iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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T Revathe @revathe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Thrilled that our research is featured on the cover! There is also a perspective piece. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Observation and exploration widen the menu

Orangutans expand their foraging skills by combining observation with trial-and-error learning

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Reposted by Elliot Howard-Spink

Culture Conference @cultconf.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

‼️SAVE THE DATE‼️ We are excited to welcome you for the next Culture Conference, taking place 31 March to 2 April 2027 at the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social in Leipzig, Germany! Stay tuned for future announcements here & on the website 🔎 culture-conference.com

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Alexandre "Blublu" Bluet @blubludoesscience.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

New preprint! We investigate the role of language in the transmission of mental models in cultural evolution. Using a transmission chain design with over 2000 participants, we show that only language allows for the transmission and refinement of mental models. osf.io/preprints/ps...

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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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Evolution Students @ssegrad.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

1/4 In today's funding climate, every grant and fellowship matters. Based on feedback from our GSAC Community Check-In Survey, we're building a growing hub of graduate & postdoctoral funding opportunities and job boards to make them easier to find. 🧵

Funding and job board curated by Dieter Lukas and Pro Manna

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Alice Auersperg @auersperga.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

New exciting postdoc position with @christophvoelter.bsky.social within our new FWF emerging fields project share.eva.mpg.de/index.php/s/...

share.eva.mpg.de

CEIS_Postdoc_Ad_2026.pdf

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I made a professional website! 🤓 Follow my research updates on sites.google.com/view/ellioth...

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Reposted by Elliot Howard-Spink

Behaviour 2027 @behaviour2027.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

We are excited to announce that #Behaviour2027 (XXXIX International Ethological Congress) will be taking place in Vienna, Austria! We are looking forward to having you all join us next year from August 23-27. Please follow and share!

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Kiran Basava @incertaesedis.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Very happy this has finally been published! Thread by co-author @theissbendixen.bsky.social about our study on cephalopod brain evolution

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Orangutan Land Trust @orangutanlandtrust.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Female orangutans are generally solitary, but they travel more and eat less in an apparent effort to ensure their offspring have someone to play with www.newscientist.com/article/2532...

newscientist.com

Orangutan mothers seem to plan playdates for their offspring

Female orangutans are generally solitary, but they travel more and eat less in an apparent effort to ensure their offspring have someone to play with

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Reposted by Elliot Howard-Spink

Joe Morford @morfjoe.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The WISDOM OF CROWDS emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirds! Excited to share our work published by @aaas.org in Science Advances! doi.org/10.1126/scia...

doi.org

The wisdom of crowds emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirds

Larger flocks of migrating songbirds orient more accurately toward their population’s migratory direction than smaller flocks.

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Can I speak German now? No! But can I read the packaging of items in the supermarket? Sort of!

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Reposted by Elliot Howard-Spink

Stuart K Watson @chimpsahoi.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Coverage in the Guardian of our latest publication in Royal Society Open Science, with fantastic collaborators Alan McElligott (@amcell.bsky.social), Christian Nawroth (@goatswhostare.bsky.social), Federico Rossano and Simon Townsend. Paper threaded below! www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

theguardian.com

Goats can find food by following a human voice, study finds

Experiments show 29 animals moved towards a treat-filled bucket 60% of the time when guided by a researcher

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

This paper is currently in review, so keep your eyes peeled for full publication later this year! 👀 @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Whilst our review is primate focussed, our framework can likely translate across species - if you know where an animal is looking, this framework may apply!

static.klipy.com

Aufmerksames Erdmännchen

ALT: Aufmerksames Erdmännchen

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Given our framework allows observational social learning through peering to be identified in situ, this will enhance the rigour with which observational data can be used to understand the dynamics and scopes of wild primate cultures.

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

We reviewed several decades of literature on peering, and devised an observation-based framework to identify if, when and what wild animals may learn from each other during peering.

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Increasing studies are documenting a behaviour called peering: close range, sustained observation of social partners. Peering is often discussed in relation to observational social learning in wild primates. But how can we actually know if (and what) animals learn from each other during peering?

