Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · 1d

Archived natural DNA samplers reveal four decades of biodiversity change across the tree of life - Nature Ecology & Evolution

This study explores four decades of biodiversity change across the tree of life in Germany’s terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems by sequencing standardized biota samples from a long-term pollution monitoring archive.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Brent Emerson

Butterfly @butterfly-project.bsky.social · 9d

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☕️ Your morning coffee depends on pollinators more than you might think.

Every day, the world savours more than 2 billion cups of coffee. Yet this daily ritual relies on a hidden workforce: pollinators. Bees, butterflies and countless others ensure that coffee blossoms fulfil their potential.

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · 7d

How do I turn that on?

Reposted by Brent Emerson

Entomemeology @entomemeology.bsky.social · 8d

Happy weevil Wednesday!

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Reposted by Brent Emerson

Natalia Jagielska @nataliajagielska.bsky.social · 12d

Museums of the future. A digital aquarium tunnel of the Triassic marine life, at the Geological Museum of Guizhou, China.

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · 14d

Reference genome choice compromises population genetic analyses: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Reference genome choice compromises population genetic analyses

Using a species-specific reference genome significantly improves the accuracy of population genetic analyses, as exemplified by mapping gray fox sequence data to genomes of several canid species. Mapp...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Brent Emerson

Kyle Horton @kyle-horton.bsky.social · 15d

Truly impressive number of birds migrating tonight. More than 800 MILLION birds up in the air right now❗ #BirdMigration

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · 17d

A nice example of hybridisation having either driven or facilitated speciation. Interesting either way I think, even if most of the attention is on hybridisation as a driver.

doi.org/10.1111/mec....

Homoploid Hybrid Speciation in a Marine Pelagic Fish

Homoploid hybrid speciation (HHS) is an enigmatic evolutionary process where new species arise through hybridisation of divergent lineages without changes in chromosome number. Although increasingly ....

doi.org

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · 18d

PhD position available with myself and @victor-noguerales.bsky.social to investigate how genomes influence insect diversification
4-year contract @ IPNA-CSIC, Tenerife
Relevant MSc and coding skills required
contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more details B4 Oct 10
Pls RT

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Reposted by Brent Emerson

Miguel Clavero @chikichanka.bsky.social · 24d

A 1-min video on outdoor cats and extinctions
(sound on)
@ebdonana.bsky.social

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Reposted by Brent Emerson

Charlotte Wright @charlottewright.bsky.social · 28d

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...

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 ...

tinyurl.com

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · Aug 22

To anyone interested in knowing how the RESL algorithm constructs BINs in BOLD, the algorithm is going become public sometime this year.

Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · Jul 31

Mexico is truly amazing

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Reposted by Brent Emerson

Pilar De la Rúa @pdelarua.bsky.social · Jul 22

📣 BUSCAMOS personal para concursar para optar a un contrato predoctoral en la convocatoria FPU de la Universidad de Murcia para el período 2026-2029 🐝 🌸

convocum.um.es/publicacione...

convocum.um.es

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · Jul 22

Best song reaction I got from my son when he was about one and a half was playing Paranoia. He grabbed the front bar of his push chair and started moshing.

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · Jul 16

Nice to have some good news now and then
www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3607...

Kiwi pukupuku/little spotted kiwi rediscovered on mainland NZ after 50 years

Rare sighting of little spotted kiwi confirmed in West Coast wilderness, delighting conservationists.

www.stuff.co.nz

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · Jul 14

2/2 Following up with genome-wide nuclear variation to understand unusual patterns of mtDNA relatedness across islands within taxa, @victor-noguerales.bsky.social and myself find evidence for historical colonisation and extinction dynamics:

doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Island colonisation and extinction of an insect species revealed by mitochondrial and genome-wide nuclear variation

Abstract. Our understanding of colonisation and speciation dynamics within oceanic islands is becoming enriched with the application of evolutionary approa

doi.org

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · Jul 14

1/2 Unexpected and weird results are frustrating unless you have the opportunity to get to the bottom of them, and we frequently encounter this with island arthropods. Following up on them is time consuming, but often provides quirky insights into community assembly dynamics.

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · Jul 7

Love the title

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Reposted by Brent Emerson

April Wright @wrightam.bsky.social · Jul 4

Four review requests in my inbox this morning. The one I accepted? Society journal.

Our Societies consistently reinvest in our communities in ways the glossies never will. And that makes me invest in them.

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · May 6

I had no idea that our analysis PC had a liquid cooling system. Sounds like a good idea until one of the coolant tubes comes apart, and sprays liquid everywhere, which it just did. Fzzstt . .

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · May 2

This guidance from a national funding agency for reviewers of grant proposal submissions: "Do take into consideration publications in MDPI journals as normal publications . . . . There should however be a balance between publications in MDPI journals and other established journals"

Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · Apr 26

@victor-noguerales.bsky.social

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Reposted by Brent Emerson

SoilEvoEcoLab @soilevoecolab.bsky.social · Apr 25

Exciting news! 🌟 The VI Iberian Congress of Biological Systematics (CISA 2025) will be held in Tenerife, a true biodiversity hotspot in Macaronesia 🏝️🔬
🔗 cisaconference.org

CISA 2025 | VI Iberian Congress of Biological Systematics 2025

VI Iberian Congress of Biological Systematics in Tenerife, Spain, October 26-30, 2025. Explore latest advances in systematics and evolutionary biology.

cisaconference.org

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Brent Emerson @brentcemerson.bsky.social · Apr 25

Fantastic study species!

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