Shikhara Bhat
@shikharabhat.bsky.social
Theoretical evolutionary ecologist. Fond of maths, natural history, and metal music. Kokkonut and PhD student at Uni Mainz, 🇩🇪 Past: BS-MS at IISER Pune + MS thesis at CES, IISc, 🇮🇳 Website: https://thepandalorian.github.io/ he/him
So, bluesky, where is the discussion of the absolute insane things AI is doing in the realm of mathematics? It seems like we're nearly at the inflection point where the models are as good as human domain experts, and soon may well be better. Is that discourse only happening on twitter?
Job opening at @dee-unil.bsky.social 🇨🇭! I have had the privilege to work as a postdoc at the DEE for the last five years. It is a fantastic place to work at, filled with great researchers in an amazing environment surrounded by mountains 🏔️ and beautiful Léman. I highly recommend applying!
Charles Mullon@charlesmullon.bsky.social · 3d agoLooking for an Associate Prof position? Interested in behavioural ecology & cultural evolution? Come join us at the Dpt of Ecology and Evolution in Lausanne🇨🇭 @dee-unil.bsky.social @unil.bsky.social! Great department & great place to live. Pls RP. Apply here: wwwfbm.unil.ch/releve/appli...
Looking for an Associate Prof position? Interested in behavioural ecology & cultural evolution? Come join us at the Dpt of Ecology and Evolution in Lausanne🇨🇭 @dee-unil.bsky.social @unil.bsky.social! Great department & great place to live. Pls RP. Apply here: wwwfbm.unil.ch/releve/appli...
I did a thing :D First chapter of my PhD out now! 🌱 (first paper ever 🥳) Traits are historically hypothesized to age synchronously, but it is no longer the case. We quantified asynchronous ageing in Seychelles warblers and reviewed potential reasons for why this may be.
Evolution Letters@evolletters.bsky.social · last wk.Do all traits age together? A long-term study of wild Seychelles warblers shows ageing is surprisingly asynchronous, with some traits senescing while others remain unchanged. doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Open position of Associate Professor in Behavioral ecology and cultural evolution at the @dee-unil.bsky.social! You can toggle the ad to English on top right: wwwfbm.unil.ch/releve/appli...
wwwfbm.unil.ch
.The very talented and fun Jonathan Henshaw has two positions to offer! If you like theoretical eco-evo questions, don't hesitate. Also, Freiburg is a very pretty place PhD: uni-freiburg.de/stellenangeb... Postdoc: uni-freiburg.de/stellenangeb...
uni-freiburg.de
Under what conditions can the evolutionary interests of a gene differ from those of their host organism? Very cool conceptual/mathematical synthesis here!
Gaurav Athreya@gauravathreya.bsky.social · last wk.wanna read the latest overview of “internal evolutionary conflicts” — scenarios where genes spread despite being organism-deleterious? and wanna learn how to model them? look at our new preprint! we introduce unifying ideas, and try hard to write accessibly. small 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
It's been incredibly fun to work with @gauravathreya.bsky.social @yagmurerten.bsky.social @arvidagren.bsky.social @tom-is-kean.bsky.social on internal evolutionary conflicts (also called intragenomic/intraorganismal conflict) and how to model them! See below for Gaurav's great explainer on the paper
Gaurav Athreya@gauravathreya.bsky.social · last wk.wanna read the latest overview of “internal evolutionary conflicts” — scenarios where genes spread despite being organism-deleterious? and wanna learn how to model them? look at our new preprint! we introduce unifying ideas, and try hard to write accessibly. small 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Looking to build your editorial experience? Join the #ProcB Preprint Editorial Team and help showcase cutting-edge biological research. Develop your publishing expertise, expand your professional network and stay at the forefront of new discoveries. Apply by 1 September 2026 #ECR
Proceedings of the Royal Society B Preprint Editorial Team | Proceedings B | The Royal Society
Proceedings of the Royal Society B Preprint Editorial Team | Proceedings B | The Royal Society Proceedings of the Royal Society B Preprint Editorial Team Our team’s primary mission is to look through…
royalsocietypublishing.org
New preprint: 'Internal evolutionary conflicts: a conceptual synthesis and mathematical primer' Really fun collaboration with @gauravathreya.bsky.social, @shikharabhat.bsky.social, @yagmurerten.bsky.social, and @tom-is-kean.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Internal evolutionary conflicts: a conceptual synthesis and mathematical primer
Internal evolutionary conflicts arise when elements within an organism have diverging fitness interests. Examples range from meiotic drive and cytoplasmic male sterility to transposable elements and s...
biorxiv.org
E. Yağmur Erten@yagmurerten.bsky.social · 2w agoMiraculously, all three of us managed to get our visas on time, and I’m now celebrating by reading the revised version of our MS (soon-to-be a preprint + @gauravathreya.bsky.social will be talking about it in our mini-symposium), accompanied by some Irish beer at a local pub 🤩
Corkkonuts at #MMEE2026 CC @kokkonut.bsky.social Present in picture, @gauravathreya.bsky.social @kztwyman.bsky.social @yagmurerten.bsky.social
And here is the preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @gauravathreya.bsky.social @shikharabhat.bsky.social @arvidagren.bsky.social @tom-is-kean.bsky.social #MMEE2026
Internal evolutionary conflicts: a conceptual synthesis and mathematical primer
Internal evolutionary conflicts arise when elements within an organism have diverging fitness interests. Examples range from meiotic drive and cytoplasmic male sterility to transposable elements and s...
biorxiv.org
Miraculously, all three of us managed to get our visas on time, and I’m now celebrating by reading the revised version of our MS (soon-to-be a preprint + @gauravathreya.bsky.social will be talking about it in our mini-symposium), accompanied by some Irish beer at a local pub 🤩
Mathematical Models in Ecology and Evolution starts tomorrow in Cork, Ireland! @shikharabhat.bsky.social, @gauravathreya.bsky.social and I are organizing a mini-symposium on internal evolutionary conflicts, join us on Thursday! #MMEE2026
Sounds super cool!
