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Megan Barkdull

@meganbarkdull

Asst. Curator of Entomology @nhm.org | evolution, genomes, museums | @cornelluniversity.bsky.social & New College of Florida alumna | she/her. | views are my own. mbarkdull.github.io

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20.11.2024
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Latest posts by Megan Barkdull @meganbarkdull

Our paper is out in @Science! The Atlantic silverside spans Earth's steepest latitudinal gradient in coastal sea-surface temperature. Despite high gene flow, populations show clinal genetic variation in multiple locally adapted traits. doi.org/10.1126/scie...

05.03.2026 19:05 πŸ‘ 46 πŸ” 19 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 1

Congratulations, Maria!!! I’m excited to give this a read!

05.03.2026 22:57 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Recruitment

Know an undergrad who is interested in exhibit design and development? The NHMLA is now seeking applicants for a Getty Marrow Intern, which is a 10-week summer internship program working with our exhibits department. Please share with those interested!
workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...

05.03.2026 22:38 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Student Research Award <p>The ASN Student Research Awards support research by student members that advances the goals of the society: the conceptual unification of ecology, evolution, and behavior. Each award consists of a ...

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...

03.03.2026 14:38 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 28 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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SORTEE Webinar: On what makes good sharable and reproducible R code, how to do it, and why it’s good for science For this month's SORTEE webinar, Dr. Dax Kellie from the Atlas of Living Australia will present on good, sharable, and reproducible R code in science

Coming up in March! Join @sortee.bsky.social for a webinar with @daxkellie.bsky.social on good, shareable, and reproducible R code - register here: events.humanitix.com/sortee-webin...

24.02.2026 23:43 πŸ‘ 24 πŸ” 24 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Gorgeous photos!

23.02.2026 17:50 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Academia.edu - Find Research Papers, Topics, Researchers Academia.edu is the platform to share, find, and explore 50 Million research papers. Join us to accelerate your research needs & academic interests.

FYI, Academia.edu has changed its terms of service to give an irrevocable worldwide license for anything uploaded to its site to be used for generative AI. I do not consent to this and have pulled all my papers.

21.02.2026 16:52 πŸ‘ 602 πŸ” 490 πŸ’¬ 14 πŸ“Œ 77

Option (2)

20.02.2026 15:37 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Student Research Award <p>The ASN Student Research Awards support research by student members that advances the goals of the society: the conceptual unification of ecology, evolution, and behavior. Each award consists of a ...

If you're an #EcoEvo #PhD candidate anywhere in the world looking for project funding, consider applying for the @asn-amnat.bsky.social Student Research Award.

Ten proposals for $2k in research funds will be awarded. Due 13 March 2026.

Please share widely! πŸ§ͺ #grants #ecology #evolution #behavior

18.02.2026 05:23 πŸ‘ 47 πŸ” 56 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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three peas in a pod with faces on them are sitting on a table and saying `` peas & thank you '' . Alt: three smiling peas in a pod with faces on them are sitting on a table and saying `` peas & thank you '' .

Hey #PopGen #EEB #PUI friends! Do you have a cool paper demonstrating the power πŸ’ͺ of "modern" PopGen that would be exciting to upper-level undergrads? I feel like students leave the PopGen unit thinking it's some kind of dead science b/c we're limited to introducing simple models in Evol classes. 😒

19.02.2026 22:03 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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Exposure of western United States bird communities to predicted high severity fire - Nature Communications Changing fire regimes, leading to higher likelihood of high severity fire, are having unknown impacts on biodiversity. This study identifies regions of high avian biodiversity and individual bird spec...

Really proud of my paper with @ecologyofgavin.bsky.social, @grumpyunclesean.bsky.social, Andrew Stillman, and Courtney Davis out now in @natcomms.nature.com, which looks at the forecasted exposure of bird biodiversity to high severity fire in the western US. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

19.02.2026 17:30 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Assistant Professor Vertebrate Functional Morphologist #26-24 The Department of Biology at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) is seeking a tenure-track faculty member in Vertebrate Functional Morphology.

My department at CSU Northridge is hiring a vertebrate functional morphologist! We've got a great EEB group, and we're looking for someone to carry forward a tradition of enriching organismal courses and community-engaged research. App review starts March 15

csucareers.calstate.edu/mob/cw/en-us...

18.02.2026 23:54 πŸ‘ 69 πŸ” 90 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2
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Male Copulatory Structures in Reproductively Functional Female Live‐Bearing Fish Pseudopoecilia fria We recently discovered a population of the live-bearing fish Pseudopoecilia fria (Cyprinodontiformes: Poeciliidae), in which females were found to possess gonopodia, reproductive organs normally excl...

