Heather Clendenin🐾🧬
@littlemuseums.bsky.social
Conservation genomics, landgen, and molecular evolution (mostly 🐻, some 🐺, and an affinity for 🐈).
Genuine question: Wouldn't this work on a Patreon-type platform, too? (Or is the start-up effort that much worse for creators or patrons or both?)
Live Science@livescience.com · 2w ago'We're trying this out of frustration': Marmots star in OnlyFans account as researchers desperately look for ways to raise funds amid US budget cuts www.livescience.com/animals/land...
I find this new discovery of a transmissible cancer in catfish fascinating. As it’s described as the fourth example of contagious cancer, let me share this phylogenetic tree of species infected by such rarities.
Nature@nature.com · 2w agoResearchers have discovered a contagious cancer in catfish – just the fourth example of tumour cells that spread naturally from one animal to another go.nature.com/4fsoLR3
published ahead of print in @asn-amnat.bsky.social, by me et al.: doi.org/10.1086/743270 the first test (I think) of dynamic range models (spatially explicit population dynamic models) for mechanistic forecasting of near-term range shifts. they outperform a traditional species distribution model!
Dynamic range models improve the near-term forecast for a marine species on the move | The American Naturalist: Vol 0, No ja
doi.org
Might be on interest for my ecology friends here 🧪, we shown how even 40 years of observations does not rarefy completely diversity of insect groups with prevalent dark taxa (looking at you, 🪰) @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @steveormerod.bsky.social @stephenbheard.bsky.social @cschaboo.bsky.social
Nathan Jay Baker@nathanjaybaker.bsky.social · 3w agoInsect decline usually focuses on species we can name. But "dark taxa" like true flies kept revealing new species over 37-years of sampling a German stream, while well-studied mayflies/stoneflies/caddisflies plateaued with far fewer individuals. doi.org/10.1111/icad... @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social
Scientists have long thought that plants and animals would shift their habitat in response to climate change to seek their preferred temperatures. Recent studies found that while some species are moving, they aren't aligning with ecologists' expectations. news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wild...
Wildlife’s unpredictable movements make climate-change planning difficult
New England’s winters have long been a punishing force. Forests fade in and out of deep freezes. Animals pile on fat for warmth in anticipation of the harsh weather to come. Others flee south, seeking...
news.mongabay.com
I was a little spoiled the last few years of my PhD and had ~*~my own office~*~ and it worked out pretty well. But then I pop into the group office to help troubleshoot some code and see the whiteboard content (silly stuff primarily captured here), and now I have to rethink some things.
Great, now I can’t use the one pdf map I uploaded to Avenza nor can I add points, tracks, etc. unless I “upgrade” to a paid account. I used this app for free during my entire PhD field work. Anyone using alternative free mapping apps these days?
Finally found a local business where I can stock up on Trex feed 🙃
A recent study highlights the importance of genetic management and conserving downstream populations to bolster adaptive capacity amid climate change. Paper here: doi.org/10.1093/jher... Corresponding author: www.flinders.edu.au/... #JHered 2/2
Craig Smail wrote up a really nice Preview of @nikhilmilind.dev's paper where we try to explain why large effect variants tend to affect traits in the same direction on average, which we think about in terms of the non-linearity of gene dosage response curves. www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
Gene dosage differences and non-linear impacts on complex traits
Large differences in gene dosage are usually associated with opposite phenotypic effects but show a bias toward one direction in aggregate genome wide. Milind et al. suggest that this is explained by ...
cell.com
"Three roles for background natural history in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology: (1) as spark (motivating research questions and hypothesis), (2) as scaffold (supporting the conduct of studies), and (3) as substrate (serving as raw material for new research)." www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Spark, Scaffold, Substrate: The Multiple Hidden Roles of Natural History in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | The American Naturalist: Vol 0, No 0
AbstractOver the last 30 years, as ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) has become more theoretical, experimental, and data driven, there has been a growing worry that the space for natural history ...
journals.uchicago.edu
🔥 Does switching to a pangenome reference actually improve your association study? We tested it, and the answer is yes, measurably. Our preprint is online now: "Pangenome-based human genome analysis improves trait association and genomic prediction": doi.org/10.64898/202...
