Ánimo!
04.03.2026 12:11
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Ánimo!
Cover of Annotated Catalog of Hawaiian Weevils
Very proud of this one:
hbs.bishopmuseum.org/pubs-online/...
A comic of a bird singing about somebody eating their babies, and a crow responding that they did and they'd do it again. And below them, it is a man listening to a cd of their conversation entitled "relaxing bird sounds"
When I hear lovely birdsong in the morning, I remember this comic and laugh
Some good advice for everyone, not just guys. No need to read the article, just listen to what William has to offer in the clip:
bbc.com/news/article...
Las diminutas semillas de un dragoncillo Antirrhinum miden apenas medio mm, pero a 20x muestran valles y cordilleras. Los detalles son unas 20 milésimas de milímetro. No deja de sorprenderme que algo tan diminuto lleve un embrión latente.
Para enfocarlo todo tuve que apilar unas 300 imágenes.
Woah @davetoews.bsky.social this has got to be the coolest and (IMHO) most important ornithology paper I've read in a good while. Already added it to my class this semester!
doi.org/10.1093/orni...
Without the last three words this would be a more interesting, albeit troubling, news item www.bbc.com/news/article...
Absolute UNIT of a hornet beside an array of puny common wasps.
A guide for Aucklanders keeping watch for yellow-legged hornets:
1. “Hmm, is this stripy waspy thing a hornet?” = not a hornet
2. “JESUS EFFING C what the F is that MONSTER, that’s he biggest wasp I’ve ever SEEN, NO Jaden KEEP AWAY, shit I think it has yellow legs” = hornet
Yah, he made the cover! He must be so happy. Even better than Time
I've been working on this for >20 years. It was about time to write it and stop playing dice against time (far too old for that)
"On commonness and rarity of insect pollinators: patterns of species abundance and diversity in a hyperdiverse Mediterranean assemblage"
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
How many Kiwi are sacrificed just so we can shine our shoes?
How many Kiwi are sacrificed just to make one tube of shoe polish?
One could think the comment might mean that DNA was the key to the revision, but no, this is about being good and thorough with morphology-based taxonomy
Plasmid mutation rates scale with copy number | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Some science for some sanity:
A Beginner's Guide to Structural Variants in Eco-Evolutionary Population Genomics
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Born on this day - Alfred Russel Wallace en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_... 🧪🌐
Permanent Research Group Leader Position, Crete, Greece: Interested to assume long-term responsibilities for the Biodiversity Computing Group www.biocomp.gr I have set up in Crete? Apply now via apella.minedu.gov.gr/en/node/5998 (PDF also in English) - for questions email to stamatak@ics.forth.gr
One of my favourite beetle groups, even if I have never had the opportunity to work with them . . .
Breaking News - United States of America to be renamed Trumpertonia. Or Trumpeldom. Or Trumpelonia. Exact details being discussed as you read this. Unnamed sources hint that renaming of Earth may be next.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Neat discovery. I've seen a few footprints along the Asturian coast, and that alone was mind blowing . . .
bbc.com/news/article...
I also wrote about this work in a piece for The Conversation: theconversation.com/songbirds-sw...
🦉🧪
BIG day for warbler genomes, with work led by @kevinfpbennett.bsky.social! Whole genomes nearly *every species* of warbler.
Warblers the most "Pokémon" of the bird world? Well, they're also trading their coloration genes like valuable collectors cards ...
www.psu.edu/news/eberly-...
🦉🧪
Delighted to publish Forum Article by @nicolasgaltier.bsky.social et al:
"Journals run by learned societies or universities have more ethical policies while being cheaper and similarly cited"
doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...
Thank you for choosing JEB - we encourage the support of #societyjournals
I have only read the abstract so far, but that is enough to see that this should be a useful paper for those whose work confronts the "hideously complex concept of effective population size"
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Happy to hare that the preprint I was advertising below has been published by the Journal of Evolutionary Biology:
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
Thanks @jevbio.bsky.social for supporting responsible publishing!
A golden opportunity for a motivated LMIC undergraduate. Please forward if you know someone relevant
Ever tried explaining to anyone who isn’t a biologist how we biologists fit into this business model? I just can’t . . . they will forever see us as complete mugs.
💥 We highlight the problem (elephant in the room) of using a single reference genome.
➡️ We put forth a set of hypotheses on how variable genomes contribute to adaptation and diversification
Postdoc position available in speciation genomics studying temporal isolation in Alpine butterflies at University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Application deadline: Jan 15, 2026. More info: kay.lucek@unine.ch. #postdoc
Remarkable.
🎄 It's time for #InsectAdvent, and for Day 1, we're celebrating the world of beetles 🪲
With around 350k known species worldwide (4k in the UK), #Coleoptera is the largest order of insects & one of the most diverse on Earth - Some glow, some dive, some fly, some roll dung!