Hot off the press!! New open access special edition of the Cambridge Archaeological Journal on "Kinship Trouble". www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

All papers are open access, and the papers, I think, really capture this dynamic moment in studies of past kinship.

1/ Good morning, Europe! Now that you're awake, I'll make a little thread about what we are doing in this paper!

This is part of a special issue on kinship in archaeology ed by @pennyend.bsky.social, Sabina Cvecek and Manaasa Raghavan. All the articles and the three commentaries are very worthwhile

Under 27 and interested in #archaeology 🏺?
You would like to dig?

We still have a place left on our volunteer programme. Join us for a gap year and work on our excavations. Internationals welcome!

👇
freiwilligesjahr-nrw.ijgd.de/fsj-denkmal

Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race Of Skeleton People

Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race Of Skeleton People theonion.com/archaeological-dig-uncov...

Applications for this year's #HAAMSummerSchool are open now! Looking forward to introducing new students to aDNA processing in @nf-co.re/eager with @jballesterosv.bsky.social 🧬🍏👩‍💻

Race, ethnicity don’t match genetic ancestry, according to a large U.S. study Data from the All of Us program confirm what many geneticists have long promoted

In case anyone needs a reminder, "geneticists have long established that race and ethnicity are sociocultural constructs and not good proxies to describe genetic differences in disease risks and traits among groups." www.science.org/content/arti... @science.org @rpocisv.bsky.social

Want to check your ancient DNA study for chromosomal aneuploidies? RChASM is now available for R, to screen for autosomal and sex chromosomal aneuploidies, such as Down syndrome on data from 0.0014X coverage.

We also wrote a step-by-step tutorial with examples:
jonotuke.github.io/RChASM/artic...

Leipzig U and the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) have an open faculty position (W2) in evolutionary population genetics! This position is tenured and comes with generous core funding. We are eager to welcome a new colleague! Deadline March 11.
www.uni-leipzig.de/en/newsdetai...

The @scilifelab.se Ancient DNA Unit is recruiting a (permanent) Research Engineer for planning user projects and generating #aDNA 🧬 data:

Application deadline: March 25th 🧪🏺

www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

A large mass grave from the Early Iron Age indicates selective violence towards women and children in the Carpathian Basin - Nature Human Behaviour In this analysis of biomolecular and archaeological data from a ninth-century BCE mass grave in the Carpathian Basin, Fibiger et al. find evidence for the targeted killing of mostly unrelated women an...

Really excited to share our new paper on the Early Iron Age mass grave at Gomolava (9th c. BCE), a study I had the pleasure to work on during my PhD with an amazing group of co-authors across multiple disciplines. Open access link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵👇

Tracing the wave of Neanderthal-modern interactions A rapid expansion of modern people ran into Neanderthals and mixed with them nearly to the ends of their range.

This is a deep dive into the details of how Neanderthal ancestry is patterned across ancient genomes of modern people. A wave of mixture starting in the Near East kept mixing as long as the expanding group kept meeting Neanderthals, from France to Central Asia.

www.johnhawks.net/p/tracing-th...

Use of fixed-term posts ‘stifling more critical research’ Scholars with short contracts seen as more likely to favour doing ‘safer’ work, with ‘serious ramifications’ for their disciplines

'“Embedded precarity” in higher education is diminishing research quality as staff on short-term contracts favour “safer” work to secure future employment, according to the author of a new report.'

Royal Geographical Society maps important connections between precarity and research topics. 1/3

The risks of AI in schools outweigh the benefits, report says A new report warns that AI poses a serious threat to children's cognitive development and emotional well-being.

"The sweeping study... found that using AI in education can 'undermine children's foundational development' and that 'the damages it has already caused are daunting.'"

They include limiting kids' cognitive, social, and emotional developmen, and increasing inequity.

www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...

The earliest Homo species did not look human, partial skeleton shows Homo habilis, 2 million years old, was known mainly from teeth and jaw bones

“If you dressed up a Homo habilis individual in clothes and you saw her walking in the distance, would you do a double take? … This study shows us that the answer is YES!” https://scim.ag/4aSsPJT

Prehistoric cave painting of two Sulawesi warty pigs from Leang Tedongnge Cave, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Dated to at least 45,000 years old, making it one of the oldest known cave art in the world and demonstrates the long-standing relationship between pigs and people in the region. Credit: Adam Brumm (Griffith University) and Adhi Agus Oktaviana (BRIN, Indonesia).

New research reveals how millennia of human migration across Pacific islands led to the introduction of invasive pig species all over the Asia-Pacific 🐖🐽🐷🧬🌴🏝️🗿region. www.arch.ox.ac.uk/article/geno... @gregerlarson.bsky.social Image credit: A Brumm (Griffith Uni) & A Agus Oktaviana (BRIN, Indonesia).

I've slowly been reformatting notes from my population and conservation genetics course at Montana State University into a web book—a rough draft is now live here: elinck.org/popgen_conge...

Genomic evidence supports the “long chronology” for the peopling of Sahul Genome data provide support for the first settlement of Australia and New Guinea via at least two routes by 60,000 years ago.

Humans took two routes to reach the ancient landmass Sahul about 60,000 years ago.

Learn more in #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/3XOFMwn

Postdoctoral position in Palaeo-population genomics at the Center for the Human Past - Uppsala University Postdoctoral position in Palaeo-population genomics at the Center for the Human Past, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University

Become our colleague! - 2yr Postdoctoral position in Palaeo-population genomics at the Center for the Human Past (UU) @humanpastcenter.bsky.social 🧪

Great place to work at (ok, I am biased), integration with archaeologists and linguists + pretty flexible research topic

www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

My ask of any science enthusiasts who tell the story of Rosalind Franklin:
Don't make her life be about the DNA debacle. She died far too young, but she was a promising scientist in her own right, a mentor and scientific author.

Not for Watson or Crick, but for her legacy.

What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.

If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when

When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.

Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

A Tribal data repository to advance Indigenous health and sovereignty - Nature Genetics We present the first federally funded Tribal data repository — the Data for Indigenous Implementations, Interventions, and Innovations Tribal Data Repository. This repository takes a revolutionary app...

Our team is Legend (wait for it) dary! Ohio State, Stanford, UW Madison, UW Seattle, UC Santa Cruz, Arizona State & of course the Native Bio Data Consortium within the borders and legal jurisdiction of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation! Woop woop! First time ever! The FOUR BANDS lead the way again!

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

🚨 The first HAAM elections are now open!

👥 Meet the candidates: haam-community.github.io/election2025/

🗳️ Cast your vote: forms.gle/6PKTRkqKn57J...

🔒 Voting closes 10 Oct, 23:59 CET!

This is HUGE. Unconditional #repatriation of 28,000 fossils from the Dubois collection to Indonesia. Largest ever fossil and perhaps natural history #restitution (AFAIK). Famous #hominin fossil included. Lots of things to unpack, here are some preliminary thoughts. /1

We're so happy to share our newest ancient DNA findings in Mongolia on the Slab Grave expansion and its consequences for diverse Bronze Age pastoralists! doi.org/10.1038/s414...

World’s oldest human mummies made by hunter-gatherers using smoke and time Ancient people across Southeast Asia gradually dried out and preserved their dead over a low fire

New research reveals the oldest known examples of a human mummification process anywhere in the world. https://scim.ag/467VsjB

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...

One mother, two species: a bizarre case of sexual parasitism results in two distinct species of ant being produced from a single mother. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What a week! 🎉 Big thanks to @isba11.bsky.social for hosting an incredible ISBA conference — so well organized and full of great science.