Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · 12d

Selection Shapes Animal Minds: next up in our highlighted talks from last year's Royal Society Discussion Meeting is Michael Sheehan (Cornell) talking about pop gen approaches to the evolution of cognition youtu.be/VIlSj5lwSMQ @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social @royalsocietypublishing.org

Mutational origins and selection dynamics of cognitive traits in animals

YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds

youtu.be

4 8

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · 16d

Selection Shapes Animal Minds: More completely free videos of talks from our Royal Society Discussion meeting last year. Today's highlighted talk: Dr Zegni Triki (Neuchatel) @zegnitriki.bsky.social @royalsocietypublishing.org @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social youtu.be/WQLjnfhSyD4?...

The fish challenge to vertebrate cognitive evolution

YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds

youtu.be

9 17

Reposted by Elli Leadbeater

Mark Brown @markjfbrown.bsky.social · Aug 13

Thank you! And what an honour to be appointed Director of the amazing @zoologymuseum.bsky.social Sad to leave @rhulbiology.bsky.social after a wonderful 16.5 years, but very excited by this new challenge and amazing opportunity. I can’t wait to get started!

Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge @camzoology.bsky.social · Aug 13

📢We’re delighted to announce that the Vice Chancellor has appointed @markjfbrown.bsky.social as Director of the University @zoologymuseum.bsky.social and Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology.

Congratulations Mark! We look forward to welcoming you in Jan 2026.

Read more: bit.ly/3UVHmey

7 6 34

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jul 16

Today's highlighted talk is a great contribution by Arnon Lotem, discussing the evolution of learning mechanisms and their fine-tuning to fit different species' needs youtu.be/At9uqrPNz5Y @royalsocietypublishing.org @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social

Cognitive evolution: the mechanisms may be simple but their fine-turning may not be

YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds

youtu.be

2 7

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jul 14

The next in our series of highlighted talks from our @royalsocietypublishing.org discussion meeting on "Selection Shapes Diverse Animal Minds" is by Rob Barton (University of Durham): youtu.be/tVqgb0PosHw

What is it like to be an octopus?

YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds

youtu.be

1 7

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jul 4

We are recruiting for a Research Technician to support our lab's experimental evolution work with Drosophila melanogaster at UCL. Do you have recent insect husbandry experience and want to be a key part of an academic research environment? We'd love to hear from you www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

www.ucl.ac.uk

14 5

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jul 4

And apologies for my terrible spelling! Mauricio’s name should be spelt Mauricio González-Forero. @mauriciogforero.bsky.social

2

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jul 3

Today's highlighted talk is by Maurico Gonzalez-Ferrero @mauriciogforero.bsky.social, talking about evolutionary expansion of the human brain @royalsocietypublishing.org youtu.be/vhqKSSYMPaQ

Spandrel brain? Human brain expansion as a means to another end

YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds

youtu.be

1 3 7

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jul 1

Next up is co-organizer Alex Thornton @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social talking about social drivers of cognitive evolution @royalsocietypublishing.org. youtu.be/yb4iSyPPaaI?...

Social drivers of cognitive evolution: the importance of strategic decisions

YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds

youtu.be

4 15

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jun 30

Thanks to @lucyhouliston.bsky.social for all her editing and filming work!

2

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jun 30

Selection shapes diverse animal minds: We recorded the talks at our @royalsocietypublishing.org discussion meeting last year to share with those who couldn’t be there. Our first speaker is Stephen Montgomery (Bristol University) @ebablab.bsky.social. youtu.be/BzmRZlhTcrc?...

A circuit view of evolving cognition by Dr Stephen Montgomery

YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds

youtu.be

6 10 37

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jun 29

Hello! That would actually be brilliant. I’m travelling right now but if it’s ok I will DM you when back… thanks a lot for the offer!

