iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I am very happy to see Becci Morris' first ever paper published 🥳 In this study we find that the New Guinea frog genus Mantophryne diversified due to a combination of tectonic activity and climate reorganisation in the Late Pliocene – Early Pleistocene doi.org/10.1002/ece3... 🧪🐸

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Amazing first full day of our Newcastle University undergraduate Biology/Zoology Scotland fieldcourse. This year we have come to the shore of Loch Lomond. My group have been doing reptile and amphibian ecological surveys and we found adders, slow worms, frogs, toads, and palmate newts 🐍🐸🧪

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Our new paper (led by Rémi Martin) found that British toads have low genetic diversity and low geographic structuring. Most of the genetic differences were driven by isolation-by-distance. Levels of genetic diversity decreased the further north the population tinyurl.com/43wxrfuk 🧪🐸🌎🐍#consgen

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

New paper led by Miranda Sherlock on "Submerged Corridors of Ancient Gene Flow in an Island Amphibian". In this paper we found that populations of the Seychelles #caecilian Hypogeophis rostratus would have been connected by palaeo-islands across Seychelles onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... 🧪🐸🐍

(A) Island connectivity with sea level change. Present-day emergent land is coloured for cluster membership inferred with DAPC (see B), and islands unsampled in this study are shown in white. Sampling localities are shown by green dots. Elevation (above sea level) is shown by contour lines (200 m spacing). Smaller islands (Ste. Anne and Curieuse) are circled for clarity. The grey shaded area represents exposed land, with the shade of grey in the key indicating metres below current sea level. Bathymetry data from the GEBCO 2024 repository. Inset map shows position of the Seychelles (indicated with a green loop) relative to Africa. Latitude and longitude given in decimal degrees. (B) DAPC of K = 4, with eight PCs and two eigenvalues. (C) Hypogeophis rostratus, photographed by STM.

Structure plot with 10 runs permuted in CLUMPAK and plotted in distruct for K = 2 and K = 3. Vertical bars represent individuals (n = 77). Labels above the plots correspond to the major genetic clusters. Colour codes as in (1B).

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

And how good is this educational game about the yearly natural history of the adder. This has been a huge success in educating school kids.

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

An awesome evening for the launch of the new Adder Pilsner label from Allendale Brewery. Beer and adder talks (the work going on in the North Pennines). What is not to like?! Lucy and Samuel did a fantastic job presenting the work we have been doing on Conservation Genomics of adders in the region.

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

And who can forget the amazing Seychelles tree #frog (Tachycnemis seychellensis). This is a female, and in this particular population the males are brown. We also found two species of caecilian but I failed to get any pictures. 🧪🐍🐸🔬

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Thomasset's Seychelles frog (Sooglossus thomasseti) is the largest of the endemic Seychelles frog family Sooglossidae, and perhaps the rarest of them (or least frequently encountered at least). 🧪🐍🐸🔬

Thomasset's Seychelles frog or Thomasset's frog (Sooglossus thomasseti)

Workshop team discussing amphibians in the field.

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

The IUCN Red List and Green Status workshops are going fantastically. Tonight we had a break from the computer and found several of the #amphibians that we have been assessing. Here is a beautiful Gardiner's Seychelles #frog (Sechellophryne gardineri), one of the smallest frogs in the World. 🧪🐍🐸🔬

Gardiner's Seychelles frog (Sechellophryne gardineri)

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

The first day of the joint IUCN Red List and Green Status of Species workshop (the first time they have ever run concurrently) was a great success, focussing on the #frogs of the Seychelles. On to the #caecilians tomorrow

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

We also had talks from the IUCN Red List (Louise Hobin) and Green Status of Species (Magdalena Cygan) authorities about their work. This is a precursor to the Red List and Green Status assessments coming up over the next four days.

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Ellen did a fantastic talk about her PhD topic looking at climate change in #caecilians. The Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation were here, who will be doing a segment about the symposium, and Ellen and I gave an interview about the importance of getting people together for these events.

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Today's "SEYCHELLES ENDEMIC AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES: CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND NEXT STEPS FOR CONSERVATION" symposium was a great success, with many fascinating talks. There have been lots of updates since the last time we ran a Seychelles amphibian symposium in 2019.

Delegates of the SEYCHELLES ENDEMIC AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES: CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND NEXT STEPS FOR CONSERVATION

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Proud supervisor alert 🚨 @ellensharkey.bsky.social is looking at the impacts of climate change on Seychelles caecilians for her PhD. Today she encountered her first ever #caecilian and it was a beauty ... a large female Stejneger's Caecilian (Hypogeophis alternans) @seychellesherps.bsky.social 🧪🐸

Ellen Sharkey with Hypogeophis alternans

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

There is a symposium happening on Monday 20th Jan, titled "SEYCHELLES ENDEMIC #AMPHIBIANS AND #REPTILES: CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND NEXT STEPS FOR #CONSERVATION". We will be streaming the talks if you can't be here: Link tinyurl.com/Seychelleshe... or use QR code. Nb. Schedule is Seychelles time. 🧪🐍🐸🔬

