Emily V Griffith

Society for the Study of Evolution Site description

Applications now open for the Graduate Research Excellence Grants! These provide evolutionary biology research funds for early and advanced Master’s and PhD students. Proposals due May 18.
www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

Congratulations to my former student Lei Wu who recently published "Parallel divergence with shared barriers and niche
separation between two sympatric avian species groups" (dx.doi.org/10.1111/jse....) (Open Access). Willow Tit Poecile montanus and Marsh Tit P. palustris species groups in China

A playful poster graphic featuring flat illustrations of national postal services around the world that use bird logos. From March 2022

Postal services around the world that use birds as logos. One of my favorite poster graphics I've made! 🐦✉️

Grant Witness is hiring! We're seeking a full-time data scientist to join our team building data resources to support journalism, litigation, and activism protecting science, public health, and the rule of law. grant-witness.us/apply.html #rstats

Love rivers?! Looking for an exciting PhD opportunity to better understand how to restore rivers at a landscape scale with multiple stakeholders?!
Details below!
@stir.ac.uk

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

There is No Consensus on Biological Sex At this critical moment when misinformation about sex is being applied to policy globally, scientific clarification on the definition of biological sex is valuable. Here, we evaluate the primary appr...

New paper out in ecology letters! with @andylee.bsky.social @allydefduf.bsky.social

We synthesized the active debate on how scientists define sex, including limitations and assumptions. We believe this discussion will lead to more accurate science.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Want a reliable way to tell the two cryptic giant hummingbird species apart while birding in the Andes? Use your ear! 🎶 In a new @fieldornith.bsky.social J. Field Ornithology paper, we show how their vocalizations differ clearly—making sound a slam dunk for identifying them in the field.

Wild-born birds recruited to teach critically endangered regent honeyeaters their lost songs Researchers hope restoring the original song will improve breeding prospects for birds released into the wild

Here's an #ornithology story to send you into the weekend: Wild-born Regent Honeyeaters are "tutoring" captive-bred birds in their songs, part of a plan release captive-bred birds into the wild in hopes of saving this critically endangered species.

1/ Remember when Ted Cruz went to Cancún as the Texas power grid failed? It wasn't just the people of TX left behind, it was also the wildlife. Out now @natecoevo.nature.com, our paper led by @mstager.bsky.social & @treeswallows.bsky.social documents how bad the storms were for birds.

rdcu.be/e7aUy

Bird nests support a diverse, dynamic and distinctive macroarthropod community on the forest floor Nests built by vertebrates, such as birds and mammals, constitute diverse microhabitats that are inhabited by many arthropod taxa and represent important hubs of local biodiversity. Compared to leaf...

New paper! Bird nests (Wood Warblers) are hubs of invertebrate biodiversity on forest floor, hosting more species/individuals than leaf litter. Probably due to heat & food detritus. Losing Wood Warblers = ecological networks lost. #ornithology
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A drawing titled "psst genetic engineers: I have a proposal." It shows ten duck species being combined into one best duck, which has a long-tailed duck's tail plumes, a king eider's wing spikes, a hooded merganser's hood, a white-winged scoter's eye markings, a redhead's eye and red head, a ring-necked duck's bill pattern, a northern shoveler's bill shape, a northern pintail's neck pattern, a harlequin duck's blue, and a ruddy duck's upturned tail.

An oldie about ducks and ignoring scientific ethics.

Reposting for Sarah's power stance.

Rising temperatures pose a threat to tropical insects An assessment of sensitivity to increasing temperature for thousands of insect species in mountainous terrain reveals a risk of insect biodiversity loss in tropical lowlands.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The Fish Doorbell — The Fish Doorbell Did you spot a fish? Press the Fish Doorbell! This alerts our lock operator to let the fish through. The Fish Doorbell is in Utrecht, NL.

It's Fish Doorbell season again!! I am completely obsessed with this thing. It's an aquatic gate in the Netherlands that lets fish pass through so they can go about their lives despite the dam. Watch the livestream. If you see a fish, ring the doorbell, and the gates open!! 🐟❤️
visdeurbel.nl/en/

Phainopepla nitens

Finland’s updated Important Bird Areas: A new map for bird conservation Climate change and shifting bird distributions are reshaping Finland’s bird conservation landscape

#ornithology
www.birdlife.org/news/2026/03...

btw, this project and projects like it are funded by t-shirts like this one (and you should buy one at SquidFacts.net, they're super cute)

requiem for vanished birdsong

Long-term warming reduces fish biomass, but heatwaves shift it - Nature Ecology & Evolution A large-scale analysis of changes in fish biomass over 25 years identifies average biomass declines associated with long-term warming, as well as sharp decreases and increases in biomass associated wi...

A large-scale analysis of changes in fish biomass over 25 years identifies average biomass declines associated with long-term warming, as well as sharp decreases and increases associated with heatwaves at the warm and cold edges of species’ ranges, respectively 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

LLMs as contrast dye for where resources are missing.

Click the fish.

a print with skulls and a kitty cat watering plants that says please plant native plants or go to hell, with water spraying everywhere

Sometimes you're done with asking nicely.

Our friend @the666cat.bsky.social put a decidedly Philadelphia spin on the appeal to plant native plants in our city.

Please plant native plants
or
Go to hell!

Get prints (11x14in) at SquidFacts.net

Birds are vanishing from tropical forests. Is another ‘silent spring’ coming? As mysterious bird declines crop up in the Amazon and beyond, scientists suspect climate change may be to blame

This sobering story highlights the work of WOS members Bette Loiselle and John Blake. #ornithology

Researchers in the US might be having feelings about writing grants atm-I know I am!

We still need to write them. In this Evolution Exchange, I again chat with Sam Scheiner, who summarizes how to write a competitive proposal.

His advice is gold, and helpful regardless of funder. Pls RT!

Just published in Peer Community Journal: A perspective on Global North–South inequalities in science and how language and funding barriers shape who gets to participate in global knowledge production. 🌍📚
👉 peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10....

Lead author Wes Walsh, his tattoo of Agelenopsis pennsylvanica (the Pennsylvanian grass spider) and one of the inspirations for this study, a live Platycryptus undatus (tan jumping spider). Credit: Wes Walsh

🕸️ Scared of spiders? The real horror could be a world without them. New UMass Amherst research shows spiders & other arachnids are vital for healthy ecosystems, yet most have no conservation status.
https://www.umass.edu/news/article/scared-spiders-real-horror-story-world-without-them

This is a great awards program for science communication. Enter now (before April 3) and/or please encourage others to do so. Categories include researchers (early, mid- & late career), journalists, independent & institutional. From @nationalacademies.org & @schmidtsciences.bsky.social

Spring 2025 - Orion Magazine The more-than-human world has always been queer.

We’re so proud of the Queer Ecology issue, and honored to be a finalist for best single-topic issue. If you want to get your own for your collection, you can do so here.
orionmagazine.org/product/spri...

I am reminded that the entire Jurassic Park franchise, going back to the original book, is grounded in the concept of transsexual dinosaurs, and really there's a lot of people who need their faces bitten as a reminder.

Rawr.🦖

39 years ago, there were only 27 California condors in the world. As of 2025, we now have 607, including 392 that are living free in the wild.

"Put that in your doom and smoke it" -Ursula Vernon

www.fws.gov/media/2025-c...