1 1

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jun 26

Selection Shapes Diverse Animal Minds: our special issue of @royalsocietypublishing.org Phil Trans B on the diverse evolutionary processes underlying cognitive evolution is out today. Thanks to all our contributors! royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1929

royalsocietypublishing.org

31 50

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jun 24

Biology/Geography/Earth Sciences colleagues: can anyone recommend a field centre or similar field course location that works well for students who are wheelchair users? This is a no-fly course so we're trying to find somewhere in the UK or Western Europe

1 7 6

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · May 9

Yeah dancing is fully intact 🙂

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · May 8

We have some exciting new flies! First arrivals for our Ecolligence project focussing on the ecological functions of memory. These mutants, kindly provided by the Sigrist lab, lack specific phases of memory

1 8

Reposted by Elli Leadbeater

Mark Brown @markjfbrown.bsky.social · May 1

Very lucky to work with these wonderful researchers! Not only did they give amazing talks and posters at our Annual @rhulbiology.bsky.social PG Symposium, they won *all* the prizes 🏆 So proud 🐝❤️ @leofordham.bsky.social @alexisggk.bsky.social @ellileadbeater.bsky.social @philstevenson.bsky.social

4 18

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Apr 29

Great blog by @djdunc.bsky.social describing drone surveying of flowers for pollinators near oilseed rape fields last week, in association with our pan-European WildPosh project www.iot.io/blog/2025/04...

Drone in a field

Spent a couple of days this week flying the new DJI Matrice 4E in Hampshire. The task was to capture orthomosaic data for the WildPosh Grand Challenge project and involved a fair bit of prep with lots...

www.iot.io

1 2

Reposted by Elli Leadbeater

Mark Brown @markjfbrown.bsky.social · Apr 8

Wonderful evening celebrating Dr Alberto Linguadoca’s successful PhD viva 🐝 ☠️ Thanks to @darastanley.bsky.social for being an excellent external examiner! You can find Alberto’s papers here: scholar.google.fr/citations?us... @rhulbiology.bsky.social @ellileadbeater.bsky.social

1 2 10

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Apr 6

Well done to MSc student @lucyhouliston.bsky.social, amazing achievement to be featured in the Natural History Museum’s brand new Fixing Our Broken Planet exhibition!

1 2 8

Reposted by Elli Leadbeater

Olivia Bernauer, PhD @oliviabernauer.bsky.social · Mar 26

Two PhD Scholarships to study Australian stingless bees 🐝 and crop pollination at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney Uni - deadline March 31. Sounds like a great project - reach out with questions - I did my PhD in this lab!

www.westernsydney.edu.au/schools/grs/...

Native bees and crop pollination - Two PhD scholarships available | Western Sydney University

www.westernsydney.edu.au

24 25

Reposted by Elli Leadbeater

Alexandra Klein @naturealexk.bsky.social · Feb 25

Postdoc Opportunity in #Pollination Research

The @uni-freiburg.de is hiring a Postdoc for the EU project VALOR, exploring the ecological and economic values of pollinators.

📅 Deadline: March 1, 2025
📅 Start date: June 1, 2025
💰 Salary: TV-L E13 (100%), 3 years

🔗 uni-freiburg.de/stellenangeb...

1 27 38

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Feb 24

Do you know of a researcher working in the field of zoology and/or conservation who you think has made an outstanding contribution that deserves recognition? Nominations are due on Feb 25th for the ZSL awards program, which spans all career levels from UG onwards www.zsl.org/about-zsl/aw...

Awards | ZSL

ZSL's programme of science and conservation awards recognises outstanding contributions

www.zsl.org

24 25

Reposted by Elli Leadbeater

Dr Joanne Littlefair @jlittlefair.bsky.social · Feb 12

A new opportunity to work with our expanding #eDNA and #biodiversity lab as a postdoc looking at human impacts across space and time with terrestrial airborne eDNA. UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship funded opportunity based at the @ucl-pnl.bsky.social: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

www.ucl.ac.uk

22 20

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Jan 7

PhD position on the ecology and evolution of animal memory! Please get in touch if you’re interested in joining us

Elli Leadbeater @ellileadbeater.bsky.social · Dec 9

PhD position available! Are you interested in how natural selection shapes the evolution of animal memory? Be part of our experimental evolution plans at UCL @ucl-pnl.bsky.social @treesdla.bsky.social , co-supervised by Flo Camus @fcamus.bsky.social. www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/evo...

Evolutionary ecology of animal memory | UCL Trees

This project seeks to explore how memory evolves in response to the ecological tasks that animals face in their natural environment. Associative memory exists in some form in almost all animal species...

www.trees-dla.ac.uk

32 23