Antonson et al. show that cowbirds’ neck muscles are unusually fatigue-resistant, suggesting muscular innovation for exaggerated begging as a key driver for how brood parasites outcompete hosts. Available now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Our octopus population genetics preprint is up! This is Gabby Coffing’s final PhD chapter, and turned out pretty cool. Here’s a little explainer. 1/n

Diversity and divergence of two sympatric, sibling octopus species https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.30.721928v1

The deadline for submitting nominations to the 2026 Molecular Ecology Prize has been extended! Nominations are now due by Tuesday, 5 May 2026. @wileyecology.bsky.social

Congratulations to @jrossibarra.bsky.social on being elected to the National Academy of Sciences! We'll be popping some corn in his honor www.ucdavis.edu/news/nationa...

The barnacles are on the loose! Check out my preprint with @stsmall.bsky.social, @johnwares.bsky.social, Erin Jezuit, and Andy Kern: The genome of the Pacific acorn barnacle provides insights into the evolution of extremely large populations doi.org/10.64898/202... 1/n

The genome of the Pacific acorn barnacle provides insights into the evolution of extremely large populations https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.27.721231v1

Over the moon for @jrossibarra.bsky.social ! A great scientist, colleague, and friend. Still terrible puns though.

The 2026 awardees of SMBE's Faculty Award are now known. We start by presenting the SMBE Early-Career Excellence Award winner - Leo Speidel - working at RIKEN, Japan. @leospeidel.bsky.social Visit our website to learn more about the SMBE Faculty Awards 🔗 smbe.org/faculty-awards #society

Fix your hearts or die.

We are looking for a postdoc to help with a project on eelgrass genomics, in collaboration with the O'Connor and Rieseberg labs at UBC - see ad here tinyurl.com/2yd487p4! Come and join us in beautiful Vancouver 🌊🌾🏔️

📢Oportunidad de investigación con mariposas🦋 Se buscan estudiantes voluntarios para trabajo de campo y de laboratorio en distintos bosques de #PuertoRico, comenzando en agosto 2026. ✉️ Comunícate con la Dra. Osmary Medina ([email protected]) para más información. #CienciaPR #CienciaBoricua

Synolog: A Scalable Synteny-Based Framework for Genome Architecture Characterization https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.07.717040v1

The Evolution conference w/ @asn-amnat.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social @systbiol.bsky.social is in Cleveland this June. It's an excellent conference center, in a town with many good restaurants. But wait, you'll say... weren't we just there a few years back? Here's why... (thread) 1/N

1/ BRAKER4 hatched! The Earth BioGenome Project is on track to sequence ~1.5M eukaryotic species. Every one needs a structural annotation. No Perl monolith was going to survive that. So we rewrote BRAKER from the ground up. github.com/Gaius-August...

🎨 @wizardofbarge.bsky.social

I’m happy to share github.com/jpwares/mole... it’s got a long way to go but I felt a need to change my approach a few years ago. It’s clunky AF. I enjoy shaping it and keep useful stuff like your shiny apps there to help folks learn more experientially.

Current and recent PhD students: abstract submissions are due April 15 to be considered for the Hamilton Award Symposium at virtual #Evol2026! Learn more about how to apply to be a finalist: shorturl.at/qDIP4

We interrupt your scheduled scientific programming to ask some *very* important questions: Are lightsabers sharp? How do they cut? I have (strong) opinions, but I need to gather some data.

New story on the Avian Hybrids blog! A colorful mess: Widespread exchange of pigmentation genes across the Parulidae phylogeny avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2026/03/11/a... Based on the PLoS Biology paper by Kevin Bennett and his colleagues | #ornithology

I am still actively looking for postdoc positions — please lmk if you (or your friends and colleagues) need a hardworking postdoc with field, lab, and bioinformatic skills! I am broadly interested in evolution in the ocean, conservation and population genetics, and rapid evolution.

Nominations are open for the 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲! This award recognizes early career research published in MEC/MER in 2025. Nominations are due on Friday, 𝟮𝟰 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲. For more info, see: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal...

Check our new preprint from the KR-colab with @ramencult.bsky.social and Andy Kern: MKado: a toolkit for McDonald-Kreitman tests of natural selection doi.org/10.64898/202...

Hello! Molecular Ecology is now on @bsky.app! Follow us for updates about Molecular Ecology and Molecular Ecology Resources publications, as well as special issues, events, and awards! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1365...

Nominations are open to the annual 𝗠𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲! The award recognizes the work of outstanding scientists for their contribution to the field of molecular ecology. Nominations are due on 𝟮𝟰 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲. Read more: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal...

