Reposted by Catherine SheardButlerian Jihadist of House Dornick @shimminykricket.blacksky.app · 08/10/2026Harvard 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 9963152467
Reposted by Catherine SheardGabriele Uhl @uhl-lab.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Postdoc Alert! New Postdoc Position for 3 years (max 3 more)- offers the freedom to develop your own research projects in close interaction with my group. Research on invertebrates preferred. Apply by October 31. Please RP. zoologie.uni-greifswald.de/en/organizat... 🧪zoologie.uni-greifswald.deOpen Postdoc position (3 + max 3 years)Universität Greifswald 01721
Reposted by Catherine SheardMarkus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 07/10/2026The reason I have not replied to your e-mail is that I'm now wading through so many excessively long LLM messages trying to work out whether there was ever a human involved and what point they were trying to make. 091
Reposted by Catherine SheardDr Alexandra Marley @bulletproofling.bsky.social · 06/10/2026👀 2 funded linguistics/anthropology/environmental science PhD positions going at UQ. Get in on it folks! study.uq.edu.au/study-option...study.uq.edu.auAmplifying Indigenous Ecological Knowledge in Western science with language 023
Reposted by Catherine SheardJhan C. Salazar, PhD @jhancsalazar.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Happy to share that the last chapter of my dissertation is finally out in Evolution! 🦎⛰️ I'll share a longer thread soon about what we did and found. Huge thanks to all my coauthors: @jblosos.bsky.social, @juvelas.bsky.social, Steven Poe and Adam Algar doi.org/10.1093/evol...doi.orgRepeated evolution of high-elevation occupation in tropical lizardsAbstract. Since Darwin and Humboldt, researchers have sought to understand how species adapt to elevation. Although tropical reptiles are typically most di 16330
Reposted by Catherine SheardJean-François Cudennec @limpetnerd.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026I thought had an agile mind before seeing this 4267
Reposted by Catherine SheardMichael Baym @baym.lol · 04/10/2026If someone’s going to AI-email me I’d rather see the prompt than the output. Because that’s where they decided to end and let the machine finish the job 3245
Reposted by Catherine SheardKevin Healy @healyke.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Congrats to @amyduclaux.bsky.social on publishing her first paper. She shows that sexual dichromatism in birds is more pronounced in species with fast life history strategies, lower latitudes and with mating systems associated with higher sex ratio skews. 🌐 academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...academic.oup.comHigher levels of sexual dichromatism are associated with faster life history strategies and lower latitudes in passerine birdsAbstract. Sexual dichromatism has been widely investigated in passerine birds, with studies looking at its relationship with life history traits and latitu 0226
Reposted by Catherine SheardEcoEvoRxiv @ecoevorxiv.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Weak and species-specific morphological change in Atlantic Forest birds across two decades of warming doi.org/10.32942/X28... 012
Reposted by Catherine SheardBob Wong @bbmwong.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Monash University is offering a fully-funded PhD scholarship to an outstanding student in animal behaviour/evolutionary ecology. Choose from eight project areas. For information about what project I'm offering, please DM me or see application form: forms.gle/ia9t4KPD3FKT.... Deadline: 15 Nov. 05977
Reposted by Catherine SheardFeena van @feenavan2099.bsky.social · 03/10/2026"Before Stonehenge was raised, before Egypts first pyramid broke ground,before the Nazca people drew their famous lines across the Peruvian desert,someone in what is now southern Arizona shaped a 272-foot fish into the earth On April 23,2026,"a border-wall contractor drove heavy equipment across it"gadgetreview.comTrump's Border Wall Construction Destroys 6,500-Year-Old Arizona Geoglyph – Older Than StonehengeArizona's 6,500-year-old Las Playas Intaglio, the oldest dated geoglyph in the Americas, was irreparably damaged by border wall construction in April 2026. 8620331251
Reposted by Catherine Sheardlauren benet @laurenbenet.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Something I learned just this week: "only 4% of the world’s women and girls live in the U.S., but the U.S. confines ONE-QUARTER of the world’s incarcerated women and girls." www.prisonpolicy.org/global/women... 111353
Reposted by Catherine SheardRobert Sansom @fossilrob.bsky.social · 02/10/2026PhD opportunity: 🦠🪱☠️🪣🔬🏞️ Do you want to test hypotheses of how fossils form, figure out if lab experiments reflect the real world? Come and join our lab! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...findaphd.com[School of Natural Sciences PhD Scholarships] Bridging the taphonomic gap between the lab and the real world: Experimental Insights into Fossilization and Preservation at The University of Manchester ...PhD Project - [School of Natural Sciences PhD Scholarships] Bridging the taphonomic gap between the lab and the real world: Experimental Insights into Fossilization and Preservation at The University ... 02327
Reposted by Catherine SheardBritish Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 01/10/2026📢 APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN... ...for the 2027 BOU Summer Placement Scheme Financially supporting undergraduate students to carry out summer #ornithology research placements Application deadline: 29 January 2027 Guidelines & application form: bou.org.uk/funding/s... 🪶 01517
