New paper out: “allopatric” Drosophila species aren’t so allopatric after all. We show that most currently allopatric species pairs probably overlapped in the past and exchanged genes at levels similar to sympatric pairs. @evolletters.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/evle... [1/6]

Exploring #PAG33 and San Diego for the first time! If you're interested in knowing more about why bird microchromosomes are so hard to sequence, come by poster 287 this afternoon!

”Together, our results suggest that strong pairwise incompatibilities are rare, while weak, background-dependent incompatibilities are widespread and shape fitness and adaptation in hybrid genomes”

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

Before 1990 Brimstones (G rhamni, citroenvlinder) would be more abundant in summer than in spring, but this has shifted over time. The only explanation I can think of is that they go into hibernation sooner after appearing in summer, maybe to avoid summer heat. Other ideas welcome. #vlindermaand

In Eudaminae skippers, wing tails and iridescence have evolved many times and are linked to faster diversification — yet these traits are also often lost, revealing a very dynamic, environment-driven butterfly wing evolution. 🦋 doi.org/10.64898/202...

Some butterflies may seem more beautiful than others. And believe it or not, this is influencing their conservation and researchers' interest! - Take this 10-min test to contribute to a research into our perception of butterfly beauty: www.unveiling.eu/en_US/introd...

I am very excited to share our new paper with my amazing co-authors and mentors @dmacguig.bsky.social @fishgenomes.bsky.social @tjnear.bsky.social . We investigate a secondary contact zone in #darters. track.smtpsendmail.com/9032119/c?p=...

Now accepted in Genetics! academic.oup.com/genetics/adv... We ask why and when rescaling of forward simulations in population genetics is not accurate. There are some interesting results for people performing simulations with selection.

@thymelicus.bsky.social entered the growth-with-background-selection challenge to test his new inference method: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... His victory is a powerful vindication of his approach and a wonderful example of competition-based evaluation!

Orzechowski, @scottvedwards.bsky.social et al. integrated cytogenetic data, long-read assemblies, and whole-genome resequencing to test hypotheses of recombination suppression and the phylogenetic distribution of neo-sex chromosomes in honeyeaters. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf215 #genome #evolution

📰 Starting this friday with some positive news: Our publication "Pangenomes as a framework for adaptive radiation, speciation, and adaptation" came out today in the American Journal of Botany! bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1537...

Time to publish responsibly: DAFNEE, a database of academia-friendly journals in ecology and evolutionary biology url: academic.oup.com/jeb/article/...

Admixture in a butterfly species complex creates a genomic mosaic of ancestry with distinct histories for different chromosomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.28.691233v1

🧵We just described Vilesida @uu.se, a new ORDER of #sponges potentially linked to the earliest known animal biomarker! 🔬🪸🪼 #MueumofEvolution doi.org/10.1093/zool... @zoojlinnsoc.bsky.social @ieo.es @ucriverside.bsky.social @sponbiodiv.bsky.social @biodiversa.eu

(1/5)Thrilled to announce our paper on #ProjectPsyche is out! 🦋We describe how we’ve generated 1000+ high-quality genomes for European Lepidoptera, providing an unprecedented resource for biodiversity, conservation, and evolutionary research. #Genomics #Biodiversity www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Investigating the evolution of large meiotic rings of multiple X and Y sex chromosomes in two Leptodactylus frog species (Anura, Leptodactylidae) www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Changing Views on Speciation onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9

With 29 sponge genomes included in this integrative phylogenomic study, sponges are once more shown to be sister-species to the rest of the animals...

Available now in @asn-amnat.bsky.social ! Taking on some big-scale natural history: processed >40k @inaturalist.bsky.social images of Monarda fistulosa using computer vision to query for flower presence and phenotype flower color: doi.org/10.1086/739413

One more day to go! 10am Eastern Thursday November 13. internalconflictsstn.wordpress.com/seminars/

B. Charlesworth & D. Charlesworth publish a new Review in GBE examining how suppressed recombination on emerging sex chromosomes can lead to genetic degeneration and how organisms evolve compensation mechanisms, following on HJ Muller's classic work. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... #genome #evolution

My first paper as a first author is officially out 🎉 @elife.bsky.social We show that the iridescent colour of Morphos 🦋 tends to converge in sympatry while their chemical signals diverge, illustrating the constrasting effect natural and sexual selection on trait evolution. doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

What a remarkable discovery! In SW Turkey a new species of Lycaenid was discovered, Rapala suleymani sp.n., of a genus that was only known from the eastern palearctic & indomalayan realms, it's closest relative flies 7000km away! doi.org/10.31184/M00...

