📣 I'm hiring! Two positions (PhD student & Postdoc) in my ERC project Macroevolution of European Literature. Let's study the cultural evolution of literature using massive data 📚📈 📍Frankfurt | Apply by August 15 Details: www.aesthetics.mpg.de/en/career/jo... Please repost to help spread the word!

Our late Neandertal paper is officially out! 💀❤️🧬 www.nature.com/articles/s41... It was years in the making, a tremendous feat spearheaded by our PhD student Alba Bossoms Mesa and co-led by @janetk.bsky.social and @benmpeter.bsky.social

Genetic diversity of late Neanderthals in northwestern Europe🏺🧪 Alba Bossoms Mesa, @elenaessel.bsky.social, @mariesoressi.bsky.social, @janetk.bsky.social, @matejahajdi.bsky.social et al www.nature.com/articles/s41... Finds load did not accumulate, arguing against progressive genetic deterioration.

Investigating ancient human DNA preservation on cave walls and in rock art🏺🧪 Alba Bossoms Mesa @elenaessel.bsky.social, @janetk.bsky.social, @matejahajdi.bsky.social et al www.nature.com/articles/s41... Shows traces of human mtDNA and nuclear DNA can persist on cave walls for thousands of years.

Ancient human DNA from the cave walls! 🤯 Wonderful new paper led by Alba Bossoms Mesa and a great team of people that made this work possible.

Amazing new paper with 🧬 from walls and cave paintings 🦣🏺🧪https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-74234-2

Ancient DNA preserves on cave walls over thousands of years! Amazing (and complex) study lead by Alba Bossoms Mesa as part of the FirstArt project. Very proud to see it published in @natcomms.nature.com :) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

So happy and proud to see this paper out in @natcomms.nature.com today! We show that traces of human DNA can persist on cave walls for thousands of years. Absolutely fantastic work by the wonderful Alba Bossoms Mesa at @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social and a great team! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ancient DNA survives on cave walls! Scientists recovered human genetic info & nuclear DNA from calcite at Escoural Cave. This opens a new way to identify who made rock art, including Neanderthals. How will paleogenetics change rock art study? doi.org/10.1038/s414... My pros and colleagues!

@merszym.bsky.social @janetk.bsky.social et al. develop quicksand, an open-source Nextflow pipeline designed for rapid and accurate taxonomic classification of mammalian mitochondrial DNA in sedimentary ancient DNA samples. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf305 #evobio #molbio #compbio #aDNA

I am very excited to present this work to the (sed)aDNA community - and I am looking forward to some cool applications! If you want to use quicksand, I recommend following supplementary section 8, which demonstrates several use-cases :) see github.com/mpieva/quicksand for more details

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

Cool work from my colleagues @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social just dropped! Merlin Szymanski, @janetk.bsky.social et al. developed quicksand, a fast, accurate and beautifully designed Nextflow pipeline for taxonomic classification of mammalian mtDNA from ancient sediment DNA. doi.org/10.1093/molb...

You know who are not confused, or uncertain, or mealy-mouthed about this? The Germans. Who might have some insight into this matter.

Back in beautiful Leiden and @naturalis.bsky.social today! 🦴💀✨ Wrapped up work and finally got to explore the exhibition—what an incredible spot to dive into the wonders of evolution! 🧬🌿 Feeling inspired

Way too excited about this! Just packed my MTG LOTR Jumpstart decks into their new home. How cool are these 3D-printed deck sleeves? #mtg #lotr #3Dprint

First seminar for our series 'Human Palaeosystems in Focus' for the new year! Join us tomorrow at 14.00 CET! www.gea.mpg.de/115578/mille...

