Almost half of European freshwater fishes at risk of extinction, new IUCN Red List reveals The updated European Red List of Freshwater Fishes – the most comprehensive assessment in 15 years – reveals little evidence of species recovery and calls for urgent action to protect Europe’s aquatic...

Almost half of European freshwater fishes 🐟 at risk of extinction, new IUCN Red List reveals 🧪

iucn.org/press-releas...

Functional ecological convergence between the thylacine and small prey-focused canids - BMC Ecology and Evolution Background Morphological convergence is a fundamental aspect of evolution, allowing for inference of the biology and ecology of extinct species by comparison with the form and function of living species as analogues. The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), the iconic recently extinct marsupial, is considered a classic example of convergent evolution with the distantly related placental wolf or dog, though almost nothing is actually known regarding its ecology. This lack of data leads to questions regarding the degree of convergence with, and the similarity of, the functional ecology of the thylacine and the wolf/dog. Here, we examined the cranium of the thylacine using 3D geometric morphometrics and two quantitative tests of convergence to more precisely determine convergent analogues, within a phylogenetically informed dataset of 56 comparative species across 12 families of marsupial and placental faunivorous mammals. Using this dataset, we investigated patterns of correlation between cranial shape and diet, phylogeny, and relative prey size across these terrestrial faunivores. Results We find a correlation between cranial, facial, and neurocranial shape and the ratio of prey-to-predator body mass, though neurocranial shape may not correlate with prey size within marsupials. The thylacine was found to group with predators that routinely take prey smaller than 45% of their own body mass, not with predators that take subequal-sized or larger prey. Both convergence tests find significant levels of convergence between the thylacine and the African jackals and South American ‘foxes’, with lesser support for the coyote and red fox. We find little support for convergence between the thylacine and the wolf or dog. Conclusions Our study finds little support for a wolf/dog-like functional ecology in the thylacine, with it instead being most similar to mid-sized canids such as African jackals and South American ‘foxes’ that mainly take prey less than half their size. This work suggests that concepts of convergence should extend beyond superficial similarity, and broader comparisons can lead to false interpretations of functional ecology. The thylacine was a predator of small to mid-sized prey, not a big-game specialist like the placental wolf.

My final paper out of my PhD was published 5 years ago:
bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Let's take a 🧪🧵 look back at convergent #evolution using the #thylacine and canid #mammals

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A book cover with animals on the cover and a QR code for discounts.

An image of a parrot and a quote about a book.

Reason #2... I've been busy getting ready for the publication of my first book one month from today! You can pre-order The Vanishing Wild today with a special 20% off discount. And stay tuned for more book news soon.

The first known field photographs of the plant Ptilotus senarius. Top left is (a) Inflorescences and slender stems. Top right is (b), a close up of inflorescence showing one open flower. The bottom image, labelled (c) shows the plant's habitat. A caption invites us to read the open access article, titled 'Rediscovery of a presumed extinct plant species, Ptilotus senarius (Amaranthaceae), through iNaturalist', in Australian Journal of Botany. The photo is credited as being by Aaron Bean on iNaturalist.

A plant species presumed extinct in the wild has been rediscovered in northern Queensland, thanks to a sharp-eyed observer, a smartphone camera & the #CitizenScience platform @inaturalist.bsky.social.

#OpenAccess in @ausjbotany.bsky.social:

connectsci.au/bt/article/7...

#AusJBotany

Rare and beautiful bird rediscovered 100 years after becoming 'extinct' faces fresh threat It was one of 10 species highlighted in a worrying new report. Find out more.

12 years after Australia’s 'extinct' night parrot was rediscovered, a worrying new investigation by the Australian Conservation Foundation has revealed swathes of its remaining habitat are under threat.
au.news.yahoo.com/rare-and-bea...

Ghosts Behind Glass How museums display extinct species—and what these exhibits say about us.   While it’s no longer possible to encounter a dodo in the wild, we can still come face-to-face with them in museums. The rema...

Ghosts Behind Glass has been officially published by @uchicagopress.bsky.social!

If you are looking for an absolutely gorgeous book that tackles a deeply serious topic, this is a perfect choice. Would make a really thoughtful Christmas gift.

press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

Very important paper and resource. Bryophyte genomes expanded by one order of magnitude. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hit me with your coolest plant/animal/fungi facts.

