This was obviously not written by me, but those around me can attest that it might as well have been, given that everything I've been saying about AI in research is there. Great piece that everyone should read and reflect upon!

Ran Blekhman@blekhman.bsky.social · 2d ago

Some of my thoughts about the surge in AI-generated papers, why this feels like a completely new kind of problem, and what this means for how we evaluate science in biology. Out now in PLOS Biology: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Fully-funded PhD project! 🌋🌎☀️💀⚒️🧪 Did volcanism trigger the biggest mass extinctions and global climate change events in Earth history? Time to find out by simulating volcanism in the lab: experimentally cooking rocks and measuring the greenhouse gases that are generated! centa.ac.uk/studentship/...

Some of my thoughts about the surge in AI-generated papers, why this feels like a completely new kind of problem, and what this means for how we evaluate science in biology. Out now in PLOS Biology: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

🫶

Methods in Ecology and Evolution@methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · 6d ago

📖 Published 📖 This approach reveals where particular regions of climatic space are common or rare, how isolated they are and how these properties influence species richness across dimensions 🗺️ 🦔 📈 👉️ buff.ly/IDWtvjS

📖 Published 📖 This approach reveals where particular regions of climatic space are common or rare, how isolated they are and how these properties influence species richness across dimensions 🗺️ 🦔 📈 👉️ buff.ly/IDWtvjS

Version 1.3.2 of PearTree released: github.com/artic-networ... Fixes many of the remaining niggling bugs. WebApp updated at peartree.live

The new APG V has just been published @journalsysevo.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... An updated classification of Angiosperms It includes a poster! www.tudelft.nl/en/hortus-bo... 🧪🌸🌳🌱🍁🌱🌴🌾🌿 #plantsci botany #plantbiology

Fossil taxa are sometimes considered island weirdos without any actual evidence that island effects were important in their evolution. So we wrote a paper on how we could do actual island biogeography in deep time. If you want a copy but can't access it, email me: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Island biogeography in deep time - Nature Reviews Biodiversity

Island ecosystems feature unique species assemblages with diverse evolutionary histories, but identifying island communities in deep time comes with its own challenges. This Perspective explores the a...

nature.com

In our latest manuscript, my coauthors and I wanted to test two ideas: (1) anoles colonized mountains repeatedly and independently, and (2) highland lineages evolve faster than lowland ones. (1/6) doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Repeated evolution of high-elevation occupation in tropical lizards

Abstract. Since Darwin and Humboldt, researchers have sought to understand how species adapt to elevation. Although tropical reptiles are typically most di

doi.org

It's @nteunion.bsky.social National Council 2026 and @nteuact.bsky.social is strongly represented. 💜✊

Oh my goddddd I haaaate these yank tanks!!! If you're too big for a generously-sized carpark, you're too big for the road! Tax these out of existence 😤😤😤 #YankTanks

ARC has given some details of how new Explore scheme will run ▶️ www.arc.gov.au/news-and-pub... ❗️There's a lottery❗️ Peer review yields 3 categories: highly competitive, competitive, uncompetitive. After funding highly competitive apps, competitive ones enter a lottery for remaining $.

Please pass along: I’m recruiting PhD students to join our Macroecology Lab. We study physical ecology, macroecology, and biodiversity — spanning scaling, trait-based ecology, theory, comparative biology & ecoinformatics. Several avenues for funding. Please reach out if interested 🧪🌐🌾

Fantastic news, the Bogongs are back! These moths navigate by the stars in their billions—they know the constellations! & arrive in the Snowys just in time to be a protein-packed spring breakfast for endangered mountain pygmy possums when they wake from hibernation: www.smh.com.au/environment/...?

After a catastrophic decline bogong moths are back, and naturalists are celebrating

Bogong moths numbers have surged after years of decline, flying evidence of an ancient transfer of vital nutrients from lowlands to the fragile high country.

smh.com.au

Transforming turtle systematics: challenges, opportunities and the path ahead by Evers and Joyce 🔗 buff.ly/9dnDRTc #PaleoSky #turtles #systematics #phylogeny #morphology View the full series here: Perspectives on the Systematics of Fossil Organisms: Challenges and Opportunities: buff.ly/qiJ0XUO

Due tomorrow!

The Society of Systematic Biologists@systbiol.bsky.social · last mo.

