iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Congratulations to our Honours student Emily Blackburn who graduated today with a First Class Honours, following her excellent research project on Leadbeater’s Possum. We’re so proud of you, Em! @monashbiol.bsky.social @monashscience.bsky.social

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Our school @monashbiol.bsky.social at @monashuniversity.bsky.social in Melbourne, Australia is recruiting an ongoing academic in Ecology or Evolutionary Biology. Monash is a wonderful, supportive place to work, and ranked #31 in the world (QS). Come join us! careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...

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Australasian Evolution Society - AES @ausevosoc.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

✨REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW OPEN!✨ Join us in December for 🧬𝗘𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗻𝗴🧬- A joint conference by Australasian Evolution Society (AES) and The Society of Australian Systematic Biologists (SASB)🤝. Register at this link: aes.corsizio.com/portal/aes Follow the thread for Key Rego Dates (1/1)

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Annual lab group photo tradition initiated - here’s the Evolutionary & Conservation Genomics Group, May 2026. I am so lucky to work with these fabulous folks! @monashbiol.bsky.social @monashscience.bsky.social

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The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 27/04/2026

A five-year study of Australian media found three quarters of science stories quoted men.

theconversation.com

New research shows men still outnumber women as experts in science news

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

The Government released the final report of the Strategic Examination of R&D yesterday. It's called "Ambitious Australia"🙃 Haven't read much, yet, but it says we should fund the ARC more. Like every single previous review. Can we got on with it & do that, now? www.industry.gov.au/publications...

Front cover of the Strategic Examination of Research & Development review report. Purple background with pink title text "Ambitious Australia". The graphics below the text are some curvy, bubble-like shapes with what seems to be a sunset viewed through some drops of liquid. That is, a distorted view of the horizon … a metaphor?

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

PhD student Camille Kynoch (cosupervised in our lab) was awarded a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment for her project "Breeding on Borrowed Time: Managing Flatback Sea Turtles Amid Climate Driven Male Scarcity". @monashbiol.bsky.social www.ecolsoc.org.au/grants-award...

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

PhD student Tucksaorn (Orn) Bhummakasikara was awarded a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment for her project "Genomics to inform recovery and management of the threatened Australian Pookila"! @monashbiol.bsky.social #ozmammals #ozrodents

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Our team at @monashbiol.bsky.social have had some exciting grant wins over Dec/Jan! First up, Honours student Emily Blackburn was awarded the Daniel Gilmore Scholarship in support of her research on the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum: www.biosis.com.au/emily-blackb... #ozmammals

biosis.com.au

Emily Blackburn announced as the 2025 Dan Gilmore Scholarship recipient - Biosis

The 2025 Daniel Gilmore Scholarship winner is Emily Blackburn, who is currently completing her Honours at Monash University on the Leadbeater Possum.

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Molly Przeworski @mollyprz.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

In fact, they appear to be eerily similar. The per generation mutation rate seems to lay between 10-9 and 10-8 per bp in all animal taxa surveyed to date–despite vast differences in environments, life histories, and three orders of magnitude variation in the generation time: 4/n

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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Australia recorded ZERO cases of cervical cancer in women under 25 for the first time since they started tracking the cancer in the 80s. This is the power of vaccines. The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer. Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!

www1.racgp.org.au

newsGP - Australia set for world-first cervical cancer elimination

Vaccination programs have played a key role, and GPs remain ‘instrumental’ in boosting screening rates to reach the 2035 target.

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

It was a real pleasure to work together on this study with @tillramm.bsky.social, @jaimiagray.bsky.social, Jane Melville and co., on this lovely threatened Australian lizard. 📷 R. Richter, iNaturalist

A photo of a mountain dragon (Rankinia diamensis) by R. Richter

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Hindcast SDMs showed a larger and more continuous range at the LGM, while future models under climate change predict as much as 50% of the mountain dragon's current habitat will be unsuitable by 2100. This highlights the urgent need for updated conservation strategies for the species.

Taken from Figure 4 of the paper, maps of south-eastern Australia showing the projected suitable habitat for the mountain dragon by 2100 under a RCP8.5 future climate model, with 53% of the species current range predicted to be suitable.

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

And @tillramm.bsky.social also did some very impressive quantitative analysis to identify fossils of Rankinia from extinct localities!

