We just published a first exploration using whole body RNAseq of the mechanisms shaping color variation in Gasteracantha. More work to come — stay tuned!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Hi all. I am very excited that after 6 years I finally got my phylogenetic comparative methods book and online exercises online. Feel free to use and share. The book is here: nhcooper123.github.io/pcm-primer/. Note that it is not finished, we had to abandon it before the sunk costs fallacy broke us
This looks neat, actually does a formal analysis of what I've suspected for a long time -- ΔK is an odd way to decide number of pops. H/T @biologyjoe87.bsky.social for the paper. (Personally I think K=0) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
course schedule as a table. Available at the link in the post.
I'm teaching Statistical Rethinking again starting Jan 2026. This time with live lectures, divided into Beginner and Experienced sections. Will be a lot more work for me, but I hope much better for students.
I will record lectures & all will be found at this link: github.com/rmcelreath/s...
We decided to put this one out before the end of the year "Gene expression and structural differences underpinning black and white colouration in spiders"
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
🚨Two funded PhDs on the evolutionary ecology of antipredator colouration 🦋 with myself and Iliana Medina.
One in Swansea tinyurl.com/4thtbph6 deadline Jan 12th @crocus-dla.bsky.social
The other in Melbourne - deadline Jan 1st
Please share among potential students!
This is the Sunburst Candy Spider from Thailand. Not AI (sucks to have to declare this). Very real and had been on my wish list for a long time.
The taxonomic placement is unclear, so we are leaving it at Cyrtarachninae.
I taught (and co-taught) a course on human population genetics from 2000-2024. Having retired, I'm now making all the course materials public: github.com/alanrogers/p... #popgen #evbio
Hello everyone!
One of my colleagues and probably one of the best supervisors I've met, Dr. Iliana Medina, is advertising a PhD position involving lots of bugs and many different colours! More info in the image below, do share this widely!!
PhD opportunity in Melbourne, Australia, working in ecology and evolution of coloration with Iliana Medina (not on Bluesky). I can't recommend enough working with Iliana and living in that great city. Happy to chat if someone wants more details.
We are hiring in Evolutionary Biology — apply to join our department!
Been looking for a fresh specimen of Leucauge sarawakensis for a long time! Each time we found one, someone walked into its web. Hence, the ex situ shots.
A young PI here in Mainz has a fabulous PhD position that will be filled soon! By you? Keywords: Social insects, ageing, gene expression. www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb10-evoluti...
Exiting career-boosting opportunity for a a skilled and highly motivated postdoctoral researcher: We're hiring a Post-doctoral fellow in Evolutionary Biology!
Please apply no later than 31 October!
lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Wood tiger moth on leaf. Photo: Juhani Maamela.
Funded PhD position available 🎉 Come and work with me in Helsinki to uncover the pathways producing colourful tiger moth wings. Lots of options for genomics, CRISPR, fieldwork, behaviour experiments… Email with questions! jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...
We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT
NSF unexpectedly changed (at the last minute) who is eligible to apply for the Grad Research Fellowship, dropping 2nd year students. We started a petition to reverse this unfair change, Sign here:
laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/
and please spread the word!!!!
Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
Meet new Stengl-Wyer Scholar, Fabian Salgado-Roa! He studies phenotypic and genetic diversity change at multiple geographical scales, using arthropods as a model system. Learn more about him at our new blog post. biodiversity.utexas.edu/news/feature... #biology #ecology #science #entomology
And look at this graphic abstract….. 😱🤯
Most "tarantula-like" (Mygalomorph) spiders can't use silk to balloon around, unlike "typical" (Araneomorph) spiders.
BUT. Ummidia trapdoor spiders can! (still only as babies, same as all spiders.) That's why theyre so widespread around the world compared to their relatives!
#Arachtober 🧪🌿🕷️
It was a pleasure to be involved in this!
Congratulations to Fabian Salgado-Roa, winner of the Medalla Humbold-Caldas Best Publication in Biogeography! His paper is titled "The Andes as a semi-permeable geographical barrier: Genetic connectivity between structured populations in a widespread spider." tinyurl.com/2pmcem2c
Awesome faculty position alert! Tenure-track assistant professor position in Evolutionary Biology, with a focus on organismal responses to environmental change.
Please help spread the word!
apply.interfolio.com/173889
Still possible to apply to this #post-doc position at CESAB #Montpellier.
Application closing date: September 15th 2025 (12:00 PM CET)
How taking intraspecific diversity and evolutionary processes into account in translocation-based programs.
Please share widely #PopGen #NbS #Biodiversity
Applications for the 2026 Stengl-Wyer Scholars Program are open! The program provides up to 3 years of support for talented postdoctoral researchers in the broad area of the diversity of life and/or organisms in their natural environments. Learn more here: utexas.infoready4.com/CompetitionS...
Introducing the 2025 Stengl-Wyer Scholars, Fellows, and Grant Awardees! Another talented group we are excited to have! Learn about their fascinating research in our first blog posting of the fall semester. biodiversity.utexas.edu/news/feature...
Scatterplot showing fitness effect of ~7000 synonymous mutations in yeast: read count at start vs log2 fold change. Most data points are not significant but 204 points are significant outliers, either advantageous or deleterious.
At the same time, we made thousands of synonymous mutations in endogenous yeast genes and measured their growth. We used careful statistics and controls. Only 3%, 204 of 6874, had a fitness effect! This goes against a controversial recent result that most synonymous mutations had fitness effects.
Following funnel-web spiders — amazing work by Caitlin Creak:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Study initially by @braxtonjones.bsky.social, Danilo Harms and I (funded by NatGeo and AusGeo), taken up by Caitlin with Russell Bonduriansky and Mike Kasumovic. Congrats all, especially Caitlin! :)
