Really excited to see this paper, which is basically the long-form explanation of everything we put into the animated mural in the Chicago Archaeopteryx display.

once every four months or so I have a little hot flash about this; no idea what it is psychologically; an editor once told me 'no one who thinks seriously is using life history theory to make broad-scale predictions about phenotypic diversity' and I think that traumatized me for life

every time you die in the game it plays a slow scroll of text, like in Star Wars, with the introduction of a paper that includes the uncited opening line THE TRADEOFF BETWEEN CURRENT AND FUTURE REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS IS CRITICAL TO...

this is from my new video game called Life History Theory; you play as Steve Stearns and the game is you versus endless waves of goblins misinterpreting your early work

r and K selection is like a mid-level boss you think you kill but then its health bar pops back up and there's a screen flash of bloody text that just says FASSSTTT SLLLOOWWW

undergraduate biology education and that 1970s Pianka paper everyone thought they killed in the 1980s, name a more iconic duo

you ever visit someone whose toothpaste is doing ok?

@phylieu.bsky.social and I have another paper in our informal series, “we worry about diversification rates.” This time, how to get unbiased estimators of speciation & extinction, even when looking at small clades as part of MiSSE, CLaDS, etc. models.

Overview: brianomeara.info/posts/biasco...

Our new paper on the cover of PNAS, led by Anderson Bueno and Chase Mendenhall, shows that that terrestrial matrices and higher nearby tree cover reduce bird extirpations and boost species richness in forest remnants #ornithology www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🪶🌍

biologists, we just fold right away. 'sexual size dimorphism' means males are bigger than females! 'latitudinal gradient' means higher values in the tropics! zero resistance to whatever majority view fixed in the 1970s, or whatever, lol

'inverse latitudinal gradient'

oh there's a gradient in your inverse latitudes?

'inverse density dependence' is such a funny phrase to me. complete swing and a miss.

like 'reversed sexual size dimorphism'

eye completely off the ball, hit in the helmet by the ball

Wow this is so fun to hear!!!! Would love to hear what students think!!!! There's a rejoinder where we replied directly to some of their arguments. Some weird stuff in there about gull effigies, hah. But mostly doing a better job trying to say our original point. Benefit of having a second try!

TWS Journals We reviewed evidence for future outcomes of northern spotted owl populations given continuing expansion of barred owls across western North America, and our results suggest that without aggressive ma...

oops forgot to paste! doi.org/10.1002/jwmg...

Here's a nice review of the Barred Owl situation. Might be nice on its own, or has great coverage of the hits about the topic previously. contrast and similarities to the gull problem on the east coast is interesting.

Much more famous stories would might include Guam snakes (slightly older story, clear 'good' vs. 'bad' narrative) and Barred Owl culls (recent/ongoing, much more morally fuzzy). Not all wrapped up neatly in a single paper but can pass along refs if useful!

Clarifying the so‐called gull problem in the Gulf of Maine: Response to Taylor et al. (2024) Click on the article title to read more.

For researchy stuff that urban light paper is so cool!

For normative debates, obvi partial to this gull-tern...situation (wonder why 😅)

Original paper + rejoinder might less interesting, but reply was from some super heavy hitters in seabird conservation!

doi.org/10.1111/cobi...

Congratulations to the wonderful @thelabandfield.bsky.social, as well as to the other 9 recipients of the Pride in Stem Decadal Awards!!! 👏👏👏 prideinstem.org/2026/04/01/t...

🐦 New PhD position!
@prfju.bsky.social @ckecz.bsky.social
Nest defence in passerine birds

Interested in animal behaviour, fieldwork and evolutionary ecology?
📅 Start July 2026 | ⏳ 4 years | 💰 Fully funded

Apply by May 10 → veselp03@jcu.cz / krausl07@jcu.cz

#PhDjobs #PhDchat #PhD #ornithology

My PhD student will be finishing soon and is looking for a postdoc position to start in the fall semester. If you have a postdoc ad or opening and are looking for someone experienced especially in population/evolutionary genomics with a knack for coding and bioinformatics, let me know.

Hi!

I'm not here very often, but I just launched my brand new lab website! I'm also hiring a !!! three-year !!! Postdoc. Interest form link can be found under "The Team" section.

(Current domain name is temporary haha. FormorphologyLab dot com coming soon!)
badger-mustard-h5jf.squarespace.com

a testament to the enduring power of butter that it has its own knife

I was hoping it'd replace the big sign that says "Doctor Directors Emeritus advise you shoot those goddam geese"

Can one of you laminate a "Dr. Dan Mennill advises giving the geese their space so we can all peacefully co-exist" sign to bring to Kent? @ryannorrissci.bsky.social @dmennill.bsky.social

Niko Tinbergen said they had the most melodious call of all birds and he won a nobel prize, soooooooo

not sure who to tell this important news to but the Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus cytb sequence FM209907.1 uploaded to genbank in 2008 is accidentally mislabeled I think it's actually a Leucophaeus sample; I will now accept any questions on this important matter

I literally had a nightmare we lost 20-0 to PSG. The match was held at my high school. Let's see what fresh hell reality will bring #LFC

Every time I open my mouth in my Phylogenetics seminar it's just to say the exact phrase-

Yes, but ____ ITSELF is also evolving

Prior to 2022, most AIV cases reported in terrestrial birds (ie waterbirds). But in 2022, huge devastating outbreaks in seabirds. Here, an index developed to better understand how viruses go from waterfowl > seabirds.
👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

a mass of green anemones mostly closed and red sea stars

there's still so much fecundity and enduring beauty in the nonhuman world. let's preserve and treasure it.