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Brendan Barrett

@bjjbarrett.bsky.social
977 followers 626 following 471 posts

dad / evolutionary (behavioral) ecologist group leader at MPI-AB and STRI research associate social learning, cultural evolution, extragenetic inheritance, dispersal. field & stats & math. cyclist & runner / doom metal aficionado. he/him.

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Reposted by Brendan Barrett
Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
We really need to make Meng's Big Data Paradox central to teaching, don't we? Researchers don't know this stuff bc they have never been exposed to it. But it is fundamental. (Link to paper PDF statistics.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/file...)
3. Compensating for quality with quantity is a doomed game.
3.1. A law of large populations? Under a probabilistic sampling, a central
driving force for the stochastic behaviors of the sample mean (and alike) is the
sample size n. This is the case for the Law of Large Numbers (LLN) and for the
Central Limit Theorem (CLT), two pillars of theoretical statistics, and of much of
applied statistics because we rely on LLN and CLT to build intuitions, heuristic
arguments, or even models. However, identity (2.3) implies that once we lose control of probabilistic sampling, then the driving force behind the estimation error is
no longer the sample size n, but rather the population size N. Specifically, (2.3)
and (2.5) together imply that
(3.1) Zn,N ≡ Gn − GN

VSRS(Gn)
= ρR,G1−f
f σG
1−f
n S2
G
= √
N − 1ρR,G.
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
when i see funding opportunities or "official" supervision opportunities in DE that are restricted to W3 professors and the concentration of power in these roles, this scene always pops in my head www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNih...
youtube.com
Associate Professor means "less than"
YouTube video by Marty Jencius
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
soon to be 4 once i get my ish together
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Ari Strandburg-Peshkin @arispeshkin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
We are offering 3 #PhD positions in our Ecology of Animal Societies Department @livingingroups.bsky.social at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior - check them out! imprs-qbee.mpg.de/66685/current
imprs-qbee.mpg.de
Current
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Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Happening next year in #Konstanz 👇 #Etho2027 (aka animal behavioral research conference with the best views) Register NOW!!
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Butlerian Jihadist of House Dornick @shimminykricket.blacksky.app · 08/10/2026
Harvard just dropped a study AI productivity in software engineering and it found the average increase in productivity from using Claude code is.....zero and for exactly the reasons you'd think fion.ac/jellyfish.pdf
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Ecology of Animal Societies @livingingroups.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Social play is key for development in many animals, yet how solitary species with single young acquire playmates has remained a quandary. We unlock this using long-term data from 31 Bornean orangutan mother-offspring pairs in our new publication in PNAS. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2621225123. 🧵
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Led by @oddjacobson.bsky.social
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
this site and field station is currently under threat from the climate change linked forest fires in Borneo. if you found this paper interesting (or not) please consider reading about or donating to support fire fighting causes in the area: coreborneo.com/wildfire-app...
coreborneo.com
Wildfire Appeal
Emergency Appeal: Help Save the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station and Surrounding Peatland Forest defaultdefaultdefaultdefault The Fires Have Returned to Tuanan A major wildfire…
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
lay summary "oranguatan moms incur costs to plan non-familial playdates for their kids, decades of data required to measure this in the wild"
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
it also highlights the required & unique insights of longitudinal data collection in addressing fundamental questions in the evolution of social behavior in singleton "clutched" species with slow life offspring
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
in addition to showing how solitary animals incur costs so their offspring benefit from social play it features an integration of #causalinference and hierarchical dyadic social relations network modeling to highlight how individuals and kin-dyads navigates the costs of social behavior
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Our paper on how orangutan mothers plan and alter their space use at personal costs so their offspring may play with similarly aged offspring (independent of kinship and fruit productivity) has transitioned from preprint to peer reviewed publication doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org
Maternal ranging strategies facilitate offspring social play at energetic cost in the most solitary ape | PNAS
In most vertebrates, social play among peers is considered essential for behavioral development. Yet in solitary species bearing single offspring, ...
