iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

* NEW #PhD * #Evolution #Ecology of Immune #Senesence in Wild Badgers - exciting project with me, @btschirren.bsky.social & our awesome collaborators @ APHA. Based at @exetercec.bsky.social in Cornwall, UK. !PLEASE SHARE! See www.animalsocieties.org and apply: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin... 🌏 🧪 🦑

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 22/11/2023

LOVE #EVOLUTION? LOVE #BEHAVIOUR? Join our MSc in Evolutionary & Behavioural Ecology @UniExeCEC in Cornwall,UK We're training the next generation of researchers! Check it out: tinyurl.com/yc38m3m4 Get in touch: I'm the course Director Check out all of our ecology MScs @exetergses.bsky.social 👇🤟🌍🦠🧪🦉

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 21/11/2023

Nice new life-history trade-off paper out soon from @katelaskowski.bsky.social & team. Meta-analytical confirmation of the missing (yet much invoked) -ve genetic covariance. In a 'resource allocation trade-off' world, genetic variation within pops may lie more in resource acq than allocation. Cool.

authorea.com

What's the meta-analytic evidence for life-history trade-offs at the genetic level?

Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms underlying the maintenance of individual differences in behavior and physiology is a fundamental goal in ecology and evolution. The Pace-of-life syndrome hypo...

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 17/11/2023

Hi there - thanks a lot for running this feed. Please could I be added? I'm an evolutionary biologist at University of Exeter, UK... biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/staff/profil... Thanks!

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 17/11/2023

3/3 Why cool? Means helpers in cooperative breeders (e.g. us) could have cryptic maternally-mediated beneficial effects on pre-natal development of young. Our data implicate help not group size effect as mat reaction norms to *female* helpers, who work twice as hard as males (tinyurl.com/38kv8jp2)

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 17/11/2023

2/3 We show helpers reduce mum's post-natal workload (see pic) – may allow mums to invest > in egg (which only mums can do). And/or: We know helpers increase overall nestling feeding rate (tinyurl.com/38kv8jp2) - may increase mum's benefit from investing in the egg. Or: not adaptive (modest effect!)

Maternal reaction norms to female helper numbers. With increasing female helper numbers, mothers increase their egg size but decrease their chick feeding rates.

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 17/11/2023

*New #evolution paper* Sparrow-weaver mothers lay larger eggs when they will have more help feeding the resulting chicks. Maternal reaction norms to help are *opposite* for egg size & nestling feeding rate. Cool. But why do this? 1 of 3... Fine work @p_capi on X. tinyurl.com/2djsp6zd #ExeterCEC 🌍🧪🦉

Sparrow-weavers! A dominant breeding pair on the left (male has dark bill, female pale bill, in this subspecies). They can have up to 10 non-breeding adult helpers in their cooperatively breeding family. And a brood of three chicks on the right. Photos my own.

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 15/11/2023

#HiSky! My lab study Social #Evolution & Senescence in families via.. - Fieldwork on birds (Kalahari weavers) & mammals (badgers) - Single-cell res studies of #microbes We dig unicellular #ageing, parental age effects, #inflammaging, #cooperation in variable enviros, social plasticity 🌍🧪🦠 #ExeterCEC

Our main fluffy study organisms - white-browed sparrow weaver & European badger. Photos my own.

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 15/11/2023

Hey Steve - v cool! Will use in my nervous system evolution lectures : ) Was hunting in the paper for a neat plot of the data showing gymnogenes as an outlier. I see that I can make one from S1b table, but thought I'd ask in case you have a flashy one from the original submission. Thanks!

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 15/11/2023

Hi there! Please could I be added to the feed. I'm an evolutionary biologist.... biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/staff/profil...

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 15/11/2023

@ethanfreedman.bsky.social Can I be added to the feed please? Thanks for working on this!

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Andy Young @andyyoung.bsky.social · 15/11/2023

Thanks B! #evolsky you say. I need to get dialled in to some of that!

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