Happy New Year! Delighted and honoured to have our research featured in the top human evolution discoveries of 2025 by @smithsonianmag.bsky.social 🎉!

The Top Human Evolution Discoveries of 2025, From the Intriguing Neanderthal Diet to the Oldest Western European Face Fossil

Smithsonian paleoanthropologists examine the year’s most fascinating revelations

smithsonianmag.com

Excited to launch the new improved Reproducible Code guide from @britishecologicalsociety.org @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social FREE online here! www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/... Amazing work by some very talented ECRs. We hope it’s useful!

It’s Friday night (somewhere) so settle in for a 🧵that combines fermented fruit, scrumping monkeys, etymology, Larson cartoons, & Gothic art to tackle the enduring mystery of why humans are so astoundingly good at metabolising alcohol! or read our new 🧪 paper ;) academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

a man in a suit and bow tie is standing in front of a blue background

Alt: Bill Murray raises a glass of whisky

media.tenor.com

How do (non-human!) primates get their booze? @nakedprimate.bsky.social draws on the medieval word "scrumping" to describe their consumption of fallen fruit. History, linguistics and animal behaviour come together in this great piece on tipsy apes and monkeys: academic.oup.com/bioscience/a... 🧪🌏🐒🍹

Fermented fruits: scrumping, sharing, and the origin of feasting

Abstract. Mounting evidence points to the importance of fermented fruits in the diets of tropical frugivores, especially African apes. But how has this fun

academic.oup.com

Happy World Chimpanzee Day! A massive shout-out and thanks to all who work to try and protect this remarkable species! To learn more about the work done by the Cantanhez Chimpanzee Project check out our new website: cantanhezchimpanzeeproject.com

🚨PAPER ALERT Chimpanzees expand the meanings of their single calls when combining them. They use a variety of mechanisms, analogous to those found in human language, to alter the meanings of single calls in their combinations. Photo by @lirsamuni.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We asked how behavioral diversity & agonistic behaviors relate to group size in wild capuchins. We analyzed >65,000 behavioral scans collected over 15 yrs on 214 capuchins (8 groups) & controlled for # inds sampled. We found behavioral richness, diversity & agonism was higher in larger groups.

Happy to share our new paper 'Wild chimpanzees share fermented fruits' @currentbiology.bsky.social Thank you to the amazing team. @kjhockings.bsky.social @joanahbessa.bsky.social , @xavh.bsky.social, Marina Ramon, Elena Bersacola, Matthew Carrigan, @amelinlab.bsky.social . @uniexecec.bsky.social

PhD fieldwork is now well underway! I’m in Cantanhez NP for 4 months to explore the use of bioacoustics to monitor critically-endangered western chimpanzees! Lots of updates to come 🌍

Excited to share that an article related to our recent review covering the evolutionary ecology of ethanol is now available online at @uk.theconversation.com! Big thanks to @kjhockings.bsky.social, Matthew Carrigan, Amanda Melin, @evol-lab-ex.bsky.social, @exeter.ac.uk, @uniexecec.bsky.social.

The Conversation UK@uk.theconversation.com · last yr.

Evidence is increasingly showing how ethanol is naturally present in sugary food.

It was a pleasure to work with Ennia Bosshard et al on this brand new paper! Read to learn more about factors that encourage or discourage adoption of pro-environmental practices by smallholder farmers besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @uniexecec.bsky.social #conservationscience🌎

New publication in TREE @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social Given the political momentum for greater nature protection and restoration articulated in the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework, we assessed the state-of-the-art of Systematic Conservation Planning. www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Thrilled to see our work covering the evolutionary ecology of ethanol on the cover of the January TREE issue 🎉. Stunning photo by Cyril Ruoso. @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social @kjhockings.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social @exetergses.bsky.social @evol-lab-ex.bsky.social www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Postdoc in Hosken lab (UoExeter, UK) closing soon (evolution of body shape) get in touch if you are interested. Please repost. jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

Please enjoy this article on the origin of joking by Erica Cartmill, who studies the evolution of cognition and communication. Her observations of great apes clowning around are delightful, and she has fascinating ideas about why these behaviors evolved 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/grea...

Great Apes Joke Around, Suggesting Humor Is Older Than Humans

Studies of great apes hint at why and when clowning behavior evolved

scientificamerican.com

It's been discovered that leopards can be identified by their roar, in what could be a breakthrough for the conservation of this vulnerable species. @jonathan-growcott.bsky.social @wildcru.bsky.social @britishecolsoc.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e...

Leopards can be identified by their roar

Each leopard has its own unique roar through which it can be identified, a new study finds. In the first large-scale paired camera trap and autonomous recording survey for large African carnivores, re...

news.exeter.ac.uk

New Paper! 🐒🌍🦤🧪 @andyhouldcroft.bsky.social built upon his MSc Conservation & Biodiversity project to develop a mapping model using monkeys in Guinea Bissau which aims to boost conservation & promote human-wildlife coexistence @uniexecec.bsky.social #ExeterGSES news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e...

Want to use a unique dataset to study the spatial and temporal dynamics of genomic diversity and its drivers in a wild bird population? Apply for this #NERC #PhD position @uniexecec.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social. www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin... 🐦🌍🧪🧬 #ExeterCEC #Vlieland #NIOO-KNAW

* NEW #PhD * #Evolution #Ecology of Immune #Senesence in Wild Badgers - exciting project with me, @btschirren.bsky.social & our awesome collaborators @ APHA. Based at @exetercec.bsky.social in Cornwall, UK. !PLEASE SHARE! See www.animalsocieties.org and apply: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin... 🌏 🧪 🦑