Figure 1. Examples of peering in foraging contexts across different primate species. Examples of peering at foraging using tools: (a) West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus; photo: T. Matsuzawa). An immature female (left) and an immature male (right) peer at their mother (center) cracking oil-palm nuts (Elaeis guineensis) using stone tools during a long-term naturalistic field experiment at Bossou, Guinea. (b) Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii; photo: G. Duvot). An immature orangutan peers at their mother performing extractive foraging using a stick tool. Examples of peering at foraging without tools: (c) Bonobos (Pan paniscus; photo: B. Fruth). (d) Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus; photo: E. Fernàndez-Fueyo). (e) Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus; photo: L. Schad). (f) Panamanian white faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator; photo: B Barrett).

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

New preprint in review! 🤩 "Identifying social learning through peering: predictions and recommendations". 👀 Led by Elisa Bandini alongside @revathe.bsky.social, myself, and Caroline Schuppli. See 🧵 and read it here: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

ecoevorxiv.org

Identifying social learning through peering: predictions and recommendations

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Camille Troisi @camilletroisi.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

🚨We're hiring again, this time for a research assistant position 🚨 The position is to help with a project looking at learning and social behaviour in birds along an urban gradient Position at @ceec-research.bsky.social 📆28th June deadline More info: shorturl.at/vBxiW #ringing #fieldwork

Great tit standing on a branch.
Photo credit: Alizée Vernouillet

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Seth Chagi (World of Paleoanthropology🏺) @sethchagi.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

🦅 Re-Evaluating the Neanderthal Mind 🪶 What happens when we look past stone tools to the most delicate, ephemeral materials in the Pleistocene ecosystem? We find a Neanderthal world rich in color, symbolism, and personal ornamentation.

open.substack.com

The Substrate of Symbology: Avian Exploitation and Taphonomic Skepticism in the Middle Paleolithic - Part I

Dismantling the "Cognitive Rubicon": A deep dive into the zooarchaeology, taphonomy, and evidence of Neanderthal feather-harvesting and raptor-talon jewelry.

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Reposted by Elliot Howard-Spink

Haneul Jang @haneuljang.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

💙New paper!💙 How is knowledge transmitted across generations in a foraging society? With @danielredhead.bsky.social we found: In BaYaka foragers, long-term skills pass in smaller, sparser networks, while short-term food info circulates broadly & reciprocally academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

academic.oup.com

Transmission networks of long-term and short-term knowledge in a foraging society

Abstract. Cultural transmission across generations is key to cumulative cultural evolution. While several mechanisms—such as vertical, horizontal, and obli

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Reposted by Elliot Howard-Spink

Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Human childbirth is not uniquely difficult among mammals: Birth complications are widespread across mammalian species, including in the wild www.univie.ac.at/en/news/pres...

univie.ac.at

Human childbirth is not uniquely difficult among mammals

Birth complications are widespread across mammalian species, including in the wild

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Reposted by Elliot Howard-Spink

Ecology of Animal Societies @livingingroups.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Is bigger always better? For social animals, group size is a dilemma: big groups face more internal competition, yet hold an edge over smaller neighbors. 33 years of data on 12 wild capuchin groups reveals how these forces shape behavior. Out today in *Nat Eco & Evo*: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

A delayed personal update, but two months ago I got married! ✨ No new scientific insights, but who needs 'em! (Also please know my husband is a lawyer and I will be using that as a threat from now on!) 😌

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Wendel van der Sluis @wendelvandersluis.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

🎉 The winner of the 2nd Frans de Waal PhD Dissertation Prize is the brilliant @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social. Congratulations! Her 2025 thesis “Cracking Capuchins” dives deep into how tool use shapes survival and evolution. Some capuchins wield stones like pros, others don’t.

Camera trap photo of a capuchin monkey. Courtesy of Zoë Goldsborough.

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Reposted by Elliot Howard-Spink

Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Phil Trans Roy Soc B theme issue ‘The evolution of collective intelligence’ is out! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...

royalsocietypublishing.org

Volume 381 Issue 1948 | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | The Royal Society

Influential themed journal issues across the life sciences.

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Reposted by Elliot Howard-Spink

Kaja Wierucka @kajawierucka.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Our new paper is out in @intjprimatol.bsky.social! Huge credit to Luca Wienand for an excellent bachelor's project on spatial and sociosexual behavior in common marmosets! Read all about it here: shorturl.at/R5eju @primatenzentrum.bsky.social @nccrlanguage.bsky.social @evocoggroup.bsky.social

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Evolutionary Cognition Group @evocoggroup.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

We are offering two 4-year PhD positions in our new SNF project "The Evolutionary Roots of Altercentrism"

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

In turn, these methods should bring us closer to mapping animal combinatoriality and understanding the roots of complex communication.

