Dr. Brooke Bessesen

What a pickle! What makes a distinct taxon? What should we protect?

One new paper led by @brookebiologist.bsky.social gives us food for thought 🌎🧪

Morphology, ecology and behaviour of the Golfo Dulce yellow sea 🐍 tell us one story...

genetics 🧬 tell us another

doi.org/10.1093/zool...
👇

It makes me deeply happy to see so many science and author friends showing up on this platform. Welcome!!

chng.it/CBGQKBrC22

Thanks

Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico

In a room of grownups, this smart young fellow sat with his mom, listening intently to my talk at the university. He then asked the best question of the night: “What is the easiest thing **I** can do to help save the vaquita?”

Are you feelin’ it? It’s called HOPE.

My favorite shot from this week: on the FIL Niños stage with Pablo Montano. We took the kids on a journey through sea and sky to meet Mexico’s vaquita and California condor, with LIVE ART on the big screen by Cineamano.

Good news indeed

What an honor (a bit intimidating, honestly) to speak alongside Mexico’s distinguished evolutionary biologist Dr. Antonio Lazcano, known for his preeminent science on early life.

More HOPE. This morning’s young adult talk at FIL was so well attended they had to build an overflow area & stream it to a jumbo screen. The curiosity & compassion of the teenage audience was palpable—it’s clear they care very deeply for vaquita and they truly want to help.

🔺TOMORROW 10am🔺
“[My] talk about the vaquita addresses the critical situation of this species of porpoise... the unsustainable fishing practices that affect numerous marine species.”
@FIL Guadalajara Mexico 🇲🇽

Heading south tomorrow for two weeks of vaquita conservation talks and I’m packing a companion. 🩵

For my upcoming talks… “Attention! 🚨 Do you live in La Paz or Loreto, Baja California Sur? Don't miss Dr. @brookebiologist's activities in your city and become passionate, along with her, about the conservation of endangered species! 😍” —translated quote, Obsidiana: Ciencia y Cultura por México

Please repost

We are hiring a new postdoc to work on the conservation of the endangered snail kite! Lots of potential for impact.

Expertise in pop biology, quant modeling & conservation are desirable. 1.5 years w/potential to extend. Start date ASAP.

fletcherlab.com

Have you guys seen this? Extraordinary footage of a humpback whale birth captured in Maui, Hawai’i. I know a few locals in Costa Rica who have witnessed humpy births from their kayaks or spotting scopes, but obviously no underwater video. youtu.be/BQPAgFH96mQ?...

I was back in Richmond Park again yesterday - another glorious morning, with a few deer for company 🦌

Happy thought for today: baby porcupines are called ‘porcupettes’. You’re welcome. 🙂

🧪🦑 For everyone expressing interest in the science bolstering renewed hope for vaquita (the world’s most endangered marine mammal), I posted 2 genetics papers in the 🧵 and this one is about gillnet avoidance: www.int-res.com/articles/esr...

🤣 Yeah, evolution’s been a thing for awhile, lol. Always impressed with physicists, too brainy for me. Great to chat!

I just posted some papers if you’re interested in the science. 🧪

And here’s a 2022 Science article: The critically endangered vaquita is not doomed to extinction by inbreeding depression www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

You’re right. If you’re curious, I posted a recent paper to this thread that shows vaquita to have the second lowest genome-wide heterozygosity of ~50 mammal species analyzed. And I’ll add Science article from 2022 (to follow)…

Helpful article: Reference genome and demographic history of the most endangered marine mammal, the vaquita pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33089966/

Me too. Thanks. 🙏

The population estimate is down to 10 individuals, which is agonizingly low, but… that number has remained stable for a few years, suggesting those last few are avoiding gillnets better than their ancestors.

Some of the encouraging news I will be sharing: recent studies show the population, having always lived in isolation, purged lethal alleles over thousands of years, so genetic decline isn’t a worry. Nice to hear, yes?

Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be giving numerous talks in Mexico about their endemic porpoise, la vaquita marina (Phocoena sinus), with the hope of re-sparking interest in its conservation.

Thanks for facilitating this science space, Dani! Please add me. I’m a marine biologist studying sea snake ecology & evolution, with an interest in global species biodiversity. University of Reading. ORCID 0000-0003-0272-3889 Look forward to reading this feed!

YES
YES YES YES
for anyone who doesn't know, coremata are inflatable hairy butt balloons that male moths use for courtship
(📷Vinita Punia Sangwan/CC BY-NC/iNaturalist)

Cool job! Assistant Professor in Marine Invertebrate Biodiversity at the University of Florida.
#AcademicSky 🧪🦑🦐🦞🦀🐙

explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/52...