Are you a grad student attending #Evol2026? Submit your talk for the SSE Hamilton Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation! Finalists will present their talks during the virtual portion of the meeting. Apply during registration. Deadline April 15! shorturl.at/qDIP4 @evolmtg.bsky.social

New story on the Avian Hybrids blog! Water off a manakin’s back: How sexual and natural selection shape plumage coloration in manakins avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2025/12/10/w... Based on the Science Advances paper by Haw Chuan Lim et al. | #ornithology

🧬 My haplotype paper is out! We show that deviations between within-sample and population-level haplotype frequencies can be used to estimate how many individuals contributed to an eDNA sample. No tissue references needed, just metabarcoding data and some population genetics. #eDNA #PopGen

Don’t forget the barnacles! www.azquotes.com/quote/1095192

I wrote a short op-ed in @genetics-gsa.bsky.social G3 this month’s issue on missing data problems in population genomics that I’ve been thinking about for a couple of years. Lemme know your thoughts! Comments/suggestions/ideas welcome! doi.org/10.1093/g3jo...

Merry #Crustmas to all who celebrate! Hoping you are firmly attached to people you love, are able to scoop up large amounts of food, and can hide in an impervious shell when the social situation requires it ❤️

New paper out. If you like colorful birds, hybridization, and phylogenetics, read on! 🧵https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003501

Big ol’ jar of the whale #barnacle Coronula diadema collected from a humpback whale that stranded in Massachusetts in 2016. Our museum has the whale skeleton as well! #crustmas

I'm recruiting a Ph.D. student for Fall 2026. Interested in comparative studies and trait evolution in fishes? Send me an email with a CV and research interests. Please take a look at my website (jcorush.github.io ) for more information about my research. #hybridization #minnows #mudskippers

Putting on my hat as @asn-amnat.bsky.social ASN President for a minute for a string of announcements, please share widely!!! 1. Student research awards are open for applications, to fund research expenses for 10 graduate students ($2000 each) nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Wisconsin Evolution is accepting applications for our Seminar Series' Early Career Scientist Award. Come share your evolution research and visit UW-Madison's evolution community. Open to grad students and postdocs (<5 yrs post PhD) from outside UW-Madison. Apply by Dec 15th here: shorturl.at/4a4O6

Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back From Brink Of Courage

some years, Circulatory System Walking Through the Kitchen Day just completely sneaks up on you

📣📣📣 CONSERVATION GENETICS WORKSHOP - Few more spaces left! ConGen Population Genomic Data Analysis Course 🧬💻💡 University of Pretoria, South Africa 🌍 7-14 December + field trip to Kruger NP! 🦁🐃🐘🐆🦏 More info & registration here: www.umt.edu/congen/africa/

@notothentoma.bsky.social @arcolon14.bsky.social & @jpostlethwait.bsky.social show how Antarctic white-blooded icefishes, the only vertebrates without hemoglobin, independently lost hemoglobin cluster genes, driven by TEs and repeats. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf184 #genome #evolution #TEsky

We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT

📌 New publication out: Reference genome bias in light of species-specific chromosomal reorganization and translocations TL;DR - We show that the choice of reference genome biases the detection of structural variants and popgen stats. Navigate carefully - 🛳️ 😬 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Do you know anyone with an interest in pursuing a PhD studying the genetics, development, and evolution of skeletal morphology and life history? If so please encourage them to apply to work with me through any of the University of Illinois' EEB or PEEC programs. 1/4 🧪🦷🦴🐭🐒

First pop gen paper from our lab! We find repeated evolutionary turn over of sex chromosomes in darters contributes to reproductive isolation. Turnover may be an escape hatch to resolve mitonuclear conflict & neo sex chromosomes evolved via a rare recessive mutation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Looking forward to the awesome @elliecat.bsky.social’s lecture today in our EEB seminar series! “Not All Bad News: Minor Genomic Impacts of Population Declines in Brown Bears” Noon Pacific in the Gold Auditorium, Shiley Biosciences Center. See ya there!

Dept of Plant Biology at UIUC hiring in any subdiscipline of Mycology and/or Plant-Fungal Interactions tenure-track faculty position at the assistant professor level. Apply by Oct 31, 2025. For complete details including salary and benefit information, visit go.illinois.edu/PlantBiolfac...

The new XKCD has to be a reference to the ant paper where ants just casually lay eggs of a different species, yes? Maybe? There are so many weird bugs its hard to know.

Our EEB department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is hiring an assistant professor in evo-devo. See go.illinois.edu/EEBAsstProf for details. Please share!

Hello bluesky community! I'm hiring a postdoc to do machine learning in population genetics. Starting to build up a lab at Indiana University Bloomington where I just started a faculty position. Apply with the below link: indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/30325