#2026MMM FINAL R😮AR EMOJI BATTLE 🐊🆚🦡: 🪄🌳/🦡👃🏼🦎/🦡🧗🏾‍♂️🌳/ 🐊🐊🍽️💀/🐊😑🔊🐊/🦡🦷🦎/ 🦡🦎⤵️💀/🐊👄🐊/🐊 💀💥🦡/ 🇦🇺🐊🤷🏻👋🏻/🦡🍽️🐛/🐊🍽️💀/🏆🐊 🐋🆚🐂: 🪄🇺🇸/🐋🤏🌊/👶🏼🚫🍼/ 🐋🤰🏼🔴😩/🐂🏊🏾‍♂️📐🐋/🐋🔄🐂/ 🐂🗡️🐋🩻/🐋⬇️🐂/🛘🕳️🔜🌅/ 🐋👶🏼🐂🏊🏼‍♀️/🐂🏊🏾‍♂️🏖️/🐋🍼👶🏼/🏆🐋

NILE CROCODILE with take on HUMPBACK WHALE in the #2026MMM CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE on WEDNESDAY!!!! Until then, be well! Good night, & good luck!

Is the auroch DNA truly gone from the world? Pereira et al found that modern Anatolian, Levant, Irani, and Balkans cattle share DNA to various degrees with extinct Armenian, British, and Moroccan ancient aurochs. A small amount of auroch DNA still lives today doi.org/10.1126/scie... #2026MMM #RIP

The extinct auroch had at least three subspecies, and all three contributed some ancestry to modern cattle. For example, Cai et al found East Asian cattle descend from West Eurasian cattle originally but then later admixture with the extinct East Asian auroch doi.org/10.1038/hdy.... #2026MMM

Every year, humpback whales make long treks btwn where they breed & where they feed. Maternally-inherited mtDNA from >1,800 humpback whales suggest that animals annually return to where they were born to breed themselves & where they fed w/their moms early in life #2026MMM doi.org/10.3354/meps10508

A chromosome-scale genome for the honey badger doesn't yet exist. Only available genome is in 2,068,312 pieces. Honey badger don't care. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/gen... #2026MMM #RIP

Although honey badgers have a dominant male, genetic analysis revealed that subordinate males fathered about half of cubs. journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.1... #2026MMM

How related are Nile crocodiles across Southern Africa? Van Asch et al. (2019) used STRs & mtDNA to examine phylogeography & genetic diversity. Primary differentiation across east/west & secondarily across major river systems #2026MMM doi.org/10.1371/jour...

TONIGHT IS THE CLASH OF THE DIVISION CHAMPIONS! #2026MMM

WOW!!! WHAT A NIGHT!!!! Your #2026MMM FINAL ROAR: HONEY BADGER #MightyMustelid AUROCHS HUMPBACK WHALE NILE CROCODILE!!!! See you MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY!!! Until then, be well! Good Night & Good Luck!

Severe declines of lion populations have been documented over the last century. Curry et al. (2020) used microsatellites & mtDNA to show a significant diversity ⬇️ in the nuclear genome & more structure (less gene flow) in modern compared to historic lion pops. doi.org/10.1093/molb... #2026MMM #RIP

#2026MMM ELITE TR8️⃣ EMOJI BATTLE 🦡🆚📿: 🪄🌳/🦡🙄🌳/🦡💥📿/ 📿🙂‍↔️🔊/📿🫦🦡/🦡🤷🏻‍♂️🍽️📿/🏆🦡 🐮🆚🐂: 🚣🏼🏹🐮/🪄🏜️/🐮🐂🥵/ 🏹🫀🩸/🐂➡️👥🐮/🐮☁️👀/🏆🐂 🐋🆚🦛: 🪄🪸/🦛🏊🏾🪨/🐟✂️🦛/ 🐋🔊👶🏻/🦈🔜🦛🩸/🦈🍽️🦛/🏆🐋 🐊🆚🦁: 🪄🇺🇬/🦁🦁🏊‍♂️/🐊👂🦁/ 🦁😱↩️/🐊🍽️🦵🏻🧫/🦁🦁👋🏻/🏆🐊

