iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Jessie C. Tanner

Lisa Fazio @lkfazio.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Devistating. And against Congress's directive. SBE was included in the 26 budget and the NSF section states that "no directorate shall receive more than a 5 percent reduction relative to the fiscal year 2024 enacted level."

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Cool coverage of our recent paper in iScience 🧪 youtube.com/shorts/CztBX...

youtube.com

Frog Love Island

YouTube video by nature video

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Probably a cool compound German one.

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Reposted by Jessie C. Tanner

Alexandra Weber @toedtoad.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

My first paper is officially out in @currentbiology.bsky.social ! We found that snake embryos coil due to a mismatch in growth rates between the gut and spine. This tight coil is one of the reasons why snakes are able to get so long. Read the paper here!

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Reposted by Jessie C. Tanner

Jeffrey Mervis @policyhound.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

NSF is touting a dozen new solicitations announced this week as evidence that basic research still rules. But that's not what's really going on. www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

Is NSF’s new call for research proposals good news? Scientists and staffers have doubts

The long-delayed 12 solicitations only cover some disciplines—and promise to give them much less money

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I was interviewed about our latest paper for the CBC program As It Happens, and the interview is supposed to air tonight or tomorrow (looks like it usually broadcasts at 6:30 p.m. across most Canadian timezones). Let me know if you hear it! 👂cbc.ca/asithappens

cbc.ca

Home | As It Happens | CBC Radio

CBC Radio's As It Happens' listening experience is like taking a trip around the world. From the complex headlines of the day to the weird and wacky, As It Happens brings you the story behind the story!

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Reposted by Jessie C. Tanner

Marianne Alleyne @cotesia.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

My Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invites applications from entomologists with research portfolios in which INSECT BIODIVERSITY LOSS is a key element (at the assistant professor level). illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Picture of a green tree-lined quad at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, with Foellinger Hall in the background. Skies are often this blue.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

ᏩᏙ! ᏍᏓᏯ ᏓᎩᎸᏫᏍᏓᏁᎲᎢ 😅

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Reposted by Jessie C. Tanner

Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Our cutleaf coneflower, ᏐᏣᎾ in ᏣᎳᎩ Cherokee, proving breakfast for ᏩᏓᎦ an American goldfinch. Can you spot him? #nativeplants

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Sure thing! I sent it to the work email I found for you, but let me know if you don't receive it.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

If you don't have access to this journal, please get in touch with me here or by email, and I'll be happy to help.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

We review how all the pieces of the classic dyadic model of animal communication (sender, receiver, signal, medium, noise) and how they have each become more multi-dimensional in recent years.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

We worked with Cope's gray treefrogs from East Tennessee, which we captured in amplexus at night and brought back to the lab briefly for behavioral testing. The paper is free and open access!

A male-female pair of Cope's gray treefrogs are in amplexus, the characteristic breeding posture of amphibians, on a plant. The male is attached to the female's back. The photo was taken at night.

An overhead view of the testing arena were trials were carried out in a semi-anechoic chamber. The female began each trial at the center of an arena 2 m in diameter, and indicated a choice by entering a response bin within 10 cm of a speaker playing a sound.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

We found the number of options alone, when no masking occurs, can cause pretty substantial changes in female decision making! The effects of masking noise were more subtle and complicated -- under some scenarios, playing a little background noise actually improved female decision making.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Under choice overload, too many options causes individuals to exceed their cognitive resources and change their decision or defer it to later. Under energetic masking (noise), the calls essentially would "step on" each other, making it difficult for females to hear and decide among their options.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Treefrogs faced with too many potential mates can't always get what they want. We have a new paper out in iScience distinguishing between the ideas of choice overload and energetic masking in treefrog mate choice using acoustic signals. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

cell.com

Choice overload constrains mate choice independent of energetic masking

Biological sciences; Evolutionary ecology; Animal behavior

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Reposted by Jessie C. Tanner

Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology @sicb.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

We will be featuring our #SICB student awardees weekly over the next several weeks. Meet the Elizabeth Adkins-Regan Awardee for best poster: Trina Chou working with Dr. Jessie Tanner at the University of Tennessee, Congrats Trina!!! & read the image description #amphibians #biology #science

Trina notes: I am broadly interested in the #evolutionary pressures that shape animal #acoustic signaling, such as mate selection, within-individual variation, and environmental contexts. I work with several species of chorus #frogs and treefrogs around Knoxville, utilizing acoustic recordings and female phonotaxis behaviors as a measure of female preference.

