How Female Anglerfish Evolved to Have It All

#GreatAdaptations Such a great adaptation that angler fish did it again and again www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/s...

Nature Is Still Molding Human Genes, Study Finds

#GreatAdaptations Why do people find this so surprising? Nature Is Still Molding Human Genes, Study Finds www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/s...

For Ants, a ‘Cleaning Station’ in the Desert

#GreatAdaptations Curiosity + careful observation --> discovery. Interspecific mutualisms in ants: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/s...

#GreatAdaptations The Ngogo research team documents the events that led to a community fission. (Spoiler: it was not neat or peaceful) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We knew it was coming, and now it's here.

The NSF 2027 budget has noted that they will close out the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science Program (SBE). This is not a good thing. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...

Thanks.

This project (with Stacy Rosenbaum and Nick Grebe) began in the dark days of Covid, and is finally ready to share. We've built a living database of primate paternity data (52 species, 3000 paternities) and completed first wave of analyses of paternity distribution. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How did ancient bugs get so big? The prevailing theory may be wrong Flying insect respiratory systems suggest abundant oxygen can’t explain ancient gigantism

Wish I could find all those students who I misled about the why bugs used to be so big www.science.org/content/arti...

#GreatAdaptations Many arms, many uses
www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...

same

Is it ironic, sad, or all-too-predictable that this news item would be in the same new cycle as the announcement of Birute Galdikas' death?

#GreatAdaptations What a clever (not previously articulated, but in hindsight sensible) idea to test.

The last of the three pioneers of great ape studies has died. Galdikas, Fossey, and Goodall dedicated their lives to understanding the lives of these extraordinary creatures.

Quadruple your impact for women in science! This Women's History Month, every dollar you give to The Leakey Foundation becomes four, supporting human origins research and the women who conduct it. 21 of the 30 most recent Leakey Foundation gran...

Support the Leakey Foundation during International Women's Month and quadruple your impact. Make your $$ go further to support research on human origins!
leakeyfoundation.donorsupport.co/page/whm2026...

Back to the future: Sarah Mathew and Rob Boyd reflect on how our thinking about cooperation among nonkin has changed since Axelrod and Hamilton's classic paper.

I am amazed that Bob Trivers could slip from the world so quietly. You would think that the loss of such a brilliant and complicated man would rock the universe.

My colleague, Charles Perreault, has published cool new paper documenting impact of culture on human capacity for adaptation: http//www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2523038123

Data from large number of captive groups support findings from studies of wild bonobos and chimpanzees: bonobos are more aggressive than we thought.

Tell them about bats: testes size inversely correlated with brain size.

Interlibrary loan is a great resource for getting you hands on old, out-of-print books. Our library gets us (scanned) copies of quite obscure papers in edited volumes in a very timely way.

I remember you well---and have wondered where life led you after UCLA. We moved to ASU about 12 years ago because they made us a great offer, and it has gone really well. We think about retiring, but not sure we are quite ready. And, how about you? Hope you are having a very good life.

Cultural transmission is powerful

Project NZ2026 is officially launched.

You may regret this...I'm on sabbatical in Spring 2027. Travel plans during my last sabbatical were rudely interrupted by COVID, and so I am really ready to take advantage of my chance to travel.

Some of us are only waiting for a vague invitation to prompt us to visit New Zealand.

My most sincere apologies to all echidnas. Good that we will have a new edition soon to correct our errors.

There I am. A tiny spot in the universe

At last I understand the difference between cladistic and evolutionary taxonomy.

This is a helpful review for those who study physiology, but less about effects of social context. Or for those who study social context, but know less about physiology.