Keller Kopf

📑 #NewReview by Boube et al. dives into the scientific literature around the Great Hammerhead Shark. Our understanding of its migratory behaviour and habitat use is changing.

👀 doi.org/10.1007/s111...

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.

Extinctions serve as important warning signs that something is very wrong in the environment. Will we finally heed these warnings? Our mental wellbeing and over half our economy depends on it. theconversation.com/and-then-the...

Attempted eradication of smallmouth bass promotes rapid evolution. Here's the study that is the focus of the Scientific American article: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@scbeurope.bsky.social @society4conbio.bsky.social @science.org @altfws.altgov.info

@biodiversityguy.bsky.social @euanritchie.bsky.social @ljnbrent.bsky.social @pili-scotland.bsky.social @chrisjolly.bsky.social @charlesdarwinuni.bsky.social @rarlinghausfish.bsky.social @shoalorg.bsky.social @sharkscience.bsky.social @amfisheriessoc.bsky.social @fishconserve.bsky.social

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...

Accompanying supporting evidence

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

Longevity Conservation: Why we should protect old, wise and large animals

iucncongress2025.org/programme/lo...

MOTION 113

If you are a voting member of the IUCN - please consider supporting our motion (113) for Longevity Conservation at the Congress this week
@iucnshark.bsky.social @aciucn.bsky.social @iucn-bctf.bsky.social @sscmarine.bsky.social

iucncongress2025.org/assembly/mot...

The disproportionate impact of the #megabiota on biodiversity and ecosystem processes

Dexter and Casper snoozing

Little surprise saltwater crocodile swimming off local Darwin beach; I did let the surf lifeguards and swimmers know!

A BIG congratulations to Dr Tegan Dedman for completing her PhD @charlesdarwinuni.bsky.social. Effects of sea level rise on the tropical freshwater wetland communities

Native megafauna (Bison bison) act as a surprising inhibitor of cedar tree expansion in a Great Plains grassland In the Central Great Plains of North America, fire suppression is causing transitions from grasslands to shrublands and woodlands. This woody encroachment alters plant community composition, decrease...

Bison inhibits tree growth in Great Plains. We should give wisent a better chance to do the same in German national parks.
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

@sse-evolution.bsky.social just announced the following:

Call for Proposals: Research Synthesis Working Groups
The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) invites proposals for sponsored Research Synthesis Working Groups at the 2026 Evolution meeting (up to two in-person and one virtual). ...

Biodiversity modulates the cross‐community scaling relationship in changing environments Organismal abundance typically declines with increasing body size, with metabolic theory predicting a universal size–abundance slope of –0.75. Using protist microcosms across gradients of species ric...

Does body size predict abundance the same way in all environments, as predicted by the Metabolic theory of Ecology? Our new study challenges this assumption. Read it here: 📄 doi.org/10.1111/ele....

Separating Macroecological Pattern and Process: Comparing Ecological, Economic, and Geological Systems Theories of biodiversity rest on several macroecological patterns describing the relationship between species abundance and diversity. A central problem is that all theories make similar predictions f...

Classic macroecological laws-long held as signatures of biological systems-also emerge in economic and geological systems. The real signal lies not in the static universal patterns, but in how those patterns shift with scale 🌐🧪 #scaling #macroecology journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Cool... a global focus on three core traits of ectotherms: metabolic rate, development time and fecundity. ShareTrait: Towards interoperable and reusable individual trait-based data in ectotherms #OpenTraits #FunctionalTraits besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... 🧪🌐

YouTube video by Bill Sutherland's Conservation Concepts The Power of Art in Conservation

The Society of Wildlife Art have a wonderful project at Massingham Heath rewilding project, Norfolk. Here Amie Haslam and Brin Edwards explain the project. youtu.be/hiCQiSHuaG4?...

Nice photo; I grew up near there and spent many summer days as a kid floating old tractor tire intertubes downstream in the Platte

The brain fires up immune cells when sick people are nearby When people viewed virtual avatars with coughs or rashes, their brains triggered an immune response.

This is fascinating - the brain fires up immune cells when sick people are nearby
🧪

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

Why did some #megafauna survive? 🦣🦘🦌
Our new study shows #extinction risk was higher for larger, flat-footed, island species— and lower for those closely related to tropical African/Asian fauna, likely filtered by earlier human impacts 👣🍖
📄 doi.org/10.1111/geb....
#hominid #hunting #evolution

Supersized stick insect discovered in high-altitude trees in Australia The 40cm-long insect, named Acrophylla alta, weighs slightly less than a golf ball and may be the heaviest insect in Australia

Like the old-growth coastal redwoods that host whole other ecosystems in their spires, these extraordinary Australian stick insects reveal not only the richness and mystery of mature forest canopies but how vital their protection is for countless forms of life.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Albatrosses make distinct flight hops when following fishing vessels 🎣

In this blog post, Jonathan Rutter discusses a new behaviour-based method to detect previously hidden interactions between seabirds and fishing vessels 🛰️🌏🧪

👇
appliedecologistsblog.com/2025/07/31/a...

'Communities' of strange, extreme life seen for first time in deep ocean A Chinese-led research team captures pictures of life at depths of more than 9km in the northwest Pacific Ocean.

There's so much life in the deep ocean, and there's still so much to discover! #deepocean #marinescience 🧪
www.bbc.com/news/article...

To fill or not to fill: Comparing imputation methods for improved riverine long-term biodiversity monitoring 💭🌎

Suggests gap filling in biodiversity data can distort trends as more missing years mean easier fits but higher uncertainty 📊🧪

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

1500 km2 of tropical savanna dotted with crystal clear water holes. Camping off the beaten track in Litchfield National Park is pretty special

An ecological trait matrix of Neotropical freshwater fishes - Scientific Data Scientific Data - An ecological trait matrix of Neotropical freshwater fishes

An ecological trait matrix of Neotropical freshwater fishes

@gymnotus.bsky.social et al. 2025 Scientific Data

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

a gold trophy with a laurel wreath around it and the words well done on a gold ribbon ALT: a gold trophy with a laurel wreath around it and the words well done on a gold ribbon

Title of the year.

Figure 3. Maximum-likelihood (IQ-TREE 2) phylogeny based on all mitochondrial protein-coding genes of riverine Lamprologus species analyzed in this study (in bold) along with additional lamprologine species with available partial mitogenomes

Specimen of Lamprologus lethops (c. 70 mm long) on a hand. Photograph by the American Museum of Natural History, used with permission and courtesy of Melanie L. J. Stiassny.

Novel complete mitochondrial genomes of eight riverine Lamprologus species (Actinopterygii, Cichlidae) suggest in-situ speciation of the blind cichlid L. lethops in the lower Congo River

Jimenez et al. 2025

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Please pass along - postdoc position! with our working group on #FunctionalTraits and rarity. This is part of the FREE (Functional Rarity in Ecology and Evolution) working group led by Cyrille Violle in Montpellier France 🧪🌐🌾 emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...