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Reposted by Jessie C. Tanner

Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Some Hawaiian cricket populations are losing the ability to sing. Males on Oahu invest more in sperm competition than males on Kauai by making more sperm and packing more proteins to increase sperm viability and slow female remating: @jessiectanner.bsky.social et al. (2025) doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

doi.org

Ejaculate investment differs by population, but not wing morph or perceived sperm competition risk, in Pacific field crickets

Abstract. Conspicuous sexual signals are frequently under selection from conflicting sources, such as natural versus sexual selection and precopulatory ver

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Hawaiian populations of Teleogryllus oceanicus 🦗 and their parasitoid flies Ormia ochracea 🪰 continue to offer us interesting opportunities to study evolutionary dynamics in real time. Check out the paper -- it's open access.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

We found differences between two populations with different sexual selection dynamics and flatwing frequencies, but not differences based on wing morph or experience of cricket song during rearing, which other studies have shown prompts increased male investment in sperm competitive traits.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

New paper out in Journal of Evolutionary Biology! Using a field cricket undergoing rapid sexual signal loss, we looked at whether seminal fluid proteins could explain differences in paternity success between males capable of sexual signaling and mutant, silent males. academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

academic.oup.com

Ejaculate investment differs by population, but not wing morph or perceived sperm competition risk, in Pacific field crickets

Abstract. Conspicuous sexual signals are frequently under selection from conflicting sources, such as natural versus sexual selection and precopulatory ver

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Justice for the Chicago Squirrel Hole.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

New work from our lab out today in Ecology & Evolution! Trina Chou led this study testing the hypothesis that sexual signals reflect infection. She worked with spring peepers 🐸 naturally infected with Bd, the pathogen that causes chytridiomycosis (#chytrid). onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Do I Sound Sick? Condition‐Dependent Advertisement Signals in Naturally Infected Frogs

To understand whether infection has negative, sublethal effects on frog courtship behaviors, we conducted an observational field study of the effects of infection on spring peepers (Pseudacris crucif...

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

New paper today in ProcB! We measured sexual selection on temporally emergent properties of treefrog calls – call rate and regularity – and found that while ♀ prefer fast & regular calls, selection weakens changes shape as the number of choices increases. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

royalsocietypublishing.org

Complex choice environments shelter unattractive signallers from sexual selection | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

For many animals, options abound when choosing a mate in socially complex environments like a breeding chorus or lek. In such environments, receivers often choose their mate based on individual differ...

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

If you're out and about in the evenings, keep an eye out for tree crickets performing their incredible signaling behavior! Ashlesh could use some #communityScience help investigating its evolution. #newPI #animalBehavior #citizenScience #behavioralEcology

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

I never remember to bring a tripod and my camera work is shaky, but look at this little guy calling his lungs out. Cope's gray treefrog recorded in East Tennessee in May of this year.

A Cope's gray treefrog male perched on a tree branch produces a vocalization. His vocal sac vibrates visibly during the call. His thighs have yellow patches. The camera is shaky.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

😂 Coldplay setlists are weirdly heavy on their ambient stuff lately...just a couple hours of frog sounds.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

The thumbnail that got automatically inserted is not from our paper, in case you're trying to figure out what it means.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

My new paper with Claire Hemingway is officially out today in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, with page numbers and everything. We review what's known about choice overload in non-humans, and discuss its possible ecological & evolutionary consequences. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Choice overload and its consequences for animal decision-making

Animals routinely make decisions with important consequences for their survival and reproduction, but they frequently make suboptimal decisions. Here,…

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Academics, how many student dissertation committees are you on right now?

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Reposted by Jessie C. Tanner

Nate Swick @n8swick.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

I know it's small in the whole scheme of things, but the bloodbath at NPS in Hawaii is almost certainly going to lead directly to the extinctions of no fewer than 4 native Hawaiian songbirds in the next 4-5 years.

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Jessie C. Tanner @jessiectanner.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

ᏩᎶᏏ ᏓᎾᎵᎪᎲᏍᎨᏍᏗ. ᏥᏈᏍᏗ ᏧᏓᎴᏅᏓ ᎠᏆᏛᏁᏗ ᏄᏍᏗ ᎠᏆᏛᏁᎢᏍᏙᏗ.* *The frogs will be getting together soon. There are a lot of things I need to do to get ready. (Also, @bsky.app lacks a Cherokee language option in the list, so they should get on that??)