Else Mikkelsen
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elsemikkelsen.bsky.social
Else Mikkelsen
@elsemikkelsen.bsky.social
520 followers 160 following 36 posts
PhD candidate at the University of Toronto studying the genomics of speciation. Currently studying skuas, manakins, and rates of sequence evolution.
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elsemikkelsen.bsky.social
Almost PhDone! I'll be giving my PhD exit seminar in the morning (Thursday), and defending on Friday.
A poster for Else's exit seminar titled "The Role of Hybridization in the Speciation of Birds". The poster shows illustrations of several bird species (skuas and manakins) above a background of a subarctic coastline and a tropical rainforest river.
November 6, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social
Something cool to start your weekend: a Blue Jay x Green Jay hybrid from Texas! #ornithology
Rare blue-and-green hybrid jay spotted in Texas is offspring of birds whose lineages split 7 million years ago
The hybrid bird is the product of two species whose habitat ranges began to overlap a few decades ago, potentially due to climate change, researchers said.
www.livescience.com
September 26, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
sjurdur.bsky.social
Join this trans-hemospheric collaboration to get skuas elected as bird of the year in New Zealand #teamskua Loud, Proud #seabirds
badge showing displaying skua and a QR code
September 15, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
hakoakoa-boty.bsky.social
It's family values day here at Team Hākoakoa. You'll struggle to find a bird more devoted to its chicks than Skua. Just look at that fuzzy brown face. How could you not vote Skua for #birdoftheyear2025? #Skua @forestandbird.bsky.social
A photograph of a Hākoakoa parent with its fuzzy brown chick. The parent is displaying loudly while the chick is looking at you, already planning its next move. Text on the image says "More than a pretty (aggressive) vace, Skua are devoted parents who often form polyandrous family units. Chicks venture out to explore their world quickly." Photo credit Penny Pascoe via Australian Antarctic programme.
September 14, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
crouxevo.bsky.social
Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants
September 12, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
patrickmckenzie.bsky.social
super excited to share this big project with @daeaton.bsky.social out now in Systematic Biology! We derived distributions for -- given an arbitrary species tree model -- how far you have to move along a genome before observing a change in the underlying genealogy: doi.org/10.1093/sysb...
Estimating waiting distances between genealogy changes under a Multi-Species Extension of the Sequentially Markov Coalescent
Abstract. Genomes are composed of a mosaic of segments inherited from different ancestors, each separated by past recombination events. Consequently, genea
doi.org
September 11, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
samjakeengland.bsky.social
Why do treehoppers look so weird?! Our latest paper, out this week in @pnas.org, suggests a perhaps unexpected reason - static electricity ⚡ We show that treehoppers can detect the electrostatic cues of predators and that their crazy shapes may boost their electrosensitivity! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Electroreception in treehoppers: How extreme morphologies can increase electrical sensitivity | PNAS
The link between form and function of an organism’s morphology is usually apparent or intuitive. However, some clades of organisms show remarkable ...
doi.org
July 24, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
darrenirwin.bsky.social
Hi y'all. In the midst of [gestures all around], I managed to write a thing.

If you work with mitochondrial DNA sequences in groups such as birds, butterflies, or snakes, you might find it interesting.

Feedback welcome.

The "Driving W Hypothesis" for low mtDNA diversity:

doi.org/10.1101/2025...
The Driving W Hypothesis for Low Within-Population Mitochondrial DNA Diversity and Between-Population Mitochondrial Capture
The fields of evolutionary biology, molecular ecology, genetics, and taxonomy have been profoundly influenced by studies of variation in mitochondrial DNA. Here I propose a hypothesis that will likely...
doi.org
June 11, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
urielgc.bsky.social
Meet the Bridge Orbweaver — reconstructed in full detail from a male specimen collected in Scarborough, Ontario (2025).

skfb.ly/pxLos

#3DModeling #ScientificVisualization #Arachnology #Biodiversity #DigitalTaxonomy #Larinioides #RaspberryPi #Zoology #UrbanWildlife
Larinioides sclopetarius - 3D model by Urielgc
Larinioides sclopetarius (Clerck, 1757) — Bridge Orbweaver This 3D model depicts a male Larinioides sclopetarius specimen, collected in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada in 2025. It was reconstructed from...
skfb.ly
June 3, 2025 at 5:08 AM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
benjaminfreeman.bsky.social
you might think N American species are getting common at their north range limit and rare at their south range limit as temps get warmer

but you would be wrong

new paper in GEB w/ @eliotmiller.bsky.social & Matt Strimas-Mackey, eBird Status & Trends ftw

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
May 12, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
seananderson.bsky.social
New paper out in Ecology Letters (open access): I and Daniel Matute consider 'species sorting' -- a bias in the outcome of secondary contact following the allopatric stage of speciation -- as a reason for the much-observed pattern of elevated trait differences in sympatric close relatives
Secondary Sympatry as a Sorting Process
Early explanations for the frequent observation of exaggerated trait divergence in sympatric versus allopatric taxa focused on secondary contact between allopatrically speciating lineages and emphasi...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
April 11, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
darrenirwin.bsky.social
OK who's ready for some science?

