Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
@ceciliapad.bsky.social
Research Fellow @eegcam.bsky.social & Emmanuel College, Cambridge University 🍃| Former Public Scholars Fellow at Sapiens | Book Review Editor @ishe-society.bsky.social 📚| Editor, Hunter Gatherer Research | 👩🏽💻 https://ceciliapad.github.io/web/
Pinned
Pan-African metapopulation model explains Homo sapiens genetic and morphological evolution
Emerging evidence has challenged the traditional view of a single-region origin for Homo sapiens, suggesting instead that our species arose and diversified across multiple geographically distinct popu...
www.biorxiv.org
🚨NEW PAPER from the @eegcam.bsky.social!🚨I have never been as proud of something as of the work that finally we can share today: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... - we show how a climatically driven Pan African meta population model explains our species genetic and morphological diversity 🧬💀
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
Esta semana, en "Sausage of Science" de @humbioassociation.bsky.social, hablo sobre mi, y sobre cómo el proyecto que hicimos en @eegcam.bsky.social cambia nuestra visión sobre el origen de nuestra especie en África 🤗https://open.spotify.com/episode/1aQzqEBgILUm2DQUmWWrmS?si=EcGBdjvHROaSd5ges_V9Zg
SoS 257: Repensando los primeros pasos de nuestra especie con Cecilia Padilla Iglesias
open.spotify.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Esta semana, en "Sausage of Science" de @humbioassociation.bsky.social, hablo sobre mi, y sobre cómo el proyecto que hicimos en @eegcam.bsky.social cambia nuestra visión sobre el origen de nuestra especie en África 🤗https://open.spotify.com/episode/1aQzqEBgILUm2DQUmWWrmS?si=EcGBdjvHROaSd5ges_V9Zg
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
‼️📢 Neandertal as prey‼️
We demonstrated selective cannibalism behavior at the end of the Middle Palaeolithic in Northern Europe
#Neandertal #Prehistory #Cannibalism #MiddlePaleolithic #Goyet
We demonstrated selective cannibalism behavior at the end of the Middle Palaeolithic in Northern Europe
#Neandertal #Prehistory #Cannibalism #MiddlePaleolithic #Goyet
Did Neandertals choose their prey when practicing cannibalism?🍖
Check out our new study, just published in Scientific Reports - @natureportfolio.nature.com!
We provide the strongest evidence to date for a highly selective cannibalism at the end of Neandertal lineage, 41-45.000 years ago.
1/7
Check out our new study, just published in Scientific Reports - @natureportfolio.nature.com!
We provide the strongest evidence to date for a highly selective cannibalism at the end of Neandertal lineage, 41-45.000 years ago.
1/7
Highly selective cannibalism in the Late Pleistocene of Northern Europe reveals Neandertals were targeted prey - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Highly selective cannibalism in the Late Pleistocene of Northern Europe reveals Neandertals were targeted prey
doi.org
November 20, 2025 at 4:46 PM
‼️📢 Neandertal as prey‼️
We demonstrated selective cannibalism behavior at the end of the Middle Palaeolithic in Northern Europe
#Neandertal #Prehistory #Cannibalism #MiddlePaleolithic #Goyet
We demonstrated selective cannibalism behavior at the end of the Middle Palaeolithic in Northern Europe
#Neandertal #Prehistory #Cannibalism #MiddlePaleolithic #Goyet
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
Speakers included @chrisbstringer.bsky.social, @ceciliapad.bsky.social, @moorjanipriya.bsky.social, @stephanepeyregne.bsky.social, @mathiesoniain.bsky.social @marinasdsilva.bsky.social, and @lucyvandorp.bsky.social .
November 21, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Amazing resource!
Paper out now: A curated dataset of the great ape genome diversity!
rdcu.be/eQLCi
rdcu.be/eQLCi
A curated dataset of great ape genome diversity
Scientific Data - A curated dataset of great ape genome diversity
rdcu.be
November 19, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Amazing resource!
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
1/6 In a new preprint we ask a question:
Why do males and females so often age and die at different rates?
