FERAL 1.0 is out! Just to remind you: FERAL is an open-source toolkit for supervised animal behaviour segmentation directly from videos with no pose estimation needed. We made it much easier to install and run FERAL First, to install FERAL: pip install feral www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵

FERAL: A Supervised Video-Understanding System for Direct Video-to-Behavior Mapping

Quantifying animal behavior often requires segmenting continuous actions into discrete, interpretable states, yet most automated pipelines infer actions from keypoint dynamics and are limited by keypo...

biorxiv.org

Couldn't summarize it better myself!

ASAB@asab.org · last mo.

🍎Apple maggot flies! 💌Courtship effort! 🪰Wing displays! 💑Mating success! Our #EditorsChoice for the #AnimalBehaviourJournal: “Mutual visual displays and female signals underpin mating success in Rhagoletis pomonella flies” Read here: doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2026.123619

Courtship choreography is stabilized among genetically isolated populations #SexualSelection #CourtshipDisplay #Insect doi.org/10.1093/behe...

Happy #flyday! An ideal day to share the 1st chapter from my PhD, now published in Animal Behavior! We did a deep dive into courtship in the apple maggot fly, famous for sympatric speciation and spider mimicry @animbehsociety.bsky.social #evosky 🧪 1/2 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Mutual visual displays and female signals underpin mating success in Rhagoletis pomonella flies

Courtship is an interactive process that serves multiple functions and often involves signals and responses from both sexes. To understand how sexual …

sciencedirect.com

Society for the Study of Evolution Letter Drafts in response to OMB rule 🧪 (only members sign on) letter a: docs.google.com/document/d/1... letter b: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

SSE Letter A to OMB

************************************************************************************************************* To sign the below letter (Letter A to OMB), fill out this google form: https://forms.gle/s...

payments.evolutionsociety.org

Happy #flyday! An ideal day to share the 1st chapter from my PhD, now published in Animal Behavior! We did a deep dive into courtship in the apple maggot fly, famous for sympatric speciation and spider mimicry @animbehsociety.bsky.social #evosky 🧪 1/2 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Mutual visual displays and female signals underpin mating success in Rhagoletis pomonella flies

Courtship is an interactive process that serves multiple functions and often involves signals and responses from both sexes. To understand how sexual …

sciencedirect.com

🌟 baby's first preprint! 🌟 Are wing displays a sexual signal in Rhagoletis juglandis flies? We went back to the basics to find out: choice trials with 1 female and 2 males, one of which had restricted display (i.e. we superglued his wings to his abdomen). 1/4 www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-9...

New paper alert!🕷️✨ Tiny spider. Shiny abdomen. Suspiciously wiggly bum. In our new study, we asked what abdomen bobbing in this jumping spider is really all about: Cute? Yes. Meaningful? Let’s find out...! [1/8] @unibonn.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-026-03745-1

🌟 baby's first preprint! 🌟 Are wing displays a sexual signal in Rhagoletis juglandis flies? We went back to the basics to find out: choice trials with 1 female and 2 males, one of which had restricted display (i.e. we superglued his wings to his abdomen). 1/4 www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-9...

How do courtship dances evolve? Paper out now in Behavioral Ecology 🪰 "Courtship choreography is stabilized among genetically isolated populations" doi.org/10.1093/behe... Video of our study species the dancing dune fly (Apotropina ornatipennis) below.

The courtship display of Apotropina ornatipennis (Diptera: Chloropidae)

YouTube video by Nathan

youtu.be

SSE is raising funds to support more students through our Graduate Research Excellence Grants program! These awards provide not only funds for impactful research but also a boost for students just starting their careers. Donate today and help us reach our goal! www.gofundme.com/f/support-st...

Excited to share a new article written with fantastic co-authors Towards an Integrated Understanding of Animal Weapons www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bonus, adding in a new Darwin canon hater moment for fellow ecologists and nature folks: "The work has been turning out badly for me this morning & I am sick at heart & oh my God how I do hate species & varieties." www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docI...

📢 Now accepting proposals for the Graduate Research Excellence Grants! These provide evolutionary biology research funds for early and advanced Master’s and PhD students. Applicants must be members of SSE. Deadline: May 18, 2026 www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

Society for the Study of Evolution

Site description

evolutionsociety.org

How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications. My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/ academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...

