Early bird tickets are now on sale to everyone! Head to www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/croak-2026... to register and to www.croakconference.org/abstract-sub... if you want to present. Abstract submission closes soon! We already have some amazing talks and posters lined up, can't wait to see everyone there!

Abstract submissions for CROAK are now open! We welcome submissions for talks and posters on amphibians and reptiles from any sector and career stage 🦎🐸 Link & further details here: www.croakconference.org/abstract-sub... [ 📸: Malayodracon robinsonii, @saunakpal.bsky.social ]

Awesome new pre-print: @brennian.bsky.social and company back at it with the most glorious figures about glorious limb-reduced geckos. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Save the date! We are very happy to announce the first CROAK - Conference on Reptile and Amphibian Knowledge - to be held at the Rigg and Furrow Brewery in Northumberland on 15 –16 September 2026. We welcome delegates from all backgrounds and will soon open abstract submissions and registration. +

We are very happy to announce that the first plenary speaker for CROAK 2026 will be Richard Griffiths, Emeritus Professor of Biological Conservation at Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent (www.kent.ac.uk/.../research...). Stay tuned for more information!

We are very happy to announce that the second plenary speaker for CROAK 2026 will be Wolfgang Wüster, Professor of Zoology (Molecular Ecology) at Bangor University (www.bangor.ac.uk/.../sens/wol...). Follow this page to stay up to date with CROAK news!

Interesting new tool to extract phylogenies from images (Tremble). It is crazy that this is still something we have to do. doi.org/10.1093/bioi...

Treemble: a graphical tool to generate Newick strings from phylogenetic tree images

AbstractSummary. Phylogenetic trees are ubiquitous and central to biology, but most published trees are available only as visual diagrams and not in the ma

doi.org

As a geoscientist with lots of biology in my background, training, & interests, I love these examples of how plate tectonics intersects with evolution: in this case, frog diversification driven by tectonic processes, with the latter also influencing climate. 🧪🪨⚒️🐸🌋

Simon Maddock@simonmaddock.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I am very happy to see Becci Morris' first ever paper published 🥳 In this study we find that the New Guinea frog genus Mantophryne diversified due to a combination of tectonic activity and climate reorganisation in the Late Pliocene – Early Pleistocene doi.org/10.1002/ece3... 🧪🐸

I am very happy to see Becci Morris' first ever paper published 🥳 In this study we find that the New Guinea frog genus Mantophryne diversified due to a combination of tectonic activity and climate reorganisation in the Late Pliocene – Early Pleistocene doi.org/10.1002/ece3... 🧪🐸

Amazing first full day of our Newcastle University undergraduate Biology/Zoology Scotland fieldcourse. This year we have come to the shore of Loch Lomond. My group have been doing reptile and amphibian ecological surveys and we found adders, slow worms, frogs, toads, and palmate newts 🐍🐸🧪

Our new paper (led by Rémi Martin) found that British toads have low genetic diversity and low geographic structuring. Most of the genetic differences were driven by isolation-by-distance. Levels of genetic diversity decreased the further north the population tinyurl.com/43wxrfuk 🧪🐸🌎🐍#consgen

Adios *Anilios*! Glad our phylogeny was somewhat helpful in synonymising @simonmaddock.bsky.social! mapress.com/zt/article/v...

No justification for recognition of the blindsnake genera Anilios and Sundatyphlops (Squamata: Typhlopidae) | Zootaxa

mapress.com

Workshop on #ConservationGenetics at #HWM2026 led by Axel Barlow and @simonmaddock.bsky.social of @bangoruniversity.bsky.social and Newcastle University -assessing participant knowledge and solving scenarios.