Taken from Fig 3 of the paper, this image shows a morphological PCA identifying unknown jaw fossils as Rankinia, and also shows the morphospace relates to other related agamid species

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Observed heterozygosity was highest in regions with high habitat suitability and high altitude, consistent with low-altitude populations having reduced genetic connectivity.

Taken from Fig 5 of the paper, this image shows two scatter plots with a significant positive relationship between heterozygosity and habitat suitability, and heterozygosity and altitude.

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

We found that past temperature and precipitation change has caused both range contractions and shifts to higher elevations in Rankinia. Low-altitude populations are now either extinct or show low genetic diversity.

Figure 2 from the publication, with five panels. Panel A shows a PCA plot with high differentiation between geographic populations of the mountain dragon. Panel B shows a heat-map matrix of Fst values that show that NSW and Tasmanian populations are more differentiated from Victorian populations. Panel C shows a barplot of observed and expected heterozygosity at a population level, with northern NSW, Flinders Island, and Tasmania having the lowest values, and Alpine National Park the highest. Panel D shows boxplots of observed heterozygosity with samples grouped into eastern and western groups, with east higher than west. Panel E shows heterozygosity as boxplots on an individual basis, grouped by populations, with patterns the same as those seen in panel C.

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Charlotte Wright @charlottewright.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

How many chromosomes can an animal have? In our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact. www.cell.com/current-biol...

tinyurl.com

Constraints on chromosome evolution revealed by the 229 chromosome pairs of the Atlas blue butterfly

The genome of the Atlas blue butterfly contains ten times more chromosomes than most butterflies, and more than any other known diploid animal. Wright et al. show that this extraordinary karyotype is ...

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Science Magazine @science.org · 04/09/2025

New findings in Science suggest that rodents owe much of their evolutionary success to their thumb-nail (the first digit, D1), an adaptation that gave them dexterous hands for cracking seeds and nuts. Learn more in this week's issue: scim.ag/46caVho

This red squirrel’s hands display tiny nail-bearing thumbs, alongside large claw-bearing digits.

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Bob Wong @bbmwong.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Please repost. For those who might have missed it, our School has three ongoing positions advertised. The work environment here at Monash is top notch: supportive, collegiate and inclusive. And Melbourne is an awesome city to live in. Deadline fast approaching. Get cracking on those applications!

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

📣 📣 Calling genomics-y and ecology friends, three permanent faculty positions at @monashbiol.bsky.social in Melbourne, Australia! See job listings here.

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School of Biological Sciences, Monash @MonashBiol @monashbiol.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

We have just opened searches for 3 new continuing Teaching & Research Academics. All positions are open at Level B (Lecturer) or Level C (Senior Lecturer), and we have one position in Genomics and two in Ecology. careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo... careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...

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The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 30/06/2025

Archaeologists once assumed that men were responsible for seafaring trade in Papua New Guinea. New research shows how women played a fundamental role.

theconversation.com

Men traded wares – but women traded knowledge: what a new archaeological study tells us about PNG sea trade

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

After a series of flight delays, rerouted via Tokyo on my way home from #Evol2025 and not complaining 🥰

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

📣 📣 Calling genomics-y and ecology friends, three permanent faculty positions at @monashbiol.bsky.social in Melbourne, Australia! See job listings here.

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Hey #Evol2025, come and be our new colleague at Monash!

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Craig White @craig-white.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

In about a week we (Biological Sciences @ Monash Uni in Melbourne, Australia) will be opening a search for 3 (!!!) permanent academic positions (40% research, 40% teaching, 20% service) at Lecturer/Senior Lecturer. 1 Genomics, 2 Ecology. Please share, email me, DM, follow, send carrier pigeons…

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Joel McGlothlin @joelmcglothlin.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Australian mammals have the best names #Evol2025

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Happy Friday - our paper on the role of range size, population fluctuation & introgression in determining genetic diversity in Gehyra geckos is online in early view @journal-evo.bsky.social, led by my fabulous student Ching Ching Lau - her first first-author paper! academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

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Emily Roycroft @emilyroycroft.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

First Bluesky post - had to document the big drive this week, with some cool ❄️ cargo on board. All precious samples and reagents made it from A to B, now safely in our new home at @monashbiol.bsky.social

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