Calling all Guelphites! If you're walking, running or cycling at the University of Guelph @uofguelph.bsky.socialArboretum please make sure you have Bluetooth enabled on your phone. Doing this will really help us to collect data on the movement patterns of radiotagged bumble #bee queens #Pollinators

How many chromosomes can an animal have? In our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Constraints on chromosome evolution revealed by the 229 chromosome pairs of the Atlas blue butterfly

The genome of the Atlas blue butterfly contains ten times more chromosomes than most butterflies, and more than any other known diploid animal. Wright et al. show that this extraordinary karyotype is ...

tinyurl.com

(1) Got to spend a few days back home in South Carolina during peak springtime. Here are some photos and natural history tidbits!

Really excited to see this work, led by Mike Grundler, published! It's a new method for inferring the geographic locations of shared genetic ancestors. In the paper, we and use it to infer the geographic history of human genetic ancestry www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A geographic history of human genetic ancestry

Describing the distribution of genetic variation across individuals is a fundamental goal of population genetics. We present a method that capitalizes on the rich genealogical information encoded in g...

science.org

👀 Ok, if true this is a shocking way to blast through the forest canopy, remove lianas, & dominate "The idea that lightning strikes give almendros a competitive advantage-The almendro tree is so tolerant of strikes, in fact, that it may well be summoning lightning" www.science.org/content/arti... 🌐🧪

Shocker: This tropical tree thrives after being struck by lightning

The almendro withstands thunderbolts that blast away parasitic vines

science.org

First lab paper out in a long time - this one looking at pollination/pollinators/floral volatiles of an AWESOME species of sand verbena from South Texas. All credit to my wonderful grad student Sierra and collaborators. (more photos below) www.pollinationecology.org/index.php/jp...

This has been in the works for a while, and is not a response to recent events, but the timing couldn't be better: Canada now allows foreign students and postdocs to apply for more doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships! www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NewsDetail-D...

Our department (@EEBUofT) is searching for a Post-Doc! Post-docs funded by this fellowship are independently supported, with research funds available. We invite applications from innovative, collaborative candidates. See the job ad here: eeb.utoronto.ca/wp-content/u...

New preprint featuring my favorite maize-relatives, the Andropogoneae! We sequenced the genomes of 27 species, including lemongrass, kangaroo grass, little and big bluestem, and more -- key species that shape grasslands and prairies worldwide. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

First warm day of the year in Toronto today (11C). Saw my first bee even though there’s still snow on the ground in places and not even the crocuses aren’t up yet. Anyone know if this is Osmia?

I'm thrilled to be opening my own lab this Fall at the @maxplanck.de MPI for Brain Research in Frankfurt. The lab is going to investigate the neuronal and genetic underpinnings of behavioral evolution. We are hiring on all levels. Don't hesitate to share widely and reach out if interested.

Slow to make the jump from Twitter, but it had stopped being a useful platform for me. Whole point of being there was to see/participate in conversations about science. Seems like some combo of (1) people I followed stopped posting/engaging and (2) the algorithm only amplifies blue check effluvium