What makes this parrot look green? It's more than just a pigment! We found that the color comes from the interaction of pigments, nano- and even microstructures of the feather itself. @jessica-dobson.bsky.social @michaelnicolai.bsky.social @wybouw.bsky.social @lilianadalba.bsky.social.

I have a PhD project to look at the impact of climate change on an endangered WA skink 🦎. Applicants interested in herpetology, thermal ecology and collaborating with First Nations are encouraged to apply. Apply now: www.murdoch.edu.au/study/schola... Lab website: www.nicholaswulab.com

1/ Nature doesn't come with labels. Biological patterns are often continuous, overlapping, and difficult to categorize. That's why we built BioPatternNet: a pipeline that quantifies pattern variation from biological images without relying on predefined pattern categories dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

How colorful are mammals? What creates their stunning colors? Iridescent mammals and even hollow melanosomes? If you want the answers, ask Dr. @jessica-dobson.bsky.social! 🎓 Congratulations on your PhD 🤙

Interested in #macroevolution, #macroecology, and mountain biodiversity? I'm recruiting a #postdoc for an NSF-funded project at Yale, in collaboration with Martha Muñoz (Yale) and Maya Stokes (Florida State University). I'll be at #Evol2026 and happy to chat! Link below

Congrats first author Caroline Brighton; our new paper is out in @royalsocietypublishing.org Interface. All about bird collisions with anthropogenic objects. You can read it here: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...

We often assume that reflectance is “spectrally well‑behaved.” If an animal is bright or dark in the (human) visible, surely the rest of the spectrum just… follows along? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Color and Near‐Infrared Reflectance Covary in Distinct Ways Across Taxa

Solar reflectance across ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths was analyzed in integuments and eggs of 322 species. We found consistent positive correlations between UV and visible refl....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

How are different parts of the solar spectrum linked in animal reflectance? That is the question we asked in our latest study led by @jgoldenbergevo.bsky.social, published in @journal-evo.bsky.social open access link: dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Color and Near‐Infrared Reflectance Covary in Distinct Ways Across Taxa

Solar reflectance across ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths was analyzed in integuments and eggs of 322 species. We found consistent positive correlations between UV and visible refl...

dx.doi.org

I am hiring a postdoc for scRNA-seq research in Lund, Sweden on the visual systems of non-model inverts as part of an ERC project on the evolution and ecology of advanced color and polarization vision. Apply here or share the link with someone who may be interested! 🧪 lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Back again with more cool mammal updates, this time in maybe the coolest mammal - the platypus! Thrilled to share the second chapter of my PhD, out today in Biology Letters. We found spherical hollow melanosomes in the fur of the platypus, maybe a total vertebrate first! doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

From our new paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social: www.cell.com/current-biol... w/ @neurofishh.bsky.social @gkafetzis.bsky.social @denilsson.bsky.social Looking across animals, the vertebrate eye is an obvious outlier. Why is it so different that other highly visual animals?

My lab is seeking a #postdoc for a 3-year project on Pilbara leaf-nosed #bat 🦇 conservation, addressing climate change vulnerability using physiological, ecological, & modelling approaches. Apply now: murdoch.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/MurdochCaree...

Please repost: 🚨Field assistant position 🐧 We offer a 14-months field assistant position through the French Polar Institute to work on king penguin ecophysiology and behavioral ecology. Requirements: EU citizen < 30yo having experience with harsh fieldwork & wild bird/mammal handling/sampling.

Reading Reviewer 2's comments

🧪 New paper out! Growing up, wall lizards undergo a UV-visible “awkward phase” (who doesn’t?) that we can’t see—but they can. These ontogenetic color changes may mediate juvenile–adult interactions by delaying the onset of adult social signals. doi.org/10.1002/jez.... #colsci #lizard #ontogeny

Cryptic Ontogenetic Changes in the Ventral Coloration of a Color Polymorphic Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis)

Wall lizards' ventral coloration undergoes cryptic ontogenetic color changes invisible without UV vision. We tracked wall lizards from hatching to one year of age. Spectrophotometry and visual modeli...

doi.org

New paper @biolinvasions.bsky.social led by Sarah-Sophie Weil. Can macroevolution inform contemporary invasion potential? We outline the assumptions of this approach, assess support, then test if dispersal ability can proxy for naturalisation success in several tetrapod groups. rdcu.be/eD9Tt

What a week for our SHARKSense project - wrapped up our first field work in Costa Rica and Friday I'll share some colorful insights on sharks at UCR. Pura vida 🦈 @biovitenskap.bsky.social

Developed from the #WCH10 symposium, we provide a guide for researchers & managers on current advances for assessing the vulnerability of reptiles 🐍 & amphibians 🐸 to water stress | doi.org/10.1093/conp... | Published in @conphysjournal.bsky.social

🧪 These two lizards are the same individual, despite shimmering in different colours. This might have made you expel a puff of air through your nostrils while thinking a lowercase "lol" (or so I hope). It took us 4 years @jzoology.bsky.social zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Intraspecific variation and detectability of iridescence in the dorsal coloration of a wall lizard

Wall lizards (genus Podarcis) show substantial intraspecific colour variation and iridescence, which may interact and affect overall colour appearance. Here, we set out to study iridescence in Podarc....

zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🚨 We're hiring! Fully funded Postdoc(s) in Systems Biology at Stockholm University & SciLifeLab — focus on predictive modeling in evolution and development. 📍 Stockholm 🕒 2+1 years 🔍 Details: su.varbi.com/en/what:job/... Please share!

Postdoctoral Fellow in Evolutionary Prediction

The Department of Zoology is one of the departments within the Faculty of Science and has approximately 80 employees including researchers, PhD students, and administrative staff. Research and educati

su.varbi.com

And here's the blog that outlines the 5-year journey and insights behind our latest article communities.springernature.com/posts/steppi...

Stepping into the light and the evolution of squamate coloration

What drives the diversity of squamate colors? Our study finds that brightness variation is associated with habitat openness, revealing trade-offs between multiple ecological pressures in color evoluti...

communities.springernature.com

Jonathan Goldenberg@jgoldenbergevo.bsky.social · last yr.

🧵 1/ New study on squamate color evolution hits the press: we show that brightness variation in lizards & snakes is strongly linked to habitat openness 🌞 This reveals how ecological pressures drive color evolution in one of the most diverse groups of tetrapods www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧵 1/ New study on squamate color evolution hits the press: we show that brightness variation in lizards & snakes is strongly linked to habitat openness 🌞 This reveals how ecological pressures drive color evolution in one of the most diverse groups of tetrapods www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are very excited to share our new paper in Science! We show that a diverse group of Jurassic and Cretaceous mammals all had darkly-colored fur. Well how did we do this? Let' start at the beginning! 🧵 (1/6) @science.org

How vulnerable are #amphibians to extreme heat? 🐸🌡️ Our paper in @nature.com shows that many amphibians are already overheating, and many more species will be impacted by climate warming globally. See the thread below for a digest 🧵 Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415... #Nature

Color evolution wasn’t inevitable - was it? In a recent article for @uk.theconversation.com, I explore some of the latest research on how animals and plants co-evolved to bring vibrant colors into our world theconversation.com/why-did-life...

Why did life evolve to be so colourful? Research is starting to give us some answers

If evolution had taken a different turn, nature would be missing some colours.

theconversation.com

Hi Bluesky! Excited to share a new project I’ve just kicked off: SHARKSense 🦈. We’re exploring how heavy metals impact melanin deposition and evolution in sharks. Can the darkness of shark integument indicate pollution? 🤔 This is just the beginning - stay tuned for shark color tales from the field 🌊