Cover image of paperback edition of the Tree of Life book by Max Telford.
On world book day might you be tempted to preorder the paperback edition of The Tree of Life?
Out in pb on April 23rd.
www.amazon.co.uk/Tree-Life-So...
ps. praying that whoever someday thinks through this problem DOES NOT say that there is some "Seasonality Scaling Law" and instead realizes that birds have many times evolved into, out of, through, and around different relationships with the environment.
Some birds not able to evolve to beating the clock (something in Australia I can't remember with 6-mo cycles, but yearlings molt and so can't breed until 12 mo)
Still different, other birds fast growing enough to breed within natal breeding season (Anna's Hummingbird, etc.).
Lengthen those gaps way out you get Kakapo. Shrink those gaps waaaay down you get birds under heavy selection to breed in first year of life. Zebra Finches! Crossbills! Those larks I can't remember!
(and then the consequences for song learning in those species...)
would be a great analysis.
in general I think considerations of environmentally-sensitive bird life histories lags quite a bit behind the same phenomena in plants! E.g., plants breeding 'at age X' because the average length of time between good year (birth) and next good year (first reproduction) is X years.
one of the coolest birds! One of the few lekking species with big delays in both female and male reproduction. Female reproduction regulated by decadal food fluctuations (like mast years for finches, or lemmings for jaeger) and male reproduction regulated (hypothesis!) by lek social development
Handing a Paul Kockelman book to a student but being like, hey kid, be careful with this stuff it's strong
wet plover chick (yucky?)
kk maybe too sweet
cutie pie plover chick
even sweetier
oldest noted from what I can find are 9-10 years old. There's a chance! Such a sweetie.
a young semipalmated plover in Churchill, Manitoba
plover from 2017; still with us, I hope!
Is this the biggest ever single species count on eBird? Gobsmacking photos of an estimated 2.75M Snow Geese in North Dakota (HT @evornithology.bsky.social)
ebird.org/checklist/S2...
Just a few days left to submit the ASN student research award (due March 13th)!!!! This is an AWESOME opportunity for students to get some grant writing experience!!! We LOVE reading your grants and giving feedback!!!!!!!!!!! Apply, Apply, Apply!!!!!!
www.amnat.org/announcement...
#NewPaperAlert! So incredibly proud of Katy Silber, former PhD student & post-doc for publishing ALL of the work she did in the lab. This last paper @pnas.org answers the question, how and why does rain matter to bird reproduction, *generally*? Here is the graphic summary... details below.
1/n
don't worry I've built a simulation of AI agents, some of which are good theorists, other of which are bad theorists. In my simulation, they fistfight (via chat), and we take the winner's theory as Social Theory. This tests my hypothesis.
It's wild because as a scientist that interfaces a lot with people in the humanities, I first thought that the sciences was the disciplinary danger. Then you meet the social sciences guys lol
:O
Exciting announcement! My new department is launching a postdoc fellowship in quantitative biology. Fellows will be co-advised by two Bio faculty, one that is quant focused (not me) and one that is not (me???). I would love to co-sponsor a postdoc and build a collaboration so please reach out!
The first version of FigTree was released nearly 20 years ago and it is still widely used (including by me). But there are currently 85 issues on the GitHub repo (github.com/rambaut/figt...) and some of them I don’t really like the look of.
📢 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...
Based on a 2025 study by the great @jazlynmooney.bsky.social & colleagues
Another great resource from BotW!
(though couldn't find "Schreckmauser" 😞)
sorry, moment of weakness
i wish evolution was a change in allele frequency over time
Paper list for undergraduate phylogenetics seminar
Lineup for #Phylogenetics seminar paper discussion. How'd I do? Minus points for destructive bird bias and friend bias.
Can't ever pass up the opportunity to get them to roast my own work though.
Stayed up late eating market basket kimchi; my dreams were sick as hell
Congratulations!!
True! And with that in mind I realize now I can just have the gulls grade* everything anyways
*in the sense of dipping the essays in grease and throwing them on the beach
then printing the essays, writing "NICE, I agree!" on them in red pen, and giving 0 pts.
