iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Amanda Melin

Krish Sanghvi @krishsanghvi11.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Simulate extensive range of selective [dis]appearance & ageing scenarios, life histories; explore published datasets; or analyze + diagnose your own data with sophisticated & comprehensive features, approaches, & models, which explain the mechanism & biology! Check out our shiny app, disappR!

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Andrea DiGiorgio, PhD @andreaamongapes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Somehow this isn't getting covered in the US, but biodiversity hotspot Indonesia is burning. Fires bigger than our California wildfires. We need help buying hoses, equipment for the local people to become fire fighters because there isn't anyone else. coreborneo.com/wildfire-app...

coreborneo.com

Wildfire Appeal

Emergency Appeal: Help Save the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station and Surrounding Peatland Forest The Fires Have Returned to Tuanan A major wildfire emergency is unfolding in th…

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Amanda Melin @amelinlab.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

A sensational piece in the Guardian by @willtullett.bsky.social on the value of a scent education. Get out there and smell things, people! It’s (often) good for your wellbeing. www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

theguardian.com

Smelling test: children need education in sniffing aromas, scientist says

Exclusive: Dr Will Tullett says better understanding of scents can improve wellbeing and perception of the world

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Neuroendocrinology and Behavior lab at UCLA @alwardlab-ucla.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I’m looking to hire a postdoc to join our lab at UCLA! We study the genes, hormones, and cells that regulate social behavior in the African cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni (in a separate post we’re looking for a PhD student) @sbn-bsky.bsky.social 1/3

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I am delighted to announce that The Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah is continuing a multi-year recruiting initiative for multiple tenure-track faculty positions at the rank of Assistant Professor. Please share and consider applying! utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/208...

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Jocelyn Poissant @jocelynpoissant.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

🦌💩🦠 PhD opportunity! I am recruiting a fully-funded PhD student at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine to study the causes and consequences of gut microbiome variation in caribou. Start date is flexible. Please share!

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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 22/08/2026

Why do some sexually selected traits evolve faster than others? A new #ProcB study found that flashy male ornaments that are chosen by females generally evolve faster than weapons used in male–male combat: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

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Jonathan Pritchard @jkpritch.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Must-know numbers in human genetics -- As many of you know, I'm writing a free online textbook in human genetics. In this blog post I cover a key skill for genome scientists from that book: how to use mental math to figure out key genome properties. jkpritchard.substack.com/p/on-fermi-p...

jkpritchard.substack.com

On Fermi Problems in Human Genetics

and some very useful numbers about human genomes to get you started!

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Amanda Melin @amelinlab.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Wildflowers along the Widowmaker Trail in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada. Please enjoy 🗻🌸❤️🍁

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Silvia Carboni @silviacarboni.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Grateful for the opportunity to present our recent publication on tamarin scent marking behaviour at ISBE2026 @isbe2026.bsky.social. Thank you to the organizers, all the great scientists who shared their research, and for the interest in our work! 🐒👃 doi.org/10.1002/ajp....

doi.org

Responses to Scent Marks in a Wild Group of <i>Leontocebus Weddelli</i>: Insights for Sexual Communication

In wild saddleback tamarins, scent marks from the adult breeding female elicited the highest response numbers and received the most overmarks from adult breeding males. Together, these findings sugge...

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Mirjam Knörnschild @berlinbatlab.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Check out our new paper! 🔗 nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Baptiste Sadoughi @bsadoughi.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

🚨New Study Out🚨 In #MolecularEcology we used a new method to measure #DNAmethylation NON-INVASIVELY in wild capuchin monkeys 🐒🧬 We show that epithelial gut cells from feces encode species, age and sex, and can be used to build #aging clocks, run EWAS, and more onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Non‐Invasive Measures of <fc>DNA</fc> Methylation Capture Molecular Aging in Wild Capuchin Monkeys

Elucidating the socio-ecological factors that shape patterns of aging in long-lived vertebrates is of broad interest to evolutionary biologists, geroscientists, and ecologists. However, research on a...

