I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Size matters—but maybe not how we thought. Most chromosomal inversions are just a few hundred bp. Ignoring these “small players” could mean we’ve misunderstood how genomes evolve -out in TREE authors.elsevier.com/a/1ljL1cZ3X3...

I'm currently in a sea of moving cartons getting ready to move on from Göttingen back to Switzerland. Super excited, but it's also frustrating that science requires moving so often... Also why do I have so much stuff? 😬

Lund University is seeking a postdoc/researcher for an ERC project on gene expression in hybrid Italian sparrows. One-year position with potential extension. Apply here: https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:833332/ #postdoc

On my way home from #ESEB25 it was inspiring to see that evolutionary biology research is alive and well! So many new ideas and insights. Thank you to @tonigabaldon.bsky.social @sesbe-org.bsky.social @eseb.bsky.social and all the volunteers for making this possible!

Delighted to share the peer-reviewed version of our study led by @tomlewin.bsky.social now out in Genome Biology @bmc.springernature.com! We analyzed 64 chromosome-level genomes across 15 animal phyla and found that extensive genome rearrangements are the norm in bilaterians. doi.org/10.1186/s130...

Amazing evolutionary biology outreach at the Fiestas de Gràcia in Barcelona. @rawwiberg.bsky.social explained that not everything we assume about sex is a given and that we can learn a lot from the exceptions. #ESEB25

Surely one of the all-time best conference outreach activities: an evolution-inspired decorated street for Les Festes de Gràcia #ESEB2025

In preparation for #ESEB25 I visited the sampling site in Barcelona where the workhorse strain of the planarian research community originates. I’ve spent the last 5 years trying to understand how asexuality evolved in Schmidtea mediterranea—see my talk in session S28.02 to hear all the results!

BEHOLD! One of Earth's greatest lineages of life: the lil wiggle arm guys, Meteora. These single-celled critters, originally found in deep-sea sediments, are SO DIFFERENT from other lifeforms on Earth that they're likely in their own kingdom (as in, the Animal Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom etc). 🧪🌿

Find here my announcement for a 2-year post-doc position in ecological genomics of white oaks in the framework of the Horizon project OptFORESTS. I am looking for somebody with strong skills in bioinformatics, landscape genomics, forest genomics, GWAS, and population genetic simulations.

. @pnas.org just published the final version of our manuscript on how generation time and effective population size interact to shape vertebrate germline mutation rates, led by Luke Zhu and Annabel Beichman: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Really excited that our DFG grant on the Speciation Genomics of Eye Size variation in *Heliconius* has been funded :) In the next weeks, I will post an advert for a PhD, but if you know of good students, please suggest they get in touch. Please repost.

It's official - I'm organizing a field taxonomy workshop on freshwater and limno-terrestrial meiofauna! 27 August-11 Sept, in the Lake District. We have 13 experts covering all major taxa, advanced microscopy, DNA taxonomy, sci-com, publishing. RT! Send your best! www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/...

🌍 4 year, fully funded PhD in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Basel! 🌿 Explore flatworm speciation in the African Great Lakes! ✔️ Fieldwork in Zambia & Tanzania ✔️ Training in phylogenetics, molecular ecology, evolutionary biology & stable isotope analysis 📅 Deadline: May 31, 2025

Taking the pulse of meiofauna research in 2025. My biggest take-home message as the head of one panel: evolutionary genomics is not (yet) anywhere near reaching its potential in this field, partly because of a lack of visibility/interdisciplinary education. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

A lot of folks associate #Nudibranchs with spectacular colours - but there are many that have evolved to just blend into the background of sponges and weeds. This undescribed Thordisa is a case in point that looks like a fluffy weed. #SeaSlugs #MarineLife #Invertebrates #Macro

A close-up view of individual coral polyps! 🐙

The first time I saw these algae in a sample I could not believe my eyes. Their movement is so smooth and coordinated!

POSTDOC POSITION AVAILABLE, Geneva, Switzerland - Applications are invited for a postdoc position to study UV-B perception and signalling in plants. Please apply, forward to suitable candidates, and/or repost; many thanks! Deadline February 24, 2025. See www.ulm-lab.ch for more information.

So this little #SeaSlug is a type of sap sucker in the genus Costasiella. These are not technically #Nudibranch and belong in the super order of #Sacoglossa. They perform kleptoplasty where they steal chloroplasts from their Avrainvillea algae host and utilise them for photosynthesis #🦑 #🦐 #📷

Giant clams are fascinating. Not only do they have beautiful colors, but they actually have eyes! The numerous black dots on their mantle are individual eyes, each with lenses capable of forming images. 🐙

Happy #MolluscMonday 🐌 Red-finger aeolis nudibranch (Flabellina verrucosa) under the UNH Pier in New Castle NH in April 2024 #macrophotography #scuba #marinelife

I hope you had a better Monday than this grumpy looking scorpion fish! ☺️🫠🦑

A few of my favorite tidepool shots of 2024 from San Juan Island and Monterey, better late than never for #invertefest! #marinelife #tidepool #invert #nudibranch #seastar

Here is a nice little mollusc for today. Amphioctopus marginatus that most divers refer to as the Coconut Octopus due to its habit of using empty coconut shells to provide itself with a protective shell. #🦑 #🦐 #Octopus #UnderwaterPhotography

For my #newyearnewnudi contribution here is Plocamopherus lucayensis. Fun fact these guys will blink with (very weak) bioluminescence if I disturb their bryozoans home. #nudibranch #marinelife #underwater #🦑

Top down view of a long-arm cleaner shrimp (Ancylomenes longicarpus). 🦑

Words can't express how jealous I am of Bubble Coral shrimp. Imagine THAT being your home. It'd be like living in a beautiful house made of silk baloons. 🌊🦑🦐

To start the new year a long-arm cleaner shrimp (Ancylomenes longicarpus) I saw on our recent trip to the Red Sea. #addOcean

🪼 For #MolluscMonday, a glimpse into the fantastic world of Alexander Semenov, who captures marine invertebrates like no one else 💙 🦑 📷 🌊

The blue splotches in the last image are called concrements. They don't look like much in that transmitted light image, but with light from above they are iridescent.

Just beautiful little animals.

Finally organizing some images from my zoology course. Here's the anterior end of a convolutrid acoel flatworm, with symbiotic algae living in its tissues. Acoels are sister to Deuterostomes + Protostomes: they ancestrally lack a through gut and nephridia. Heterochaerus sp., probably. #InverteFest

The Metaphor of Godzilla existentialcomics.com/comic/539