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

This approach gives researchers a much more rigorous way to study how animals combine signals, and opens the door for investigating how socioecological differences between cohorts of animals influence how they communicate.

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

As a case study, we looked at vocal sequences in common marmosets. Males and females mostly use similar call combinations; however we found some subtle, potentially female-biased patterns.

media.tenor.com

a couple of small monkeys sitting on a wooden ledge

ALT: a couple of small monkeys sitting on a wooden ledge

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

We validated the use of MDCA-Pr on animal datasets using a mixture of simulations and real animal data. Overall, MDCA-Pr performed well, even with relatively small or recombinatorial datasets, as well as during intercohort comparisons.

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

These statistical improvements also let us apply MDCA-Pr to questions which have thus far been inaccessible using animal collocation analysis, including comparing how different cohorts of animals (e.g. sexes, age classes, or populations) vary in their use of signal combinations.

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

MCDA-Pr has advantages over existing forms of animal collocation analysis because it can: [1] Account for uncertainty for signal combinations; [2] Avoid false positives when evaluating many different types of signals; [3] Handle repeated measures from the same individuals.

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

In this manuscript, we re-evaluate an increasingly popular set of methods for identifying signal combinations in animal communication (collocation analysis). We draw on recent advances in distributional linguistics, to validate an improved method for animal collocation analysis (MDCA-Pr).

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Accurate characterization of animal signal combinations is also critical for comparative research into the origins of human language, which is an enduring scientific mystery.

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Figuring out which signal combinations represent repeatable behavioural patterns for animals (i.e. they happen more than expected by chance) is challenging. However, this is a necessary first step to understand how animals combine signals to convey different types of information.

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Animals use a variety of different communicative signals (calls, gestures, facial expressions, etc.), and growing evidence suggests that many different animal species combine these signals flexibly into sequences.

media.tenor.com

a small bird is perched on a tree branch with its beak open .

ALT: a small bird is perched on a tree branch with its beak open .

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Elliot Howard-Spink @ehowaspi.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Our new preprint is out! Animal collocation analysis 2.0: improving statistical inference and applications for cohort comparisons. 🥳 Check it out here, or read our summary below: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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Ruth Mace @ruthmace.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

UCL Evolutionary Anthropology seminars starting up again for the new term every Tuesday pm. Anthropology Dept. 14 Taviton St. DFL 3.30-5pm followed by 🍷. All welcome. www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...

ucl.ac.uk

Evolutionary Anthropology seminars

Exploring the evolutionary roots of human behaviour, biology, and culture through interdisciplinary research and debate.

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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Statistical Rethinking 2026 Lecture B01 Multilevel Models is online. This is the first lecture of the "experienced" section, in which we start with multilevel models and venture into vast covariance spaces. Full lecture list still here: github.com/rmcelreath/s...

youtube.com

Statistical Rethinking 2026 - Lecture B01 - Multilevel Models

YouTube video by Richard McElreath

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Bridget Waller @bridgetwaller.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Our Science Perspective on Ianni et al - neural control of facial expressions involves voluntary pathways @jamiewhitehouse.bsky.social www.science.org/eprint/EKJTZ...

science.org

Making faces

Facial expressions are produced through a coordinated system of voluntary and emotional pathways

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Reposted by Elliot Howard-Spink

Dr Katrina Siddiqi-Davies @katrina-siddiqi.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

We are looking to hire a Seabird Field Assistant for 2026 for our Manx Shearwater research project. Please share this to anyone who'd like to get out in the field this summer and learn about biotelemetry, bird handling and research into animal behaviour. drive.google.com/file/d/1SGZt...

Last years field assistant holding a Manx Shearwater on the isle of Rum (under a towel), retrieving a GPS device after a bird has returned from a foraging trip!

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Claudia Wascher @wascherclaudia.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

If you work on corvid ecology, behaviour, cognition, or conservation, this might be useful for you 👇 I’ve just published CORVIDATA in Scientific Data 🐦 doi.org/10.1038/s415... (1/4)

doi.org

CORVIDATA: A global dataset of morphology, ecology, sociality, and life-history in Corvidae - Scientific Data

Scientific Data - CORVIDATA: A global dataset of morphology, ecology, sociality, and life-history in Corvidae

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