Reposted by Catherine SheardJournal of Systematic Palaeontology @journalsystpal.bsky.social · 02/10/2026A bird’s eye view of the fossil record: perspectives on avian systematics by Benito & Steell. Read here: buff.ly/fJattSx This is the latest article in our collection of agenda-setting reviews in the systematics of major fossil groups - with many more articles coming soon! #FossilFriday 13116
Reposted by Catherine SheardDan Baldassarre @evornithology.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Just a quick reminder that the Vietnamese Crested Argus exists. Critically endangered and restricted to humid forests of Laos and Vietnam, it is widely considered to have a huge-ass tail. 📷 Robin Arnold, eBird 49415
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Hello my name is Catherine, and if you aren't careful, I will info-dump etymologies at you. 160
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I'm now in a small rabbit hole about Romani. For example, "chav" (which only dates to the late 90s, according to the OED!) is likely a borrowing from Romani, as is "shiv" (which the OED spells "chiv", go figure, and dates from 1670s), and "pal" (dating from the 1770s). 120
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 02/10/2026TIL Yiddish is a national language of Sweden. (Along with Sámi, Finnish, Meänkieli, and Romani.) 120
Reposted by Catherine SheardAlexa Fredston @afredston.bsky.social · 01/10/2026good morning. I strongly suspect that we don't really know (or agree) what geographic ranges are, and therefore, our estimates of how species' ranges are shifting in the Anthropocene are uninterpretable. I wrote something about this: doi.org/10.1111/2041... and I'll share the main findings...doi.orgMeasuring the edges of species' geographic rangesThe fundamental unit of spatial ecology is a species range: the geographical area that it occupies. Species ranges are delineated by range edges (also known as boundaries or limits). Why range edg... 38141
Reposted by Catherine SheardNico Mongiardino Koch @nmkphylo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I am looking for graduate students to join my lab in Fall 2027. If your interests lie within the realms of phylogenetics, macroevolution, and/or invertebrate biodiversity please reach out to me!! 12521
Reposted by Catherine SheardMichael Hickerson @hickerlab.bsky.social · 01/10/2026How much of the tree of life did you eat? Phylodiet scores a meal by phylogenetic diversity: type what you ate and it builds the dated tree of the organisms in it, from ~3,300 edible eukaryotes, back 2 billion years. Last night's dinner, below. 🧵 mjhickerson.github.io/phylodiet/app/phylodiet.html 69539
Reposted by Catherine SheardSociety for the Study of Evolution @sse-evolution.bsky.social · 01/10/2026💬 In the latest Evolution Exchange, SSE President Dr. Gina Baucom talks with Dr. Stacy Krueger-Hadfield and Dr. Daniel Ortiz-Barrientos about doing a PhD or postdoc abroad. www.evolutionsociety.org/news/display... @dortizba.bsky.social @gbaucom.bsky.social 02018
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Also, for the love of god, UKHE, if a demographic category is so rare as to make that person uniquely identifiable, please don't report sensitive information about that category??? 000
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I probably shouldn't screenshot this one, but I'm currently reading a document that claims (hopefully erroneously) that they classified all people with American or Canadian nationality as "white". 😱 100
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 01/10/2026What I plan to accomplish in any given day and what ends up getting thrown at me that day can often end up so wildly different 😅. Once I became a PI, I viscerally understood why previous supervisors were so rigid about their calendar management. 000
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 01/10/2026This post brought to you by a senior colleague asking me, in essence, Why Are You Like This, and me being unable to provide a decent response 😂 050
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Three years into this job, and I'm still so discombobulated by the vast diversity of tasks I'm expected to complete in a day. 3130
Reposted by Catherine SheardEthan Linck @elinck.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I'm hiring a postdoc to help build tools for inferring complex speciation histories with genomic data. strong computational skills are a must, but this is a training opportunity. 60K$+ salary, 2 years, details flexible. please reach out! (and repost) ad here: jobs.montana.edu/postings/53150jobs.montana.eduPostdoctoral ResearcherThe Department of Ecology at Montana State University is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Scholar as part of NSF-funded research on speciation under alternating cycles of gene flow and isolation (fundi... 16078
Reposted by Catherine SheardKatie Mack @astrokatie.com · 30/09/2026One of the most harrowing things about academia, when you're a grad student, is how vulnerable you are to how you're perceived by more senior researchers. Your career advancement depends on confidential letters of reference & private discussions amongst faculty. You have no information or control. 14893147
Reposted by Catherine SheardJolyon Troscianko @jtroscianko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026🦋 Butterfly wing patterns create motion illusions that protect them from predators! Our new study (8 years in the making) is out in Nature today doi.org/10.1038/s415... @grahancock.bsky.social @esbriolat.bsky.social @scienceanna.bsky.social @lauraakelley.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social 12262129
