🚨FULLY FUNDED PHD POSITION!🚨 If you are interested in trying to answer the question of "How did climate shape the movements, interactions, and evolution of hominin populations?" Come join my lab at @humanorigins.bsky.social 🧬🧪 deadline 7th of June ⬇️ uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...

Our paper on generalized dynamic phylogenetic models is finally out in MEE 🥳 The brainchild of @err-ring.bsky.social, GDPMs open up a vast new space for comparative studies on complex, coevolving traits, greatly aided by @scottclaessens.bsky.social's work on the accompanying R package. Check it out!

Trait coevolution and causal inference using generalized dynamic phylogenetic models

Phylogenetic comparative methods are widely used to study trait coevolution across biological and cultural domains. The most common methods are phylogenetic generalized linear (mixed) models, phyl...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🏅 Shortlisted for the 2025 Robert May prize! 🏅 In his paper, @jsmartin.bsky.social proposes a statistical model for detecting how complex, continuously varying environments shape the expression of and association among multiple organismal traits 🌍 Read more here 👇

Enjoyed collaborating with @lbliard.bsky.social et al on new paper using Wytham long term great tit data, particularly deploying @jsmartin.bsky.social's powerful Covariance Reaction Norm approach to investigate how stable trade-offs are across environmental gradients academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

Ecological harshness has a weak influence on reproductive trade-offs in a great tit population

Abstract. Lack’s seminal work on bird clutch sizes has spurred expansive research on reproductive trade-offs, especially focusing on offspring quantity–qua

academic.oup.com

Louis Bliard@lbliard.bsky.social · 6mo ago

New paper out in @jevbio.bsky.social Using 58 years of data, we look at the effect of environmental variation on reproductive trade-offs in great tits. With @jsmartin.bsky.social, @dzchilds.bsky.social, Ella Cole, @sheldonbirds.bsky.social, @paniw.bsky.social & Arpat Ozgul doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

New research just out in J Evol Biol: led by @lbliard.bsky.social with @jsmartin.bsky.social @dzchilds.bsky.social @paniw.bsky.social & Arpat Ozgul using the very cool Covariance Reaction Norm approach to test environmental dependence of trade-offs in great tits academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

New paper out in @jevbio.bsky.social Using 58 years of data, we look at the effect of environmental variation on reproductive trade-offs in great tits. With @jsmartin.bsky.social, @dzchilds.bsky.social, Ella Cole, @sheldonbirds.bsky.social, @paniw.bsky.social & Arpat Ozgul doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Ecological harshness has a weak influence on reproductive trade-offs in a great tit population

Abstract. Lack’s seminal work on bird clutch sizes has spurred expansive research on reproductive trade-offs, especially focusing on offspring quantity–qua

doi.org

📢 New Paper 🚨 Hadza food-sharing is egalitarian, yet offers in giving games have never matched the equitable redistribution seen in real life. In this study, we allowed people to give *or* take. Lifelike equitable distributions only appeared when people took from peers in surplus. bit.ly/4kvLOwA

The “I” in egalitarianism: Hadza hunter-gatherers averse to inequality primarily when personally unfavorable

Abstract. Many economists contend that humans have strong, universal, other-regarding equality preferences with deep evolutionary roots. Indeed, many hunte

academic.oup.com

I hope to see some of you in Bielefeld for this upcoming workshop on measuring and modeling plasticity. ECRs in and around Germany with a penchant for statistics should consider applying while spots remain available!

I am looking for a PhD student to join my new Socio-Eco-Evo group, hosted in Katie Peichel's Evolutionary Ecology Division @ University of Bern. We're offering a fully funded 4-year position, studying social plasticity and behavioral adaptation among stickleback in Greenland. Please share around!

New paper out in @royalsocietypublishing.org Biology Letters. We show that variability in contest behaviour can emerge from plastic responses to modest size differences between focal males and their rivals. #Drosophila #Diptera royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article...

Social plasticity and individuality shape variation in contest behaviour

Abstract. Physical contests are critical in most animals in determining access to limited resources such as territories, food and sexual partners. Individu

royalsocietypublishing.org

New paper out now in Ecology & Evolution: "Estimating (non)linear selection on reaction norms: A general framework for labile traits" Work done in collaboration with Yimen Araya-Ajoy, Niels Dingemanse, @ali--wilson.bsky.social, and David Westneat. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Estimating (Non)Linear Selection on Reaction Norms: A General Framework for Labile Traits

It remains difficult to empirically estimate nonlinear selection on individual reaction norms, inhibiting robust tests of adaptive theory and accurate predictions of phenotypic evolution for labile t...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Myself and Alastair Wilson wrote an updated version of our 2016 primer to quantitative genetics in the wild: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... Happy to share a copy if interested. It is also on research gate

Quantitative Genetics in Natural Populations

Phenotypes evolve under natural selection if, and only if, they are genetically variable. While evolutionary ecologists have long studied natural sele…

sciencedirect.com

New paper out now in Evolution, co-led with Dave Westneat! Using long-term data on house sparrows, we find that quantity-quality tradeoffs near a local fitness ridge favor more or less canalized clutch size distributions in response to environmental variability. academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

Measuring selection on reaction norms: Lack’s principle and plasticity in clutch size

We applied a novel multivariate analysis to measure linear and nonlinear selection on components of a complex reaction norm that was expected to be shaped

academic.oup.com

With #eseb2025 coming to a close, it is time to start making plans for 2026. Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Come to our #ExE conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall. Leave your email address at tinyurl.com/EvolxEcol to join our mailing list!

