Pablo Macias Torres

Genomic architecture of egg mimicry and its consequences for speciation in parasitic cuckoos Host-parasite arms races facilitate rapid evolution and can fuel speciation. Cuculus cuckoos are deceptive egg mimics that exhibit a broad diversity of counterfeit egg phenotypes, representing host-ad...

Our new @science.org paper is out! Cuckoos and hosts are locked in a coevolutionary arms race over egg mimicry.

But how are these egg types inherited, and could this drive speciation? We sequenced hundreds of genomes to find out!

doi.org/10.1126/scie...

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The Most Efficient Traveler Isn’t a Bird or a Fish—It’s You on a Bike A famous graphic, now updated, compares locomotion in the animal kingdom

For Scientific American’s 180th birthday, we’ve updated a classic graphic comparing different forms of animal locomotion, first published in this magazine in 1973.

The structure of the annual migratory flight activity in a songbird | royalsocietypublishi... | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | #ornithology 🪶

Today IUCN has officially declared the Slender-billed Curlew extinct, marking the first known global extinction of a formerly widespread migratory bird species whose range included mainland Europe, North Africa, and West Asia.

Read more here ⬇️
www.unep-aewa.org/fr/node/6632

Look at her go!
#invertebrates 🌿

🚨 Master’s project!
Curious how birds find their way? 🧭🐦
Analyze decades of ringing data to study abnormal migratory routes and uncover what these deviations can reveal about the mechanisms guiding birds on their journeys. Drop me an email for details! #ornithology

www.vogelwarte.ch/de/wir/mitar...

Animal niches in the airspace For flying animals, including many birds, bats, and insects, the air is a crucial arena for a range of behaviors. Technological advances, such as year-round tracking of flight altitudes and expanded u...

Are animals randomly distributed in the air, or is there a structure to where and when we find them? In our new paper we outline factors that shape habitat use in the air, from abiotic structure to biotic interactions. A lot of fun discussions behind this one! 🦅🦋🦇🌬
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

🚨 PhD alert 🚨 We are looking for a highly motivated student to use 🧬 genomics 🧬 and 🛰️ bio-logging 🛰️ approaches to disentangle cultural and genetic contributions to seabird migration 🐣 Think this is you, or someone you know? Then come to our Q&A session at on 29/09 and check out the ad below!

Today we welcomed Sveriges Radio P4 Malmöhus (local radio) who actually sent live from our wind tunnel. There was a bit of waiting involved… 😇 when @pablomaciastorres.bsky.social and professor Anders Hedenström were interviewed about their research. 👏👏👏

Migratory birds aren’t equally efficient at all speeds. A new Lund University study shows thrush nightingales fly most efficiently at 7–8 m/s – the speed they actually use on migration.
@pablomaciastorres.bsky.social & Prof. Anders Hedenström, Animal Flight Lab.

www.biology.lu.se/article/not-...

EUROPEAN HEAT WAVE
Brutal heat from Morocco to UK

Among the records in NW Europe
33.4 JERSEY HOTTEST JUNE DAY IN HISTORY
33.0 Airport

GERMANY
35.8 Wielenbach June R
HIGH MINIMUMS
22.1 Rheinau all time R
21.7 Elzach all time R
21.3 Pirmasens June R
19.4 Münsingen June R

Bogong moths use a stellar compass for long-distance navigation at night - Nature Every spring, Bogong moths use the starry night sky as a compass to navigate up to 1,000 km towards their alpine migratory goal.

The Australian bogong moth uses the Milky Way as compass during annual 100-mile journey to cool caves. This is shown by a groundbreaking study also revealing that the Earth's magnetic field plays an important role in the navigation of this mysterious moth. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Energy conversion efficiency peaks at intermediate flight speed in a migratory songbird Using in vivo measurements of thrush nightingales flying in a wind tunnel, Macias-Torres et al. show that energy conversion efficiency varies with airspeed following a concave function, with a maximum...

After a lot of time spent in the darkness of the wind tunnel, the results finally see the light.
I'm very excited to share what will become the first chapter of my thesis.
Energy conversion efficiency peaks at intermediate flight speed in a migratory songbird www.cell.com/current-biol...

Three AI-powered steps to faster, smarter peer review Tired of spending countless hours on peer reviews? An AI-assisted workflow could help.

Let's talk about this Nature piece in more detail.

I've rarely read something so anti-scientific anywhere short of the National Review.

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

Just returned from the #EUFLYNET cost action meeting in Tarifa. There were plenty of interesting talks regarding migratory birds and networking opportunities. The landscape and wildlife were a highlight. #birdmigration

Last week, 56,000 #btgodwits were counted in the rice fields of the #Tagus estuary, the highest concentration of the species in the EAF. In this rice field alone, 36K godwits were recorded by drone!

#LifeGodwitflyway

How important are your #postdoc years in the likelihood of you staying & succeeding in #academia?

In our newly published paper in @pnas.org, "Postdoc Publications and Citations Link to Academic Retention and Faculty Success," we study the journey of #CareerSuccess of ~45,000 #postdocs.

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