“The complexity of the story uncovered so far holds lessons about convergent evolution and how early mammals first got pregnant. Creatures may take the same steps, such as thinning eggshells, to get where they’re ultimately going.“ #Science #Pregnancy #Evolution knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...

Goodbye, eggshell: How pregnancy emerged in the animal world

Mammals evolved live birth just once; lizards and snakes did it over and over. What set the stage for this drastic change and how was it orchestrated?

knowablemagazine.org

New paper in PNAS by the Burger lab—What does nature select? Power is not all-powerful in evolution. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Energy and fitness: Power is not all-powerful in evolution | PNAS

Energy and fitness: Power is not all-powerful in evolution

pnas.org

"On average, #afforestation increased #fire occurrence by 26% and burned area by 23% in global temperate regions. However, these effects differed markedly among biomes" Repeto-Deudero et al. @pnas.org 🧪🌍🔥🍁🌳🔥🌐 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Afforestation reshapes wildfire activity across global temperate biomes | PNAS

In temperate ecosystems, afforestation is rapidly expanding as a flagship climate mitigation strategy. Yet its impact on wildfires remains poorly u...

pnas.org

Please pass along - my department @uofa-eeb.bsky.social is hiring! Assistant Professor in quantitative population and community ecology - come join us in wonderful #Tucson ! #AcademicJobs 🧪🌾🌐 arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

In our new perspective paper @pnas.org, we show how the comments you put in eBird/iNaturalist can help ecologist with collecting much-needed data on species interactions: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Large language models unlock the ecology of species interactions | PNAS

Species interactions shape population dynamics, geographic distributions, evolutionary trajectories, and responses to environmental change. Yet dat...

pnas.org

Cool new seabird science! 🪶🌍🧪 In an inspired move, @plewin.bsky.social puts to use a big ol' pile of GPS tracking data... and shows how Manx Shearwaters naturally recalibrate their long-distance oceanic flights, using the sun to find their way home. ☀️🧭🗺️

Patrick Lewin@plewin.bsky.social · 2w ago

So excited to share my third PhD chapter, out now in @science.org! doi.org/10.1126/science.adz2542 #ScienceResearch Read on if you’re interested in how birds use the sun to find their way, keep track of the time, and why they’re more like jetsetting holiday goers than you’d ever imagined! 🧵

Interesting review!

iBartomeus@ibartomeus.bsky.social · 4w ago

[new paper] Animal Pollination Under Human-Induced Rapid Environmental Change www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... Writing this review was really inspiring, and it was a pleasure to work with two young talented scientists @blancaac.bsky.social and @nermonper.bsky.social cc @ebdonana.bsky.social

Study finds Amazon rainforest now releases more carbon than it absorbs The hotter, drier Amazon is a net source of global carbon emissions. Only in the wettest years does the rainforest remain closer to carbon neutral. #AmazonRainforest #drought #CarbonEmission 🧪 news.ku.edu/news/article...

Study finds Amazon rainforest now releases more carbon than it absorbs

Click for more about new research in Nature

news.ku.edu

Great piece by @lauriewinkless.bsky.social covering our study on how cities alter the latitudinal diversity gradient of birds in North America 🏙️🐦

Laurie Winkless@lauriewinkless.bsky.social · 2w ago

My October story for @forbes.com has gone live. It's all about bird diversity and the unprecedented impact cities have on it. To explore the topic, I interviewed two researchers who've recently written research papers on it. Might be worth a read? 👩‍🔬🧪⚛️ www.forbes.com/sites/laurie...

Phew! With a lot of blood, sweat, and tears over the years, we introduce a new way of thinking about thermal performance curves in endotherms. We propose that thermal imbalance, quantified using net sensible heat flux, provides a helpful axis for predicting performance. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I will be taking applications for one fully funded PhD student starting in September(ish) 2027 to work on one of 2 projects in @livingingroups.bsky.social and the @imprs-qbee.bsky.social Deadline for submission is Dec 1. imprs-qbee.mpg.de/133244/commu...

Community ecology, stone tool use, and social behavior in gracile capuchin monkeys

imprs-qbee.mpg.de

Happy to share our new Science Advances @science.org paper on ~250 Myr of crocodile-line archosaur macroevolution and climate! 🐊☄️ #croctober 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Artwork: Davide Bonadonna 🧵 1/6

🧪A new study from our lab! Led by @luisaguirre.bsky.social: we analyzed 383 pollination, seed-dispersal & host–parasite networks worldwide. Climate mostly shapes network structure, but human impact hits bird- and insect-mediated networks hardest. 📄 doi.org/10.1111/geb.70246 #Ecology #Biogeography

The Multifaceted Effects of Anthropogenic and Climatic Factors on Ecological Networks

Aim Biotic interactions, such as pollination, seed dispersal, and parasitism, are key for biodiversity and ecosystem function. Ecological networks quantify the structure of biotic interactions, prov...

doi.org

In a follow-up study of HiBAM framework, we ask how important are humans compared with climate in shaping mammalian distributions? We found that human impacts are comparable to, and sometimes exceed, the effects of climate in shaping mammalian distributions 🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Human Impacts, Climate, and Trait‐Mediated Responses in Contemporary Mammal Distributions

Aim Human impacts are increasingly recognized as drivers of biogeographic patterns, yet it remains unclear whether they match or potentially surpass climate in shaping species distributions. Here we...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Excited to share our study of the latitudinal diversity gradient and how it may be modified by humans. Working with millions of bird observations across ~500 cities, we found that cities significantly flattened the diversity gradient for native birds in winter. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Cities alter the latitudinal diversity gradient of birds in North America - Nature Cities

Urbanization considerably modifies the latitudinal diversity gradient of birds in North America, with native species exhibiting a flatter gradient in cities compared to surrounding areas, particularly...

nature.com

We are recruiting graduate students to join the Quantitative Biogeography Lab at UNC Chapel Hill. Our research commonly uses big data and modeling techniques to explore biogeography and biodiversity patterns across large spatial scales 🌎. Please see more details here: lab.fengxiao.info/join/

How important are human impacts compared with climate in shaping species distributions? We found human impacts are comparable to, and sometimes exceed climate in shaping mammal distributions. Are “coupled human-natural systems” becoming “human-dominated systems”? www.researchgate.net/publication/...