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Amanda Melin @amelinlab.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

It’s out! We show that fecal cellular DNA methylation profiles provide accurate molecular clock for age estimation in wild capuchins; age-associated differences in DNAm are relevant to development, membrane excitability, and control of cell cycle. New opportunities for epigenetic study in the wild!

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Jan Gogarten @jangogarten.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

New study 🚨🚨🚨 Using fecal samples collected over 17 years, we tracked antibiotic resistance genes in wild chimpanzees in Taï National Park; one of the last remaining chunks of primary rainforests in West Africa. Study out now in @isme-microbes.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1093/isme...

A map labeled A showing the home ranges of the three neighboring chimpanzee groups, along with data on the time since the groups have been habituated to human observers labelled B, and graphs showing the accumulation of antimicrobial resistance genes and antimicrobial resistance classes in those chimpanzee groups labeled C and D.

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Amanda Melin @amelinlab.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

“The true number of insect species (globally) is at least 14 to 20 million…” Important work on insect biodiversity out of the Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica, leveraging DNA barcoding doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

doi.org

Constructing a lower-bound estimate of the global number of insect species on a hyperdiverse empirical foundation | PNAS

Estimating the number of insect species on Earth is a daunting challenge. The current consensus estimate—about six million species—is likely far to...

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Amanda Melin @amelinlab.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

No one does quality sister time like capuchins. Please enjoy some hand sniffing, courtesy of the tropical dry forest in Área de Conservación Guanacaste.

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Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Does transparency make wings fragile? Investigating wing membrane thickness shows that facing conflicting optical and mechanical needs, wings have evolved thick opaque patches around thin transparent patches, like kite frame around fragile sail: Gomez et al. 2026 doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

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Eliza Bliss-Moreau @eblissmoreau.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Spread the word! We are recruiting for 6 new research professors at UC Davis' California National Primate Research Center. Open rank, open area, but must leverage 🐒 resources. recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07561

recruit.ucdavis.edu

6 Positions - Assistant, Associate, Full Professional Researcher

University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!

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Dan Mennill @dmennill.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Come and join our team! With an application deadline in 1 week, we're hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Ecology in the Department of Biology at University of Windsor: efhc.fa.ca2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... @ibiouwindsor.bsky.social

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Joan Silk @jbsilk.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

This project (with Stacy Rosenbaum and Nick Grebe) began in the dark days of Covid, and is finally ready to share. We've built a living database of primate paternity data (52 species, 3000 paternities) and completed first wave of analyses of paternity distribution. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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Julia Bădescu @iuliabadescu.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

These colobus monkey males might look like harmless, adorable teddy bears, but think again…👺 😨 Read about how male coercion and reproductive strategies stress out females in our new article: rdcu.be/favqS @intjprimatol.bsky.social 🧪🏺 #Primates #AcademicSky #AnimalBehavior

White-thighed black-and-white colobus monkey adult males sitting peacefully in a tree.

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Pestilence @pestilence4all.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

A microbiome gut-brain pathway influenced by intestinal metabolites, innate immune responses, vagal nerve signaling and hippocampal memory encoding, impacts the rate of cognitive decline. Many potential points of intervention are described. #Science 🧪

nature.com

Intestinal interoceptive dysfunction drives age-associated cognitive decline - Nature

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Nick Chapoy @nickchapoy.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Todd with a Santa Rosa delicacy, squirrel tartare. Capuchins primarily eat fruit/seeds/insects but they are true omnivores. When the opportunity arises they will absolutely hunt bigger prey such as birds, lizards and mammals like this variegated squirrel

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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 16/02/2026

We are thrilled to announce that, thanks to the support of our institutional subscribers, all Royal Society subscription journals will be open access in 2026 through #S2O. Researchers can read all articles and publish #OpenAccess in our eight subscription journals for free buff.ly/4Lu9VpW

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Pestilence @pestilence4all.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

It’s an RNA world. RNA is posited to be the first genetic material, arising 4 billion years ago. It can store information and act as an enzyme. Eventually, it duplicated its information into a more stable form, DNA.

