Pack your bags, charge your batteries, #InverteFest begins at midnight your time.

If you're going out to spot critters, join our community science project here: www.inaturalist.org/projects/inv...

Carlson et al. build a mathematical model considering how genotype-by-environment interactions can maintain variation and parametrize their model to test its applicability to real mutualisms.

Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Hey, it's my print debut for National Geographic! This fall, I got to accompany folks from the Fort Worth Zoo on an incredible adorable mission: releasing tiny Texas horned lizards to new lives in the Hill Country.

(You will want to click on this one, trust me. The photos are adorable.)

Love this short opinion piece on “mechanical bypass” in analogy to “spiritual bypass”.

Despite the fog, today I managed to find the local pair of black woodpeckers I’ve been trying to track down (not pictured).

The Golden Age of Caenorhabditis ecology is right now.

Our last but certainly not least mystery species for the #25daysoffishmas (@drkatfish.Bsky.social) #sundayfishsketch #fishytheme crossover! Use the clues below to sketch the mystery fish. Post your guesses on Sunday! Merry fishmas everyone and good luck! #sciart 🦑

Caenorhabditis briggsae ancestral genomic hyper-diversity contrasts with globally distributed genome-wide haplotypes

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A novel, fig-associated microbe promotes reproductive success via variable life history mechanisms in C. elegans and C. inopinata https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.16.694684v1

A fun evolution and behavior project initiated by a summer undergrad Reina Eugene (PGSIP intern!) with Dustin Haskell - Variation in Social Feeding Behaviors and Interactions Among Caenorhabditis Nematodes @penngenetics.bsky.social @ecol-evol.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Check out our preprint investigating host use in sympatric Caenorhabditis nematodes! We found three Caenorhabditis species in a local community are associated with different invert taxa, and document a strong association between one species and invasive nitidulid beetles.
doi.org/10.64898/202...

Differential phoretic host use among sympatric Caenorhabditis nematodes and an association with invasive nitidulid beetles in southwestern Germany https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.16.694592v1

Only one more #SundayFishSketch - #25DaysofFishmas mystery fish before the big day!

For Sunday December 21, sketch the species you think these clues are describing (don't spoil it early if you know it!). The answer will be revealed with the day's #Fishmas calendar! @lampichthys.bsky.social

Can we predict gene expression evolution? In flour beetles, transcriptome-wide selection predicts expression change, with indirect selection acting strongest on pleiotropic, network-central genes—linking co-expression architecture to adaptation.
academic.oup.com/evlett/artic... Photo: Udo Schmidt

More than 2/3 of environmental professionals feel that working class individuals are underrepresented in their organisation.

🎧Check out the latest episode of the @endsreport.com report podcast featuring @drciaradwyer.bsky.social, Co-Chair of our Socioeconomic Equality and Diversity (SEED) Network

📣PhD alert:
There are two new PhD positions from IMPRS-QBEE Faculty members - check them out here: imprs-qbee.mpg.de/66685/current. Application deadlines are January 2026

A few recent watercolor pieces

Developmentally stunted stickleback? Study of 34 Greenlandic lakes reveals the absence of top predators reduces the available prey biomass, leading to small-bodied, large-headed stickleback populations:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Moosman et al. @brodersenfish.bsky.social @ebmatthews.bsky.social

🎉 Youn Jae Kang 🎓 successfully defended her thesis "Evolutionary deconstruction of C.elegans aggregation behaviour: environmental and genetic correlates of aggregation behaviour and its individual and interaction components", 🪱supervised by Serena Ding - congratulations!🥂