David Marques

If you're interested in the new "Pope Gull," you can learn more about it by exploring the recently published reference genome for this species (Larus michahellis) by our research group 🪶🧬 Thanks #LarOmics @davidmarques.bsky.social @joanameier.bsky.social @sangerinstitute.bsky.social

The Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis), recently better known as pope gull (Larus urbietorbicum 😁), has now a chromosome-scale sequenced reference genome! Our first publication from the #LarOmics project, congrats @eksramos.bsky.social et al., see: wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/10-...

🚨 New preprint!
We analyzed 39 bird genomes—including 3 Mauritian species that bounced back from the brink of extinction—to explore genomic erosion in a comparative framework.
🧬🦜🧩
📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#consgen #popgen
@claudiafontsere.bsky.social

@eawag.bsky.social 2-Year Postdoctoral Fellowship.

🧬💧🌐🟦🔬🐟🌍🦐

Highly attractive #independent #postdoc position to to conduct relevant and innovative research in aquatic sciences.

Apply here: apply.refline.ch/673277/1246/...

With we, I mean and want to thank our team @oleseehausen.bsky.social, @joanameier.bsky.social, Matt McGee, Salome Mwaiko, Marcel Häsler, Mary Kishe, Anthony Taabu-Munyaho, Sylvester Wandera (†), Lauren & Colin Chapman, @cewagnerlab.bsky.social & Laurent Excoffier.

And we found that classical ecological theory (Elton's pyramid) predicts very well the trajectory of effective population sizes since the radiations unfolded - predators de- and herbivores increasing in population size - and thus the ecology of an evolved (instead of assembled) community.

We found that the coalescence patterns support a very recent origin of the Lake Victoria radiation <16,700 years when the lake dried out, and also a very recent origin of the Lakes Edward/Kivu and Lake Albert radiations.

I used a big dataset of haplochromine cichlid genomes that encompass all ecomorphologies in Lake Victoria and many in Lakes Edward, Albert, Kivu and Saka to study the timing of radiation and their demography with MSMC2/MSMC-IM, because past studies have disagreed about when the radiations arose.

Genomes reveal age and demographic consequence of ultrafast adaptive radiation New species typically evolve over several million years. However, rates of speciation and ecological diversification vary by orders of magnitude across the tree of life, with the fastest shown by some...

Our newest manuscript has just been released as preprint on bioRxiv: Genomes reveal the age and demographic history of ultrafast adaptive radiation.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Great! I have my ideas on why this niche appears open to Caspian and not available to the other two taxa - and we are going to test these with the 200+ genomes we just sequenced of Caspian and Herring Gull. #genomicadaptation

Please circulate widely:

We are hiring two Ass Prof tt at the Institute of #ecology and #evolution at @unibern.bsky.social in conservation biology; mathematical & computational ecology

We are committed to diverse, inclusive and equitable leadership in research and education

tinyurl.com/IEEjobs

Exciting science on your end-of-year wish list?!? >> apply to our postdoc and PhD positions and start 2025 with a new job @UniBasel

Einstein - Invasive Quagga-Muscheln: Kollabierende Seen und Millionenschäden - Play SRF In den Seen tickt eine Zeitbombe, die jahrelang unterschätzt wurde: Die rasante Ausbreitung der invasiven Quagga-Muscheln. Sie bedrohen das ökologische Gleichgewicht und verursachen Millionenschäden i...

Great Swiss TV science documentary (in German) featuring the research of Alex Anh-Thu Weber and @eawag.bsky.social about the invasion of Quagga mussels in Switzerland! Nice to see so many early career folks highlighted, which do a fantastic SciComm job. www.srf.ch/play/tv/redi...

Sexual selection promotes reproductive isolation in barn swallows Despite the well-known effects of sexual selection on phenotypes, links between this evolutionary process and reproductive isolation, genomic divergence, and speciation have been difficult to establis...

Fantastic paper by Drew Shield and colleagues just out in Science! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Big news! 🎉 My first PhD chapter has been published in @PLOSBiology, and it just made the cover! 🐦🌍 Perfect time to dive into the key findings from our global study on sexual selection in birds. 🧵👇
📖 Read the paper: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

If you like genomics, speciation, and primates, this PhD position is for you! Unraveling the genomic architecture of speciation and gene flow in a crazy group of monkeys at U of Edinburgh . Do reach out with questions!
evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...

I made a starter pack of speciation researchers. Please let me know if you or someone you know would like to be added. I am particularly sad that so far there are not many speciation researchers from the Global South represented.
go.bsky.app/J7qDY56

Elisa Ramos, Melody Wu and David Marques on the old town square of Wroclaw.

Magdalena Zagalska-Neubauer measuring a large gull, assisted by Elisa and Melody, all wearing construcrion helmets, on the rooftop of a building.

Adam Lorecki preparing a large white-headed gull for standardized photos, assisted by Elisa with color and size scales and David at the camera.

Memories of a successful final field season in the LarOmics project. Thank you again to my group, @eksramos.bsky.social and Melody Wu, as well as to Magdalena Zagalska-Neubauer and our team in Poland!

Can I join? Thank you!

Common misconceptions of speciation Abstract. Speciation is a complex process that can unfold in many different ways. Speciation researchers sometimes simplify core principles in their writin

My entire team wrote an opinion paper about Common misconceptions of speciation research. Each section is written by 1-2 team members. The bulk of the writing happened during two writing retreats. It was a lot of fun and I am very happy with the result. academic.oup.com/evolinnean/a...

Panorama view onto the old town of Bern and the alps behind it on a sunny day.

The Institute of #ecology and #evolution at @unibern.bsky.social is looking for two tenure-track assistant professors (APTT):

APTT Mathematical or Computational Ecology 👩‍💻

APTT #Conservation #Biology 👨🏾‍🔬

More info: tinyurl.com/IEEjobs

Application deadline: 1 March 2025

Study skin of the extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker on a table.

Today, I had the privilege to handle some of the most iconic but sadly extinct birds at the Natural History Museum Basel with Ferran Sayol / U Barcelona for his research. How beautiful they are and what a tragedy that we will never be able to experience them in the wild again 😥

Off to Poland for our second field season in Poland, to catch gulls, take a little blood and release them again. Our #Laromics group with Melody Wu and Elisa Ramos is looking forward to meet our Polish collaborators!

Indeed the bill is not intermediate in any way. Very puzzling bird for sure!

Hey @davetoews.bsky.social, just saw this on facebook, could this be a Red-breasted Grosbeak x Red-winged Blackbird hybrid? That would be even crazier than your confirmed hybrid Grosbeak x Tanager… super interested to hear your thoughts! www.facebook.com/share/p/RNu8...

Awesome, congratulations!!

Really pleased to to see this study from our lab at LMU Munich in collaboration with the U. of Rosario, led by PhD students Matteo Rossi and Alexander Hausmann finally, finally out: Adaptive introgression of a visual preference gene www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Open position as collection manager (60-80%, 5 years+) for the vertebrate collection at the Natural History Museum Basel: stellenmarkt.bs.ch/kbs/job/deta... Please get in touch if you are interested to work with us and want to know more about the position!

Wow, I am late to the party it seems. This looks and feels like science twitter 4 years ago - awesome!

PhD opportunity in my group at UiO on adaptation to shifting temperatures in house sparrows. Looking for candidates interested in combining evolutionary genomics and ecological approaches! Please share! www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...