We argue that sex-specific mutation accumulation may be the most parsimonious evolutionary explanation for sex-biased ageing:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Why do males and females so often age and die at different rates?
We argue that sex-specific mutation accumulation may be the most parsimonious evolutionary explanation for sex-biased ageing:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Sex-specific mutation accumulation: A parsimonious explanation for sex differences in lifespan and ageing
ecoevorxiv.org
November 19, 2025 at 12:08 PM
1/6 In a new preprint we ask a question:
Why do males and females so often age and die at different rates?
We argue that sex-specific mutation accumulation may be the most parsimonious evolutionary explanation for sex-biased ageing:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Why do males and females so often age and die at different rates?
We argue that sex-specific mutation accumulation may be the most parsimonious evolutionary explanation for sex-biased ageing:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
Brasó-Vives et al. publish a new Perspective in GBE, highlighting underexplored dimensions of genomic variation that contribute to phenotypic diversity beyond the DNA sequence, contributing to our understanding of genome evolution.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf204
#genome #evolution
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf204
#genome #evolution
November 14, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Brasó-Vives et al. publish a new Perspective in GBE, highlighting underexplored dimensions of genomic variation that contribute to phenotypic diversity beyond the DNA sequence, contributing to our understanding of genome evolution.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf204
#genome #evolution
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf204
#genome #evolution
Esta semana, en "Sausage of Science" de @humbioassociation.bsky.social, hablo sobre mi, y sobre cómo el proyecto que hicimos en @eegcam.bsky.social cambia nuestra visión sobre el origen de nuestra especie en África 🤗https://open.spotify.com/episode/1aQzqEBgILUm2DQUmWWrmS?si=EcGBdjvHROaSd5ges_V9Zg
SoS 257: Repensando los primeros pasos de nuestra especie con Cecilia Padilla Iglesias
open.spotify.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Esta semana, en "Sausage of Science" de @humbioassociation.bsky.social, hablo sobre mi, y sobre cómo el proyecto que hicimos en @eegcam.bsky.social cambia nuestra visión sobre el origen de nuestra especie en África 🤗https://open.spotify.com/episode/1aQzqEBgILUm2DQUmWWrmS?si=EcGBdjvHROaSd5ges_V9Zg
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
Many thanks to my wonderful coauthor @chrisvonrueden.bsky.social for being ever insightful and incisive. I've wanted to work with him for years and it has been a joy and a pleasure.
Also note that an this early online uncorrected proof - Baylor University does not have a UK campus ☺️
Also note that an this early online uncorrected proof - Baylor University does not have a UK campus ☺️
📣 New BBS preprint out now! 📣
"Models casting egalitarian societies as crucibles of equality perpetuate the factually uninformed notion that foragers are somehow more noble. Critiques portray egalitarianism as romantic fantasy. Neither characterization is wholly justified."
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
"Models casting egalitarian societies as crucibles of equality perpetuate the factually uninformed notion that foragers are somehow more noble. Critiques portray egalitarianism as romantic fantasy. Neither characterization is wholly justified."
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
Egalitarianism is not Equality: Moving from outcome to process in the study of human political organisation | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Egalitarianism is not Equality: Moving from outcome to process in the study of human political organisation
doi.org
November 18, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Many thanks to my wonderful coauthor @chrisvonrueden.bsky.social for being ever insightful and incisive. I've wanted to work with him for years and it has been a joy and a pleasure.
Also note that an this early online uncorrected proof - Baylor University does not have a UK campus ☺️
Also note that an this early online uncorrected proof - Baylor University does not have a UK campus ☺️
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
📣 PUBLISHED OPEN ACCESS 📣
Analysis of Indonesian gut microbiome diversity reveals the interplay of community lifestyle and bacterial physiology in shaping variation
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/first-d...
Analysis of Indonesian gut microbiome diversity reveals the interplay of community lifestyle and bacterial physiology in shaping variation
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/first-d...
November 18, 2025 at 3:01 PM
📣 PUBLISHED OPEN ACCESS 📣
Analysis of Indonesian gut microbiome diversity reveals the interplay of community lifestyle and bacterial physiology in shaping variation
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/first-d...