A four panel comic, from left to right:

1960s
LIFE IS BASED ON DNA, WHICH USES RNA TO MAKE PROTEINS THAT DO STUFF.

1980s
ALSO, THE RNA DOES SOME STUFF ITSELF, WHICH IS WEIRD.

2000s
THERE ARE 50
MANY KINDS OF RNA. IT'S DOING SO MUCH STUFF!

2020s
LIFE IS A SEETHING MASS OF RNA THAT SOMETIMES USES DNA TO TAKE NOTES.

WHAT DO THE PROTEINS DO?
ERRANDS FOR RNA.

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Julie Teichroeb @teichroeb-lab.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

New paper from our Rwenzori colobus & Sam Stead's dissertation. We examined female glucocorticoids & found a U-shaped distribution with unit size! Females also had increase to parturition & a decrease throughout lactation. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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ASAB @asab.org · 26/01/2026

The latest ASAB newsletter is out! If want these sent to your e-mail, remember to sign up for the mailing list at asab.org/newsletters Read here:

asab.org

ASAB Winter/Spring Newsletter 2026

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Sensory Ecology Lab @sensoryecology.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

“Male Andrea cuttlefish (Doratosepion andreanum) – quite drab to human eyes – use their birefringent arms to literally twist light, creating a highly conspicuous signal precisely tuned to cuttlefish vision.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/cuttlefish-l... 🧪 🐙 🦑

sciencealert.com

Cuttlefish Literally Twist Light to Attract a Mate, Study Finds

Every critter on this planet that relies on a sexual means of reproduction has its own way of luring in a mate – but cuttlefish can do something really special.

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Pimiento Research Group @pimientogroup.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Our new paper is online! We found that 1) today's shark & ray diversity was already reached ~100Ma; 2) that the K/Pg extinction was not catastrophic; 3) that the max diversity was reached ~50Ma; and 4) that today's diversity is depleted compared to the past. www.cell.com/current-biol...

cell.com

Revealing the hidden patterns of shark and ray diversity over the past 145 million years

Gardiner et al. reconstruct the diversity of sharks and rays across the past 145 million years using deep learning and an extensive dataset. Their results unveil previously hidden patterns, including ...

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ASAB Spring 2027 @asab-meetings.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Final schedule for #ASABWinter2025 is up! We have some fantastic talks and posters ahead of us 🥰 ❄️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 asabwinter.github.io/2025/schedule/

Winter ASAB 2025 December 15-16h Edinburgh How Sensory information affects behaviour

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Andrew Pruszynski @andpru.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Come to Canada

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Andrew Pruszynski @andpru.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Join us for Fall 2026. In our group, you can run studies from human behavior and neuroimaging, to large-scale NHP ephys, and join them up with a robust computational foundation. Bonus: you can help build the reading list.

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Sensory Ecology Lab @sensoryecology.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

“In the badlands of western Canada, two species of lichen prefer making their homes on dinosaur bones instead of on the surrounding desert rock, and their distinct orange color can be detected by drones, possibly aiding future dino discoveries” #scicomm www.sciencenews.org/article/lich... 🧪

sciencenews.org

This bright orange life-form could point to new dino discoveries

Colorful lichen living on dinosaur bones reflect infrared light that can be detected by drones, which might lead to finds in remote areas.

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Will Allen @wlallen.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

🚨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!

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Amanda Melin @amelinlab.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Please enjoy a small photo dump from the Dry Forest of the Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

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Amanda Melin @amelinlab.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

We are interested in what capuchin monkeys can teach us about the evolution of sensorimotor intelligence and sensitive discriminative touch. Here, Luna demonstrates an excellent example of skilled hand use!

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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Postdoc position in individual-level incentives, social learning, and payoff-biased imitation shape group-level accuracy in complex prediction and decision-making tasks in Konstanz files.newsletter2go.com/l3slzozn/s_i...

files.newsletter2go.com

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