Genomic work from de Manuel et al. revealed deep divergence (~70,000 years) between northern (including Asia, west, & north Africa) and southern (including south, east, & central Africa) lion lineages. Post split, these lineages have experienced gene flow. doi.org/10.1073/pnas... #2026MMM

Fernino et al. (2013) studied DNA from trypanosomes affecting S. Am & African crocodilids (including Nile Croc). Results = SA & Afr croc trypanosomes show relationships consistent w/ 4-5 MY croc dispersal across Atlantic & then host switch to infect alligatorids! doi.org/10.1186/1756... #2026MMM

Student had a lot of questions about what role the mold will play in this battle #2026MMM

FINAL BATTLE OF THE NIGHT: 1-seed Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) vs. 2-seed Lions (Panthera Leo) #2026MMM

Hippo DNA shows that they expanded across Africa in the Pleistocene when overflooding created a large network of lake and river systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Lack of geographical clustering in the haplotype network = recent population expansion. #2026MMM #RIP doi.org/10.1038/sj.h...

The enamelin (ENAM) gene is associated with tooth development in vertebrates. H. gigas harbors inactivating mutations in this gene, similar to birds, turtles, pangolins, & baleen whales, and analyses show signals of positive selection in the stem dugongid lineage. #2026MMM doi.org/10.1016/j.ym...

The extinct auroch was domesticated into modern cattle, but some modern cattle breeds are more genetically similar to the auroch. Park et all found modern British and Irish cattle are more similar to a 6,750-year-old British auroch than the other Eurasian breeds doi.org/10.1186/s130... #2026MMM

The extinction of Steller’s sea cow may be more complex than we thought. Ancient DNA reveals Steller’s Sea Cows were already in long-term decline before humans reached the Bering Sea, suggesting fur traders didn’t *start* the extinction, they just finished it. #RIP #2026MMM doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Humpback whale 🧬 harbors clues about it's past. 🧬 patterns suggest that like its whale relatives, humpback whales had ⬆️ effective population sizes a few million yrs ago relative to today. It’s #️⃣s were approx stable 1 million➡️ ~30,000 yrs ago and then ⬇️ by 2/3 #2026MMM doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap987

Cetaceans & hippos are close relatives & some genes contribute to their aquatic adaptations. Cetaceans have 461 genes under pos selection while hippos have 64. The genes that evolved after the 2 groups split are involved in lipid metabolism, brain & muscle function. #2026MMM doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Okay please let the hippo win 🙏🏻 #2026MMM

NEXT UP: 1st-seeded Steller's Sea Cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) vs. 3rd-seeded Aurochs (Bos primigenius) #CowVsCow #2026MMM #ExtinctionIsForever #EliteTrait

Honey badger is one of the species sequenced as part of the Zoonomia project, in an effort to better understand evolutionary constraint, and novel evolutionary genetics. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #2026MMM

The first draft of the Gila monster genome was used to study whether there is equal expression of genes on the Z chromosome between males (who have two Z chromosomes) and females (who have a single Z chromosome). academic.oup.com/gbe/article/... #2026MMM

Diet generalist #2026MMM

TONIGHT, we have HALF THE BATTLES but TWICE THE ACTION in the #2026MMM ELITE TRAIT!!

FIRST UP: 1-seed Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis) vs. 3-seed Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum). Tonight's battle is a collaboration with @mammalssuck.bsky.social #2026MMM

Another night of #2026MMM battles & I’m at another 🥍 game. This time it’s not freezing but it is incredibly windy! Let’s see how the loss of how habitat advantage affects the combatants & for my bracket, I hope it takes out the whale 🐳

I can’t wait to see the reactions of #mnapbio today when we watch #2026MMM Rundown. Last night was brutal to their brackets!

