Are you an ecologist/evolutionary biologist looking for an ongoing academic position? Monash University’s School of Biological Sciences is hiring! Come join us in Melbourne, Australia! Details here: careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...
Weisbecker B&B Lab
@weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social
Vera Weisbecker's (she/her) Flinders Uni lab of more-or-less Aussie scientists on unceded Kaurna land; loves bones, biodiversity, and biostatistics.
Enantiornithean ("opposite bird") with unusually-shaped uncinate processes (bony projections of the ribs) from the Jiufotang Formation: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 🪶🧪 (📷Kuo et al.)
One of the most remarkable deep-sea fish groups now has a paleontological record. Ridolfi and colleagues report the first fossil stylephorid (tube-eye) from the middle Eocene of Iran. #OA in Papers in Palaeontology: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Great interview on CBC with @evolsara.bsky.social on Dodo brains today #yql #Canada 🦤 🧠 🧪 @weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social @aub-birdy.bsky.social www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
Dodo birds were actually smart?
In the three-and-a-half centuries since the flightless Dodo bird was wiped out, the word “dodo” has become synonymous with dim-witted and dumb. But now, new research studying their skulls is showing t...
cbc.ca
What more can and should be done? 👉 theconversation.com/powerless-ag...
Powerless against bird flu? Not entirely. Here are 8 ways to help protect Australia’s birds and mammals
As a lethal bird flu spreads in Australian wildlife, it can be easy to think nothing can stop it. That’s an error – much can be done.
theconversation.com
Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS@euanritchie.bsky.social · 6d agoYesterday, on ABC's News Breakfast, I spoke about the risk that H5N1 bird flu poses to Australian wildlife & ecosystems. I wish I could say that federal, state & territory governments are as prepared as they should be & that they're committing all the resources needed, but this is not the case.
Here's the segment 👉 www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Are we facing ecosystem collapse in Australia? - ABC listen
While South Australia grapples with the loss of cuttlefish populations along its coastline, ecosystems around the country are facing extraordinary pressures as disease, pollution and climate-induced e...
abc.net.au
Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS@euanritchie.bsky.social · 7d agoAfter 4pm today I'll be speaking with Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National, about mass wildlife deaths, ecosystem collapse, and Australia's generally depressing environmental calamity...but there will be stories of hope, too!
Huge faculty recruitment effort at the University of Chicago -- a division-wide, open-rank search looking to hire about 20 faculty across 5 research areas in biology. Come be our colleague! Full announcement: uchicago.app.box.com/s/ckih9zv3rj...
we just published some new research! Gang-gang cockatoos love living in urban Canberra, but they are very fussy about the hollows they select as nests. Only a fraction of hollows are the right shape for these picky parrots! read about it here: academic.oup.com/jue/article/...
🧪 🪰 🐜🪲🐞🦗🐛🦋🪳🦟 We analysed 3.78 million DNA barcodes from 152,891 Costa Rican insect species. Our results reveal limited community overlap across ecosystems, suggesting unique species assemblages in each life zone. doi.org/10.1139/gen-... @gdfcf.bsky.social @rpuschen.bsky.social 🧵
An unusual storm-petrel was collected off Newfoundland and Labrador, and we (including @thelabandfield.bsky.social ) wrote a paper about it! #seabird
The Seabird Group@theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · last wk.🔔Another new Seabird 38 paper is available online!🔔 Pollet et al. (2026) discuss an unusual storm-petrel collected offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. 🤔 doi.org/10.61350/sbj... #seabirds #ornithology
I'll be on ABC News Breakfast tomorrow morning at ~6:45 am discussing bird flu and what we can do to best protect our native wildlife.
We're hiring an ecologist at UC Berkeley! The Dept. of Integrative Biology is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Ecology. Plants/algae, invertebrates, microbes, or marine systems a priority. Come join us!! Apply by Oct 5, 2026. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05489 PS: Please share!
