This came out in the middle of the move to Cleveland, but my work on the under-appreciated starling genus Aplonis is out in MPE. These understated island-loving starlings hide plenty of biogeographic intrigue and taxonomic complexity: doi.org/10.1016/j.ym... 🧵

grateful to have received the lab's first NSF grant to study cyclical processes of speciation with new theory and tools (applied to Melanesian birds). ad to come, but I'll be looking for a postdoc with computational biology chops—please reach out! (and repost) www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...

Magic traits, search costs, and the persistence of species in secondary contact Jack R. Farley, Darren Irwin bioRxiv 2026.07.23.740407 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Magic traits, search costs, and the persistence of species in secondary contact

When two populations come into secondary contact, assortative mating can act as a barrier to gene flow. However, when assortative mating is incomplete, associations between preference and cue loci can...

biorxiv.org

Happy to share this 'capstone' project from my time as a postdoc @umich.edu, where we show that hierarchically nested bursts of body-shape evolution may underlie much of perching-bird diversification over ~50 million years. Free access link here: rdcu.be/fuxB1

Rates of passerine body plan evolution in time and space

Nature Ecology & Evolution - A reconstruction of the evolutionary history of passerine body plans over the past ~50 Myr shows rare bursts of phenotypic innovation near the origin of major...

rdcu.be

This December (2026) I'll be starting my own research lab as a curator of ornithology at @amnh.org. We will seek to understand global avian biodiversity using evolutionary and conservation genetics, with the backing of the incredible AMNH ornithology collection. devonderaad.github.io

I’m looking to recruit a postdoc to join my research group at University of Iowa to work on disturbance ecology and biodiversity! Start date flexible, lots of opportunity for skill development, collaboration, and mentorship. Will review applicants in mid-August! Link: gavinmjones.com/opportunities/

Opportunities

BIG NEWS! The Jones Lab will be relocating to the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability (SEES) at the University of Iowa in Fall 2026. Our work on disturbance ecology and conservation sc…

gavinmjones.com

We’re recruiting a PhD student for fall 2027 And to help spread the word, we now have a handy dandy flyer that you can print and share!

Rhododendron Research@heyrhododendron.bsky.social · last mo.

📣 Recruiting PhD student Medeiros Lab Holden Arboretum Case Western Reserve University Scenic Northeast Ohio Start Fall 2027 Projects in rhododendron physiology & chemistry & spectral phenotyping tools for application in horticulture and conservation Deadline Dec 2026 DM me if interested 🧪🍁🌿🪴🌎

Excited to say that I will be starting as the Curator of Ornithology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History this fall! I can't wait to work with the newly renovated collection and continue my research program back in the Great Lakes. (1/3)

#Evol2026 I’m launching a new research group at UNC Charlotte in January 2027. Prospective students, postdocs, and collaborators are welcome to get in touch: jacob.berv@charlotte.edu More at jakeberv.com, lab website coming soon.

#NewPaperAlert! This one has a massive author list and has been a LONG time in coming, but is SO COOL! First, check out the first figure to get you interested! Manakins! Fruit! Sexual-selection in action (displays and Z:A chromosomal diversity)! Read on for the back story & link 1/n

I am recruiting a #postdoc to work on assembling and analyzing #genomes of the amazing Furnariidae. Let’s unlock the secret behind their #evolution. The official application portal will be available soon at www.uno.edu/careers. Feel free to contact me for details at sclaramu@uno.edu

recruiting a couple new grad students to start in january, please share! www.gilbertecology.com/opportunities

postdoc alert 🚨! NIH-funded postdoc in my lab to work on Ancestral Recombination Graphs in space. Please spread the word widely in your networks, and please reach out if you're interested! (2-3yr position, start date flexible, pay/benefits good!). details here: careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

recruitment

Multiple positions available: ​ Postdoc PhD students

genescape.org

Excited to share the first chapter of my PhD thesis as a preprint! We investigated the genomic consequences of secondary contact between passerines on a remote oceanic island, finding evidence of three-way hybridisation and spooky “ghost introgression” 🏝️🪶🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🐋🐋🐋 MASSIVE WHALE PAPER ALERT!!! 🐋🐋🐋 Our new paper "Historic logbooks reveal spatial footprints of commercial whaling" has just been published in @pnas.org! Come see how we use centuries-old #logbooks to understand population recovery patterns a century after Arctic #whaling. Details below 👇 1/🐋

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social [Texas cont] In an additional attempt to suppress LGBTQ+ speech, the policy includes STUDENTS: "no degree-culminating student research within the TTU System will be permitted to center on SOGI topics,” thus extending "Don't Say Gay" to dissertations and theses. 2/2