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Gavin Simpson @gsimpson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
📝 My paper on generalized additive models (GAMs) in animal science is out! Learn nonlinear relationships from data, estimate growth rates and compare treatments, with cows, pigs and quail + reproducible #RStats code. Open access: doi.org/10.1016/j.an... #mgcv #AnimalScience #Statistics 🧪
Eight panels show body mass over 78 days for 57 Japanese quail. Columns represent control, T4, T3 and combined T3–T4 hormone treatments; rows separate females and males. Coloured points are measurements, lines are individual growth curves fitted by a hierarchical generalized additive model, and shading shows 95% credible intervals. Growth slows towards a plateau, with females generally reaching higher body masses than males.Eighteen panels show individual pig growth curves. Black points mark daily average weight estimates from a depth camera; blue lines show curves fitted by a hierarchical generalized additive model, with shaded 95% credible intervals. Weights generally increase over time, with differences in growth and measurement variability among pigs. Uncertainty widens where measurements are sparse or absent.Four-panel comparison of models fitted to a cow’s average daily milk fat production. Observations rise to a peak around weeks 8–10, then decline. The first panel shows fitted curves and uncertainty bands for Wood’s model, a Tweedie GLM and a Tweedie GAM. Residual plots show curved patterns for Wood’s model and the GLM, but little remaining pattern for the GAM.
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
We will be bringing in a new cohort here in Fall 2027. Excited to have Will join! Stay tuned for more postings.
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Will Oestreich @will-oestreich.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I am recruiting a PhD student to work with our group at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior! Learn more & apply here: tinyurl.com/kd4xx4ku Deadline: 15 Nov 2026 Start date: Flexible (summer-fall 2027) @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @livingingroups.bsky.social @carlzeissstiftung.bsky.social
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Roberta Millstein 🌎🌱🐩🏊🏼‍♀🎶🥾 @cepaea.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This has been a really fun project to be a part of, and now we have a cool cover! My co-editors are Alison McConwell, Michael Dietrich, John Beatty, with authors from across biology, history, and philosophy (including one from me). It's due out in June 2027 -- can't wait! 🌱🐋
Artwork that depicts an alternative evolutionary pathway, with fantastical colors and even, improbably, a frog with wings.
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Elizabeth Anne, PhD @lacksauthority.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
never the wrong time for this classic
Screenshot of a tweet by @RobbtKraft reading “scientist: "does everyone here know what Watson and Crick discovered?" 
me from back of room: "Rosalind Franklin's notes"”
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worm @rfksbrainworm.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
If you ever wondered why visible light is those particular wavelengths, it's because life evolved to see in the narrow range where water is transparent
Diagram of absorption of emf by water. There's a gap right that dips in the 500 nm range
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Nora Newcombe @noranewcombe.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Done without Congressional approval and with no one in charge who is congressionally confirmed
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
beep(3)
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Also @leakeyfoundation.org as I am sure you have funded much of this data collection historically.
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Andy Radford @andyradford.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
📢NEW paper out today in @royalsocietypublishing.org #RSOS. 📖Practical implications of temporal body mass variation for biologging and comparative studies. 🌟Showcasing the value of #long-term studies - 1000s of body-mass measures analysed. 👥Led by @benmocha.bsky.social doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
Arabian babbler on a balance scaleDwarf mongoose on a balance scale
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Please share within your networks: @aspvoice.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social @bioanth.org @asab.org
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
9. Benefits and potential issues associated with efforts to mobilize data from multiple generations of researchers on hundreds of primate species, both in the wild and in captivity
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
6. The digitization process: development and testing of manual and/or automated protocols 7. Database creation, curation, standards, licensing, and accessibility 8. Handling uncertainty and validation in reconstructed historical data
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
3. Integrating historical datasets with modern technology (remote sensing, camera traps, biologging) 4. Tracking demographic and life-history changes from past to present 5. Descriptions of valuable, under-used paper datasets (even if not yet digitized)
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
1. New analyses with old data: using recently digitized historical datasets to address fundamental questions in primatology 2.Using the past to predict the future: evaluating primate responses to climate change & anthropogenic impacts over the past 50 years to inform future research & conservation
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Interested parties with any questions or a desire to submit please email legacydata@ab.mpg.de Types of welcomed submissions include:
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I am part of a team guest editing a special issue of the American Journal of Primatology on "Digitization and use of legacy datasets in primatology” and we are seeking out submissions due on 1 September 2027. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal...
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Christos C. Ioannou @ccioannou.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
📢 📢 📢 Three days left 📢 📢 📢 to apply ASAB Childcare Grants www.asab.org/childcare DEADLINE MIDNIGHT 1ST OCTOBER @asab.org asabpsgbwinter.github.io//2026/
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Zoë Goldsborough @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
📣🎓 Open #PhD Position (3.5 years) 🎓📣 Want to come work with me on culture and social bonds in apes? 🐵 Apply to join my new group in the @livingingroups.bsky.social at @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social. Full job posting: imprs-qbee.mpg.de/131133/cultu... Deadline 📅 23 October 2026 Please share widely!