One of the coolest ichthyology discoveries I’ve heard about in a while. Large pregnant female livebearers with male reproductive organs found in the wild. Goes to show how fluid sex and sexual traits can be.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

18.02.2026 12:46 πŸ‘ 87 πŸ” 36 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 3

Yes! This is advice I always give to students writing proposals, alongside making sure the success of your aims don’t depend on a previous aim either (1) succeeding or (2) supporting a particular hypothesis.

11.02.2026 22:06 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image

This is the aftermath of an ICE kidnapping a few blocks from my home in St. Paulβ€”an hour ago. A quiet street full of broken glass and at least three wrecked cars. The target of the kidnapping was taken away by ambulance. He was on a stretcher and covered by a sheet, though a cop said he was alive.

11.02.2026 16:46 πŸ‘ 11392 πŸ” 6557 πŸ’¬ 274 πŸ“Œ 625
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No animal alive today is β€˜primitive’ – why are so many still labeled that way? All species alive today, from chimpanzees to bacteria, are cousins that each have equally long lineages, rather than ancestors or descendants of one another.

The idea that humans sit atop an evolutionary hierarchy dates back to 1866, when a scientist drew the first tree of life with "Man" at the top.

This inaccurate view still shapes how we think of the animal world, despite decades of genomic evidence proving evolution has no hierarchy.
buff.ly/dpXwi1r

10.02.2026 20:48 πŸ‘ 51 πŸ” 17 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1
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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

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...

10.02.2026 19:42 πŸ‘ 213 πŸ” 110 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 9
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With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet Ring's 'Search Party' is dystopian surveillance accelerationism.

Ring is a wildly dangerous company. Always has been. But it has sort of flown under the radar the last couple years as it tried to soften its image. Make no mistake that this is an extremely dangerous surveillance dragnet:

www.404media.co/with-ring-am...

10.02.2026 15:09 πŸ‘ 2755 πŸ” 1054 πŸ’¬ 54 πŸ“Œ 65
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Notes on winter When the world turns whimsical

Wild fact from @billmckibben.bsky.social's latest newsletter:

"The last colder-than-average month on planet earth was in February of 1985, which means that no one under the age of forty has ever known one."

09.02.2026 20:33 πŸ‘ 333 πŸ” 161 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 8

Oughta be!

09.02.2026 16:29 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Good resources here for dealing with the evolving issues in the GRFP β€” currently some applications being returned without review for being out of scope without a clear reason why the proposed work was out of scope

02.02.2026 20:23 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Question for Entomology curators: what printers are you using these days for archival specimen labels?

09.02.2026 14:45 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1
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PLEASE REPOST AND SHARE!

My intro biology course has an "Interview a Biologist" project where students connect with a wide range of biologists using cell/molecular tools.

If you are willing to speak with a student for ~30 minutes on Zoom, please fill out this form: forms.gle/BCjJPgURsgSr...

09.02.2026 01:36 πŸ‘ 43 πŸ” 35 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 2

Uh oh

09.02.2026 14:09 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

New paper! From Sam Snodgrass and @genomeofforrest.bsky.social, w/ @druncie.bsky.social, @gcbias.bsky.social, and a collaboration with Andres Moreno and @santiagogmm.bsky.social. Can we quantify the impact of humans on maize dispersal?

Plant yourself in a comfy chair and lend me your ear:

1/10

06.02.2026 05:49 πŸ‘ 58 πŸ” 38 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 5

Hot take: folks are too focused on the AI emphasis of the PRFB & missing the most concerning part of the solicitation.

The heavy emphasis on bio-AI integration for β€œtechnological advances” is a concerning degradation of NSFs mission to fund basic biological research.

06.02.2026 00:59 πŸ‘ 41 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Read the RFP and watch your happiness turn to pure rage

06.02.2026 00:07 πŸ‘ 25 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB)

Holy shit: it's an RFP for the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (PRFB). Hello old friend www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

05.02.2026 23:41 πŸ‘ 124 πŸ” 73 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 24
A line graph of the number of NSF awards for 2021-2026 for the Directorate of Biological Sciences.

A line graph of the number of NSF awards for 2021-2026 for the Directorate of Biological Sciences.

2/9

05.02.2026 18:04 πŸ‘ 22 πŸ” 18 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 6
A line plot with the numbers of NSF awards for fiscal years 2021-2026. The curve for fiscal year 2026 is quite a bit lower than those for 2021-2025 while the curve for fiscal year 2026 (in red) is much lower than all through the same date.

A line plot with the numbers of NSF awards for fiscal years 2021-2026. The curve for fiscal year 2026 is quite a bit lower than those for 2021-2025 while the curve for fiscal year 2026 (in red) is much lower than all through the same date.

But, as they say, there is no time like the present

[OK, maybe the 1930s if you want to nitpick]

But, with some data wrangling, my first NSF Funding Curves!

2/3

05.02.2026 13:57 πŸ‘ 65 πŸ” 71 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 9