Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Jun 24

Amazing symposium on Sex and Gender at #Evol2025 So grateful to all the speakers for bringing us together to think about how to teach and communicate these complex topics @jacanamama.bsky.social Thomas Sanger @bio-eddy.bsky.social @cissyballen.bsky.social

Sara Lipshutz presents her multivariate view of sex including gametes, genetics, anatomy, hormones, brains, and behavior

Thomas Sanger demonstrates that sex is not a developmental binary and is both extremely complex and dynamic

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Jun 21

Oh no! I’m going to miss your talk as well, best of luck!

taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Jun 21

Do proportional changes in neurons underlie behavioral divergence in Lake Malawi cichlids? Come to my talk at 4:15 in Olympia 1 to find out! #Evol2025

a simple phylogeny of Lake Malawi cichlids that highlights the main delineation between ecogroups: rock-dwellers vs. sand-dwellers

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Jun 20

Had such an amazing time at the 2025 Evolutionary and Quantitative Genetics Workshop! Thanks so much to the amazing organizers and participants @pseudacris.bsky.social @lauraalencar.bsky.social @joelmcglothlin.bsky.social Patrick Carter, Jacqueline Sztepanacz, & Joe Felsendtein

photo of all workshop participants in front of a stone building

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Jeffery Cannon, Landscape Ecology Lab @jefferybcannon.bsky.social · Jun 20

Please share! JOIN THE LAB! We are looking to recruit a motivated reserach technician to assist with field research on restoration and lidar data collection in #longleaf pine at the beautiful @thejonesctr.bsky.social Apps due July 6 jonesctr.org/wp-content/u...

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Zoë Goldsborough @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social · May 19

Hot off the press 📣: one of the most surprising and unsettling findings of my PhD. A novel social tradition emerged in the tool-using white-faced capuchins of Jicarón island… abducting and carrying the infants of another species. Thread with gifs, videos, and all the bizarre details 👇

Ecology of Animal Societies @livingingroups.bsky.social · May 19

Humans have many unusual traditions. But did you know animals’ strange behaviors can become culture too? Out now in Current Biology (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) we show the rise and spread of a surprising tradition: interspecies infant abduction. Interactive timeline (www.ab.mpg.de/671374) 🧵 (1/12)

An illustration of a white-faced capuchin monkey carrying a howler infant on their back while cracking nuts with a stone

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PM Delaux @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social · May 8

Convergent evolution of "smelling like rotting meat" is mediated by a 3 amino-acid chance in a conserved enzymes, just out @science.org 🔽

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

Convergent acquisition of disulfide-forming enzymes in malodorous flowers

Identifying the metabolic and genetic changes that confer evolutionary novelty is essential for understanding the factors facilitating or constraining the occurrence of traits. We show that dimethyl d...

www.science.org

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Reposted by taylor cooper

James T. Stroud @jameststroud.bsky.social · Jan 10

Green anole, originally from tropical Cuba, have evolved to live in this. Wut.

@iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social

🦎🦎🦎

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Papa Woof und Krampus und Bleaken @papawoof.bsky.social · Jan 8

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Journal of Experimental Biology @jexpbiol.bsky.social · Nov 27

Running away isn't always the best strategy, simply staying put and hoping the danger will pass can be better, & now Damián Oliva & co show that signals in the mudflat crab's MLG1 neurons trigger freezing when the crab is at risk from a distant threat

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

A photo showing a mudflat crab (Neohelice granulata) on the spherical treadmill that allows them to run in any direction, with a black square (shown on PC screen on right) simulating a looming approaching object as it increases in size. Photo credit: Daniel Tomsic.

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Nov 27

can I be added to this!

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Dr. Elizabeth Santos @lizmillermacroevo.bsky.social · Nov 27

Our big collaboration on anglerfish diversity is out today in @natureecoevo.bsky.social. THREAD PART 1

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

Reduced evolutionary constraint accompanies ongoing radiation in deep-sea anglerfishes - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Based on phylogenomic and geometric morphometric analyses of 132 anglerfish species, the authors infer a Cretaceous origin of the clade and show that bathypelagic anglerfish are undergoing rapid pheno...

www.nature.com

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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · Nov 19

Teaching has gotten to this point in the semester in my second year courses.

⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

Meme showing undergrads saying "When will I get to learn about a species concept that works across the tree of life?" and me, their lecturer, answering "That's the neat part you won't" based on the "That's the Neat Part, You Don't," meme template

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Nov 19

Thanks for making this! I would love to be added. I study cognition in reptiles and behavioral evolution.

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Nov 17

Great idea! I would love to be included

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eLife @elife.bsky.social · Nov 16

Using the whole brain to measure cognitive skills seems crude in the light of modern cognitive neuroscience studies that look at specific parts of the brain. But how relevant are these types of lab-based studies to cognition in the wild?
https://buff.ly/3C5uqNc

From lab to field, and back

Observations made from cognitive neuroscience studies could predict how social and ecological factors influence the size of specific brain regions in primates.

buff.ly

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Andreas Nord @cyanistesnord.bsky.social · Nov 14

We are just 10 days away from the Lund Thermal Biology meeting, covering everything temperature in across the tree of life 🌞❄️🐸🐦🐟.

ALL talks will be live-streamed on Zoom and registration is not needed. Check out the conference website for the final program 👉
shorturl.at/rKqeY

Changing animals in a changing world 25–27 November 2024

Lund University.

shorturl.at

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Nov 14

Can I be added as well? Thanks!

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Nov 14

So happy to be a part of this amazing cichlid 🐠 project in the McGrath Lab @gtresearchnews.bsky.social

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Nov 14

Check out our recent preprint!

We find LARGE (half-chromosome) inversions in Lake Malawi cichlids 🐠 are associated with habitat preference, lineage, and sex. Suggesting they protect phenotypic traits and play an important role in this impressive adaptive radiation!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Large inversions in Lake Malawi cichlids are associated with habitat preference, lineage, and sex determination

Chromosomal inversions are an important class of genetic variation that link multiple alleles together into a single inherited block that can have important effects on fitness. To study the role of la...

www.biorxiv.org

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Nov 14

not this year, but many undergrads in the lab will be presenting posters

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Nov 14

I will be there! Looking forward to meeting in person and seeing your talk!

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taylor cooper @iamtaylornotyou.bsky.social · Nov 13

Every night’s a great night when you’re catching lizards! Thanks Cox Lab for lending us your eyes 🦎👀 @coxevolab.bsky.social @jameststroud.bsky.social

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James T. Stroud @jameststroud.bsky.social · Nov 11

Well I didn't expect to see that when I caught this Cuban knight anole (Anolis equestris) last night!

It had just eaten a baby corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus)...

Every day is something new in Miami!

🦎🍽️🐍

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Benjamin Freeman @benjaminfreeman.bsky.social · Nov 8

more eBird poems, birds eating lizards edition

Red-tailed Hawk
Sitting on rock. Swooped onto lizard. Ate lizard one gulp

Crested Caracara
Following the flaming front. One with a glass lizard

American Kestrel
absolutely rekked a lizard. A good morning for the kestrel, not so much for the lizard.

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