Branden Holmes

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

Very important paper and resource. Bryophyte genomes expanded by one order of magnitude. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hit me with your coolest plant/animal/fungi facts.

Hi Jake, is it please possible to get a PDF copy of this paper?

brndnholmes[at]gmail[dot]com

"PhD-level experts in your back pocket" is a completely nonsensical description of AI but a pretty good description of social media if you follow the right people

Needless to say, you will be fully credited, though I can't monetarily reimburse you. I can, however, provide hyperlinks to staff pages, research output, etc. over and above those cited in the main body.

Will happily remove your content at any point in the future, without asking for an explanation.

Unfortunately, as my knowledge grows due to researching, the database is slowly becoming more technical and thus less useful to the average internet user. I really need sci-comm stuff to appeal to the majority of my website visitors, but I am not really in a position to provide that.

3/n

I have a small but growing research output myself.

scholar.google.com/citations?us...

But my main project is the website/database, which has been cited/mentioned a couple of dozen times in the literature, including thrice in Nature journals.

recentlyextinctspecies.com/other/citing...

2/n

Do you have any writings on the current biodiversity crisis that you don't plan on doing anything with? Especially if aimed at the general reader. I'd love to host them on my website/database. Can provide user analytics once search engines index the content.

recentlyextinctspecies.com

1/n

A new late Pleistocene fossil crocodile from Sudan reveals hidden diversity of Crocodylus in Africa - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - A new late Pleistocene fossil crocodile from Sudan reveals hidden diversity of Crocodylus in Africa

"Here we report on a complete skull of a new fossil Crocodylus from the Late Pleistocene...Phylogenetic analyses indicate the Atbara Crocodylus represents a separate species and is more closely related to the fossil African crocodiles than the extant forms."

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Critics of de-extinction research hit by mystery smear campaign Several researchers who have been critical of Colossal Biosciences’ plans to revive extinct animals say they have been targeted by online articles trying to discredit them

Critics of #ColossalBio and #DeExtinction @toriherridge.bsky.social @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social, @flintdibble.bsky.social, and I have been targeted by "articles" attacking our credibility, looks like a targeted smear campaign against us for honest criticisms...

www.newscientist.com/article/2490...

Two precious photos of long-extinct bandicoot found in museum box Hidden in the long-forgotten personal archives of a 20th-century anatomist was a pair of images depicting an extinct species of bandicoot with an unusual butterfly pattern and aggressive streak.

www.abc.net.au/news/science...

World’s smallest snake rediscovered in Barbados after 20-year absence “I was making a joke and in my head I said, ‘I smell a threadsnake,'” Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for the NGO Re:wild, recalled. “I just had a feeling, but I couldn’t be sure because we...

👍🐍

Mammals found most at risk as Australia's largest animals face 100,000 years of change Over the past 100,000 years, Australia and New Guinea's large animal communities have been disrupted by extinctions and invasive species, altering entire ecosystems and threatening the conservation of...

Mammals found most at risk as Australia's largest animals face 100,000 years of change phys.org/news/2025-07...

WeTransfer TOS says they can use all your uploaded content for genAI

Bye forever, WeTransfer.

Moa "de-extinction" plans announced - Expert Reaction An overseas company has announced plans to "bring back" the South Island giant moa. Colossal Biosciences, working with Ngāi Tahu Research Centre and Canterbury Museum, says it expects to "resurrect" t...

The Science Media Centre has gathered several expert reactions to the "de-extinct the moa" publicity announcement. Each is withering in a different way. www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2025/07/09/m...

I use this image when I teach about the consequences of biodiversity loss:

They must have taken down the audio. It was up.

Hot take: taxa should be given an interim name until they are sufficiently understood to bestow an appropriate scientific name that is neither eponymous nor toponymous. The former is anachronistic (doubly so if extinct prior to humans), and the latter is arbitrary. Neither are informative.

Photograph of the book resting on my table. I'm procrastinating with my artwork. But it's still thylacine related procrastination...

If you're interested in thylacines and want a comprehensive read...this is the book.

I finally got my own copy; you can clearly see that a lot of hard work was put into this. All very nicely edited together by both Brandon Holmes (@recentlyextinct.bsky.social) and Gareth Linnard.

#thylacine

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Herbariomic approach solved identity crisis of the putatively extinct Armeria arcuata Welw. ex Boiss. & Reut. (Plumbaginaceae)
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

An AI generated image of a thylacine in the wild, flanked by small tree ferns (Cyathea sp.).

#thylacine

Hot take. There are far too many book awards/prizes for fiction and not nearly enough for non-fiction.

Reminder that Shark Week "star" Forrest Galante is a bad scientist and a bad person who regularly takes credit for discovering things that local experts already knew about. This is not behavior Discovery should be praising, or giving a platform to.

https://buff.ly/2TtiydC

Newly discovered Australian frogs highlight dire limits of climate change adaptation Two newly discovered species of Australian frogs may be unable to adapt to the escalating impacts of climate change, raising urgent conservation concerns from scientists.

Another example of "we don't even know what we don't know."

Two newly recorded frog species in Australia are being pushed to higher elevations due to continental warming and drying. They are basically trapped in small high-elevation refuges as warming "moves" uphill. 🐸 🧪 🌏

phys.org/news/2025-02...

What search engines do you use apart from Google? Always looking for alternatives.

It screams "Beth is super talented".

Our giant check-list of Australasian mammals is out! All your favourite amazing mammals in one spot!

That's my website (contact email in the footer). The reference list at bottom is nearly complete for the 20th/21st centuries, but I have yet to systematically go through the bibliography and add the relevant information. Hoping to also add the other taxa recorded for each site to comprise its LF.