Haller, Ralph & Messer present SLiM 5, a major extension of the SLiM simulation framework for simulating multiple chromosomes, enabling a heightened level of realism for full-genome simulations. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf313 #evobio #molbio #compbio

It’s official: I’m joining the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa as an assistant prof starting Fall 2026! I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!

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

Check out our cover article by @timjanicke.bsky.social and colleagues about the role of sexual selection in animal speciation. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic.... The beautiful illustration is by Katharina Bóth.

Your daily Avian Hybrids story! A genetic test of the theory of island biogeography using the Fiji bush-warbler avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2021/06/30/a... #ornithology

EEB Postdoctoral Fellowship @ U.Toronto app deadline Jan 15 2026. Opportunity for independent research, encourages collab across labs/disciplines. Lots of great folks to interact with, Come join us! eeb.utoronto.ca/employment-2/

I have a new preprint demonstrating a genome-architecture-aware approach to inferring species trees and introgression landscapes from a small number of genomes. If you are interested in phylogenomics, birds, or hybridization, this is for you! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out our short warbler hybrid paper out today, including a new unofficial common name. Carotenoid people will find some little tidbits of discussion about how these hybrids can help us understand regulation of yellow feathers.

Just out in Systematic Biology, we explore the role of gene flow in island phylogeography of the Solomons Black-and-white Monarch complex. doi.org/10.1093/sysb... Up first, strong genetic structure between islands groups and weak (but present!) structure between Pleistocene-connected islands (🧵)

I mean, the title says it all: Genetic confirmation of an “uncommon mourningthroat” (Geothlypis philadelphia  ×  G. trichas): A rare but persistent hybrid warbler. Fun stuff with @kevinfpbennett.bsky.social and Kurt Gielow, OA in @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social! 🦉 🧪 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

1/ 🧵 I'm at #BOUasm25 A day at the museum to talk about using natural history collections to build inclusive community. Natural history #museums are undergoing a renaissance of novel research. However -who has access to collections? -who is being left out of biodiversity research? #ornithology

Join the SLiM workshops in 2026: Paris (May 18-22), Tartu (June 15-19), and Reykjavik (Aug 17-21). Free registration is open now! Apply here: https://forms.gle/o8MzzJLck6q6v3Zu7. More info: https://messerlab.org/slim/. #workshop

Read Ben's great synopsis + background to our new paper out in Ecology!

Our paper on tinamou evolution is finally out in @systbiol.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Check out the @lsu.bsky.social LSU Museum of Natural Science Fall 2025 newsletter. Lots of stories of fieldwork and research from our students, staff and curators. And my first as Director. www.lsu.edu/mns/files/ne...

Yet another way the GRFP will bias towards financially secure, non-working, networked students from large, well-resourced institutions. sigh. I *know* NSF POs understand the difficulties obtaining official transcripts, and certainly in the timeframe available. They might not have control over this.

Warning. ⚠️ If you are writing an NSF GRFP, new this year, you need official transcripts to apply. Beware. They will not review applications without official transcripts. ‼️

Our new @science.org paper is out! Cuckoos and hosts are locked in a coevolutionary arms race over egg mimicry. But how are these egg types inherited, and could this drive speciation? We sequenced hundreds of genomes to find out! doi.org/10.1126/scie... 🧵1/6

Here's my latest contribution to the "Lost Science" series at the New York Times: Jay Falk, a scientist who studies why some female hummingbirds look just like males. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qF7Qje

I believe I carved a decent Brown Creeper pumpkin. 🪶

Check out the latest paper from the CCGP on California Quail and the ecological and anthropogenic factors that impact genomic variation. Led by Phred Benham and the Bowie group: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

OUT TODAY: SimHumanity, a SLiM 5 model of the human genome, replete with demography, autosomes, X/Y & mtDNA. A shared starting point for reproducible evolutionary simulations. Huge thanks to coauthors Ben Haller, @mufernando.bsky.social & Philipp Messer. 🔗 www.pivotscipub.com/hpgg/5/4/0006

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....

My lab is hiring a 2-yr hummingbird evolution and genomics postdoc and a 1-yr salaried research and lab tech. Both with full U. Wyoming benefits. Please spread the word! Info below. Best consideration date Nov 1, start dates early Spring 2026.