WOW WHAT A NIGHT! Steller's Sea Cow Aurochs Honey Badger Gila Monster Humpback Whale Hippo Nile Crocodile LIONS ADVANCE! #2026MMM

Orange cat mystery solved! Orange cats lack ~5,100 bases of DNA that normally regulate the gene ARHGAP36. The gene is still there, but switched on when it should be off. www.cell.com/current-biol... #2026MMM #RIP

Bengal cats (house cats that are ~4% Asian leopard cat) look wild, but domestic cat controls the coat color. Leopard cat color genes are suppressed. Genome version of home habitat advantage www.cell.com/current-biol... #2026MMM

Lions & tigers & bears? Genomic work from Sun et al. (2025) found the Japanese Archipelago housed lions, not tigers, during the Late Pleistocene. Originally, all big 🐱 fossil remains were attributed to tigers. Oh my! doi.org/10.1073/pnas... #2026MMM

LAST BATTLE OF THE NIGHT! 2-seed Lions (Panthera leo) vs. 6-seed Library Cat (Felis catus) #2026MMM

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...

Aurochs used to live in Northern and Southern Europe and carried many mitochondrial genome lineages. Lari et al found that Southern Italy aurochs have similar lineages as modern cattle unlike northern Europe Aurochs, suggesting a role in domestication for Italy doi.org/10.1186/1471... #2026MMM

UP NEXT: #2-seed Wild Dromedary Camel (Camelus dromedarius) vs. #3-seed Aurochs (Bos primigenius) #2026MMM

#RIP Genome-wide heterozygosity of the ossifrage: 0.0011 sites/bp, roughly half the avian average. Zou et al. 2021 traced this genetic impoverishment to the Last Glacial Maximum (~20 kya), suggesting vultures were never genetically diverse to begin with. doi.org/10.1093/molb... #2026MMM

The ossifrage hides Ice Age history in its mtDNA! Godoy et al. used museum specimens of now-extinct populations to reveal 2 lineages: one from W. Europe, one from Africa & C. Asia, shaped by separate glacial refugia. doi.org/10.1046/j.13... #2026MMM

Gila monsters get viruses, like other species. 33 microvirus genomes were discovered from studying fecal samples from 14 Gila monsters. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... #2026MMM

UP NEXT: #2 Ossifrage (Gypaetus barbatus) vs #3 Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum) #2026MMM

Asian elephant (🐘) lost tonight but it often wins against cancer! The Asian 🐘 genome + those of other mammals that are also less prone to cancer have a mutation in the ALDH6A1 gene that differs from other mammals and may help explain how they suppress cancer #2026MMM #RIP doi.org/10.1111/acel.13917

Hippos were present in central Europe until around 31,000 years ago at the same time as mammoths and woolly rhinos. This was likely a small and isolated population in the Upper Rhine Plain. #2026MMM doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

60% of the 🌏's wild Asian elephants (🐘) reside in India. Whole genome data from 34 Asian 🐘 reveal patterns of genetic divergence, diversity, inbreeding, + costly mutations that suggest 🐘 serially founded new populations as they moved north ➡️ south in India. #2026MMM doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.062

UP NEXT: 2-seed Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) vs. 3-seed Common Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) #2026MMM

Using coalescent demographic reconstructions, Zhou et al found that the extinct Baiji had undergone a bottleneck at the beginning of the Holocene but populations were recovering in the last 10,000 years until recent extinction from human activities doi.org/10.1038/ncom... #2026MMM #RIP

#RIP Grey fox. Sarcoptic mange devastates wolves, coyotes & red foxes. In wolves, immunity & skin barrier genes explain who survives. Grey foxes are remarkably mange-resistant. With the new grey fox reference genome, we have the tools to discover why! #2026MMM pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...