Josh Jahner

Applications for this UA postdoc fellowship are due next week— please reach out if you’re looking for a conservation-focused postdoc and would be interested in working with me!

YouTube video by xkcd's What If? How long would you survive with no DNA?

How long would you survive with no DNA?

What the latest What If? video in collaboration with
@minuteearth.bsky.social!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3oL...

Job Opportunities | .

The Wyoming Game & Fish Dept. is hiring two Black Rosy-Finch technicians to conduct alpine surveys in Wyoming's high elevation mountains during June 1st to Aug 31st 2026: www.governmentjobs.com/careers/wyom.... Spread the word!

Job alert:
NOAA NWFSC & UW are looking for a postdoc (ASAP) in Seattle study foraging ecology of Cook Inlet beluga whales using eDNA. Genetics/ecology/eDNA experience preferred. Interested candidates reach out to kim.parsons@noaa.gov or rpkelly@uw.edu directly. #eDNA #ConsGen

An image of a recruitment advertisement for a MS position at New Mexico Tech

I am recruiting a MS student in Biology at New Mexico Tech with an anticipated start date of Fall 2026 to work on the applied evolutionary genetics of wild populations with conservation or management concerns (butterflies, bighorn sheep). Please see the attached advertisement for more info.

Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :)

The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used

> neal.fun/size-of-life/

Opportunities ***PhD and MSc openings – Movement ecology and conservation*** I will periodically support graduate students, postdocs, and other staff through the Biology Department at the University of New…

I’m recruiting a PhD and MSC student for fall 2026 working on the movement ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls in SW forests and rocky canyonlands. Exciting partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Great vibrant lab group, high impact research! 🦉

gavinmjones.com/opportunities/

Mandeville Lab Fish are so delightfully weird. We study the evolutionary genetics and ecology of freshwater fishes, plus a few more things, at Northern Michigan University

I'm recruiting a new master's student for fall 2026 in my lab at Northern Michigan University @bionmu.bsky.social ! Students with interests in evolution of freshwater fish are encouraged to apply. Please see our lab website lizmandeville.github.io and the attached advertisement for more information.

TL;DR We're looking for biology/evolution instructors in the US and Canada to test the impacts of inclusive evolutionary biology educational materials on undergraduate learning (you will be compensated). Pasting the official recruitment info in thread below. sunybuffalo.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Anthropogenic factors explain wing colour variation in Colias (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) butterflies across the Toronto urbanization gradient Hybridization, or interbreeding between two previously diverged populations, is increasing due to human influences on the environment. Rates of hybridization might be increasing particularly quickly a...

Amanda Sabatino, @jpjahner.bsky.social and I have a new paper on @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social. Amanda, in her undergraduate thesis work, found variation in Colias colour phenotypes is associated with different metrics of urbanization in Toronto. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Are you interested in an MS position in Stream Ecology?

My lab (www.benjamintumolo.com) is recruiting a Master's student to join us at Northern Michigan University.

🐛🧪🕸️🍂🌊

Please get in contact if you are interested, and pass on this ad to anyone you know that might be!

Apply by Dec 16

Glacial history and landscape features shape the hierarchical population genetic structure of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in western Canada Caribou, listed as a species at risk across Canada, have experienced a wide range of evolutionary and selective pressures at multiple scales, from large-scale range shifts and recolonisations driven b...

New lab preprint by joint first authors Samuel Deakin and Anita Michalak 😀: Glacial history and landscape features shape the hierarchical population genetic structure of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in western Canada www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Birds and Dinosaurs

xkcd images I use in my classes: a thread

When I teach phylogenetics (part 1):

xkcd.com/1211/

My lab is hiring a 2-yr hummingbird evolution and genomics postdoc and a 1-yr salaried research and lab tech. Both with full U. Wyoming benefits. Please spread the word! Info below. Best consideration date Nov 1, start dates early Spring 2026.

“Virtual Firefly Symposium: Science, Conservation, and Education” A female Florida intertidal firefly perched on a red mangrove leaf at a nature center in Broward County, Florida.