Analysis of Indonesian gut microbiome diversity reveals the interplay of community lifestyle and bacterial physiology in shaping variation
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/first-d...
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
In 2008, after killing many of their neighbors, Ngogo chimpanzees expanded their territory. Female fertility then doubled, and infant mortality plummeted. Adaptive violence in our ape cousins, documented in this new paper. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Female fertility and infant survivorship increase following lethal intergroup aggression and territorial expansion in wild chimpanzees | PNAS
Lethal coalitionary intergroup aggression is a conspicuous aspect of wild chimpanzee
behavior. Evidence indicates that such violence can lead to te...
www.pnas.org
November 18, 2025 at 4:20 AM
In 2008, after killing many of their neighbors, Ngogo chimpanzees expanded their territory. Female fertility then doubled, and infant mortality plummeted. Adaptive violence in our ape cousins, documented in this new paper. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
What a fantastic day at the Autumn Meeting of the @gensocuk.bsky.social at the @royalsociety.org, and what an absolute pleasure to be able to share a bit of our work at @eegcam.bsky.social with such an inspiring audience 😍
November 15, 2025 at 1:58 PM
What a fantastic day at the Autumn Meeting of the @gensocuk.bsky.social at the @royalsociety.org, and what an absolute pleasure to be able to share a bit of our work at @eegcam.bsky.social with such an inspiring audience 😍
Pre @gensocuk.bsky.social talk @crick.ac.uk by Svante Pääbo, and interesting thoughts on how to define a “modern” human. More tomorrow!
November 13, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Pre @gensocuk.bsky.social talk @crick.ac.uk by Svante Pääbo, and interesting thoughts on how to define a “modern” human. More tomorrow!
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
✨Published✨
Thank you so much to the American School of Prehistoric Research Science, Harvard University, and SAPIENS magazine for supporting my Science Communications Fellowship!
#AcademicSky
Thank you so much to the American School of Prehistoric Research Science, Harvard University, and SAPIENS magazine for supporting my Science Communications Fellowship!
#AcademicSky
“Immersed in dusty archives of personal letters, newspaper clips, and journal articles, I found a history I was not expecting: the influence of personality, politics, and power on scientific interpretation.”
Read more: www.sapiens.org/biology/pale...
Read more: www.sapiens.org/biology/pale...
November 13, 2025 at 7:58 AM
✨Published✨
Thank you so much to the American School of Prehistoric Research Science, Harvard University, and SAPIENS magazine for supporting my Science Communications Fellowship!
#AcademicSky
Thank you so much to the American School of Prehistoric Research Science, Harvard University, and SAPIENS magazine for supporting my Science Communications Fellowship!
#AcademicSky
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
Excited to share our preprint on variability in patch leaving decisions! Check out the 🧵 below
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Excited to share our preprint on variability in patch leaving decisions! Check out the 🧵 below
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
Why don’t whales, elephants, or naked mole-rats get more cancer? 🐋🐘🐀
Evolution may already have cracked the code — and we’re learning from it.
🔗 “Animal instincts: Exploring nature’s oncologist” by @atjcagan.bsky.social → news.cancerresearchuk.org/2025/10/27/a...
Evolution may already have cracked the code — and we’re learning from it.
🔗 “Animal instincts: Exploring nature’s oncologist” by @atjcagan.bsky.social → news.cancerresearchuk.org/2025/10/27/a...
Animal instincts: Exploring nature’s oncologist - Cancer Research UK - Cancer News
Can we pick apart how evolution has suppressed cancer in some species? Alex Cagen is attempting exactly that by going beyond mouse models… way beyond.
news.cancerresearchuk.org
November 12, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Why don’t whales, elephants, or naked mole-rats get more cancer? 🐋🐘🐀
Evolution may already have cracked the code — and we’re learning from it.
🔗 “Animal instincts: Exploring nature’s oncologist” by @atjcagan.bsky.social → news.cancerresearchuk.org/2025/10/27/a...
Evolution may already have cracked the code — and we’re learning from it.
