Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

The Jacobin cuckoo sits atop a bright green branch, probably plotting which unsuspecting Bulbul it will leave its eggs with next. It looks rather dapper with its bright white throat and long black tail feathers.

Bulbuls consistently rejected large eggs, and did not feed nestlings with mismatching skin colour. However, in some cases they rejected their own brood if the foreign egg hatched first, suggesting a role of hatching-order! Want to learn more? Read the full paper 🧪🌍 (2/2)
doi.org/10.1093/biol...

Twelve pictures of Bulbul nest are ordered A-L, showing differing clutches of eggs (A-F) and nestlings (G-L).

The original cuckold, cuckoos are known for their brood parasitism, but do their unwilling hosts ever catch on? Using red-vented bulbuls as a case study (the host of the Jacobin cuckoo), the role off egg size & nestling discrimination were investigated, but what did it show? A (tiny) 🧵🧪(1/2)

Two birds - a crested tit to the left and a coal tit to the right - sit atop a snowy branch against a grey background.

Call for Papers! 📣

Following on from our fantastic symposium last year, we're running a #SpecialIssue on "Organismal Resilience in a Rapidly Changing World"! Does your work look at #ClimateChange impacts on species? Submit with us! Deadline 20 May 2026 👇🌍🧪
academic.oup.com/biolinnean/p...

Physiological plasticity under dehydration as a driver of invasion success in the frog Eleutherodactylus johnstonei Abstract. Water balance strongly influences key physiological and ecological functions in terrestrial anurans, affecting locomotor performance and metaboli

Tested at 100, 90 & 80% dehydration, it was found these frogs were NOT jumping for joy, with reduced endurance & jumping activity recorded. However, their metabolic traits remained unaffected. Together, this may aid dispersal & persistence in new urban environments! (2/2) 🧪🌍
doi.org/10.1093/biol...

A red eyed tree frog sits on a bright green leaf looking to its left. What is it thinking, we don't know, but we do know it is green with orange feet.

Water pickle, tolerance to dehydration potentially enables invasive anuran species to survive in new environments! Here, the impact of dehydration on locomotor performance & aerobic capacity in the whistling frog, an established species in SE Brazil, was investigated...a 🧵 (1/2)

Admit what you've done! Stop trying to pull the wool over their eyes @themerl.bsky.social 🧪🐏

Two storks sit atop a large nest of sticks backlit by a bright blue sky.

Click click click...is that your manager angrily typing on a keyboard? No! It's the clattering of stork bills, giving a voice to these voiceless birds!

Important for courtship, did you know longer bills produce faster clicks? Turns out size does matter...🧪🌍
doi.org/10.1093/biol...
#Conservation

Dani and Connor presenting at the Linnean Society, they are both smiling. In the backround is a historic chair and portrait of Carl Linnaeus.

Close up of someone cutting out a picture of a bird for a zine page. In the background are a colourful array of pens and materials to make a collage

A group of people, all smiling, on the stage together at the Linnean Society

We had a wonderful time yesterday at Exploring Queerness in Natural History.

We're writing up it up to share in a future blog post, but for now here are some pictures of our fantastic curators @aquadan1.bsky.social and Connor Butler, the lunchtime zine-making, and our afternoon panellists.

We couldn't do it without our authors, and we look forward to another year of ground breaking research published with us.

If you want to be part of our history, why not consider one of our journals as the home for your research this year?
academic.oup.com/biolinnean/p...

We reinvest back into our journals through our expert Editorial Office, ensuring a high-quality peer review process. Additionally, we promote authors’ work & showcase the research we publish through blogs, online lectures & in-person events, making science accessible to all (3/4).

As a not-for-profit organisation, the research published with us goes directly towards funding our community outreach & engagement. Most notably, this includes our historical collections, extensive education and events programmes, and our prestigious medals, prizes and awards. (2/4)

Why not publish your research with a Society Journal? 🧪🌍

The Linnean Society is committed to publishing high-quality and ground-breaking scientific research across the four themes of botany, zoology, biology and evolution, striving to make these accessible & engaging to a global audience. 🧵(1/4)

Determination of Smilodon fatalis (Carnivora: Felidae) brain volume and its place among extant felids by use of MicroCT scans ABSTRACT. After Leidy discovered Smilodon fatalis in 1869, Merriam and Stock became interested in this felid. They made the first endocast. Since then, the

Why grandma, what a big brain you have...all the better to...what? This is a sabre-toothed tiger, not a wolf?

Nevertheless, MicroCT scans revealed the brain volume of Smilodon fatalis, placing them in the same range as modern lions! 🌍🧪👇

academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...
#FossilFriday

Squamate lizards love Hot Chip, look for them at the next concert you go to...

Lizards in chain mail: reconstructing the enigmatic past of dermal armour in squamate reptiles Abstract. Osteoderms, bone plates in the skin, occur widely but inconsistently throughout the tetrapod tree of life. Their evolutionary history remains poo

Covering 320MYr of evolution, the ancestral character state of osteoderms (bony skin plates) in squamates was reconstructed, finding that they evolved several times in reptiles since the Late Jurassic & Early Cretaceous! Read more below (2/2)🌍🧪
doi.org/10.1093/biol...

A reconstruction of a lizards skull has been divided in half, with the left showing the placement of millions of bony armour plates (osteoderms) under the skin of lizards, and the right showing the scaly skin.

Whilst you're unlikely to see knights in chainmail wondering the streets of London, squamate lizards pack a secret body armour millions of years in the making...but like the band Hot Chip, over and over and over and over... 🧵(1/2)
#FossilFriday
@linneansociety.bsky.social

Started in the 1990s, it houses 5100 specimens that act as a source for #Research & #Conservation planning. Actively countering the erosion of scientific capacity, it serves as a dynamic infrastructure that symbolises the resilience of knowledge and biological heritage! (2/2) 🌍🧪

Fighting biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene: the INALI snake collection as a key resource for natural history in the Global South Abstract. In the Anthropocene, accelerating biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and social instability are profoundly affecting tropical and subt

Accelerating #BiodiversityLoss, environmental degradation & social instability affect tropical & subtropical regions in South America. Museum collections are critical for documenting & preserving biodiversity, yet often get overlooked. Introducing: INALI snake collection (1/2) 🧪🌍
buff.ly/DbvmLsf

Ever wondered how males 'roos increase their reproductive success? While they might look like they fight it out in the ring, larger males actually show less investment in sperm competitive traits, though that doesn't mean they're not successful...🧪🌍
doi.org/10.1093/biol...
#AustraliaDay

@jinbecile.bsky.social

A large African elephant bull walks through tall, yellow grass in Tsavo National Park, Kenya. Green trees can be seen in the background.

The elephant in the room? Mega-herbivores continue to be threatened by poaching & human-wildlife conflict. Their #Conservation is crucial not only to preserve these gentle giants, but also to ensure the future of the many species they interact with. (6/6)🌍🧪

Read the full paper 👇
buff.ly/22dNQ3l

A small green plant shoots up from the ground.

The real magic? An elephant's digestive system! Those that had been eaten showed greater success overall, and in the wet season only eaten seeds managed to germinate! In fact, the average time for germination decreased from 96-47 days when eaten...not to blow the elephant's trumpet...(5/6) 🌍🧪

A pile of elephant dung in Tsavo National Park. In the top right corner, a box outlined in yellow has another image of two dung beetles rolling a large ball of elephant dung.

Whilst elephants are the sole pollinators of the Torchwood tree, the success of germination depends, in part, on the season. That nutrient-rich dung package? It only helps in the wet season (and actually inhibits in the dry)! But why? Turns out dung is pretty toxic (don't tell the beetles) (4/6) 🌍🧪

A large African elephant walking over a sandy areas of the Savannah. Photo credit: Jin-Gyu Chang.

Using elephants is clever for more than one reason. Not only do their vast ranges assist in reducing competition for resources amongst plant relatives, but their dung can act as a nutrient source for the germinating seed...right? It might not be so simple...(3/6) 🌍🧪

A large Belanites tree is seen standing alone in Kenya. A wildebeest can be seen dwarfed to its right. Not the same species as that in this blog.

Whilst many plants rely on small animal dispersers, the Torchwood tree - found in coastal forests of Southern Kenya - set its eyes on the biggest prize. Dropping small, smelly fruits with large seeds, their target audience has the ability to disperse seeds over greater distances...(2/6) 🧪🌍

A large African elephant stands amongst trees in the savannah, dappled in golden sunlight.

New Blog Alert! 🚨 🐘

Elephants are known to be Ecosystem Engineers, but did you know they are also the largest gardeners on Earth? Our latest blog, written by guest blogger Jin-Gyu Chang, reveals their pollinator role...but it's less green thumb and more elephant dung...(1/6) 🧪🌍
buff.ly/GSCUM4R

With the diversity of flowers comes the diversity of ways to analyse them, but which is best & how are they linked? Here, combining flower morphology characters of 951 species revealed that the most common characters are rarely found together in 1 flower! 🌍🧪
doi.org/10.1093/botl...
#Conservation

What do you call a reptile that looks like a lizard but isn't? I'm Nothosaurus...

Helping to understand ecosystem recovery after the PT-extinction, a large new nothosaurian is described, adding to the evidence of large predators in the Tethys shallow seas! 🧪👇
doi.org/10.1093/zool...
#FossilFriday

We couldn't do it without our authors, and we look forward to another year of ground breaking research published with us.

If you want to be part of our history, why not consider one of our journals as the home for your research this year?
academic.oup.com/biolinnean/p...

We reinvest back into our journals through our expert Editorial Office, ensuring a high-quality peer review process. Additionally, we promote authors’ work & showcase the research we publish through blogs, online lectures & in-person events, making science accessible to all (3/4).