example of human adaptation "AMY1 copy number evolution in light of demographic history" Once population structure is accounted for, the classic starch–agriculture narrative becomes much less clear www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Ancient walnuts 🌰 tell a Silk Road story! Genome-wide data 🧬 from Tang Dynasty Xinjiang walnuts reveal a transitional genetic stage linking Central Asia and China in a new study published in Cell Reports. doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... #MetagenomicsMonday #SPAAM #aDNA #ancientDNA #silkroad #paleobotany

🧬SedaDNA Postdoc position💥 2 years Starts 2026, apply by 1st March. Join Aleks Pluskowski at Reading & me at NHM. jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

The dream

Our new study is out! We analysed DNA preserved in buried river sediments and Neolithic sites (Serbia), uncovering past landscapes and traces of sturgeon populations. Read more about our findings and the challenges in such complex and dynamic contexts: doi.org/10.1038/s415... @mikkelwp.bsky.social

Job alert! 3 year post doc in my research group at University College London working on Roman Leather via biomolecular archaeology. #ZooMS #stableisotopes www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQJ187/r...

The Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR v62), a visual summary:

Read our new paper in Genome Biology & Evolution to learn more about how sequencing the genome from a 14,000 year old wolf puppy's last meal yielded novel insights into the woolly rhino's extinction: academic.oup.com/gbe/article/... 📷 Mietje Germonpré

The genome of one of the last woolly rhinoceros sequenced from a chunk of meat extracted from the stomach of a mummified Late Pleistocene wolf puppy 🤯🦏🐺 Absolute cinema 🎥⬇️⬇️⬇️

Researchers recover a woolly rhino genome from inside a frozen wolf's stomach. The work marks the first time an Ice Age animal’s complete genome has been recovered from tissue preserved inside another ancient animal. New study from @cpgsthlm.bsky.social www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

Genetic and historical perspectives on the early medieval inhumations ... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I’ve been waiting for something like this to come along! One for the bone diagenesis nerds. Preprint comparing patterns or bacterial bioerosion in ancient bones with metagenomic analysis of associated microbiomes. More diverse microbiomes in well-preserved bone. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Happy solstice! 🌍❄️ Today (Dec 21) at 16:03 (CET or UTC+1) winter officially begins. Shortest day of the year, but your noon shadow will be the longest. From now on, days slowly start getting longer again. Animation by NAAP labs (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) 🧪⚛️🔭#astronomy

Early Bird registration for #ICP2026 is now OPEN 🐦📝 IMPORTANT: places for the Conference Dinner at Stockholm City Hall (free of charge) are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Secure your spot by registering soon 👉 icp2026.palaeogenomics.org/registration/

🏺 Genetic study of Middle Bronze Age individuals from the Grotta della Monica cave site in the southwestern Italian peninsula finds sporadic patterns of relatedness and the first conformance ancient instance of a person whose parents were father and daughter. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Side quest completed ✅ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🚨 @ucl.ac.uk IoA PhD alert! "Human or Animal? Biomolecular Analysis of Upper Palaeolithic Bone Artefacts to Explore Raw Material Selection" More info: bit.ly/48Bgffm TREES PhD applications open 2026 intake of students. Application deadline is 5pm on 17th Dec 2025. www.trees-dla.ac.uk/apply

Ancient metagenomics people might also be interested in the authentication and visualization toolkit that we wrote to do this. Just published a few days ago! GitHub github.com/bdesanctis/b... Paper link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Big!

Our paper in the PNAS Special Feature on 🐕 is out! We demonstrated the accuracy of imputing ancient canid genomes, looked at inbreeding levels over the past 10,000 years and found genomic regions resistant to ROH which were enriched for immunity and chemosensory genes. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

WOW❗🤯 The amount and quality of the abstracts we've received have completely blown us away! More than 300 abstracts from researchers at all levels and from 33 countries. We will communicate the selected talks and open registration soon 👉 icp2026.palaeogenomics.org #ICP2026 will be UNMISSABLE 😍💪

We’re excited to offer a fully-funded PhD position (NERC & BBSRC-funded QUARTILES) focusing on oak conservation and restoration. The project features ancient DNA analysis of archeological oak specimens as a key element of the research. @uoa-archaeology.bsky.social #ancientDNA #conservation

Our manuscript on bovine deep-time paleogenomics at Denisova Cave and in the broader mid-latitude Asia is online! doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... 🦬🦴🧬 Main findings in the 🧵 below ⬇️ @cpgsthlm.bsky.social @genomebiolevol.bsky.social #aDNA

What an incredible resource for those starting out in ancient DNA! Thanks once again @oskolkov.bsky.social for being our first #AaRCademy speaker

New map produced by RTVE, Spanish national TV, of the 6000 mass graves in Spain. In the last 25 years some 17,000 bodies of men, women and children have been exhumed out of the ~120,000 dumped in mass unmarked graves by the Franco regime. www.rtve.es/noticias/fos...

🦣🧬🦣🤯💥We are pleased to share our new paper about ancient RNA expression profiles from the Woolly Mammoth, now published in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:

#Vacancies: we are looking for not just one but three #postdoctoral researchers interested in bridging #genetics, #archaeology and #linguistics in exploring the #humanpast. shorturl.at/B3Qdd @haam-community.bsky.social @cschlebu.bsky.social

Our paper on imputation of ancient goat genomes is now available at GBE - congratulations to @jolijnerven.bsky.social #aDNA

How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities? Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation. 🧵(1/n) @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515

Same story, three different headlines… 🧪👩‍🔬🏺