Reposted by Catherine SheardSteve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 30/09/2026🚨Postdoc job alert: Come work with my paleontology & evolution group in Edinburgh! Researcher in Cognitive Evolution Over Deep Time. You'll study how brains & neurons have evolved over time, and predict neuron count in extinct species! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTC355/p...jobs.ac.ukPostdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time at The University of EdinburghApply for the Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now. 26276
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I do love their occasional glimpses behind the scenes 😂 100
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Relatedly, if you, like me, somehow missed the Magnus Archives back when it was actually a thing -- they're excellent. I'm not normally into horror, but they have very high production quality and the story moves at an appropriate pace for my brain. 220
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The Magnus Archives skepticism about macroecology (episode 121, for the curious) is such a jump-scare my god 😂😂😂 120
Reposted by Catherine SheardDepartment of Biology, Lund University @biologylu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Climate change is reshaping butterfly ranges worldwide. A global study found that 80% of 1,758 species in its dataset had expanded their ranges. @larspett.bsky.social and colleagues combined 6,182 reports from 105 countries. doi.org/10.1038/s415... #Biodiversity #ClimateChange #Ecology 165
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I also want to shout-out the BOU for making this conference hybrid -- it's greatly expands the audience for these talks, and there have typically been ~40 of us online at any given time! 000
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I've been hopping in and out of the Zoom version of today's BOU conference, and the talk this afternoon about this project was excellent. Across 25 years, population change in the birds of North Carolina can be predicted by their traits & environmental niches. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...ecoevorxiv.orgSpecies Traits Predict Local Population Change Above and Beyond Regional Trend 100
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I absolutely love this paper -- Menezes & Podos in Evolution demonstrate that loudness is linked to body size and gap width, but apparently not to habitat or mating system, across 123 Brazilian & US species. academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...academic.oup.comEvolutionary drivers of vocal amplitude in birdsBirds can surpass all other terrestrial vertebrates in vocal amplitude, yet why some birds sing louder than others remains unclear. Using calibrated field 1217
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I caught your talk via Zoom -- really great presentation and fascinating research! 110
Reposted by Catherine SheardLevayer Lab @levayerr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Here it is...by delegating decision to non transparent AI models we generate an incentive for grant applicants to use AI writing to tweak system and the vicious/absurd feedback loop is set (which all started by an overload of grant application driven by AI writing). www.science.org/content/arti...science.orgU.K. funder uses ‘AI triage’ to reject grant proposals—leaving researchers dismayedThe AI-based assessment, which wasn’t explicitly described in the funding call, has raised privacy and fairness concerns 13216
Reposted by Catherine Sheardnick @unionnick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026On the *same day* the Cornell Seven drugged and raped Jane Doe, Cornell banned four students (including the President of Cornell JVP) from campus for three years for nonviolent, pro-Palestine protests. The same Cornell officials let the rapists off with apology essays. 6453202130
Reposted by Catherine SheardProfessor John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026New paper! Brandon Kilbourne conducted a huge data collection effort for the limb muscle architecture (masses, fascicle lengths, pennation angles; thereby PCSAs) of mustelid mammals. We found conspicuous relationships with morphology and locomotor mode. link.springer.com/article/10.1...link.springer.comMuscle architecture in mustelid mammals: anatomical proxies for muscle function and their relation to locomotor habit - BMC Ecology and EvolutionBackground Though skeletal adaptations for locomotion in mammals are well documented, possible limb adaptations in terms of muscle architecture have received far less study. Examining mustelid mammals... 33020
Reposted by Catherine SheardBrian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Please pass along: I’m recruiting PhD students to join our Macroecology Lab. We study physical ecology, macroecology, and biodiversity — spanning scaling, trait-based ecology, theory, comparative biology & ecoinformatics. Several avenues for funding. Please reach out if interested 🧪🌐🌾 295130
Reposted by Catherine Sheardc0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 27/09/2026The obvious conclusion (to me): if you have proprietary research & you upload it into the Plagiarism Nexus, it's not YOUR proprietary research anymore. Behave accordingly. 728193
Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Hey. Hey, UKRI. HEY UKRI. When some of us are Big Mad that you use genAI to review our grants? This is why. 021
Reposted by Catherine SheardMichael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 27/09/2026I've talked to a few journal editors who are concerned about similar problems re: anonymous reviewers. If a peer reviewer wants a little help & feeds your unpublished submission into an AI system, they've just shared your proprietary work & broken confidentiality. A nightmare to think about 6240133