So great to have this work led by @devonderaad.bsky.social covered by an Evolution Digest!

Our paper on the temporal genomics of Ethiopian birds has been highlighted (and gotten the cover) in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social Article: doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf163 Highlight: doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf175 w/ @bourgeoisyann.bsky.social, @lcampillo.bsky.social, and others not on bsky

🚨We're hiring! The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is seeking a tenure-track split position as Assistant Curator of Ichthyology and Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences. Please retweet & share with colleagues! 🐟🐠🧪 Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/174674

New today: We're petitioning NSF to revert GRFP eligibility criteria to last year's terms, to avoid pulling the rug out from under the earliest of early-career scientists who had every reason to think they'd be able to apply this year. Sign and spread the word! laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

Excited to share what I've been working on with the science community! Starting to get my PhD papers out as I get closer to graduating, and looking into next steps in my career. If anyone has any postdoc ideas, please reach out! 🙂🌱

A new Science study of ants in Fiji—involving genomic sequencing of over 4000 ant specimens from museum collections—shows that most native species have been in decline since humans first arrived in the archipelago 3000 years ago. https://scim.ag/489mI2o

The first Aguillon Lab paper is officially out in early view at Evolution!! Led by postdoc @devonderaad.bsky.social, we’ve explored the hybrid zone between black-headed and rose-breasted grosbeaks in the Great Plains. #ornithology #hybridization #speciation #evolution doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Fiji ant study provides new evidence of insects’ decline on remote islands www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Excited to share our new paper on flight morphology and migration in North American wood warblers. Surprisingly, ground-dwelling warblers may be better adapted for migration than aerial ones!!! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Applying to the NSF-GRFP (or another fellowship) on a tight deadline? We built a 7-week guide + timeline to get you from draft to submission. It’s not too late — you’ve got this! ✨ 🔗 cientificolatino.com/apply-in-7-weeks #NSFGRFP #GradSchool #Fellowship

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October) www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

SimHumanity: Using SLiM 5.0 to run whole-genome simulations of human evolution https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673541v1

My feather cell type paper is finally out! doi.org/10.1111/ede.... We’ve packed a ton of stuff into this paper but I’ll go through some highlights in this thread!

🐦🔬 Recruiting PhD students! 🌎🧬 I’m looking for 1–2 PhD students to join our team starting Fall 2026 at the Sam Noble Museum & University of Oklahoma. Our research: 🐦 birds • 🌍 biogeography • 🌴 Neotropics • 🧬 population genomics • 🌱 speciation 👉 Learn more: www.moncriefflab.org Please share!

Calling all natural history/museum collections folxs The theme of the @systbiol.bsky.social breakout meeting in Baton Rouge is 'The Importance of Natural History Collections' The LSU Museum of Natural Science will host some events. Hope to see you there, Jan 9-11, 2026. ssb2026.github.io

our paper on how light pollution affects bird vocal behavior is out today in Science!! w/ @brentpease.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

SLiM 5: Eco-evolutionary simulations across multiple chromosomes and full genomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.07.669155v1

Interested in how new sex chromosomes evolve in birds? Our NSF-funded collaborative work with the (Daven) Presgraves lab at @urochester.bsky.social is out this week in @pnas.org. Check it out! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

At the end of a productive scouting and networking trip to Fiji. It was such a treat to see the species (and some additional specimens) that I worked on from afar during my PhD. Even more exciting was to meet long-term collaborators and connect with new ones. Excited to return next year!

With many postdoc grants like the NSF PRFB, Ford Fellowship, and Hanna H. Gray fellowships disappearing, I am currently looking for grants that could fund incoming postdoctoral scholars. Here is a thread of some of them 🧵

New paper published! How does a mid-size river impact gene flow and population structure, including when there is an adaptive sexual trait present on one bank but not the other? With Peri Bolton, Robb Brumfield (@limpkin.bsky.social), Jerry Wilkinson, and Mike Braun. doi.org/10.1093/evol...

the ad is up! applications due 7/15: evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...

What a blast attending my first in-person Evolution meetings! Had the opportunity to present our work on: 1. A new biogeographic model of species diversification that accounts for species richness. 2. Phylogeography model for infectious disease transmission with visitor dynamics. #Evol2025