Hi Jake, is it please possible to get a PDF copy of this paper?

brndnholmes[at]gmail[dot]com

"PhD-level experts in your back pocket" is a completely nonsensical description of AI but a pretty good description of social media if you follow the right people

Needless to say, you will be fully credited, though I can't monetarily reimburse you. I can, however, provide hyperlinks to staff pages, research output, etc. over and above those cited in the main body.

Will happily remove your content at any point in the future, without asking for an explanation.

Unfortunately, as my knowledge grows due to researching, the database is slowly becoming more technical and thus less useful to the average internet user. I really need sci-comm stuff to appeal to the majority of my website visitors, but I am not really in a position to provide that.

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I have a small but growing research output myself.

scholar.google.com/citations?us...

But my main project is the website/database, which has been cited/mentioned a couple of dozen times in the literature, including thrice in Nature journals.

recentlyextinctspecies.com/other/citing...

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Do you have any writings on the current biodiversity crisis that you don't plan on doing anything with? Especially if aimed at the general reader. I'd love to host them on my website/database. Can provide user analytics once search engines index the content.

recentlyextinctspecies.com

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A new late Pleistocene fossil crocodile from Sudan reveals hidden diversity of Crocodylus in Africa - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - A new late Pleistocene fossil crocodile from Sudan reveals hidden diversity of Crocodylus in Africa

"Here we report on a complete skull of a new fossil Crocodylus from the Late Pleistocene...Phylogenetic analyses indicate the Atbara Crocodylus represents a separate species and is more closely related to the fossil African crocodiles than the extant forms."

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Critics of de-extinction research hit by mystery smear campaign Several researchers who have been critical of Colossal Biosciences’ plans to revive extinct animals say they have been targeted by online articles trying to discredit them

Critics of #ColossalBio and #DeExtinction @toriherridge.bsky.social @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social, @flintdibble.bsky.social, and I have been targeted by "articles" attacking our credibility, looks like a targeted smear campaign against us for honest criticisms...

www.newscientist.com/article/2490...

Two precious photos of long-extinct bandicoot found in museum box Hidden in the long-forgotten personal archives of a 20th-century anatomist was a pair of images depicting an extinct species of bandicoot with an unusual butterfly pattern and aggressive streak.

www.abc.net.au/news/science...

World’s smallest snake rediscovered in Barbados after 20-year absence “I was making a joke and in my head I said, ‘I smell a threadsnake,'” Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for the NGO Re:wild, recalled. “I just had a feeling, but I couldn’t be sure because we...

👍🐍

Mammals found most at risk as Australia's largest animals face 100,000 years of change Over the past 100,000 years, Australia and New Guinea's large animal communities have been disrupted by extinctions and invasive species, altering entire ecosystems and threatening the conservation of...

Mammals found most at risk as Australia's largest animals face 100,000 years of change phys.org/news/2025-07...

WeTransfer TOS says they can use all your uploaded content for genAI

Bye forever, WeTransfer.

Moa "de-extinction" plans announced - Expert Reaction An overseas company has announced plans to "bring back" the South Island giant moa. Colossal Biosciences, working with Ngāi Tahu Research Centre and Canterbury Museum, says it expects to "resurrect" t...

The Science Media Centre has gathered several expert reactions to the "de-extinct the moa" publicity announcement. Each is withering in a different way. www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2025/07/09/m...

I use this image when I teach about the consequences of biodiversity loss:

They must have taken down the audio. It was up.

Hot take: taxa should be given an interim name until they are sufficiently understood to bestow an appropriate scientific name that is neither eponymous nor toponymous. The former is anachronistic (doubly so if extinct prior to humans), and the latter is arbitrary. Neither are informative.

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Herbariomic approach solved identity crisis of the putatively extinct Armeria arcuata Welw. ex Boiss. & Reut. (Plumbaginaceae)
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

An AI generated image of a thylacine in the wild, flanked by small tree ferns (Cyathea sp.).

#thylacine

Hot take. There are far too many book awards/prizes for fiction and not nearly enough for non-fiction.

Reminder that Shark Week "star" Forrest Galante is a bad scientist and a bad person who regularly takes credit for discovering things that local experts already knew about. This is not behavior Discovery should be praising, or giving a platform to.

https://buff.ly/2TtiydC