New research opposes previous views that reptiles never stop growing. Here, it's shown that around half of Lesser Antillean iguanas undergo both growth & degrowth to adapt to fluctuating temperatures or rainfall in the French Antilles! Read it below 🧪🌍👇

Annual climate fluctuations can influence iguana growth and degrowth

Abstract. It has been proposed that some vertebrates can undergo a reduction in body size in response to harsh environmental conditions. However, there is

doi.org

Morphology, behaviour & habitat influence the diversity of foraging strategies in birds, with convergent evolution likely occurring across lineages. Flush-pursue techniques are known to drive plumage evolution, yet the diversity of species showing this behaviour is poorly understood...a 🧵 (1/3) 🧪

New Blog! 🚨 As one of Africa's most distinctive primates, over 20 species of bushbaby are recognised in science. But how, and why, did so many evolve? Here, guest blogger Katie Porter answers that question by breaking down a recent study in our Biological journal! Read it below 🧪👇

How Did Bushbabies Become Different Species?

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New Blog! 📣 From a land down unda' Australian geckos have dispersed across Melanesia...and grown bigger in the process! Guest blogger T.W Fieldsend looks at how they managed to get there, and what made them grow. Read the full blog to find out: www.linnean.org/news/2026/07...

From a Land Down Under: How Australian Geckos Colonised Melanesia

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Call for Writers! 📣 Are you a student or early career researcher? Science communicator? Know someone who is? We're looking for our next round of Guest Bloggers for our journal blog The Paper Trail! Check out our vacancies page to apply, and read some of our latest posts here: buff.ly/7JVQmSx 🧪 🌍

Happy #VolunteersWeek! We're celebrating Catherine Sgorbati, an AI in Biosciences graduate & guest blogger for the Zoological Journal! She wrote about gender & geopolitical disparities in taxonomy - you can read her work below 🌍 🧪 👇 www.linnean.org/news/2026/03...

Happy #VolunteersWeek! Rosie Ryland, graduate ecologist at Arbtech, is our spotlight today, having written a blog for The Paper Trail about anole adaptations in the Andes and featuring in our membership magazine The Linnean! You can read her blog below 👇 🧪 🌍 www.linnean.org/news/2025/06...

Happy #VolunteersWeek! Today we're highlighting Katya, guest blogger for The Paper Trail! With an MSc in Biodiversity & Conservation, Katya's research interests lie in pterosaur evolution and entomology. Her blog looked at turtle mating behaviour which you can read below! 🌍 🧪 👇 buff.ly/FraLxQK

Ahh inselbergs, the terrestrial iceberg. Ancient rock outcrops with unique microclimates, they often have unique floral diversity that differs from their surroundings. In Atlantic Forest lowland inselbergs, bromeliads dominate & differ along a coastal-inland gradient, but why? A short 🧵 (1/2) 🧪🌎

Dung, dung, dungggggg! Did you know dung beetles could fly? Through a combination of wing shape, size & flight strategy, flying organisms (including the dung beetle) can move between and within habitats, but how do different flight strategies affect performance & habitat preference? (1/2) 🌍 🧪

Do you look at species' adaptations to climate change? Do you want to submit to the same journal as Darwin & Wallace, adding your name to its history books? Submit your research to our Special Issue today - deadline extended to 20 June 2026! 🧪🌎👇 academic.oup.com/biolinnean/p...

Single celled ciliates are typically found in aquatic environments, but some ciliates (more like silly-ates) have evolved to inhabit the land! But how did these habitat preferences evolve? Using a dated phylogeny, this paper answers just that question...🧪🌎👇 doi.org/10.1093/biol...

Analysis of the impact of terrestrial habitats on the evolutionary dynamics in the phylum Ciliophora

Abstract. Ciliates inhabit a wide range of habitats, including terrestrial environments. However, macroevolutionary studies on the evolution of habitat pre

doi.org

Submission deadline approaching: Organismal Resilience in a Rapidly Changing World. The @biojlinnsoc.bsky.social invites studies examining how organisms maintain function and adapt to environmental change, from genes to ecosystems. 📅 20 May 2026. Read more: oxford.ly/4ncg6Ws

Harsh conditions & challenges imposed by fragmented habitat often restrict gene flow & increase genetic structure in alpine plants. Here, the first population genetic study of the Notothlaspi plant ground in NZ revealed historical periods of contact & isolation amongst species! 🌍🧪 buff.ly/juytPxs

As it (galago)es, ecological niche conservatism & divergence are key indicators of diversification & speciation. In the nocturnal primate family Galagidae, diversification is thought to be the result of adaptation or climate-change induced allopatry, but that may not be the case...👇 buff.ly/QFgZbyk

Moa a thing or two about extinct species? Using ancient mitochondrial genetics & morphometric analyses of moa leg bones, the species diversity & variation of this once great bird were investigated, revealing the role of climate change on populations! 🌍🧪👇

Multiproxy analysis of the extinct moa genus Euryapteryx reveals new phylogenetic structure and disparity with morphometrics

Abstract. The species diversity in the family Emeidae of the extinct New Zealand moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) remains problematic and unresolved because so

doi.org

Biased sampling of Lauraceae, a family with over 3000 species, means its diversification history remains poorly understood despite its prevalence in the tropics. Here, plastome sequencing of 16 genera significantly improves our understanding, revealing divergent spatial patterns! 🌍🧪