🔗 “Animal instincts: Exploring nature’s oncologist” by @atjcagan.bsky.social → news.cancerresearchuk.org/2025/10/27/a...
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
New preprint from another part of my PhD! 📝👇
Some mutations arise after fertilisation 🧬, so early they can appear in both a parent’s body and their germ cells.
By analysing family trio genomes 👪, we built one of the largest catalogues of these “hidden” inherited variants yet.
tinyurl.com/mvns2ytv
Some mutations arise after fertilisation 🧬, so early they can appear in both a parent’s body and their germ cells.
By analysing family trio genomes 👪, we built one of the largest catalogues of these “hidden” inherited variants yet.
tinyurl.com/mvns2ytv
Landscape of parental postzygotic mutations in >11,000 rare disease trios
Postzygotic mutations (PZMs) arising post-fertilisation, prior to primordial germ cell specification, may be subsequently inherited by both somatic and germ cells, causing somatic mosaicism in the par...
tinyurl.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:04 AM
New preprint from another part of my PhD! 📝👇
Some mutations arise after fertilisation 🧬, so early they can appear in both a parent’s body and their germ cells.
By analysing family trio genomes 👪, we built one of the largest catalogues of these “hidden” inherited variants yet.
tinyurl.com/mvns2ytv
Some mutations arise after fertilisation 🧬, so early they can appear in both a parent’s body and their germ cells.
By analysing family trio genomes 👪, we built one of the largest catalogues of these “hidden” inherited variants yet.
tinyurl.com/mvns2ytv
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
An empirical approach to evaluating the prevalence of long-lived balancing selection in humans--and important limitations. Work by @hannahmm.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 7:14 PM
An empirical approach to evaluating the prevalence of long-lived balancing selection in humans--and important limitations. Work by @hannahmm.bsky.social
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
Tuesday evening with Chris Stringer
Everybody welcome LIVE and ZOOM
Everybody welcome LIVE and ZOOM
Please boost community Fediscience!
🌖Tues Nov 11🌗 6:30 pm (London UK)
Chris Stringer
New evidence from China helps to clarify the 'muddle in the middle' of human evolution
LIVE LG11 Lecture Room in Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, WC1H 0EG
ZOOM ID 952 8554 1412 passcode Wawilak
🌖Tues Nov 11🌗 6:30 pm (London UK)
Chris Stringer
New evidence from China helps to clarify the 'muddle in the middle' of human evolution
LIVE LG11 Lecture Room in Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, WC1H 0EG
ZOOM ID 952 8554 1412 passcode Wawilak
November 9, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Tuesday evening with Chris Stringer
Everybody welcome LIVE and ZOOM
Everybody welcome LIVE and ZOOM
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
FINALLY we understand why lactase persistance spread!
Effects of ancestry, agriculture, and lactase persistence on the stature of prehistoric Europeans: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Effects of ancestry, agriculture, and lactase persistence on the stature of prehistoric Europeans: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Effects of ancestry, agriculture, and lactase persistence on the stature of prehistoric Europeans
Cox et al. combine polygenic scores and skeletal metrics to show that Neolithic Europeans
were not substantially shorter than earlier or later groups. They also show a strong
gene-environment interact...
www.cell.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:36 PM
FINALLY we understand why lactase persistance spread!