The most exciting find of my recent fieldwork: the Montane Mahé Caecilian. Only found on the highest peak in Seychelles, this Critically Endangered amphibian had not been observed since 2015. 📷: @simonmaddock.bsky.social

I have a new preprint demonstrating a genome-architecture-aware approach to inferring species trees and introgression landscapes from a small number of genomes. If you are interested in phylogenomics, birds, or hybridization, this is for you! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Over 41% of amphibian species are threatened with extinction. The challenges they face are huge—but so are the successes. I'm honored to contribute to this new paper offering a rare optimistic look at amphibian conservation. 👉rdcu.be/eQPL7

🚨Job opportunity🚨 We are hiring a 3yr research technician. If you love fieldwork, are passionate about forests & mountains, and want to up-skill in remote sensing, sensor networks and running field experiments this could be the dream job for you! 🧪🌳⛰️🛰️🌡️🍄 www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

New and improved! (as of today, now with page numbers and an issue number ;) "Evidence for ancient selective sweeps followed by differentiation among three species of Sphyrapicus sapsuckers" Led by Dr. Libby Natola: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Evidence for ancient selective sweeps followed by differentiation among three species of Sphyrapicus sapsuckers

Abstract. Genomic differentiation usually accompanies speciation, but that differentiation is often highly heterogeneous across the genome. Understanding w

doi.org

Day three of the #30DayMapChallenge - Polygons. This map shows the earths tectonic plates. I have overlayed all of the earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 4.0 over the last 20 years, coloured according to their magnitude (blue (smallest) - red (largest).

Here is the link to the open access article academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

Island-hopping anurans: diversification dynamics in a widespread frog family

Abstract. Examining diversification patterns associated with dispersal, vicariance, and local adaptation is critical in elucidating drivers of speciation.

academic.oup.com

Awesome work by @deepakveerappan.bsky.social on this paper. Here we explore "Island-hopping anurans: diversification dynamics in a widespread frog family". The article is Open Access so go and check it out!

Deepak Veerappan🐢🦎🐍🐸🔬🧬🌳⛰️ 🐕🏃‍♂️✌️@deepakveerappan.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Hot off the press. Our study on the #biogeography of Ceratobatrachid #frogs is now out in @ZoolJLinnSoc.bsky.social I had a chance to present this work at the World Congress of #herpetology last year. I tried to compile the highlights from this study. Read the open access paper for more details

📢 We're excited to launch our AaRCademy Workshop Series kicking off October 7th online! 🧬Our first session, "aDNA Data Processing", will be led by Nikolay Oskolkov from Lund University. 📅 Registration closes September 7th! Sign up via the QR code or link below. #aDNA @aarc-community.bsky.social

Thrilled that Rachel Gray had a successful viva today! 🐢🐢🧬🧬 My first PhD student #ProudPI Major thanks to @simonmaddock.bsky.social and Axel Barlow for being examiners @sciencesncl.bsky.social

I'm not procrastinating.... making #Pride caecilian DNA stickers is a requirement of my dissertation. Schistometopum thomense and S. ephele, the iconic duo of my PhD work.

Returning from another amazing field course hosted at Leshiba Wilderness in South Africa. Wonderful students, great colleagues @simonmaddock.bsky.social and Marion! Highlight was the honey badger on the camera trap! @sciencesncl.bsky.social

DICE is advertising an additional four PhD studentships through our Leverhulme ‘Space for Nature’ Doctoral Scholars programme. All have a deadline of Deadline 23/04/25. www.kent.ac.uk/durrell-inst...

Leverhulme Scholars

Leverhulme Scholars

kent.ac.uk

Online map of non-woodland trees in England published by @forestresearchuk.bsky.social

England’s non-woodland trees mapped and available freely for the first time - Forest Research

forestresearch.gov.uk

New paper led by Miranda Sherlock on "Submerged Corridors of Ancient Gene Flow in an Island Amphibian". In this paper we found that populations of the Seychelles #caecilian Hypogeophis rostratus would have been connected by palaeo-islands across Seychelles onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... 🧪🐸🐍

We made the cover www.nature.com/articles/s41...

JOB ALERT Exciting opportunity for a Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in #PhysicalGeography specialising in #peatland science to join our #Geography department at @uniofmanchester.bsky.social. Full details for the job can be found here: www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Lecturer in Physical Geography :Oxford Road

jobs.manchester.ac.uk