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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Thoughts and prayers for research data managers everywhere. You are not alone. We will get through this together techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/excelbl...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell | Microsoft Community Hub
Lists, arrays in cells, and nested arrays introduce new ways to store and organize related information, helping you keep data together without sacrificing...
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A preprint for your consideration exploring the genomics and behavior supporting olfactory communication in Cebus imitator across multiple sites in Costa Rica and Panama. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Genetic and behavioural repertoires support olfactory communication in wild capuchin monkeys
Olfaction is a key sense for many mammals, but its role in the social lives of anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes, humans) is poorly understood. Studies of chemosensory receptor genes and olfactory be...
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laserhedvig @laserhedvig.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Interdisciplinary research is great and necessary, and also has consistently lower funding success www.nature.com/articles/nat... #academiclabourmarket #academia #research
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Adolfo Neto @adolfoneto.elixiremfoco.com · 17/09/2026
If you hate reading papers so much, maybe you shouldn't be in Academia
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Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
ACE Research Grant Alert 🚨! CES will give out two awards of up to $3000 each to support early career research projects in cultural evolution. The award is open to applicants worldwide, with an application deadline of October 9th 2026, 9:00 AM AoE. Applications: forms.gle/dsLdKQuNBH4W...
forms.gle
ACE Early Career Research Grants
CES will give out two awards of up to $3000 each to support research projects in cultural evolution. To learn more about the Advancing Cultural Evolution (ACE) initiative, see here. Deadline: Appli...
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Zoë Goldsborough @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Imagine you are a white-faced capuchin monkey on Jicarón island learning how to use stone tools 🔨 Your mother does not use tools, so who do you turn to as a model? Our new manuscript answering this question is out now in Animal Behaviour @asab.org. doi.org/10.1016/j.an.... A 🧵 of our findings (1/10)
A juvenile white-faced capuchin monkey eating a coconut. Photo credits Christian Ziegler
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AEA Data Editor @aeadata.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
"Stata, like any other software package, has fixed criteria to convergence declaration. It's not foolproof. There will be always cases where convergence will be 'declared' and it shouldn't."
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
The primary reason my PhD took so long.
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NPR @npr.org · 22/07/2026
About 24% of U.S. employees stay in unwanted jobs just for health insurance, a report out Wednesday finds. Up significantly since 2021, the uptick in "job lock" is a concerning sign for the U.S. economy. n.pr/4gQIY5E
n.pr
Staying in a job for the health insurance? About 1 in 4 Americans do, a survey says
About 24% of U.S. employees stay in unwanted jobs just for health insurance, a report out Wednesday finds. Up significantly since 2021, the uptick in "job lock" is a concerning sign for the U.S. economy.
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
looks cool! we have thought about this a bit with using handlheld GPS to track habituated animals and how this biases home range and movement estimates which seems related: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
The Importance of Representative Sampling for Home Range Estimation in Field Primatology - International Journal of Primatology
Understanding the amount of space required by animals to fulfill their biological needs is essential for comprehending their behavior, their ecological role within their community, and for effective c...
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Our recent paper led by @oddjacobson.bsky.social recently covered by @mongabay.com
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Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Manuscripts with women as corresponding authors are less frequently sent out for review at Science. The ones reviewed receive less favorable reviews by both male and female reviewers.
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
reading @apvelilla.bsky.social @psmaldino.bsky.social @babeheim.bsky.social paper and realizing this is the kind of thing I say to my kids when they hurt each other. maybe i need new word choices. doi.org/10.1037/rev0...
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Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar @asanchez-tojar.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
In many fields, pilot studies are critical for methods & tool development & refinement, yet are often overlooked & rarely reported Any ecologists & evolutionary biologists with a special interest and experience in piloting in ecology & evolution: suggested reading, previous research, etc...?
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Alice Auersperg @auersperga.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
We have an exciting new position in our group for a PhD on parrot innovation !!! The position will be part of our new @fwf-at.bsky.social Emerging Fields project with @barbaraklump.bsky.social , @mohara.bsky.social , @christophvoelter.bsky.social and Justus Piater. Apply & share!!
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
One reason I like Bayeisan stats is that you can model the importance of rare event's like this and why i find ways to fit Gamma, zero-augmented Gamma, and zero-augmented Beta distributions at all costs. "Rare events of great biological import likely live in the tails of probability distributions"
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Theiss Bendixen @theissbendixen.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
New research! 📚 We built the largest database to date of cephalopod species - octopuses, squids and cuttlefish - and their brains, habitats and behaviors 🐙🧠📈 What did we find?👇 Press release: www.lse.ac.uk/news/ecologi... Paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
*rejected my malapropisms and dyslexia are how you know I do not use AI to write
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