A career in pursuit of the origin of species: celebrating Roger Butlin’s contributions to the advancement of knowledge and growth of our scientific community In 2025, the annual meeting of the Population Genetics Group (PopGroup) returned to Sheffield, U.K., for the third time. The timing could not have been mor

Lovely article about the impactful and inspirational career of Roger Butlin (now retired). I've always admired how he worked hard at community building and research synthesis, and his research achievements were even more extensive than I realised: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

A career in pursuit of the origin of species: celebrating Roger Butlin’s contributions to the advancement of knowledge and growth of our scientific community In 2025, the annual meeting of the Population Genetics Group (PopGroup) returned to Sheffield, U.K., for the third time. The timing could not have been mor

A career in pursuit of the origin of species: celebrating Roger Butlin’s contributions to the advancement and growth of our scientific community:

@ruifaria.bsky.social @jonbridle.bsky.social @markravinet.bsky.social @rhondasnook.bsky.social @anjamwestram.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Temperature stress slows down the evolutionary arms race between predators and prey as shown by experimental evolution of ciliates and bacteria. This suggests that climate-driven stress may destabilize ecological communities:

🦠 K Plum and @rebeccazufall.bsky.social 2026
🦠 doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Coupling molecular evolution with macroevolutionary transitions in a pheromone system including the three amphibian orders

🐸 María Torres-Sánchez 2026
🐸 doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

And The Blog Post! Behind the scenes of this recent publication in JEB:

🐊 Alligator ecotypes physiologically diverge in response to a salinity gradient
🚐 Transporting juvenile #alligators
☺️ Working with behaviourists to minimise stress
🔍 See the experimental set-up

shorturl.at/AdxTO

Coastal and inland American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) diverge along physiological axes in response to a salinity gradient Abstract. Ecotypes often occupy an environmental gradient, which can lead to divergence in physiological traits between ecotypes. We tested the hypothesis

🐊 Coastal and inland alligators exhibited contrasting physiological responses when exposed to a salinity gradient: coastal alligators maintained sodium balance through a combination of increased renal processing capacity and slightly elevated natremia

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Konvalina et al. 2026

If #CANPOP is of interest to you, please also have a look at a Special Issue in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology (@jevbio.bsky.social), for which we are currently accepting submissions:

academic.oup.com/jeb/pages/ca...

The #editorschoice for this month's issue is:

Evolutionary rescue by adaptive specialization in rapidly changing environments

by Jermey Draghi @virginiatech.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Decomposing social interactions: a statistical method for estimating social impact and social responsiveness Abstract. Social interactions mediate the phenotypic expression of fitness-relevant traits. The expression of such labile social traits includes three dist

New method for studying social responsiveness and social impact: both shape the expression of social traits. Ignoring variation in responsiveness can limit understanding of social trait evolution:

@roriwijnhorst.bsky.social @cdegroot.bsky.social @dingemanselab.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Evolutionary transitions and reversions in individuality Abstract. Biological individuality exists in different forms—unicellular, multicellular, colonial, etc.—which have arisen through evolutionary transitions

This issue is headlined by Perspective Article: Evolutionary transitions and reversions in individuality

@martijnschenkel.bsky.social @arvidagren.bsky.social and Manus Patten

academic.oup.com/jeb/article/...

📣 Read our latest issue!

📘 academic.oup.com/jeb/issue/39/4
📸 Red-browed Finch (Neochmia temporalis temporalis), an Australian songbird with highly atypical sperm morphology. Most passerines have elongated, corkscrew-shaped sperm, this subspecies has 'tadpole-like' sperm. Photo Credit: Des Boorman

☘️New paper!☘️ Very excited that my 3rd and final data chapter of my PhD with @evoecolab.bsky.social is now published in JEB! We manipulated precipitation and herbivory at field sites in Ontario and Louisiana to test their effects on white clover HCN chemical defense phenotypes

Ancestral Wolbachia lineages are likely donors of ribotoxin genes in Aedes aegypti Abstract. Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) are enzymes that irreversibly inhibit protein synthesis by depurinating a specific adenine residue in the r

We discovered ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) genes in Wolbachia, revealing an evolutionary link with mosquitoes. Here we provide new evidence of horizontal gene transfer as a driver of innovation in insects:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...
Lapadula et al. 2026 @mabeltaracena.bsky.social

Sexual selection on males predicts reduced mitochondrial genetic diversity across mammals Abstract. Sexual selection on males is expected to reduce genetic diversity via paternal inheritance because increased variance in male reproductive succes

Phylogenetic analyses across 262 mammal sp. reveal that stronger male-biased sexual dimorphism is associated with lower mitochondrial genetic diversity, suggesting broader links between sexual selection, demography and population genetic structure:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

de la Peña et al. 2026

Identifying the proximate mechanisms that generate plasticity in fecundity for nutrition in Drosophila melanogaster Abstract. Nutrition is an important determinant of an animal’s survival and fitness. Phenotypic plasticity allows a genotype to adjust life history traits

How do genetics shape adaptability to diet? Differences in nutritional plasticity for egg production arise from behaviour and physiology—not morphology—revealing how flies adjust reproduction to changing diet:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Alves et al. 2026
@gmwalter.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social

A field experiment assessing the roles of drought, herbivory, and local climate on cyanogenesis cline formation and local adaptation in Trifolium repens Abstract. Projecting how populations will adapt to environmental changes requires a mechanistic understanding of selection imposed by various biotic and ab