One week left to submit your statement of interest to be the Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists. With becoming indexed for the first time, the journal is at an inflection point. This will be a very influential role. www.systbio.org/eicbssb.html

🚨 #FutureFellowships #FT26 announcement: ❗️Outcomes announced publicly for ARC Future Fellowships 2026❗️ See ARC's RMS for list ➡️ https://rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/Download/Report/a3f6be6e-33f7-4fb5-98a6-7526aaa184cf/293 /bot

🐜 PhD opportunity available! ✨ The BugEye project on automated monitoring of 🇦🇺’s priority insects has a fully funded scholarship at @westernsydneyu.bsky.social 🌏 Domestic students only 💵 $37,707 pa. 📅 30th Sept ℹ️ waw.westernsydney.edu.au/schools/grs/... EOIs to 👉🏼 k.umbers@westernsydney.edu.au

I am thrilled and honoured to have won the @ausevosoc.bsky.social Best Paper Award. This means I will be giving a plenary lecture at the societies conference in December. ausevo.com/programme/ da Silva et al (2026) Nature Communications was the awarded publication. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

AES 2026

Program

ausevo.com

Join us on campus & online on Thursday, 3 September, 2026 at 11:00am for a seminar by Prof Matthew Symonds, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Melbourne. Details: biology.anu.edu.au/news-events/...

E&E Seminar Series: Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes: evaluating phenotypic responses to climatic warming in birds

Global climatic warming is having profound effects on species’ ecology and acts as a major driver of phenotypic change, but predicting how species will change in their morphology, behaviour and physio...

biology.anu.edu.au

ARC has published (inadvertently?) how many Future Fellowships & DECRAs they’ll fund (FT26 & DE27). Even though outcomes aren't out yet, these numbers & success rates are here ▶️ www.arc.gov.au/ncgp-trends-... 299 FT26s & 455 DE27s "funded". Success rate of 20% for both schemes.

✨Last Chance for Early Bird Rego!✨ Less than 1 week remaining to register for AES x SASB's joint conference, 🧬𝗘𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗻𝗴🧬, 2-4 Dec at the University of Wollongong 🌊 Register at this link: aes.corsizio.com/portal/aes

🦎 PhD Opportunities available! 🔥 2 fully funded projects at @utas.edu.au within the BEER Group: 1️⃣ Eco+gen processes that shape family living: www.utas.edu.au/research/deg... 2️⃣ Mol mechanisms of social behaviour: www.utas.edu.au/research/deg... 📅 EOIs close 1st Sept -> 📩geoffrey.while@utas.edu.au

Available projects for research degrees | University of Tasmania - Family life in the wild: Linking genes, social behaviour, and population dynamics

This PhD will investigate the genetic and ecological mechanisms underp...

utas.edu.au

✈️ Travel Grants Open! ✨ Our travel grant applications are now open for Evolution in the Gong from the 2nd to 4th of December. Apply via this link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Applications close on the 13th of September 📅 see you in the Gong! 🌊

Evolution in the Gong Travel Grant Application 2026

We have tried to keep registration costs to a minimum. However, we understand that things might be tight and travel is expensive, so we have allocated some funds to help people with travel expenses. U...

docs.google.com

🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨 🗓️27th August 2026, 15:00 UTC🗓️ Join us next Thursday for a talk by @brpetrucci.bsky.social from Iowa State University on “Budding phylogenetic trees: inference with BEAST2 and post-processing with paleobuddy”. Sign up here: palaeoverse.org/training/lec...

Big evolutionary events can fool phylogenetic analyses. A new approach combines phylogenetic regression with eigenvectors to reduce false positives and better account for the history written in genomes. doi.org/10.1093/evle...

Characterizing and mitigating confounding by unreplicated evolutionary events in phylogenetic regression

Abstract. When researchers want to test for a direct effect of one attribute on another using interspecific data, they need to account for the confounding

doi.org

Species’ traits, climatic niches or home ranges are naturally described as distributions in continuous spaces. In this new preprint we present a framework for measuring and partitioning diversity in these spaces using equivalent numbers and probability density functions doi.org/10.64898/202...

Have you ever wanted to know where in the Pilbara you might be able to find suitable roosting and foraging habitat for threatened bats 🦇? Well our new spatial tool will be able to help! Just out in Biological Conservation with @robynshaw.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Modeling complex habitat use for threatened species decision-making in a landscape with competing ecological and economic values

Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used in conservation; however, their uptake in decision-making can be limited when they fail to reflect …

sciencedirect.com

#IslandRules This suggestion is pretty cool : « … large body size in geckos may be at least correlated with a highly arboreal ecology ».

Limited dispersal leads to differing evolutionary trajectories between adjacent continental and insular lineages in a widespread lizard radiation (Gehyra: Gekkonidae)

Abstract. Biotic dispersal between regions is mediated by a suite of geographical, environmental, and biotic factors. Australia and Melanesia—with the latt

academic.oup.com

Join us on campus & online on Thursday, 20 August 2026 at 1:00pm for a seminar by Dr Bernd Gruber, conservation geneticist at the University of Canberra Details: biology.anu.edu.au/news-events/...

E&E Seminar Series: From DNA to Conservation Decisions: Using SNPs to Protect Threatened Species

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have become a cornerstone of modern conservation genetics, offering affordable, high-throughput genomic data that can directly inform management decisions. This ...

biology.anu.edu.au