Pangenome-based human genome analysis improves trait association and genomic prediction
The Human Pangenome Reference Consortium has generated 462 open-access reference genomes and a variation graph that represents differences among them, providing a substrate for pangenome-based analysi...
doi.org
Until now, there has been no centralized, field-tested guide to help practitioners pick the most effective and cost-efficient approaches to conservation. Today, we’re co-launching the Conservation Monitoring Effectiveness Techniques (COMET) platform: comet.conservationmeasures.org 🌎
🚨 MANUSCRIPT ALERT 🚨 The VGP Phase I manuscript pre-print is now live on bioRxiv! 🧬 doi.org/10.64898/202... Over 8 years, the VGP generated reference genomes for more than 800 vertebrate species, spanning ~95% of vertebrate orders and delivering some of the highest-quality genomes ever produced.
Our paper is out! 📣 we find that molecular measures of genetic variation do not predict heritable genetic variation across species - important implications for the application of genomic data for conservation! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Nucleotide diversity is a poor predictor of short-term adaptive potential | PNAS
The capacity to adapt is essential for a population to avoid extinction in a changing world and is recognized as a global conservation priority. Ad...
pnas.org
UW summer course (hybrid format): Designing Evolving Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Climate Resilience malberti6.wixsite.com/nature-solut... Open to non-UW students and professionals - July 23-Aug 21 2026. If interested fill the form on the website or dm me.
Great apes may have been laughing with a similar rhythm to modern humans for at least 15 million years, suggests a study in Communications Biology. The findings also suggest that laughter has become faster, more variable, and increasingly influenced by the situation it occurs in. #evosky 🌎🧪
Rhythm and timing in laughter reveal that human vocal plasticity falls on a hominid continuum - Communications Biology
Comparative analysis of laughter rhythm across all extant great apes reveals that isochrony is ancestral to hominids, with tempo, variability, and context-sensitivity increasing progressively toward humans, tracing a continuum of vocal plasticity.
go.nature.com
🌍 Cat colonies reshape the abundance and body size of lizards. This video by Javier Martín Carbajal is the best graphical abstract of this study! Watch It! doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
Reboosting this. More about the design (and full images) at www.scientificamerican.com/blog/sa-visu... .
Annika Barber@annikabarber.bsky.social · 2y agoIf anyone happens to need it this week for...reasons...this is the best graphic on the complexity of human sex determination I've ever seen. I use it in an undergrad course on gene regulatory mechanisms. Shoutout to @unamandita.bsky.social! www.scientificamerican.com/article/beyo...
The evolution of structural variation across 500 million years of vertebrate evolution https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.26.733778v1
Gotta say— the resemblance to my dad IS striking. 🤣
So happy and proud to see this paper out in @natcomms.nature.com today! We show that traces of human DNA can persist on cave walls for thousands of years. Absolutely fantastic work by the wonderful Alba Bossoms Mesa at @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social and a great team! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Investigating ancient human DNA preservation on cave walls and in rock art - Nature Communications
Ancient DNA can be preserved on materials from archaeological floor deposits such as bones, sediments and artifacts. Here, the authors investigate whether Palaeolithic wall art can preserve human DNA ...
nature.com
Bonar et al. reveal that ∼66% of the common octopus genome is made up of repeats. The authors' re-annotation of the genome indicates four TW expansions at 18, 25, 33, and 56 MYA, and identifies a landscape of TE hot- and cold spots. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag137 #genome #evolution
I haven’t used Tiktok in the last few years, but now that I’ve passed my defense & have a little downtime, I’m here getting teary over all of the Great American Sleepover content. Either it’s great or I still need a bit of a system reset 🙃 Also, I’m maybe burying the lede, but it’s Dr. Catnerd now
Never had I imagined when I was a kid that I would see images like this in my lifetime.
ContempraInn 🌹@contemprainn.bsky.social · 2mo agoIcy mountains of PLUTO captured by NASA’s New Horizons probe after 9 years and a 3-billion-mile journey
10 colour palettes I reach for in research charts — curated, and most are colourblind-safe. Categorical + sequential: Okabe-Ito, Paul Tol, Tableau 10, viridis, cividis, magma. Skip default tab10 and rainbow/jet. Which do you swear by? Anything I'm missing? #DataViz #ColorPalette #SciComm