Effects of ancestry, agriculture, and lactase persistence on the stature of prehistoric Europeans: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Effects of ancestry, agriculture, and lactase persistence on the stature of prehistoric Europeans: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
The fitness costs and benefits of hunter-gatherer locomotor engagement | Evolutionary Human Sciences | by George Brill and Mark Dyble. Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The fitness costs and benefits of hunter-gatherer locomotor engagement | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core
The fitness costs and benefits of hunter-gatherer locomotor engagement - Volume 7
www.cambridge.org
November 7, 2025 at 6:05 PM
The fitness costs and benefits of hunter-gatherer locomotor engagement | Evolutionary Human Sciences | by George Brill and Mark Dyble. Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
Yunxian, el origen de Homo longi y la línea evolutiva denisovanos-sapiens (Esp & Eng)
Yunxian, the origin of Homo longi and the denisovan-sapiens evolutionary line wp.me/p4Bi9E-4W8
Yunxian, the origin of Homo longi and the denisovan-sapiens evolutionary line wp.me/p4Bi9E-4W8
Yunxian, el origen de Homo longi y la línea evolutiva denisovanos-sapiens
[English version below] En la localidad de Yunxian, situada a orillas del río Han en la provincia de Hubei (China central), se han descubierto tres cráneos humanos en sucesivas campañas de 1989, 19…
wp.me
November 6, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Yunxian, el origen de Homo longi y la línea evolutiva denisovanos-sapiens (Esp & Eng)
Yunxian, the origin of Homo longi and the denisovan-sapiens evolutionary line wp.me/p4Bi9E-4W8
Yunxian, the origin of Homo longi and the denisovan-sapiens evolutionary line wp.me/p4Bi9E-4W8
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
great work @dnatimetravel.bsky.social and team!
November 8, 2025 at 3:18 PM
great work @dnatimetravel.bsky.social and team!
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
😁 Very happy about this and looking forward to working with old and new colleagues!!!
We are delighted that three Cambridge Archaeologists have been awarded @erc.europa.eu Synergy Grants; Prof Enrico Crema as co-PI of FORAGER, and Dr Stefania Merlo and Prof Paul Lane as collaborators of the AFRI-CAN Project.
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/two-erc...
📸 Xtra Inc. and Rob Marchant
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/two-erc...
📸 Xtra Inc. and Rob Marchant
November 6, 2025 at 6:52 PM
😁 Very happy about this and looking forward to working with old and new colleagues!!!
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
🏹🌿Discover how Indigenous Environmental Knowledge is evolving.
Visit the brand-new website of our @erc.europa.eu project #IEK_CHANGE for insights from the Amazon and join the conversation.
Led by our researcher Álvaro Fdez Llamazares
➤ iek-changes.eu
#AmazonResearch #IndigenousKnowledge
Visit the brand-new website of our @erc.europa.eu project #IEK_CHANGE for insights from the Amazon and join the conversation.
Led by our researcher Álvaro Fdez Llamazares
➤ iek-changes.eu
#AmazonResearch #IndigenousKnowledge
November 7, 2025 at 12:33 PM
🏹🌿Discover how Indigenous Environmental Knowledge is evolving.
Visit the brand-new website of our @erc.europa.eu project #IEK_CHANGE for insights from the Amazon and join the conversation.
Led by our researcher Álvaro Fdez Llamazares
➤ iek-changes.eu
#AmazonResearch #IndigenousKnowledge
Visit the brand-new website of our @erc.europa.eu project #IEK_CHANGE for insights from the Amazon and join the conversation.
Led by our researcher Álvaro Fdez Llamazares
➤ iek-changes.eu
#AmazonResearch #IndigenousKnowledge
Reposted by Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
Excited to share our latest work on the factors that determine what genes we find (and don't find!) in GWAS and burden tests.
We describe a critical concept that we call *specificity*.
Led by Jeff Spence and Hakhamanesh Mostafavi:
We describe a critical concept that we call *specificity*.
Led by Jeff Spence and Hakhamanesh Mostafavi:
How do GWAS and rare variant burden tests rank gene signals?
In new work @nature.com with @hakha.bsky.social, @jkpritch.bsky.social, and our wonderful coauthors we find that the key factors are what we call Specificity, Length, and Luck!
🧬🧪🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
In new work @nature.com with @hakha.bsky.social, @jkpritch.bsky.social, and our wonderful coauthors we find that the key factors are what we call Specificity, Length, and Luck!
🧬🧪🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Specificity, length and luck drive gene rankings in association studies - Nature
Genetic association tests prioritize candidate genes based on different criteria.
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Excited to share our latest work on the factors that determine what genes we find (and don't find!) in GWAS and burden tests.
We describe a critical concept that we call *specificity*.
Led by Jeff Spence and Hakhamanesh Mostafavi:
We describe a critical concept that we call *specificity*.
Led by Jeff Spence and Hakhamanesh Mostafavi: