A riddle wrapped in an enigma: parasitic lice as clues to the evolutionary puzzle of Sapayoa (Aves) royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... | #BiologyLetters #Evolution #MolecularBiology #Taxonomy
Really looking forward to #SSB2026 in Baton Rouge and catch up with folks at LSU @systbiol.bsky.social
High-resolution land-use maps from 1960 to 2100 🌎🧪 🌐 www.cell.com/one-earth/fu...
This is news that makes me happy. It really feels most of the time that taxonomy is in a bad place. But in reality, it seems that in the last decades, the rate of species description has been the highest it ever was! 🧪
Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
New post by me on #MITPressReader @mitpress.bsky.social
On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial
the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’).
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...
Thanks so much for the thoughtful thread, Andrew. As it's impossible to predict the future, variety of preparations might be key.
We have successfully used immersion fixation for heads of Cathartes and Coragyps with the rest of the body used for skins, skeletons, and spirit specimens. I will add that for most comparative neuroanatomy an n of 3-6 is fine. Big series are only needed for sex or seasonal variation within species
1/ 🧵 I'm at #BOUasm25 A day at the museum to talk about using natural history collections to build inclusive community.
Natural history #museums are undergoing a renaissance of novel research.
However -who has access to collections? -who is being left out of biodiversity research?
#ornithology
Our final speaker for session 3 is Joe Wynn bringing us “Whole-genome resequencing reveals the origin of a rapidly emerging ‘reverse’ songbird migration” 🐦🧬
@joewynnbirds.bsky.social #BOUasm25 #ornithology
John McCormack: insights from the Mexican Bird Resurvey Project #BOUasm #ornithology
heads up! #BOUasm
1/🧵 Today at #BOUasm25, I’m presenting on the ‘ō‘ū 🦜 a parrot billed-like #Hawaiian #honeycreeper, last seen in 1989. We dive into its population ecology and investigate – did it interbreed with other parrot-billed Hawaiian honeycreepers prior its extinction? doi:10.1098/rsbl.2025.0265 #ornithology
century long shifts in neotropical birds's morphology comparing collections from the 1910' and 2020's @nataliaperez-a.bsky.social #BOUasm #ornithology #evolution @bou.org.uk
1/6 Today I will be presenting my masters research on the #phylogeny of the waterfowl family Anatidae via the #BOUasm25 conference on BlueSky. What came first, the duck, the goose or the swan? #ornithology #systematics #waterfowl #ducks #geese #swans
1/6
Natural history collections are a time stamp of now.
In Taiwan, there is an average of 1500-2000 roadkill cases reported per year. With the increasing public engagement, we can utilize these deaths to their full potential.
#BOUasm25 #ornithology 🧵1/6
We move to finish session 2 with keynote speaker JC Buckner, discussing “Ducking & diving: the role of adaptation in waterfowl macroevolution” 🦆
#BOUasm25 #ornithology #waterfowl #ducks
I learned quite a bit from your talk, thank you!
Any updated protocols or recommendations for fixing liquid specimens? We've been using ethanol for quite sometime now (we actually switched from formaline back in the day)
All aspects of bird behaviour are a product of the anatomy and physiology of their brains. Brain anatomy can therefore provide new insights into bird behaviour.
Today at #BOU2025, I will discuss how museum specimens can potentially be used to study bird brains.
#ornithology #neuroskyence
1/6
We join Shriya Uday in-person, for “The global palette: the role of colour in the wildlife trade” 🎨
@shriyaaaaa.bsky.social #BOUasm25 #wildlife
Cassie Stoddard'a talk was really insightful and colorful:
"sure, we're living exciting times to study the genome, but also to study the phenome, the birds' phenotypes using collections"
#BOUasm25 #ornithology #evolution @bou.org.uk
We’re back! 😄
We‘re kicking off session 2 online with Mary Caswell Stoddard for her keynote “Feathers and eggs: leveraging ornithological collections to explore the evolution of colour, pattern and structure in the avian world” 🪺
Gavin Thomas joins us as Chair.
#BOUasm25 #ornithology #eggs
Lucia Snyderman finishes off our first session with her presentation “Museum collections reveal Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) palaeoecology in England and offer reintroduction insights” 💡
@aukwardlucia.bsky.social #BOUasm25 #palaeontology #palaeoecology
We now move on to join Andrés M. Cuervo for his presentation “Century-spanning collections reveal ecological change and phenotypic shifts in Neotropical birds” 🐦
@amcuervo.bsky.social #BOUasm25 #ecology
“From specimens to solutions: the evolving role and current challenges of natural history collections” Great keynote talk from Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social - I was impressed hearing about the mummy birds 😮
@nhm-london.bsky.social @bou.org.uk #BOUasm25 #ornithology #museums
Do older birds claim better territories, and does this drive age biases in space over time? Woodman et al. use 45 years of data to suggest that habitat quality - not age - shapes spatial demography.
Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....
Hybridization mitigates climate change risk in mountainous birds
->Nature | More from Lil Dr Glen EcoChat at BigEarthData.ai
New work out from our @islandbirdproject.bsky.social team lead by @raquelponti.bsky.social
We will be presenting this at the upcoming conference #BOUasm25
"A day at the museum: collections-based
ornithological research in a changing world" on BlueSky, 18th of Nov.
It’s been a long wait for this fantastic @bou.org.uk event:
“A day at the museum: collections-based ornithological research in a changing world” #BOUasm25
🔈 #BOUasm25 KEYNOTE
Mary Caswell Stoddard
Princeton University, USA
Feathers and eggs: leveraging ornithological collections to explore the evolution of colour, pattern and structure in the avian world
Keynote abstracts: bou.org.uk/conferenc...
#ornithology 🪶
🔈 #BOUasm25 KEYNOTE
Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social
Natural History Museum, UK
Natural history collections in the 21st century: Challenges and opportunities
Submit your abstract: bou.org.uk/event/a-d...
#ornithology 🪶