A landmark paper for the evolutionary biology of behavior. Fascinating work on how manipulating cell type-specific gene expression can rewire the brain to produce a key mating behavior observed in a sister species that diverged ~35 mya. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cross-species implementation of an innate courtship behavior by manipulation of the sex-determinant gene

In accepting a courting male, Drosophila subobscura females require nuptial gift giving in which a male gives regurgitated crop contents to her mouth to mouth. No similar behavior is found in D. melan...

science.org

My first solo author paper is now available in early view at Methods in Ecology and Evolution! I develop a covariance reaction norm (CRN) model for estimating continuous, multivariate, and nonlinear environmental effects on G and P matrices. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Covariance reaction norms: A flexible method for estimating complex environmental effects on trait (co)variances

Estimating quantitative genetic and phenotypic (co)variances is crucial for investigating evolutionary ecological phenomena such as developmental integration, life history trade-offs and niche spe...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Hot on the tail of our Tsimane IGE study comes the theory paper that motivated it! What are the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of social plasticity in dynamic environments? See our new Functional Ecology paper to find out more besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Frequency dependence favours social plasticity and facilitates socio‐eco‐evolutionary feedback in fluctuating environments

Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Hot on the tail of our Tsimane IGE study comes the theory paper that motivated it! What are the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of social plasticity in dynamic environments? See our new Functional Ecology paper to find out more besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Frequency dependence favours social plasticity and facilitates socio‐eco‐evolutionary feedback in fluctuating environments

Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

I'm very excited to share the central paper from my PhD out now in Science Advances. We investigated how social effects among neighbors shape the evolution of reproductive cooperation and the pace of adaptive population growth among the Indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Indirect genetic effects among neighbors promote cooperation and accelerate adaptation in a small-scale human society

Social effects on fertility promote population growth and the evolution of flexible cooperation in a small-scale human society.

science.org

I'm very excited to share the central paper from my PhD out now in Science Advances. We investigated how social effects among neighbors shape the evolution of reproductive cooperation and the pace of adaptive population growth among the Indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Indirect genetic effects among neighbors promote cooperation and accelerate adaptation in a small-scale human society

Social effects on fertility promote population growth and the evolution of flexible cooperation in a small-scale human society.

science.org

@barbaraclass.bsky.social et al. assess how well different statistical models estimate indirect genetic effects and assortative mating when partner similarity is caused by multiple co-occurring processes @jsmartin.bsky.social @mmoiron.bsky.social academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

Disentangling nonrandom assortment, indirect effects, and joint plasticity as causes of phenotypic (dis)similarity between social partners

Abstract. Social partners frequently resemble each other. These correlations between the phenotypes of interacting individuals (e.g., social partners, grou

academic.oup.com

Nothing quite lifts your spirits like having R2 thank you for giving them the chance to read "an insightful piece of work" that they "really liked". Thanks to you, anonymous colleague, for a little sunshine on this overcast day 🌻

Four years ago we showed that only 27% of articles published in ecological journals WITH a code-sharing policy made their code available, leading to a 21% reproducibility potential. 📰 doi.org/10.1371/jour... We've looked into journals WITHOUT a code-sharing policy. Results coming soon...

One of the most fascinating papers of the year... "...infanticide occurred in multiple contexts due to multiple drivers. Nevertheless, 48% of stepparents of both sexes adopted offspring, and another 23% of stepfathers exhibited both infanticide and long-term care." www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Eviction-driven infanticide and sexually selected adoption and infanticide in a neotropical parrot | PNAS

Infanticide and adoption have been attributed to sexual selection, where an individual later reproduces with the parent whose offspring it killed o...

pnas.org

To get this new social media account going, I'm sharing a little celebration: our 2019 animal empathy review got its 100th citation today 🥳. This work represents the bulk of my research: investigating empirical evidence of "human uniqueness" in animals, with a firm grip on its theoretical foundation

We had heard about the challenges posed by motherhood within academia, but what about the previous stage? @ecfreewoman.bsky.social & I wrote our story for @science.org on how the academic system makes it almost impossible for women to even plan for a family ❤️‍🩹: www.science.org/content/arti...

As women in academia, having children can feel impossible. Talking about it makes us feel less alone

The struggle is “balancing their careers not just with motherhood, but with what comes before: relationships and planning for a family,” these postdocs write

science.org

Four years ago, Psychological Science published a paper which used a ludicrously poor quality dataset. That paper was retracted, partly in order to avoid “prolonging the use” of the data but the dataset still thrives in the academic literature. Read our article & 🧵 for examples

Journals that published Richard Lynn's racist 'research' articles should retract them

Richard Lynn's work has been repeatedly condemned for using flawed methodology and deceptively collated data to support racism. It's past time to retract the studies.

statnews.com

Our updated EcoEvoRxiv preprint "Estimating (non)linear selection on reaction norms: A general framework for labile traits" is now live. Work done in collaboration with Yimen Araya-Ajoy, Niels Dingemanse, @ali--wilson.bsky.social, and David Westneat. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

When and why does social plasticity evolve, and what are its consequences for the pace of phenotypic evolution in fluctuating environments? Check out our new preprint where we use evolutionary quantitative genetic theory to develop general answers to these questions. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Are you interested in understanding plasticity and GxE in multivariate traits across complex environments? If so, please check out my new EcoEvoRxiv preprint where I propose "covariance reaction norm" models for detecting and quantifying these processes. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...