Dr Ross Dwyer

Loss of Earth’s old, wise, and large animals Earth’s old animals are in decline. Despite this, emerging research is revealing the vital contributions of older individuals to cultural transmission, population dynamics, and ecosystem processes and...

First post here.
I’ll unpack our new paper @science.org highlighting the loss of old animals and calling for ‘longevity conservation’

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The Eastern Red Bat’s (Lasiurus borealis) main threat wind energy, accounting for 38% of deaths. 🦇

With current death-rates, models predict the North American population will decrease 90% in 50 years. 📉

This underscores the importance of listing it on CMS Appendix II: www.cms.int/sites/defaul...

🚨Fully-funded PhD opportunity in my group🚨

🧬How does parental ageing shape the next generation?🐾

Find out by studying meerkats!

🧪Epigenetic clocks
✨Bioinformatics
📊Long-term data
🌍Kalahari fieldwork
💡Big evolutionary questions

Get in touch or APPLY NOW
Please share!
www.uea.ac.uk/course/phd-d...

And then there were none: Australia’s only shrew declared extinct Australia’s only known shrew has been declared extinct. Its loss emphasises the need for national protection of Australia’s rare and unique wildlife.

Sad news for Australian mammals..Australia's only shrew officially declared #extinct.
theconversation.com/and-then-the...

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #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

A 15-Year Time Series Shows Major Declines in Whale
Sharks in Southern Mozambique 🦑🧪🐟🦈 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...

Sometimes biology just blows your mind. If you have not seen the new paper "One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants " in @nature.com or some of the posts or commentary about it. Do yourself a favor and marvel in the wonders of nature...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

And that’s a wrap! Great to be back in #CapeYork with @drnicolubitz.bsky.social and BridgetNolan to showcase our research into the secret lives of threatened #sharks and #rays.

‘Involved sequentially’: leopard sharks observed mating for first time in wild have threesome Menage a trois over in 110 seconds and ‘then the males lost all their energy and lay immobile on the bottom’, marine biologist Dr Hugo Lassauce says

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Interesting insights into the reproductive biology of #sharks and #rays #MarineResearch #UniSC

DNA cassette tape can store every song ever recorded By combining the information storage capabilities of DNA with a design inspired by a cassette tape, researchers have created a storage medium that can hold 36 petabytes of data

By combining the information storage capabilities of DNA with a design inspired by a cassette tape, researchers have created a storage medium that can hold 36 petabytes of data

Crab Island is a small uninhabited island at the tip of #CapeYork peninsula that is home to Australia’s most significant flatback #turtle colony. Every year dozens-hundreds of estuarine #crocodiles make the short swim across the sea to feast on this predictable food resource

hmmTMB: Hidden Markov Models with Flexible Covariate Effects in R by Théo Michelot <p>Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are widely applied in studies where a discrete-valued process of interest is observed indirectly. They have for example been used to model behavior from human and animal...

The hmmTMB paper is finally out in the Journal of Statistical Software!

An R package for hidden Markov models with random effects, flexible spline-based covariate effects, and fast inference using TMB or Stan.

Check out the GIthub repository for more examples.

doi.org/10.18637/jss...

Tracking mobile animals that rarely surface is challenging. It is only possible thanks to the collaborative acoustic array that the @imos-aus.bsky.social team and dozens of independent research groups tirelessly maintain along Australia’s shores

A great write-up of our grey nurse shark research program by @imos-aus.bsky.social on #NationalThreatenedSpeciesDay.

This Sunday is #NationalThreatenedSpeciesDay 🦈 We’re highlighting the grey nurse shark, critically endangered on Australia’s east coast.

Learn more 🔗 bit.ly/4p61LeH

#NCRISImpact

@drrossdwyer.bsky.social

As the shark fin trade wanes, we need to curb the roaring trade of rhino ray fins I still vividly remember my first walk through the Sheung Wan district of Hong Kong in late 2013, the dried seafood part of this port city. I saw fins from tens of thousands of sharks that day, with e...

In Hong Kong’s dried seafood stalls, shark fins no longer dominate. But rhino ray fins, which are rare, valuable, and from species now on the brink, still fetch fortunes.
Conservation hinges on outpacing this growing trade.

More in Demian Chapman’s blog: saveourseas.com/update/as-th...

Marine research scientist positions in WA!

New paper out! We found that a climate change-driven warming off Sydney has increased the amount of time bull sharks spend around Australia's biggest city. #sharks #climatechange #sydney #bullsharks
@jcuofficial.bsky.social @drrossdwyer.bsky.social @imos-aus.bsky.social @saveourseas.bsky.social

Ground truthing two degrees of separation in New Zealand with shark tagging I received a message from a friend the other day. “Hey Brit, Mike found one of your tags”. I don’t know a Mike in New Zealand. But go Mike. Mike from Auckland found one of my tags washed up on a beach...

What are the chances of a tag making its way back to a scientist from a deep sea shark?
Higher than one might think, demonstrated by the return of three tags to Brit Finucci and team following the tagging of gulper sharks off of New Zealand.
More below.
saveourseas.com/update/groun...

Did you know? Sharks have some of the most diverse life histories. Even within shark species, life history traits vary dramatically! Some, like the Spiny Dogfish, can take up to 36 years to mature, while fast-growing species like the Australian Sharpnose Shark only take a year.

Where giants roam: The importance of remote islands and seamount corridors to adult tiger sharks in the South Pacific Ocean 🦑🌎🐟🦈 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We're hiring a Research Fellow at Edinburgh Napier University to join the SharkScape project, a three–year, multi-institute project involving field-based research and data analysis.

Apply now: 🔗 jobs.ac.uk/job/DLV215/r...

#MarineScience #SharkConservation #ResearchJobs

Read more about our recent publication on #crocs here in @aunz.theconversation.com

Our new paper published in @currentbiology.bsky.social today, where we used temperature-sensing @innovasea.com tags to detect climate shifts and behavioural responses to extreme temperatures in wild #crocodiles

Climate-induced shifts in crocodile body temperature impact behavior and performance Barham et al. measure the body temperature of estuarine crocodiles over 15 years and find that body temperatures have increased over time alongside air temperatures and in patterns reflecting multi-ye...

Climate-induced shifts in crocodile body temperature impact behavior and performance: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...