Species on islands frequently experience founder events and population bottlenecks and are often subject to disturbances that further reduce population sizes. Despite these challenges, some island lineages persist for millennia—the paradox of persistence. Here, we synthesize genomic studies across island systems and show that reported effective population sizes are frequently below 100, but assessments of genetic load and its temporal dynamics remain uncommon. We show that island systems can offer critical insights into how small populations maintain viability and adaptive potential. Future research on genomic erosion needs to broaden taxonomic and geographic coverage, leverage temporal genomic data, and integrate demographic and fitness-based approaches to link evolutionary resilience on islands with the conservation of increasingly fragmented populations worldwide.

An updated phylogeny of bats is presented, based on new genome assemblies and many ancient fossils and including all known bat families.

Genetic analyses and simulations point to balancing selection.

The Hennelly Lab is hiring a Postdoctoral Research Associate in evolutionary and population genomics in mammalian systems. The project will involve analyzing genomic data from modern and historical/an...

The biodiversity crisis is accelerating, with recent IUCN Red List confirming multiple recent species extinctions (IUCN, 2025). Of the 17 megadiverse countri...

Company Description:  Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of AucklandKo te whare Pūtaiao | The Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland is the largest and most highly...

Opportunities Below are the positions currently open in our lab. Open PhD position (full time) Comparative and Population Genomics of Butterflies at High Elevations. The project aims to understand …

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Posted 1:59:04 PM. Can a teaspoon of soil reveal the species living around it? At Naturalis in Leiden, we turn…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.