Melissa Toups

We are offering a fully funded two-year postdoctoral position focused on sex chromosome evolution and speciation in the *Jaera albifrons* species complex. Please find the advertisement attached. We welcome applications from interested candidates. Join us :-)

Post doc position in Evolutionary biology and bioinformatics - work environment: This postdoctoral position will be supervised by Aline Muyle and hosted at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences of Montpellier (ISEM), within the CHANGE department and the Plant ...

I am hiring a Postdoc (18 months contract in Montpellier, France) to study how polyploidy affects sex chromosomes in the plant Silene latifolia, using bioinformatic analyses of RNA-seq and DNA-seq data. Deadline for applications March 24th. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/412961

Out with the Old: Contrasting Histone Marks are Associated with Dosage Compensation on the Ancient and New Z of a Moth with Complex Sex Chromosomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.702263v1

good to see Marcus Freeman on hand to check out the state of Indiana's premier football program

One day, I would love to edit a book with us all sharing anonymous short stories from faculty interview visits. Everyone except white men.

(This request brought to you by my faculty field tour w/dozens of new faculty, when the men were like WAIT WHAT HAPPENED AT YOUR INTERVIEW??)

Text: Society for the Study of Evolution, American Society of Naturalists, Society of Systematic Biologists, Undergraduate Community at Evolution Program. Applications due January 20, 2026.

Are you an undergrad interested in ecology, evolution or related fields? Apply by January 20 for our Undergraduate Community at Evolution program! This program provides funding, mentoring, and a presentation opportunity at #Evol2026. www.evolutionsociety.org/content/educ...

Non-canonical sex chromosome evolution revealed by extreme heterogeneity in homomorphic Y chromosome differentiation in the common frog https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.31.697208v1

Advice I now give to grad students and postdocs in the sciences: Don’t just try to meet and impress senior scientists. They’ll retire soon. Get to know your fellow students - make friends where possible, be colleagues at least. These are the people you’ll be sharing the field with for decades.

AMNH REU

Come learn with us! #REU!

Looks cool, @adriatica.bsky.social

New preprint!

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Why do males and females often differ in traits?
The expected answer: selection.
But our new paper in GENETICS shows that genetic drift alone can generate sexual dimorphism — even when male & female optima are the same

Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Join us!
👇

Gene traffic mediated by transposable elements shaped the dynamic evolution of ancient sex chromosomes of varanid lizard Lizards usually exhibit frequent turnovers and a much greater diversity of sex determination mechanisms compared to birds and mammals, with the conser…

new work from the lab. Degeneration of Y chromosome does not seem to be one-way street. As a refugium of transposons @Alex Suh @valentinapeona.bsky.social , Y chromosome can recruit some genes by accidental TE burst: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1673852725002243

Odonata systematics: past, present, and future: a review of the phylogenetic works in Anisoptera (dragonflies) Abstract. Odonata is an insect order that comprises ~6420 described species distributed among three suborders. Here we review the dragonflies, or Anisopter

So excited to have this #dragonfly paper out! #Odonata systematics: past, present, and future: a review of the phylogenetic works in #Anisoptera (dragonflies) url: academic.oup.com/isd/article/... @ethantolman.bsky.social

Cannot stop laughing at this

I’ve flown there each of the last 3 summers - twice from the UK and once from the US. Every time I land I’m so excited to be in a country with decent infrastructure. And the birdsong is such a nice touch - so charming.

Helsinki-Vantaa. Hushed, calm, piped birdsong, a garden, a museum, blond-wood daybeds -- daybeds! -- at the gates; last-minute reindeer pastrami; Eero Aarnio "Ball" armchairs in the lounge. Amazed anyone gets on a plane.

Fieldwork!

📣 The Mendes Lab is recruiting PhD students in statistical phylogenetics! Interested, or know someone who might be? Details here 👉 tinyurl.com/542wyfb9 — please share!

Priceless! 😆
For all you #paleobiology parents.

Insect sex chromosome evolution: conservation, turnover, and mechanisms of dosage compensation Sex chromosomes have evolved many times throughout the tree of life, and understanding what has shaped their unusual morphological, sequence, and regu…

Happy to see this out online!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Same. 😂😂