A field experiment by @lucasjalbano.bsky.social et al. assessing the roles of drought, herbivory, and local climate on cyanogenesis cline formation and local adaptation in Trifolium repens:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Coastal and inland American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) diverge along physiological axes in response to a salinity gradient Abstract. Ecotypes often occupy an environmental gradient, which can lead to divergence in physiological traits between ecotypes. We tested the hypothesis

Read the publication here, Accepted Version online: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

New Blog Post! Behind the scenes of a recent publication in JEB by Konvalina et al:

🐊 Alligator ecotypes physiologically diverge in response to a salinity gradient
🚐 Transporting juvenile #alligators
☺️ Working with behaviourists to minimise stress
🔍 See the experimental set-up

shorturl.at/AdxTO

The evolution of a placenta is not linked to increased brain size in poeciliid fishes Abstract. Maternal investment is hypothesized to have a direct influence on the size of energetically costly organs, including the brain. In placental orga

Eight poeciliid fish sp. show no difference in offspring brain size between placental and non-placental maternal strategies. Placental structure and juvenile brain size coevolution may not be a general pattern in vertebrates:

Rowinksi et al. 2026 @stockholm-uni.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Reproductive fluids enabling cryptic female choice of paternity do not induce concomitant ejaculate-mediated paternal effects in embryos of hybridizing salmonid fishes Abstract. Post-ejaculatory sexual selection in the form of cryptic female choice provides opportunities for females to bias paternity to favour preferred m

Reproductive fluids enabling cryptic female choice of paternity do not induce concomitant ejaculate-mediated paternal effects in embryos of hybridizing salmonid fishes:

Lantiegne et al. 2026 @memorialu.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Ecological harshness has a weak influence on reproductive trade-offs in a great tit population Abstract. Lack’s seminal work on bird clutch sizes has spurred expansive research on reproductive trade-offs, especially focusing on offspring quantity–qua

Ecological harshness has a weak influence on reproductive trade-offs in a #greattit population:

@lbliard.bsky.social et al. 2026:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

How the grey bushchat combats parasitic eggs at different laying stages Abstract. Under the strong selective pressure of parasitism, hosts have evolved the strategy to recognize and reject parasitic eggs or chicks. Although stu

How the grey #bushchat combats parasitic eggs at different laying stages:

Zhong et al. 2026:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Can genome size predict adaptation to environmental change? We find that genome size explains <2% of phenotypic change. Phenotypic variance may better signal adaptability:

Gorné et al.
@ecoevoevoeco.bsky.social @brockuniversity.bsky.social @mcgilluniversity.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Differential investment in growth and reproduction optimizes a life-history trade-off in a species characterized by alternative reproductive tactics Abstract. Alternative reproductive tactics often involve trade-offs between mating success and survival to sexual maturity, resulting in differential inves

Differential investment in growth and reproduction optimises a life-history trade-off in a species characterised by alternative reproductive tactics

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Cornwell & Neff

Absence of cytoplasmic incompatibility and high vertical Wolbachia transmission in a neotropical drosophilid Abstract. Intracellular endosymbionts such as Wolbachia are generally thought to persist in host populations by inducing reproductive phenotypes that enhan

Absence of cytoplasmic incompatibility and high vertical #Wolbachia transmission in a neotropical #drosophilid

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Magalhães Moreira et al.

Chromosomal diversification and evolutionary trajectories in Neotropical spiny rats: the first karyotype of Echimys chrysurus Zimmermann, 1780 and a comparative synthesis across Echimyidae Abstract. Echimyidae, the largest family of Hystricognathi rodents, comprises 28 genera and 103 species across South and Central America and shows signific

We determined the karyotype of Echimys chrysurus from the Amazon, Brazil and discuss the speciation processes and their relationships with the high degree of karyotypic variation:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Oliveira da Silva et al.

Ecological harshness has a weak influence on reproductive trade-offs in a great tit population Abstract. Lack’s seminal work on bird clutch sizes has spurred expansive research on reproductive trade-offs, especially focusing on offspring quantity–qua

New paper out in @jevbio.bsky.social
Using 58 years of data, we look at the effect of environmental variation on reproductive trade-offs in great tits.

With @jsmartin.bsky.social, @dzchilds.bsky.social, Ella Cole, @sheldonbirds.bsky.social, @paniw.bsky.social & Arpat Ozgul

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Hidden in the dark: complex evolutionary history revealed by genome-wide analyses of cave amphipods Abstract. Subterranean environments provide unique habitats and maintain high biodiversity. However, their underlying evolutionary processes remain poorly

Our genome-wide study of subterranean #amphipods in Japan reveals that #Pseudocrangonyx species shows a complex history involving geographic isolation and secondary contact. Hidden evolution can provide subterranean biodiversity in the dark:

Suenaga et al.
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

Among-trait covariance and cross-year repeatability for direct and indirect individual effects in producer–scrounger behaviour in wild house sparrows Abstract. Variation in traits expressed during social interactions can be attributed to direct individual effects (DIEs) of the focal individual’s identity

Social partners shape phenotypes in house sparrows: direct & indirect social effects covary in producer-scrounger tactics, forming a multivariate syndrome that constrains trait variation:

academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

@cdegroot.bsky.social @roriwijnhorst.bsky.social
@dingemanselab.bsky.social

Evolutionary transitions and reversions in individuality Abstract. Biological individuality exists in different forms—unicellular, multicellular, colonial, etc.—which have arisen through evolutionary transitions

Individuals can fall apart into their constituent parts via evolutionary reversions in individuality, but this process can occur in two distinct ways that shape the evolution of individuality:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

@martijnschenkel.bsky.social, @arvidagren.bsky.social & Manus Patten