Texas Tech Issues Ban On Students Writing On LGBTQ+ Topics

The ban applies to theses and dissertations, and is expected to begin going into effect on a rolling basis.

erininthemorning.com

New simulation study with Ethan Gyllenhaal highlighting a potentially big problem for biogeographic inference. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Spatial impacts on gene flow may hinder linking phylogeographic data to macroevolutionary patterns

Abstract. Biogeography relies on estimates of phylogeny and gene flow to test hypotheses. Established theory posits: (i) gene flow varies non-randomly with

royalsocietypublishing.org

Happy to see this work finally published! We investigated known barcode divergence patterns in alpine Lepidoptera in the light of genomics and uncovered hidden diversity in Symmoca signella species complex, leading to 2 new species descriptions. academic.oup.com/isd/article/...

Genomics helps resolve allopatric COI (Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) divergences in selected alpine Lepidoptera and allows for a taxonomic revision of the Symmoca signella species-complex (Autostich...

Abstract. European Lepidoptera have been subject of dense sampling for their DNA barcodes because of several active regional DNA barcoding initiatives. Thi

academic.oup.com

As our university is undergoing restructuring, its partnership with the natural history museum where I work, the Academy of Natural Sciences, is in jeopardy. If you value the involvement of science museums in the community, please consider checking out this petition. c.org/Db5WKdZSQ8

Have you seen this petition yet?

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University needs your support!

c.org

Today marks a special day. 💚 We started this project nearly a decade ago when I was just a wee undergrad with a burning curiosity. Now to see it published in Oecologia as a PhD candidate is surreal... & on the one-year anniversary of my father's passing, no less. So grateful. doi.org/10.1007/s004...

Parallel elevational replacement of hosts and parasites in a highly susceptible songbird genus - Oecologia

Elevational replacement distribution patterns underpin montane diversity and reflect the interaction of both biotic and abiotic pressures, but the degree to which parasites exhibit elevational zonatio...

links.springernature.com

New preprint! We sequenced 175 'Alalā (Hawaiian crow) genomes to understand why >50% of eggs fail to hatch in a species recovered from just 9 individuals. What we found was a both exciting and surprising. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Join summer SLiM workshops in Estonia (June 15-19) and Iceland (Aug 17-21). The Paris workshop is full. Register soon as seats are limited! More info: https://messerlab.org/slim/ #workshop

#UMN has closed their dental clinic with no warning or explanation, and in flagrant violation of their contract with UMN grad workers - this is the only dental care covered by our health plan! If associated w/ UMN, please sign/share the petition to stop this: actionnetwork.org/petitions/um...

UMN: Don't Close Boynton Dental Clinic!

On March 5th, the University of Minnesota announced plans to permanently close the Boynton Health Dental Clinic, which has served the university community for nearly 106 years. This closure will hav...

actionnetwork.org

Last year, this guy (left) from DOGE used ChatGPT to find NEH grants that were too “DEI” for Trump, and canceled them, including mine, as shown by the letter I received last April (right). Huge new NYT article on the back story link below

Want a reliable way to tell the two cryptic giant hummingbird species apart while birding in the Andes? Use your ear! 🎶 In a new @fieldornith.bsky.social J. Field Ornithology paper, we show how their vocalizations differ clearly—making sound a slam dunk for identifying them in the field.

Genomic erosion in the assessment of species' extinction risk and recovery potential academic.oup.com/jhered/advan...

Genomic erosion in the assessment of species' extinction risk and recovery potential

Abstract. Many species are undergoing rapid population declines and environmental deterioration, leading to genomic erosion. Here we define genomic erosion

academic.oup.com

New from our lab! Introducing SPrOUT: Species Prediction of Unknown Taxa. We developed and tested a novel method to ID plants in mixed DNA with Angiosperms353 using cumulative phylogenetic distances. >98% accuracy to family level for in silico and real test data. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The University of Texas System’s Board of Regents unanimously approved a rule requiring its universities to ensure students can graduate without studying “unnecessary controversial subjects,” despite warnings it could leave them less prepared for the real world.

University of Texas regents OK limits on controversial subjects

Opponents warned the policy’s vagueness could push professors to self-censor and leave students less prepared for the workplace.

texastribune.org

Hot take: folks are too focused on the AI emphasis of the PRFB & missing the most concerning part of the solicitation. The heavy emphasis on bio-AI integration for “technological advances” is a concerning degradation of NSFs mission to fund basic biological research.