Differential plastome diversification of the Lauraceae between tropical regions of Asia and America

ABSTRACT. The Lauraceae, a diverse family with over 50 genera and 3000 species, exhibit exceptional species richness in tropical regions of Asia and Americ

doi.org

What has a mouth but cannot speak, a bed but doesn't sleep & cuts a species in two before you can think? Okay yes, our Monday riddle game is bad...but nevertheless check out how two rivers in Argentine Patagonia have acted as physical barriers to rodents of the genus Ctenomys!🌍🧪👇 buff.ly/aSZAyKu

Rivers as barriers to the subterranean rodent Ctenomys (Rodentia: Ctenomyidae) in northern Patagonia, Argentina

Abstract. Geographical features can act as barriers to gene flow, promoting isolation, divergence, and ultimately speciation through vicariance. This proce

doi.org

Allopatry is often assumed as a necessity in population divergence & speciation in birds & mammals, but that may not always be the case! Here, the divergence-with-gene-flow of the Stripe-crowned Spinetail was assessed, providing evidence of divergence in shaping evolution! 🌍🧪 doi.org/10.1093/biol...

Divergence-with-gene-flow leads to decoupled phenotypic evolution in a passerine (Cranioleuca pyrrhophia, Furnariidae) along a dry forest gradient

Abstract. Population divergence and speciation in birds and mammals is often assumed to require an allopatric phase. However, several studies provide evide

doi.org

Wild, fire, ant-action! 📸 Many plants have evolved extrafloral nectaries to build mutualistic relationships with ants, creating complex networks between species. Understanding how they react to environmental disturbance is key to predicting ecosystem dynamics, especially in today's climate...(1/2)

We're finally listening to women! Our latest #ThePaperTrail blog delves into the hidden world of beetle bioacoustics, attempting to understand why a special species of scarab beetle screams at predators (say that 10x fast)! You can read it here 🌍🧪👇🪲 (1/2) www.linnean.org/news/2026/03...

Hatsonomy is a field we'd love to publish papers on

The Linnean Society of London@linneansociety.bsky.social · 4mo ago

We had to stop ourselves from adding all our best wig pictures, because we would be here all day, wasting time that we could be spending wearing hats. Besides, it begged the question, is a wig a hat? Experts in the emerging field of hatsonomy have yet to come to a firm conclusion. What do you think?

Your palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, come write a blog, our journals are ready You better lose yourself in the writing the journals, you know it, you better never let it go You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to show This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo

a black and white photo of a man wearing a hat and sunglasses pointing .

ALT: a black and white photo of a man wearing a hat and sunglasses pointing .

media.tenor.com

The Linnean Society of London@linneansociety.bsky.social · 4mo ago

📣 Call for writers! Are you an early career researcher? University student? Science communicator? Know someone who is? We're always looking for new Guest Bloggers to contribute to our journal blog The Paper Trail! Have a read below, or check out our vacancies page to apply. buff.ly/7IohkLQ

Processes of evolution can change over time, resulting in compositional & exchange rate tree heterogeneity...curious to know what the means for phylogenetics? Check out this paper 👇🌍🧪 doi.org/10.1093/evol...

📣 Call for Volunteers! Are you an early career researcher? University student? Science communicator? Know someone who is? We're always looking for new Guest Bloggers to contribute to our journal blog The Paper Trail! Find out more about it & apply below 👇🌍🧪

Vacancies

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Sea slugs, see slugs, on the sea floor. Sea slugs, see slugs, cryptic no more! By integrating host use & dispersal ability with species delimitation, the radiation of an unusual group of photosynthetic (you read that right) sea slugs is revealed! 🌍🧪🌊

Integrating host use and dispersal ability with species delimitation to unravel a cryptic radiation of photosynthetic sea slugs

Abstract. Species delimitation models are important quantitative tools for facilitating the discovery of cryptic species and clarifying the boundaries betw

doi.org

Very excited to have my latest paper published in @biojlinnsoc.bsky.social We explored the colonisation history and genetic differentiation of Arctic charr in Scotland identifying cross-catchment patterns facilitated by ice-dammed lakes at the end of the last ice age academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...

The historical patterns that have shaped contemporary genetic differentiation across populations of Arctic charr in Scotland

Abstract. Glacial history is an important contributor to contemporary biogeographical patterns because it has resulted in population fragmentation and cons

academic.oup.com

Why not publish your research with a Society Journal? 🧪🌍 The Linnean Society is committed to publishing high-quality and ground-breaking scientific research across the four themes of botany, zoology, biology and evolution, striving to make these accessible & engaging to a global audience. 🧵(1/4)

As a Society Journal, it's not just the work that we publish that's important, but what that work goes on to support. This blog post sums up our role as a place for research perfectly: we help to shape the very systems through which people access knowledge...a 🧵(1/3) 🧪🌍 buff.ly/OymWe9o

Guest Post — Societies 2030: The Community Advantage in an AI-First World - The Scholarly Kitchen

Today's guest bloggers call for society publishers to recognize their unique role in shaping the systems researchers use to discover and evaluate knowledge.

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If history is written by the victors, who are the victors in science? Our latest #ThePaperTrail blog delves into who was holding the pen in taxonomy - a historically male-dominated field - using spiders as a case study. The answer probably won't shock you...🧪🌍 www.linnean.org/news/2026/03...

The Politics of Taxonomy - Tangled in a Web of Inequalities

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