Fishers Fishes@fishersfishes.bsky.social · 2w agoTalk Alert! Introducing the brand new series "Ecological Dynamics". Featuring Oliver Meacock! Oliver will talk on using growth accelerations to link niche theory to ecosystem coexistence. 📆 24th July 2026 | ⏱️ 9:30 PM IST Joining link: northeastern.zoom.us/j/9832742702... #Microbiomes #PopDyn
Super excited to share the first preprint from my PhD! In this, we couple species range maps with daily-scale climate records over the last 80 years to produce the ClimLimits database, a record of 44 realized climate limits for ~55,000 terrestrial and freshwater species. (1/4)
bioRxiv Ecology@biorxiv-ecology.bsky.social · 3w agoClimLimits: a global database of multivariate realized climate limits for animal species https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.16.738937v1
An important and beautiful paper on the central role of natural history in ecology and evolutionary biology.
American Naturalist / ASN 🐌@asn-amnat.bsky.social · 3w agoHistorical Perspective: Sridhar et al. use the backstories of famous scientific papers in Ecology and Evolution to uncover the background roles of natural history that are written out of papers. Available now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Preprint alert! 🧪 🐟 If you are interested in #LongTermStudies #BalancingSelection #KinCompetition check out our new MS. Mini thread below 🧵:
bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 3w agoCompetition among kin generates balancing selection in a wild population https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.11.737918v1
A framing like "gamete size remains the most useful criterion for a notion of biological sex" would have been made the scientific point more precisely without inviting weaponization against trans people. The framing they used instead is a choice.
"My favored use of a polysemous word is better than your favored use of a polysemous word because I like my context better"
Ben Allen@evodynamics.bsky.social · 3w agoGamete size is the “ultimate defining criterion of biological sex” even though it can disagree with chromosomes, anatomy, mating behavior, or reproductive investment (seahorses), all of which are "biological", and any of which might be more relevant for a question under study. (2/3)
Do you have a background in behavioural ecology and are you interested in doing a PhD in Australia? I’m looking for new grad students so check out our website (BobWongLab.org) or come find me in Torino at #ISBE2026. 🐟🐠
"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
Check out this really interesting preprint by @shikharabhat.bsky.social and @kokkonut.bsky.social on models of senescence and their connection to models of multilevel selection. It seems like these fun jump processes, PDEs, and SPDEs arise in a variety of biological contexts.
Shikhara Bhat@shikharabhat.bsky.social · last mo.If you like multi-level selection, you may enjoy (models of) ageing. @kokkonut.bsky.social and I show that the mortality patterns generated by dem. senescence are formally equivalent to a multi-level selection process! arxiv.org/abs/2607.00262 Confused? So were we! A short explainer thread below
If you like multi-level selection, you may enjoy (models of) ageing. @kokkonut.bsky.social and I show that the mortality patterns generated by dem. senescence are formally equivalent to a multi-level selection process! arxiv.org/abs/2607.00262 Confused? So were we! A short explainer thread below
Demographic senescence as multi-level selection in miniature
Multi-level selection and senescence do not at first sight have much in common. Here, we demonstrate that the emergent mortality patterns generated by demographic senescence can be understood as the p...
arxiv.org
Have ideas for your own, independent research program in Theoretical Biology? Then come and join us as a Group Leader at the @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social in Plön, Germany!
Group Leader in Theoretical Biology (m/f/d)
Experience in Theoretical Biology, Applied Mathematics, Theoretical Physics
mpg.de
Interested in applying to a PhD program in ecology or evolution? Don't know where to start, how to apply, and/or how to find your best program or lab fit? Join our free and virtual program August 10th, 13th, 17th, & 20th to get all the help you need! Link in bio! !!!APPLICATIONS OPEN THIS WEEK!!!
How does group size shape social evolution? New theory shows that living in smaller versus larger groups changes kinship dynamics, shifting when natural selection favors helping—or harming—others. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
Group size modulates kinship dynamics and selection on social traits
Abstract. An individual’s relatedness to its group may change with age due to demographic processes, and such kinship dynamics can shape age-linked social
academic.oup.com
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
1/3 🚨New Perspective🚨 (@genetics-gsa.bsky.social) "When evolvability meets constraint: reflections on empirical fitness landscapes after Weinreich et al. (2006)" 20 years after a seminal study, I discuss the forces that both constrain evolution + make it possible academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...
When evolvability meets constraint: reflections on empirical fitness landscapes after Weinreich et al. (2006)
Abstract. In 2006, a manuscript appeared with a provocative title: “Darwinian evolution can follow only very few mutational paths to fitter proteins.” Twen
academic.oup.com