Check out our new insect decline paper. By analysing 36 yrs of German ground beetle distribution data, we show: - ~80% of species have declined, with significant declines for >50%. - The decline was similar across species traits and threatened status. doi.org/10.1111/ddi.... @consbiog.bsky.social

This paper blew me out of the water!

Despite decades of effort, scientists have still not discovered a foolproof way to evaluate colleagues’ work that doesn’t involve reading the paper

One species of vampire moth, Calyptra thalictri has been regularly found in southern Finland, and even north of Stockholm... 😅

super cool - I am constantly wondering about the effects of recent TE invasions? lethal mutations seems to be one striking effect www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Transposable elements drive much of naturally occurring genetic lethality in Drosophila melanogaster https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.16.682755v1

Next level ant mimicry: a moth walking backwards reveals how its colour pattern and movements combine to produce a fairly good ant impression #Borneo #insects #rainforest

Very cool paper from @rogervilalab.bsky.social on the Canary islands Hipparchia butterflies just came out! Each island has its own species, seems like no gene flow between the islands! academic.oup.com/isd/article/...

1/3 Excited that my final PhD MS is online! Big thanks to Ullasa (PI) (vanasiri.in) & collaborators Freerk and Urszula. Turns out humidity, not just temperature, plays a major role in butterfly eyespot plasticity. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

New review out! With students in my lab, we explore how population size shapes speciation—from drift in small populations to selection in large ones. Do small or large populations speciate faster? The answer is more nuanced than you might think. esj-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Now available in Systematic Biology, a new paper (and R package) in which we outline an approach to account for non-independence in comparative analyses of lineage-pair traits academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

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

"An appealing metaphor is that the smaller population is on a drunkard’s walk, and the larger population, sober though tethered to the drunkard, must counterstep to keep the pair on target; in doing so, however, the sober member of the pair also looks drunk." www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Preprint Alert! 🦥 We produced complete genomes for 2 Xenarthra and placed them in a mammalian comparative framework. We found that Xenarthra harbour the largest number of retrocopies in mammals! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#TEsky Satellite DNAs rising from the transposon graveyards doi.org/10.1093/dnar...

Our 4yo wants to keep some of our kitchen’s fruit flies as pets. Feels like I’m already l losing him to popgen.

(1) So happy to share our recent work on Finish wood ants 🐜🧬🥳 "Evidence for climate-mediated range expansion of hybrid wood ants" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @helsinki.fi & @uvapress.bsky.social This integrative project was funded by the Research Council Finland & #MSCA of the European Comission

Question for speciation researchers! I'm looking for "the most classic mathematical models of speciation" to introduce in my class. What comes to mind when you hear this phrase? Would love to hear what you consider the classical models in the field. I'll start first:

🦋 Butterflies are booming across England, thanks to nature friendly farming New research shows that agri-environment schemes (AES) are significantly boosting biodiversity by paying farmers to adopt nature-friendly practices like wildflower strips and hedgerows.

I'm so proud of this work!!! It was an incredible amount of effort that started when I was trapped in a greenhouse during the pandemic and is only now seeing the light of day. Kudos to Megan, Hagar, & Pia! We'd love to hear your thoughts! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Wouldn’t mind combining butterfly watching with asparagus season myself ;)

We have a new paper out in Molecular Ecology, led by @devinbendixsen.bsky.social ! Reproductive isolation due to divergent ecological selection is accompanied by vast genomic instability in experimentally evolved yeast populations onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A single genotype of Kalanchoe ×houghtonii as the 1st reported clonal hybrid capable of worldwide colonization "striking genetic uniformity, high phenotypic plasticity, and extremely high rates of vegetative reproduction ... a 'general-purpose genotype'" From: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

(1/6) 🦋 We are thrilled to announce the release of the 1,000th reference genome of Lepidoptera species found in Europe! This goal was reached with the release of Stenoptilia islandicus, also known as the mountain plume moth. Read the story below!👇🏽