09:30 – 10:00 Welcome refreshments
10:00 – 10:15 Introduction from IBC/UniSey - Gérard Rocamora, Jérôme Harlay
10:15 – 11:10 Current research status of amphibians and reptiles from UK IBC affiliates - Jim Labisko,
Simon Maddock, Ellen Sharkey, David Gower
11:10 – 11:30 Refreshment break
11:30 – 11:45 EDGE Sooglossids (title TBC) - James Mougal (independant)
11:45 – 12:00 A scientific approach from the field observations to the conservation actions: explicit,
transparent, replicable, verifiable and falsifiable - Bruno Senterre (independent consultant)
12:00 – 12:15 Fundraising, facilitating partnerships, collaborations, and investment for Seychelles
EDGE amphibians - Rachel Bristol (independant)
12:15 – 12:30 Reptile diversity and bronze gecko research in Seychelles - Markus Roesch (Uni of Porto)
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch break
13:30 – 13:45 The Biodiversity Conservation Section - MACCE: Biodiversity Conservation (Kevin Moumou)
13:45 – 14:00 An overview of conservation work on herpetofauna in Vallee de Mai - Seychelles Islands
Foundation (Jessica Constance)
13:30 – 14:45 Aldabra giant tortoise conservation, management, and ecological research in Seychelles
- Indian Ocean Tortoise Alliance (Rich Baxter)
13:30 – 14:45 The population status of freshwater terrapins in the Story Resort wetland - Marine
Conservation Society Seychelles (Chris Mason-Parker)
13:30 – 14:45 The work of Gaea Seychelles (title TBC) - Gaea Seychelles (Mersiah Rose)
14:45 – 15:05 Refreshment break
15:05 – 15:20 An introduction to the IUCN Red List - Louise Hobin (IUCN)
15:20 – 15:35 An introduction to the IUCN Green Status of Species - Magdalena Cygan (IUCN)
15:35 – 16:00 Closing remarks

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

We are looking for a PhD student to work on "Faunal diversity dynamics of the Seychelles using environmental DNA". Your primary supervisors would be David Gower (NHM, London) and Julia Day (UCL). For more details of the project and funding see trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/fau... 🐍🧪🐸🔬

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

🚨 PhD opportunity 🚨 We are looking to recruit someone to put forward for PhD funding under the IAPETUS DTP scheme. The project will work on adder (Vipera berus) conservation in the North Pennines, England. See iapetus2.ac.uk/studentships... for more info #conservation #herpetology #snakes 🧪🐍🐸

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Will anybody on here be attending Venom Day this weekend at Bangor University? Since starting it in 2010 it has gone from strength to strength. This year looks likely to be another amazing event with lots of fascinating talks! I look forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new ones!

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 13/09/2024

Led by my wonderful PhD student Rémi Martin, we look at approaches for recovery of DNA from buccal swabs in #frogs and provide recommendations. We used swabs to obtain data for Sanger, microsats, ddRADseq, and low-coverage whole genome seq. Open Access onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 🐍🧪

Box plot representing DNA concentration from different swabs and preservation methods

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 09/09/2024

I had a fun day on Friday looking for adders with Lucy and Samuel. The Adder Team are doing a fantastic job of collecting genetic samples ready for investigating the genetic health and connectivity of adder (Vipera berus) populations in the North Pennines, UK. 🐍🧪

The adder team taking a genetic sample from an adder.

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 13/03/2024

Great work this evening by @ecology_ncl MSc student Ellie Davison who collected her first buccal and chytrid swabs. Ellie's project is looking at whether there is a link between genetic diversity and prevelance of amphibian chytrid in toads (Bufo bufo) 🐍🧪

Ellie Davison taking a buccal swab from a toad (Bufo bufo)

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 04/01/2024

Just one week left to apply for our PhD position, which will investigate the impacts of climate change on Seychelles amphibians! Get in touch if you want more information. www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 🐍🧪

Advert for PhD opportunity. "Extinctions in Paradise? The impacts of climate change on endemic amphibians of the Seychelles Archipelago"

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 26/10/2023

Our new book "Snakes: Their diversity, ecology and behaviour" has officially been published today! As well as it being a very nice book (if I do say so myself), it is also great that the price is kept low with an RRP of just GBP£14.99. #herpetology #snakes 🐍 🧪

Book cover for the book "Snakes: Their diversity, ecology and behaviour"

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Simon Maddock @simonmaddock.bsky.social · 24/10/2023

🚨PhD Alert🚨 I am currently recruiting for an awesome PhD project that will be looking at #ClimateChange and it's impact on Seychelles #amphibians. The project will involve plenty of fieldwork in the Seychelles, molecular lab work and climate modelling. 🐍 🧪

PhD opportunity. Extinctions in Paradise? The impacts of climate change on endemic amphibians of the Seychelles Archipelago.

Includes a picture of a data logger on Mahé island, an image of the head of a Hypogeophis pti, and an image of a Sooglossus sechellensis.

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