Hi folks! We are still alive 🥹 This year has been especially tough because we are experiencing a bit of a cohort effect in which a LOT of us are finishing our PhDs, BUT the 2026 edition of the course ✨will happen in winter✨ and is under planning.Share, follow and we will keep you updated! 💚

Surprised Raccoon in Dumpster

ALT: Surprised Raccoon in Dumpster

static.klipy.com

🐛 Caterpillars of Lonomia #moths envenomate people in Latin America every year. In the July issue of #G3journal, @diler.bsky.social, @nkwhiteman.bsky.social present a genome assembly of Lonomia casanarensis that will help improve antivenoms and develop novel bioactive compounds. 🔗 buff.ly/Mqa35Tv

A fourth transmissible cancer this time in fish. The other known types are in dogs, tasmanian devils and clams. There will surely be other examples to be found in nature. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Brown bullhead catfish melanoma represents a novel transmissible cancer - Nature

Whole-genome sequencing analysis of tumour and matched non-tumour host tissues of the brown bullhead catfish reveals a type of naturally occurring transmissible cancer.

nature.com

Renowned Evolutionary biologists Peter & Rosemary Grant are back with new research on adaptive radiation in Geospiza finches on Daphne Major, looking at the long term impacts of hybridization on 3 species of ground finch! You can read the full paper below 👇 🧪 (1/2) doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Fission, fusion and the generation of novelty in Geospiza species on Daphne Major Island, Galápagos

Abstract. Early stages in the adaptive radiation of Darwin’s finches are characterized by divergence (fission) and convergence (fusion) caused by natural s

doi.org

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.

Climate coverage is shrinking, even as the climate crisis intensifies. Meanwhile, there have been 45 climate policy reversals across 15 jurisdictions in just one year. Read more from @wedonthavetime.wsocial.eu & @ingmar.wsocial.eu app.wedonthavetime.org/posts/c374dd... 📊 We Don't Have Time

1/ The world's songbirds sing in just 8 basic sounds. And where a bird lives decides which ones it uses. My first PhD paper is out now in @science.org (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee6239) Here is what we found:

🚨 Exciting news! The Swiss Ornithological Institute is starting a collaborative program that offers multi-sensor geolocators and analytical support for bird migration research, focusing on underrepresented species & regions. Interested? geopressure.org/GeoCollabForm/ Please share!

I compiled a list of 350 #funding opportunities for #postdoctoral research #fellowships: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J2M_tQgoqV4ivpfEClh9qs9f2KQN2O1G3Jpda2aoHfQ/edit?usp=sharing I realized I should share this again after mentioning it to some folks at the #EFP2026

🐟 🎉 Research opportunity alert! 🚨 🐟 A fully funded 2-year Master’s by Research (MSc) is available on the “Stability of European freshwater fish communities under multiple environmental changes” with myself and Prof. Ian Donohue. Please apply or share!

1/🧵 With this paper finally published, I want to talk about the worst peer review experience of my career as a non-native English speaker, early-career researcher, and solo author, and why I think it matters. #AcademicSky #AcademicPublishing #EvoSky

Luís M. Silva@luismsilva.bsky.social · last mo.

1/🧵 Excited to finally share my latest paper (and my first solo paper)! 🎉 Pathogens evolve. Hosts respond. But does pathogen evolution simply change the magnitude of the host response, or does it reshape which host programmes are activated? 🤔 👇 doi.org/10.1038/s420... #Anopheles #EvoSky

#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

Swiss glaciers are set to lose an enormous amount of ice due to the heatwave battering Europe, the head of Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) said. ➡️ u.afp.com/SKZp

This Special Feature from #ProcB showcases research from scientists, countries and regions underrepresented in the scientific literature, while addressing inequities in publishing and "helicopter science". Discover the collection: buff.ly/RjnbPC7 | #Ecology #GlobalSouth

📣 Join us for the Spirit Summer School "Molecular Genetics in Zoology" with three days of hands-on training and consulting in #RNAi, #CRISPR genome editing, in-situ hybridization, #imaging and #RNA-seq for emerging model systems. 🐌🪰🪱🐞🧬 Registration is open until June 30: events.gwdg.de/event/1457/

A lack of sex slowed the pace of evolution to a crawl for millions of years, until competition and the development of sexual reproduction got evolution going again. New research from @camzoology.bsky.social 👇 https://bit.ly/3SAKQVO