Do you like speciation? Genomics? Hybridization? Bioinformatics? Then this is for you:

Published today: "The Distribution & Dispersal of Large Haploblocks in a Superspecies"

Bonus interest if you like ring species and cute greenish birds:

doi.org/10.1111/mec....
Four figure panels from the paper. At upper left, a map of Asia showing the breeding ranges of six subspecies of greenish warblers, five of which are in the main ring: viridanus in blue in west Siberia, ludlowi in green in the western Himalayas, trochiloides in yellow in the central and eastern Himalayas, obscuratus in orange in central China, plumbeitarsus in red in eastern Siberia. The western form nitidus in grey, is also shown. In the lower left panel is a plot of genomic PC1 vs. PC2, with each little diamond symbol representing a single bird. This shows viridanus and plumbeitarsus as very distinct, while being connected by gradual or stepwise change through the populations around the southern ring. This is also shown in the lower central panel, which plots location around the ring vs. PC1. In the right panel, genotypes at 12 different Large Haploblock Regions are shown for 257 individuals arranged in order around the ring. Distinct differences between viridanus (in blue) and plumbeitarsus (in red) are seen, with more gradual variation through the ring connecting them. A single backcross of an F1 and a plumbeitarsus is seen in the lower row of this panel.
March 17, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
carlbergstrom.com
This excellent interactive tutorial on misleading data visualizations explores the idea of a "counter chart" — the graph you draw in response to refute a misleading claims

flowingdata.com/projects/dis...
Defense Against Dishonest Charts
This is a guide to protect ourselves and to preserve what is good about turning data into visual things.
flowingdata.com
February 15, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
gregowens.bsky.social
Excited to announce our work on kelp genomics is now out at Current Biology. Lead by Postdoc extraordinaire Jordan Bemmels, we sequence WGS for 600+ bull and giant kelp across BC and Washington. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kSP93QW8S...
Visual abstract for Kelp paper
January 17, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
darrenirwin.bsky.social
OK folks this is my first announcement of a lab publication on Bluesky:

Congrats to PhD Candidate Rashika Ranasinghe on today's publication of her paper "Cryptic Hybridization Dynamics in a Three-Way Hybrid Zone of Dinopium Flamebacks on a Tropical Island."

Happy holidays!

doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
Cryptic Hybridization Dynamics in a Three‐Way Hybrid Zone of Dinopium Flamebacks on a Tropical Island
This study explores population divergence and hybridization dynamics across the golden-backed (Dinopium benghalense) and red-backed (D. psarodes) flameback woodpecker hybrid zone in Sri Lanka. The ge...
doi.org
December 23, 2024 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
evolvwing.bsky.social
New preprint by butterfly wizard
@lucalivraghi.bsky.social

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

We mapped optix (again?!) as the switch gene of a natural polymorphism, this time controlling silver patches of a mountain butterfly. Gorgeous RNAi validation, evidence of selective sweeps, introgression
December 17, 2024 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
michaelgbertram.bsky.social
Earlier this year, I received news that fake peer reviews were allegedly being submitted impersonating me and approximately six others

I shared my story with Science to, hopefully, reduce the chance of this kind of breach happening again

www.science.org/content/arti...
‘It felt very icky’: This scientist’s name was used to write fake peer reviews
Elsevier retracts dozens of journal articles that were published based on “fictitious” reviews
www.science.org
December 3, 2024 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
sclaramunt.bsky.social
I'm recruiting a PhD student to join my lab at the University of New Orleans starting in Fall 2025. Research topics will focus on building and using phylogenies to study the diversification of birds, with an emphasis on Neotropical bird radiations. Contact me if interested.
November 16, 2024 at 2:38 AM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
wcratcliff.bsky.social
New preprint up! We sequenced hundreds of samples from across one of Earth's oldest living organisms - the Pando aspen clone - to understand how mutations accumulate and spread in long-lived clonal organisms. Our results were…surprising. 1/30
October 26, 2024 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Else Mikkelsen
jrossibarra.bsky.social
Gonna write a paper on this. PLEASE DON'T USE VCFTOOLS TO CALCULATE π. It is a random number generator, as the software assumes all bp that aren't SNPs are invariant (i.e. ignores missing data). This is especially bad in plant genomes, with abundant TEs where you can't map reads.
February 1, 2024 at 5:19 PM