Centre for Evolutionary Biology at UWA

Does early-life environment stress affect future reproductive investment? 🌊🐟
Our new paper found that when raised in fluctuating salinity, mosquitofish females produce eggs with lower protein, while older males had higher ejaculate glycogen content!

Read the full paper here doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Research Fellow / Senior Research Fellow (Short-range Endemic Invertebrates) Job in Murdoch, Perth WA - SEEK Researching short-range endemic terrestrial invertebrates to support environmental impact assessments!

🪲Job opportunity at Murdoch University🐝

Research Fellow / Senior Research Fellow (Short-range Endemic Invertebrates)

📝 Applications Close on 15/03/2026 (11:59pm AWST)

Interested applicants can also reach out to @notthebestsam.bsky.social for a chat about the role/team environment!

Congrats to all the students that presented🎉. We're looking forward to what's in store for next year.

We also took home the:
3-minute presentation (@matbourqui.bsky.social) 🏆
Poster presentation (@hasbeanbeetle.bsky.social) 🏆
Quiz night🏆

Magnificent!

◻️Avantika Deep Sharma◼️(@avantikadeep.bsky.social) gave us a bird's-eye view on the intra-sexual competition in cooperatively breeding Western Australian magpies 🐦🥊🐦.
@mandyridley.bsky.social @lizziespeechley.bsky.social

🐸Shengyao Lin🐸presented a ribbit-ing talk on the genome size variation and evolutionary mechanisms in frogs 🧬.
@reneecatullo.bsky.social

🐭Cameron Dodd🐭(@kultarrcam.bsky.social) presented an ex-skull-ent talk on skull evolution in the Sminthopsinae💀.
@reneecatullo.bsky.social @kennytravouillon.bsky.social

🐜Kim Wong🐜 (@brainiants.bsky.social) gave us a f(ant)astic and thought-provoking talk on the intraspecific variation in cognition of green-head ants🧠. @mandyridley.bsky.social @notthebestsam.bsky.social

🕷️Jackson Rendall🕷️wove together a spectacular presentation on the population genomics and species distribution modelling of spiny trapdoor spiders🧬. @reneecatullo.bsky.social @rowanlym.bsky.social @brunobuzatto.bsky.social

🪲Stuart Lay🪲spoke to us about the taxonomy, systematics and biogeography of the carabid beetle tribe Abacetini from the Pilbara region!
@reneecatullo.bsky.social @idrnik.bsky.social

🌊Mathys Bourqui🌊 (@matbourqui.bsky.social) took us on a quick dive into his research on spatial distribution and community modelling in the midwater!

Yesterday (19th Feb) was the final day of the 2026 UWA School of Biological Sciences #UWASBS Conference🔬🕷️🌿🐳🧬🦘🧪!

Here are the final presentations from fellow CEBers🎉:

Stay tuned for Day 3! There's still more to come...👀

🐒Lakshani Weerasekara🐒 (@lucky-monkey.bsky.social) presented online all the way from Sri Lanka on some monkey business. We were fortunate to hear about the male coalition strategies in Toque macaques (...and the great ID names she came up with🍌)

@mandyridley.bsky.social @cyrilgrueter.bsky.social

We flocked over to watch 🦜Nirjana Dewan🦜(@nirjana-dewan.bsky.social) talk about the conservation genomics of the white-tailed black cockatoos!

@rowanlym.bsky.social @theg-cat.bsky.social

Today (18th Feb) is the second day of the 2026 UWA School of Biological Sciences #SBS Conference 🔬🕷️🌿🐳🧬🦘🧪!

Here are some more magnificent presentations from fellow CEBers on Day 2:

Stay tuned for Day 3! There's still more to come...👀

🐒Lakshani Weerasekara🐒 (@lucky-monkey.bsky.social) presented online all the way from Sri Lanka on some monkey business. We were fortunate to hear about the male coalition strategies in Toque macaques (...and the great ID names she came up with🍌)

@mandyridley.bsky.social

We flocked over to watch 🦜Nirjana Dewan🦜(@nirjana-dewan.bsky.social) talk about the conservation genomics of the white-tailed black cockatoos!

@rowanlym.bsky.social @theg-cat.bsky.social

Onwards and forwards to Day 2 of talks! Keep an eye out on this space👀

🦎Levi Brown🦎 (@leviloveslizards.bsky.social) presented a snippet of their first chapter on the biogeography of the cape range region.

@reneecatullo.bsky.social

🫘Aadhi Ramkumar🫘 (@hasbeanbeetle.bsky.social) presented their research on melanisation in the cowpea seed beetle🪲

🐟Harry Mortimer🐟 opened the conference with a fish-tastic presentation on the effect of combined environmental stressors 🌡️🌊 on the Western Rainbowfish 🌈
@jenkelley01.bsky.social @pebblemouse.bsky.social

Yesterday (17th Feb) we began the 2026 UWA School of Biological Sciences (#SBS) Conference 🔬🕷️🌿🐳🧬🦘🧪! We had the amazing opportunity to see the breadth of research being conducted across our school.

Below is the thread of outstanding presentations from fellow CEBers on Day 1 (17th Feb):

Cryptic spiders 🕷️❓

Congratulations to #CEB member Jackson Rendall on their recent publication in Austral Entomology (@austentsoc.bsky.social) about the natural history of the South Australian spiny trapdoor spider (Blakistonia aurea).

Read the paper here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

ECR/Postdoc position - 2 years.

ARC Discovery Project - Transgenerational implications of microplastic toxicity.

Field and mammal handling experience preferred. Microplastic analysis experience ideal.

Scope to support a PhD student.

Please email Renée (renee.firman@uwa.edu.au) for more details!

What's more fun than writing this paper is the brilliant minds of @plosbiology.org @roliroberts.bsky.social coming up with ways to deal with BlueSky's censorship.
Men with surfboards, could this paper be anymore aussie? @ceb-uwa.bsky.social @monashbiol.bsky.social @biologyanu.bsky.social

An Experimental Test of Central Place Foraging Theory in a Cooperatively Breeding Bird This study experimentally investigated central place foraging theory in a cooperatively breeding bird, the Southern Pied Babbler. We found that while birds were more likely to provision when given fo...

So happy to see this come to print after life took over & there was a delay btw data collection and writing up! We conduct an experimental test of central place foraging theory & ask how provisioning/distance trade-offs might differ in a cooperative breeder.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

New paper alert! By tracking fledglings through development we found evidence that cognitive development is related to social interactions: this extends our research on adult magpie cognition. See below for an overview of all papers from @lizziespeechley.bsky.social’s excellent research thesis 👇🏻👇🏻

👏 A proud moment for #CEB!

Emeritus Professor Leigh Simmons has been announced as the 2026 Hamilton Lecturer at @isbe2026.bsky.social, one of the most prestigious honours in behavioural ecology.

#BehaviouralEcology #ISBE2026 #UWA #EvolutionaryBiology

#CEB PhD student @nirjana-dewan.bsky.social presenting her research on white-tailed black cockatoo genomics at #AOC2025!