Replication studies: a win-win for early-career training and behavioral ecology

Replicating previous research builds confidence that results are real and meaningful. But close replications are rare due to limitations in resources and d

academic.oup.com

Looking to make your science accessible and meaningful? Need help developing science education & outreach materials or ideas? Well then do we have the resource for you! The ABS Communications Committee developed this excellent repository of resources, so check it out! tinyurl.com/4evx8wyx

The CSU/OpenAI contract is set to expire June 30, 2026. Sign this petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/cancel-chatgpt-edu-invest-in-humans/ for the CSU NOT to renew the contract and to use the savings to protect jobs at CSU campuses facing layoffs.

“Minnesotans’ relentlessness offers a blueprint for how to react when ICE inevitably arrives to stir up trouble where there was none; how to look violence dead in the eye and say not in my town; how to provide aid laterally when you know those at the top won’t be passing any down.” My latest—

Crackdown

Writing through history and heartbreak.

thehandbasket.co

This bobtail squid burrowing into the sand is already adorable, but please watch till the very end! It sticks out its little arms and earnestly sprinkles sand over itself 🦑𓂃◌𓈒𓐍

Excited to launch the new improved Reproducible Code guide from @britishecologicalsociety.org @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social FREE online here! www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/... Amazing work by some very talented ECRs. We hope it’s useful!

New signals thrive when females aren't picky. Relaxed pickiness allowed novel purr and rattle songs to become established in Hawaiian crickets. New work by @robinmting.bsky.social @gwelsh.bsky.social in Evolution Letters. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

Alright scientists! It's that time again! Time to sign up for Skype a Scientist's spring semester. Want to get matched with a classroom in 2026? Sign up now 🥰 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Exciting update - we're featured on the cover! Always happy to show off flies at ALL life stages 🪰🪰

Sophia Anner@sophiaanner.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Thrilled to share this paper that started as a summer research project and ended as a co-first author pub with amazing undergrad mentee Naomi 🪰 #evosky 🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

So excited to share our new work out in @evolletters.bsky.social today! doi.org/10.1093/evle... Sexual signals and preferences for them often differ across groups, contributing to reproductive isolation. But how do new signals evolve if females already have preferences for existing ones? (1/4)

How relaxed preferences facilitate the evolution of novel animal signals

Abstract. The evolution of novel animal signals is critical to the generation of biodiversity. Here, we explore how new sexual signals become established.

doi.org

Wisconsin Evolution is accepting applications for our Seminar Series' Early Career Scientist Award. Come share your evolution research and visit UW-Madison's evolution community. Open to grad students and postdocs (<5 yrs post PhD) from outside UW-Madison. Apply by Dec 15th here: shorturl.at/4a4O6

Early Career Scientist Awards 2026

Application to the UW-Madison Evolution Seminar Series - Early Career Scientist Awards.

urldefense.com

Why did I only just find out that that there are water striders that live IN (ON!!) THE OPEN OCEAN? 🧪 OCEAN STRIDERS!!

Why did only one genus of insects, Halobates, take to the high seas?

Oceans cover over 70% of the earth’s surface and house a dizzying array of organisms, including five species of the peppercorn-sized ocean-skater Halobates, which live exclusively at the ocean surface...

journals.plos.org

Thrilled to share this paper that started as a summer research project and ended as a co-first author pub with amazing undergrad mentee Naomi 🪰 #evosky 🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

TGI Flyday

Took 5 mins to call my rep and senators today while waiting for my machine learning model to run. Have you called today? #saveNSF #supportNSF

Society for the Study of Evolution@sse-evolution.bsky.social · last yr.

As the US House tax and spending bill goes to the Senate, we encourage those who can to continue contacting your representatives about supporting funding for the NSF, NIH, EPA, and other science agencies. Use our media tool to get started: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Hey folks going to #evol2025 in Athens. The SSE #DEI committee is sponsoring a workshop on how to avoid bias in writing T&P letters. Registration is required and the workshop is open to all career stages! Please share and help spread the word @sse-evolution.bsky.social @evolmtg.bsky.social