Very excited to finally have this out in the world! The first paper from my PhD (and my first first-author publication) makes the case for a new entrant to the world of long-lived animal models: Heliconius butterflies. Out now in @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/10)

Evolution of increased longevity and slowed ageing in a genus of tropical butterfly - Nature Communications

Studying long-lived species across the animal kingdom could provide insights into healthy ageing in humans. This study reveals long lifespans and slowed ageing in Heliconius butterflies, identifying t...

nature.com

The @sse-evolution.bsky.social crowdfunding campaign for student research grants is at 10% of its $30k goal! Chip in here to help evolutionary biologists in the first stages of their scientific careers: gofund.me/70d1ce65e

Donate to Support Students on their Scientific Research Journey!, organized by SSE Communications

The Graduate Research Excellence Grants are awarded by the So… SSE Communications needs your support for Support Students on their Scientific Research Journey!

gofund.me

Researchers have identified superparamagnetic macrophages in the livers of rock pigeons to be crucial for magnetic sensing. The finding uncovers an unexpected role for immune cells in sensory perception and may fundamentally change our understanding of animal navigation. https://scim.ag/4nTQ3nq

Ever wondered how brown algae choose mates? Researchers found PKN — a molecular gatekeeper ensuring male-female recognition & blocking cross-species fertilization. A key player in sexual reproduction across life. Read more: shorturl.at/buycJ

How brown algae choose their mates

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen have identified a previously unknown protein that plays a key role in fertilization in brown algae. It determines not only whether male and...

shorturl.at

Want to support graduate students in uncertain times? Consider donating to our Graduate Research Excellence Grants program, which provides research funds – and a vote of confidence – for students in evolutionary biology. www.gofundme.com/f/support-st...

Donate to Support Students on their Scientific Research Journey!, organized by SSE Communications

The Graduate Research Excellence Grants are awarded by the So… SSE Communications needs your support for Support Students on their Scientific Research Journey!

gofundme.com

Exciting new work on parallel #evolution: — genetic variants across butterflies are located in similar noncoding regions in ivory and optix. — in … more distant moths, a large inversion containing ivory, closely mirroring the supergene architecture of Heliconius. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Great news to start the week 🤓

National Trust@nationaltrust.org.uk · 3mo ago

We have an *extremely* important announcement to make. From Wednesday, we will be launching our puffin live cam, coming to you from the Farne Islands. So you can watch puffins all day long. In celebration, please enjoy this clip of puffins being really busy for 39 seconds straight.

Complex Patterns of Hitchhiking Mutation Load Among Stickleback Populations. New paper led by Jana Nickel out in GBE @genomebiolevol.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...

📣 2026 winner of the JMS Prize: ⭐ Wendy Valencia-Montoya 🐝🌼 "...a tiny insect pollinator must find its rare host plant. How do they find each other? What signals and sensory systems allow them to communicate? And once they meet, how do insects survive feeding on plants packed with neurotoxins..."

VIII Simposio Colombiano de Biología Evolutiva Bogotá, 23-25 de julio Inscripciones abiertas 📣 Diversidad de invitados, cursos precongreso y simposios temáticos: Biogeografía, filogenética, EvoDevo, morfometría, enseñanza de la evolución y mucho más... Más info: lasalle.edu.co/es/viii-simp...

My latest Digest for Evolution is now available online. One of my favorite pieces to write. 😉 Digest: Chance and necessity shape introgression patterns across three replicate avian hybrid zones academic.oup.com/evolut/advan... #ornithology

In July, we will teach the 3rd biodiversity genomics course in Latin America, this time in Bogotá, following the COLEVOL meeting. We invite applications from students, postdocs and PIs from Latin America interested in learning how to analyse genomic data. biodiversitygenomicslatam.weebly.com

Check out our newest preprint! 📝 We find that adaptation on coevolutionary fitness landscapes is highly repeatable, but landscape-specific, and intergenomic epistasis creates coevolutionary fitness load for interacting species due to frequent fitness trade-offs 🏋️

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Repeatability of adaptation in interacting species https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.01.715933v1

My PhD paper on my beloved cycads and beetles on the cover of Science!!! Check out how we studied thermal infrared as a pollination signal, from molecular mechanisms to the wonders of behavior... science.org/doi/10.1126/...