Laut CDU ist es blauäugig in Sachsen einen Abgeordnetenausweis hochzuhalten und bei einer Demonstration darauf zu hoffen nicht zusammengeschlagen zu werden. Damit ist dann aber wirklich alles gesagt #Riesa

During a weekend winter walk, I stumbled upon this cool phenomenon—hair ice! It looks like frozen cotton candy, but it’s actually delicate ice strands growing on dead wood when temperatures dip just below freezing. A little fungus is the genius behind this frosty art! #fungifriends

When you foolishly tell the Northern Pygmy Owl that it's Monday morning before they've had their coffee. #owls #birds #canada #nature #wildlife #photography #wildlifephotography #birding #nikon #monday

Here are some nice mushrooms

Spannend! Neue #aDNA 🏺🧬 Analytik an Altfunden: Knochenfragmente aus der Ilsenhöhle bei #Ranis (Thüringen) geben älteste Genome moderner Menschen preis - und zeigen #Neandertaler Genomsegmente eines einzigen Vermischungsereignisses vor 45.000-49.000 Jahren: nachrichten.idw-online.de/2024/12/12/w...

New studies out yesterday show when modern humans last mated w/Neanderthals, but it's the details in this paper by @arevsumer.bsky.social @kaypruefer.bsky.social & co. that got me–like a mother and daughter found together after 45K years, or their close relative identified in a distant Czech cave.

I am very happy to share our new paper on the genetics of some of the first modern humans who ever lived in Europe! We sequenced nuclear DNA from 13 specimens from Ranis in Germany, and found that they belonged to at least 6 individuals. www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/n)

So incredibly proud of and happy for @arevsumer.bsky.social , @leonardoiasi.bsky.social and @mchintalapati.bsky.social, and their two papers that just came out yesterday! 💀❤️🧬 And so incredibly grateful to be able to work with such an amazing group of people. :) A great 🧵 by @arevsumer.bsky.social👇

I am very happy and excited that our finds from Ranis along with those from the 1930s excavations (now stored at the Museum for Prehistory at Halle(Saale) led to these incredible results! A big Thank You to @arevsumer.bsky.social and the entire team for this amazing work!

Two super interesting papers out today about Neanderthal admixture. Showing it happened less than 49kya. So any modern human remains outside Africa before that date must have belonged to other populations which we presumably don’t descend from??? (I might be wrong though)

‘Mystery woman’s DNA reveals close family ties between Europe’s earliest [sic] people’

Excited to share the groundbreaking work by @arevsumer.bsky.social, who successfully sequenced the oldest modern human genomes ever! 💀 A scientifically thrilling and deeply rewarding project to be part of!

Out today in @sciencemagazine, we've journeyed into our shared history with Neandertals by analyzing over 300 present-day and ancient modern humans, including 59 individuals who lived between 2,000 and 45,000 years ago. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Wonderful to see so many new people here! :-) Interested in sedaDNA, aDNA, or forensic genetics? Join me in Copenhagen! I'm hiring a PhD and a Postdoc to start in 2025. Application deadline 28 November employment.ku.dk/phd/?show=16... employment.ku.dk/all-vacancie...

Very excited (and a bit nervous) to announce that I will be hiring two Postdocs for my new group(!) in Copenhagen to study the Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA which survives in present-day humans. Retweet will be much appreciated :) Link for application: candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

📢 Check out my newest paper published in JAS @ElsevierArchaeo ! “Prey body size generates bias for human and avian agents: Cautions for interpreting small game assemblages” #Ethnoarchaeology #experimental #taphonomy #smallgame #rats #butchery authors.elsevier.com/a/1h%7EJA15S...

🚨 PhD position 🚨 Excited to be recruiting a PhD student on using #ancientDNA 🧬 from bones and sediments to understand the impacts of human dispersal on faunal biodiversity. Deadline: 10th Nov. 2023. Based at the Centre for Palaeogenetics & Stockholm University. Come join us! su.se/english/abou...

Finally, after 2 years at MPI-EVA, visited our DNA sequencing lab! Lots of cool machines. One of them is called Hamilton: an appropriate name for a robot that kills you at the end of the movie 🔴. Jokes aside, huge thanks to @arevsumer.bsky.social & @elenaessel.bsky.social for the tour!

Great to see archeology and genetics coming together on the stage at @ESHE_society 💀🧬 So glad to be part of this team working on artefacts led by @MarieSoressi and @MatthiasMeyer. #eshe2023 #aarhus

Check out my charismatic colleagues Dr Elena Essel and Dr Matthias Meyer spitting facts about molecular archaeology - the visit to our institute starts around 18m50s mark 🧪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz2R...