Magnetic data mainly constrain latitude; light-level geolocation is much stronger for longitude. Combining both therefore produces much more credible migration trajectories—shown here for an Alpine Swift and a European Bee-eater.
Christopher Witt
@msbbirds.bsky.social
Prof & Curator @UNM, Museum of Southwestern Biology NM Wildlife Commissioner Studies: bird ecology, evolution, genetics, physiology, biogeography, & toxicology Enjoys: Birding, hunting, running Personal account, not representing UNM or State of NM
Avian traits link divergent population responses to environmental change across North America | Jennings et al. 2026 Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Avian traits link divergent population responses to environmental change across North America
Jennings et al. show that local bird population trends across North America are shaped by multiple forms of environmental change, including light pollution, air quality, climate, and urbanization. Spe...
cell.com
I'm looking for PhD student to join my lab at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Fall 2027)! If you're interested in evolutionary genomics, conservation genetics, or biogeography, please reach out. I'll also be at #AOS2026 this week talking about sexual selection in small populations.
Seems @ashishkjha.bsky.social is founder/ CEO of a company advising on future lab-origin (& other) outbreaks. In his Twitter bio but not bluesky. They call it a "public benefit corporation", but not a "non-profit", so safe to assume $$ are exchanged for 'briefings' you can book. bioradarusa.com#team
BioRadar — America's AI-Powered Biological Intelligence Service
BioRadar is America's first AI-enabled biological early warning system. Detect. Act. Protect.
bioradarusa.com
Adrian Egli@adrian7745.bsky.social · 3d agoGets worse! 🤦♂️ The 🤡 Ashish Jha confirmed he believes the lab leak BS. Got his agreement tweet of 🤡 Jamie Metzl's own lab leak stupidity archived: archive.ph/jd5MW
@cnn.com , @npr.org looks like your source yesterday had a major undisclosed conflict of interest while he was pushing lab leak conspiracy on your airwaves (without pushback) — please update your audience
Peter Daszak@peterdaszak.bsky.social · 2d agoSeems @ashishkjha.bsky.social is founder/ CEO of a company advising on future lab-origin (& other) outbreaks. In his Twitter bio but not bluesky. They call it a "public benefit corporation", but not a "non-profit", so safe to assume $$ are exchanged for 'briefings' you can book. bioradarusa.com#team
Excited to see this out in print now! Led by @hengxingzou.bsky.social this work empirically shows that the "Consequences of phenological shifts are determined by the number of generations per season." & how this relates to coexistence mechanisms. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Consequences of phenological shifts are determined by the number of generations per season
The order and timing of species' arrival in a community can often change species interactions. Termed priority effects, this phenomenon arises in communities with drastically different life histories...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
This is banana republic stuff - we all know that, right?
Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 2d agoFLAG: Trump gets to keep tax immunity for himself, his sons, and the Trump Organization under the new 'deal' struck by Todd Blanche. The new order also reaffirms that Trump won't have to pay any taxes he might have owed the IRS.
Not really surprising, but appalling. University presidents vary from the staunch defenders of academic freedom to guys who embrace the corporatization of the academy. These guys are the latter. Support the former.
Jacob T. Levy@jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 2d agoFour university presidents, "Andrew Martin at Washington University in St. Louis, Michael Crow at Arizona State University, Douglas Girod at the University of Kansas, & Ronald Daniels at the Johns Hopkins University" collaborated in the latest attack on higher ed. www.chronicle.com/liveblog/her...
Hearing @ashishkjha.bsky.social peddling lab leak via NPR news, who reported that natural origin of Covid was an “early theory” — how and why does this misinfo continue to get mainstreamed???!?
New paper: Is migration more dangerous during disease outbreaks? Long-term GPS tracking of rough-legged buzzards suggests highly pathogenic avian influenza substantially increased mortality risk during both spring and autumn migration. ➡️ vist.ly/5d8rb #MigrationEcology #Ornithology
Nothing convinced me more of the importance of publicly funded basic research more than my time in industry.
Eugene Vinitsky 🍒@eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 5d agoLove this idea that industry should subsidize basic research. Industry famously is great at prioritizing timelines longer than a year or two
Very cool pair of papers demonstrating little link between amount of additive genetic variation and amount of nucleotide variation within species: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Levels of additive genetic variation vary substantially between species
Adaptive potential determines how populations respond to environmental change. This study compiles evolvability estimates from over 170 multicellular species, revealing substantial variation across th...
journals.plos.org
lab leak is a conspiracy theory for people who want to seem a lot smarter than they are
🧠🧬🦤 Excited to be at #ICN2026! We're recruiting a #postdoc to study the neural and molecular basis of migration. Projects could include field experiments, captive studies, and spatial/single-cell. Stop by poster 72 today or email! @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social #neuroethology delmorelab.com/recruitment
Good news: Conflicts of interest only affect those with “weak character” Source: author with massive conflicts of interest
ProPublica@propublica.org · last wk.BP execs were deeply involved in shaping a highly influential climate science paper. The authors not only discussed ideas with the oil company but, in a departure from academic norms, passed drafts back and forth and welcomed extensive feedback. with @drilledmedia.bsky.social
Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies the ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado | PNAS
In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...
pnas.org
Pack it up folks. We’ve got the greatest talk title of all time, courtesy of @kristencovino.bsky.social.
Genomic structural variation rescues a classic biological invader from a population bottleneck www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Genomic structural variation rescues a classic biological invader from a population bottleneck
Genomic structural variants rescue a textbook biological invader from a population bottleneck and inbreeding.
science.org
Our latest: Hummingbird and hawkmoth wing shape: Analyzing functional convergence in analogous structures, by Benton Walters @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social, with help from Yuming Liu, Iman Fadel @ferronhg.bsky.social @emilyrayfield.bsky.social and myself.
Hummingbird and Hawkmoth Wing Shape: Analyzing Functional Convergence in Analogous Structures
Synopsis. Similar wing planform shapes have independently evolved in both hummingbirds and hawkmoths, indicating convergence. Functional analysis of bird w
academic.oup.com
Long overdue idea whose time has come Grizzly bears should be reintroduced to CA Supported by Scientific, legal, sociological, & ecological facts CA F&W says no bc like USFWS, they’re terrified of any political heat from Repub politicos & anti-Env special interests calmatters.org/politics/202...
Bring back grizzly bears? California lawmakers want to study the idea
Grizzly bears went extinct in California, but that hasn’t stopped a fight over whether the state should study bringing them back
calmatters.org
This is deeply offensive to me on a personal and professional level. I would rather die than teach an online class with a "Socratic tutorial chatbot".
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:
“I know change is hard, but Mommy and Daddy had a long and serious talk, and we think the best decision for our family is moving to the ad-supported plans,” said Olivia Barnes
Parents Sit Kids Down For Difficult Discussion About Moving To Ad Tier
PITTSBURGH—Attempting to soften the blow with a promise to go out for ice cream later, local parents Dylan and Olivia Barnes reportedly sat their children down Monday for a difficult discussion about ...
theonion.com
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
My explanation of how climate change is amplifying these wildfires ended up entirely on the @npr.org cutting room floor. Instead they included an extremely misleading of the supposed role of fire suppression and human alteration (expertly debunked here: www.theclimatebrink.com/p/canadas-bo... )
Michael E. Mann@michaelemann.bsky.social · 3w agoI’m will be on @npr.org All Things Considered this afternoon talking a about the new @nationalacademies.org climate change/extreme weather report and the current wildfires and apocalyptic haze