Assistant Professor –Ecology- Integrative Biology
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
"interesting" that returning illegally acquired fossils to where they belong is a no no, but selling a whole collection is a yes yes 🤑 www.theguardian.com/science/ng-i...
One of UK’s best fossil collections sold overseas in ‘loss to the nation’
Exclusive: Lack of funds left British museums unable to pay eight-figure sum for collection, which went to Abu Dhabi institution
theguardian.com
I love media interest in science I helped with (doi.org/10.1093/zool...), but how to react to false suggestions that we challenged Darwin's theory (by implication, of evolution - obvs the only theory that explains biological diversity)? 🤬 not funny. @evoneuro.bsky.social @evolsara.bsky.social
Fundamental study revealing, based on the bone histology, the high metabolic levels across Archosaur phylogenetic tree 👇 doi.org/10.1017/pab.... 🧪⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio
🧵Women Pioneers in Palaeontology in Central & Eastern Europe & Asia 🇭🇷 Vanda Kochansky-Devidé (1915-1990), founder of Yugoslav micropalaeontology. Author of key field textbooks. First woman member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences (1973).
Pleased to share our latest special issue: Feeding biomechanics in vertebrates & beyond! The issue brings together studies spanning insects, fishes & mammals to explore feeding biomechanics anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/19328494... Guest Editors: Böhmer & Winkler
Reinterpretation of the supposed Pleistocene duck Pleistoanser as a parrot of the genus Cyanoliseus: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 🪶🧪 (📷Lo Coco et al.)
New pre-print testing if bats, carnivorans, & primates occupying equivalent dietary niches evolved convergent mandible shapes & shared adaptive zones! Short answer: no. With @mberthaume.bsky.social, @savannahecobb.bsky.social, & @sesantana.bsky.social www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1...
Potential for take-off in Archaeopteryx using a multiple leaping mechanism: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🪶🧪 (📷Meilak et al.)
Check out what the dodo was up to in @theconversation.com article by @weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social, @evolsara.bsky.social and @evoneuro.bsky.social! theconversation.com/dodos-probab...
🦤 What do we really know about the Dodo? The dodo was likely nocturnal and, less surprisingly, its telencephalon was perfectly normal for a pigeon of its size. This paints a very different picture of one of history's most misunderstood birds. @evoneuro.bsky.social Paper: doi.org/10.1093/zool...
New Brain Scans Suggest the Dodo Was Active at Night
YouTube video by People Are Fish
youtu.be
Dodo fans unite! We have a new paper out on the brain and sensory abilities of the Dodo and Solitaire showing that the Dodo has several unusual features. #ornithology #birds
@evolsara.bsky.social · 2w ago🦤 What do we really know about the Dodo? The dodo was likely nocturnal and, less surprisingly, its telencephalon was perfectly normal for a pigeon of its size. This paints a very different picture of one of history's most misunderstood birds. @evoneuro.bsky.social Paper: doi.org/10.1093/zool...
Here’s a great overview of our Dodo paper in @theconversation.com, authored by @weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social @evolsara.bsky.social and myself #ornithology #birds theconversation.com/dodos-probab...
Dodos probably weren’t as stupid as historians made them out to be: new research
Dodo skull scans show the famously extinct birds were no less brainy than their surviving relatives – and may have roamed at dusk and dawn.
theconversation.com
Nocturnal and not that silly? New paper headed by @evolsara.bsky.social with @evoneuro.bsky.social , @aub-birdy.bsky.social and many others about the dodo's sensory world! See links to Sara's YouTube video and our The Conversation article below 👇. doi.org/10.1093/zool...
A bilby and hopping mouse (Notomys) drawing from an unknown student on the back of a survey paper I hand out during the first 3rd year physiology class 😍. A lovely start to the semester!
Neural correlates of seed-eating in songbirds royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article... Our new paper showing that songbirds that dehusk seeds with the beak and tongue have an enlarged trigeminal nucleus in the brainstem, particularly the part where the tongue is represented.