Join us for a free 3-day virtual symposium on firefly research & conservation! Each day will include 6 presentations & time for networking. Everyone interested in fireflies is invited! 🪲💡
🗓️Oct 28-30 at 9am PT / 12pm ET
🔗Register for this free event: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Dear evolution peeps,
Did I dream this up, or was there a newer unified-type species concept paper/synthesis published in the past several years? I thought I read and studied one, but I can’t find it/any evidence that exists.
Thank you for your help with my brain 😬

Functional synonymous mutations and their evolutionary consequences - Nature Reviews Genetics Synonymous mutations, once deemed neutral, have been shown to influence gene expression and organismal fitness by affecting transcription, mRNA processing, translation and protein folding. In this Per...

We had a really great discussion in class about this paper today
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Biology Department

xkcd.com/3140

What Is the Fourier Transform? | Quanta Magazine Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of mathematics and physics. The calculation, called the Fourier transform, de...

At 26, during the Reign of Terror in France, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier narrowly avoided the guillotine. A decade later, he made a discovery that changed mathematics forever. @shalmawegs.bsky.social reports:
www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-the-...

How did life get multicellular? Five simple organisms could have the answer Nature - Single-celled species that often stick together in colonies have researchers rethinking the origin of animals.

For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began

go.nature.com/4lPmznS

I'm looking to recruit a PhD student to study patterns of local adaptation and introgression across the spruce hybrid zone in the Rockies near Calgary. Projects can include field work, bioinformatics, pop gen theory, or comparison to plant/ conifer species
yeamanlab.weebly.com/uploads/5/7/...

Reappraisal of the Dilution and Amplification Effect Framework: A Case Study in Lyme Disease The biodiversity–disease relationship posits two hypotheses: the dilution effect (where there's a negative relationship between biodiversity and disease risk) and the amplification effect (where ther...

Shirley Chen's paper from my lab on the dilution and amplification hypotheses regarding the biodiversity-disease relationship.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Excited to share our new paper led by @alexlewanski.bsky.social showing largely positive, multi-decadal consequences of translocations in Red-cockaded woodpeckers at Avon Park Air Force Range in central Florida: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

press release: www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

Very excited to have our study come out looking at multiple plant mosaic hybrid zones and their implications for hybrids to act as "sutures" of species ranges. We use genomic data to project shifts into future climates and discuss impacts on conservation/management.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Extensive multi-species hybridization between Leuciscidae minnow species Anthropogenic disturbances can disrupt ecosystems and alter species population dynamics. Interspecific hybridization is common between genetically related organisms, especially once reproductive barri...

I'm thrilled to share more cool fish genetics, led by former MSc student Amanda Meuser, and with former student Amy Pitura and collaborator @erynmcfarlane.bsky.social. This one is about minnow hybrids!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A newly discovered cell helps pythons poop out the bones of their prey The cells helps the snakes absorb the bones of their prey — and might show up in other animals that chomp their meals whole.

A thing that always just stops me in my tracks when like, reporting how pythons break down the skeletons of their prey in their stomachs and then suck up the calcium...is how GORGEOUS the cells of the intestine are.

They're really honestly beautiful. www.sciencenews.org/article/new-...

RNA Is the Cell’s Emergency Alert System | Quanta Magazine How does a cell know when it’s been damaged? A molecular alarm, set off by mutated RNA and colliding ribosomes, signals danger.

When sun hits you, what does it *hit*? It rockets into your RNA, and the sound of colliding ribosomes and potholed RNA signals to your body to do something: produce a sunburn. My latest for @quantamagazine.bsky.social.

www.quantamagazine.org/rna-is-the-c...

A novel sex-associated genomic region in Catostomus fish species Abstract. Genomic regions that influence sex are hypothesized to play a key role in evolutionary diversification, as sex determination mechanisms may promo

Delighted to post some cool science - a collaboration with my former grad students Cassandre and Jill, and collaborator extraordinaire @erynmcfarlane.bsky.social!

doi.org/10.1093/jher...

Four-panel comic depicting a small orange butterfly looking up at a monarch butterfly in the air. The small butterfly says, "Look, there goes a monarch butterfly! Everyone loves monarchs. So regal and elegant! Nobody notices a little skipper like me. Nobody." A nearby ant says, "Hey, did you see that monarch?"

Here's one of my insect comics to celebrate #InsectWeek, featuring my favorite butterfly the skipper! 🍃

Hey #Evol2025 - My colleague @waspvenom.bsky.social and I are looking for a postdoc for our #NSF - #USDA funded grant to understand the genetic basis of gall formation! Please see that attached ad, and feel free to talk to me @evolmtg.bsky.social, or contact Dr. Ellen Martinson directly!