Aryn Wilder

This paper is the culmination of my PhD at Cornell, and I'm so grateful to the team that made it possible. Co-led with @fishyomics.bsky.social, and co-authored with @jessi-rick.bsky.social, @arynwilder.bsky.social, Zofia Baumann, David Conover, Hannes Baumann, and @ntherk.bsky.social.

Why are adult daughters missing from ancient German cemeteries? DNA and artifacts reveal marriage and inheritance patterns among Bronze Age farmers

Four thousand years ago, the Early Bronze Age farmers of southern Germany had no Homer to chronicle their lives—but a detailed picture of their social structure emerged in 2019 from a remarkable study. #ScienceMagArchives https://scim.ag/4qH5SP4

Group photo by the Rockefeller University River Campus.

Q&A at the 2025 VGP in-person conference.

Erich Jarvis speaking at the planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.

Attendees at the 2025 VGP in-person conference.

This week, we hosted over 100 scientists at Rockefeller University in New York City for our 2025 in-person conference.

Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #261 in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10685) – CourtListener.com Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW, PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 52(A)(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) (Additional attachment(s) added on 9/30/2025: # 1 Main Document) (J...

BREAKING: WE WON!!!
💥 💥 💥

Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment.

Full ruling here:

No Kings As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...

No Kings protest on Oct 18 seems like a great way to practice your First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech.

Find your rally location, nationwide:

www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=5...

🧬 1 more week until the VGP in-person conference!

Can't make it to New York City? Sign up to attend virtually: www.eventbrite.com/e/vertebrate...

This ought to be engraved somewhere.

Now published in Cell! We found that ~15% of SNPs from divergent refs did not liftover as SNPs in the gray fox ref—half mapped to monomorphic sites, half failed to map. Co-authored with Matthew Genchev, @elliecat.bsky.social, and @jazlynmooney.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hahaha... #botanists

Constraints on chromosome evolution revealed by the 229 chromosome pairs of the Atlas blue butterfly The genome of the Atlas blue butterfly contains ten times more chromosomes than most butterflies, and more than any other known diploid animal. Wright et al. show that this extraordinary karyotype is ...

How many chromosomes can an animal have?

In our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact.
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Massive datasets in #ScienceAdvances confirm that higher adherence to a diet friendly to Earth and human health correlates with lower all-cause mortality. https://scim.ag/46bE644

The Earth BioGenome Project's phased approach enables scalability and flexibility in global genome sequencing efforts. Carefully structured milestones and targets help ensure that each stage buil... The Earth BioGenome Project's phased approach enables scalability and flexibility in global genome sequencing efforts. Carefully structured milestones and targets help ensure that each stage builds e...

www.linkedin.com/posts/fronti...

This is now published at #MolecularEcology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Check it out!

🚨 The VGP in-person conference is fast approaching! Early bird pricing ends August 31st, so book your tickets ASAP! www.eventbrite.com/e/vertebrate...

#popgen #congen

How the Pygmy Sea Horse Lost Its Snout

What a sensational science story about an almost mythical beast from @carlzimmer.com www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/s...

Isolating the genomic predictors and mechanisms of inbreeding and outbreeding depression allows us to better weigh their impacts and apply genetic rescue even when outbreeding depression is a risk. Many thanks to excellent coauthors, including @thatlionlady @frozen-zoo.bsky.social!

In an admixed breeding program, the number of offspring produced increases with heterozygosity, but there is a reproductive cost to having parents with different chromosome numbers (heterozygous karyotypes).

In an admixed breeding program, we found that the costs of inbreeding depression from genomic erosion outweigh outbreeding depression from chromosomal differences, suggesting that extinction risk is higher if populations remain isolated.

Fitness benefits of genetic rescue despite chromosomal differences in an endangered pocket mouse Two-thirds of Earth’s species have undergone population declines, leaving many vulnerable to genomic erosion and inbreeding depression. Genetic rescue can boost the fitness of small populations, but p...

Excited to share our new paper on genetic rescue in the Pacific pocket mouse! To conserve this endangered species, we sought to understand whether small populations at risk of outbreeding depression are better managed in isolation or with gene flow. @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...