Michaël Nicolaï

The answer is ´no´. As a rooteater: is it worth the effort?

Any idea about the densities of this phenomenon (in km² or km³)?

Is looking for iridescent plumage, but then finding an iridescent bill one? Or dark skin in one specimen resulting in finding that it's actually wide spread?

I'm not comparing myself to Darwin "But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything."

A white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) decides whether to consume a warningly colored white-barred acraea butterfly (Telchinia encedon). Photo (c) Mike Rowe

📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org

We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Every year again, this blows my mind. At the same a gentle reminder that one upon a time there were over a BILLION passenger pigeons alone. What we are seeing now is probably just a fraction of what we had before 😱

In 2017, we discovered the whereabouts of the last known male #greatauk 👉 tinyurl.com/3nc8s74x

Now we’ve confirmed where the last female resides…
Spoiler: she’s at @cincymuseum.bsky.social!

Read the full story here 👉 academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

Wood tiger moth on leaf. Photo: Juhani Maamela.

Funded PhD position available 🎉 Come and work with me in Helsinki to uncover the pathways producing colourful tiger moth wings. Lots of options for genomics, CRISPR, fieldwork, behaviour experiments… Email with questions! jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Rainbow-like colours in the fur of a tropical rat (Otomys tropicalis)

Super happy to share the first chapter of my PhD, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface ✨🐀 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Iridescence in mammals is not as rare as we thought, but it’s all created in the same way!

Hey you. Wanna apply for a fellowship on collections? the AHRC Early career fellowships in cultural & heritage institutions are open!

The Natural History Museum priorities are below.

If you wanna talk birds, hit me up. Collectors, colonialism, Canada, Australia & more

www.ukri.org/opportunity/...

Multilayer thin-film produces recurrent evolution of iridescence in mammals | Journal of The Royal Society Interface Iridescent coloration is a vibrant structural colour that is widespread in nature, but in mammals is thought to be limited. Although multiple rodent and Eulipotyphlan species have been anecdotally des...

Mammal colours boring? Guess again (mostly a note to myself). Superstar Jess has been finding iridescence colours across mammals! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Schematic figure indicating scientific support for the assumptions underlying the relationship between diversification rate and current naturalisation potential.

New paper @biolinvasions.bsky.social led by Sarah-Sophie Weil.

Can macroevolution inform contemporary invasion potential?

We outline the assumptions of this approach, assess support, then test if dispersal ability can proxy for naturalisation success in several tetrapod groups.

rdcu.be/eD9Tt

Genetic Characterization of the Cell Types in Developing Feathers, and the Evolution of Feather Complexity We used single cell sequencing to investigate the cell types of developing chicken feathers. From these data, we are able to describe the transcriptional profile of feather cell types, look at their ....

My feather cell type paper is finally out! doi.org/10.1111/ede.... We’ve packed a ton of stuff into this paper but I’ll go through some highlights in this thread!

My talk at #eseb2025 is over, but do come and find me if you want to talk (bird) colour!

Great thread, great paper

Great, thanks!

"some" 😅 This is great. I remember seeing the first one and being blown away. Makes me want to go back :o Any advice on the Id of this Heterixalus (?) from Fianarantsoa?

Oh especially sad to miss the talk on white because I could come up with answer why it is either yes or no and now I'm curious what you guys found.

Oh! Nice prospects for when I ever make it back to the states.

I can vouch for Insomnia cookies. Among the best I've had.

Pretty late, but I would be happy to talk about colour evolution in birds. I have worked with colleagues from UMaine before, so it would provide me with a great opportunity to finally meet in person.

a figure from the linked paper, showing extremely high rates of species diversification in the higher latitudes, higher diversification in the passerines (and in the early history of the oscines), and a marked (but unevenly distributed) uptick in diversification towards the present day

New bird tree who dis.

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Aptly named scarlet-rumped tanagers get their impressive red backsides because their pigmented feathers have a layer of white beneath, which enhances the rouge hue by backscattering light.

New research in #ScienceAdvances shows that some songbirds have such bright-looking feathers by having a backdrop of black or white plumage underneath their bright feathers—an illusionary tactic of color also used by painters.

Learn more in #ScienceAdviser: scim.ag/46ZaPeM

Is 2025 (red lines) a good butterfly year? Yes, on Dutch Butterfly Monitoring transects there are more butterflies than in 2023 and 2024. Numbers almost exactly equal 2022. But look at the 1990s. Compared to then it is a poor butterfly year. Shifting baselines!

❤️

Excited to advertise a shared PhD position at KU Leuven (Belgium) and Mondsee (Austria) with @markusmoest.bsky.social on the genetic basis, plasticity and evolution of melanization in Daphnia from alpine lakes. Apply here: www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo...

Our new preprint @scottvedwards.bsky.social 🧬🐦 Long-read genomes show songbird germline-restricted chromosomes (GRCs; expelled from somatic cells) are 70 % repeats and packed with active LTR retroviruses. A hidden reservoir for TE-driven innovation/diversification! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Can Macroevolution Inform Contemporary Extinction Risk? We investigate the underlying assumptions of the idea that macroevolutionary indicators for large groups of species, such as rates of extinction, diversification or niche evolution, can inform specie...

Can macroevolutionary indices be used to inform contemporary extinction risk? We explore this question in an Ecology Letters review out today. Led by Sarah-Sophie Weil and Laure Gallien, it should be a useful resource for anyone using these approaches. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Not sure if this will make you feel better, but knowing that YOU got negative reviews, helps me process the absolutely horrific reviews I've received recently for a grant I really liked.

Yes, I failed successfully at turning him into a zoologist. He still can't separate a swan from a pigeon, but somehow he managed to use the vegetable gardens as the basis for his taxonomy with tomato-family, pea-family, sunflower-family, wolf's-milk family...