#evolutionarybiology — Public Fediverse posts

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria possess a critical vulnerability within their cell wall transport systems that, when disrupted, drastically reduces their resistance. This discovery reveals an evolutionary trade-off where the genetic mechanisms bacteria use to survive antibiotic exposure can simultaneously be exploited to make them susceptible to existing treatments.
#MolecularBiology #Microbiology #Bacteriology #EvolutionaryBiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/09/mbio09102601.html

Local evolutionary adaptation occurs when populations of a single species develop heritable, genetic traits that are finely tuned to the highly specific conditions of their immediate environment.
#EvolutionaryBiology #Ecology #ConservationBiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/09/ebio09102601.html

https://www.europesays.com/ie/681036/ Adaptive zones of feliforms and evolutionary regimes within terrestrial mammalian carnivores #BiologicalAndPhysicalAnthropology #Ecology #Éire #EvolutionaryBiology #EvolutionaryEcology #general #IE #Ireland #LifeSciences #Palaeoecology #palaeontology #paleontology #Science #Zoology

Coevolution (Habitat 🌄)

In biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution through the process of natural selection. The term sometimes is used for two traits in the same species affecting each other's evolution, as well as gene-culture coevolution. Charles Darwin mentioned evolutionary i...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coevolution

#Coevolution #Habitat #EcologicalProcesses #EvolutionaryBiology #EvolutionOfTheBiosphere #EnvironmentalTerminology

Coevolution (Habitat 🌄)

In biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution through the process of natural selection. The term sometimes is used for two traits in the same species affecting each other's evolution, as well as gene-culture coevolution. Charles Darwin mentioned evolutionary i...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coevolution

#Coevolution #Habitat #EcologicalProcesses #EvolutionaryBiology #EvolutionOfTheBiosphere #EnvironmentalTerminology

It is a remarkably humbling realization that a single, unnoticed bite from an arthropod the size of an apple seed can completely rewrite an individual's relationship with the global food chain. Alpha-gal syndrome reminds us that the human immune system, for all its staggering sophistication and atomic-level precision, remains intimately and sometimes precariously tethered to the natural world.
#WhatIs #Immunology #MolecularBiology #EvolutionaryBiology #Entomology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/09/wi09102601.html

Doctoral Position in Evolutionary Genomics (Experimental/Computational)
Heidelberg University, ZMBH

See the full job description on jobRxiv: https://jobrxiv.org/job/heidelberg-university-zmbh-27778-doctoral-position-in-evolutionary-genomics-experimental-computational/

#EvolutionaryBiology #genomics #ScienceJobs #hiring #research
https://jobrxiv.org/job/heidelberg-university-zmbh-27778-doctoral-position-in-evolutionary-genomics-experimental-computational/?fsp_sid=14982

The curator of our university Entomology museum, John Marris, excitedly popped into my office earlier today to share this neat new study on ant-associated beetles, by
Yu-Cheng Feng and colleagues.

These small beetles live inside ant nests. Not only have they evolved cunning ways to co-exist with the ants, but they have also evolved *handles* to help the ants carry them about. The phyologeny of the subfamily Chlamydopsinae suggests that these beetles have independently evolved ant handles several times.

"Our findings provide direct evidence that the characteristic surface relief of chlamydopsines, at least partly or in some cases, serves as a mechanical adaptation for ant‑mediated transport"

Insect Systematics and Diversity, Volume 10, Issue 5, 2026
https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixag034

#entomology #ants #beetles #symbiosis #insects #NaturalHistory #EvolutionaryBiology

Multicellular cyanobacteria possess specialized cell-to-cell communication structures regulated by calcium signals, fundamentally mirroring the intercellular communication systems found in higher eukaryotic organisms.
#EvolutionaryBiology #PhototrophicMicrobiology #MolecularBiology #CellularBiology #StructuralBiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/ebio08312601.html

DATE: August 31, 2026 at 08:53AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEED

TITLE: Scientists challenge a 70-year-old “lizard brain” myth

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260829235958.htm

A long-standing picture of brain evolution as newer, rational layers stacked on top of an ancient “lizard brain” may be deeply misleading. Researchers found that evolution instead appears to balance two competing styles of brain wiring, expanding one while shrinking the other depending on what an animal needs to survive.

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260829235958.htm

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org

Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot

-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BrainEvolution #LizardBrainMyth #Neuroscience #BrainWiring #EvolutionaryBiology #ScienceNews #ResearchUpdate #AnimalBrains #NeuralNetworks #CognitiveScience

DATE: August 31, 2026 at 08:53AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEED

TITLE: Scientists challenge a 70-year-old “lizard brain” myth

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260829235958.htm

A long-standing picture of brain evolution as newer, rational layers stacked on top of an ancient “lizard brain” may be deeply misleading. Researchers found that evolution instead appears to balance two competing styles of brain wiring, expanding one while shrinking the other depending on what an animal needs to survive.

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260829235958.htm

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org

Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot

-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BrainEvolution #LizardBrainMyth #Neuroscience #BrainWiring #EvolutionaryBiology #ScienceNews #Neurobiology #AnimalBrains #CognitiveScience #MythBusting

When an animal moves, its visual system adjusts its neuronal activity to process the changing environmental input, but this adjustment operates on the same mathematical evolutionary principles across both mice and primates despite differing sensory outputs.
#Neurobiology #ComputationalNeuroscience #EvolutionaryBiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/ns08312601.html

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen are studying the ancient stone jars on the Plain of Jars in Laos as miniature, 2,000-year-old freshwater ecosystems.
#Ecology #Limnology #EvolutionaryBiology #EnvironmentalScience #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/eco08312601.html

Parasitic plants, such as dodders, acquire and permanently integrate functional foreign genes from their host plants through horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Instead of merely preserving these stolen genes, the parasites structurally remodel them over millions of years while retaining their original biological functions.
#PlantGenetics #EvolutionaryBiology #MolecularBiology #PlantPhysiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/bot08272601.html

A cognitive study using non-invasive eye-tracking technology to quantify how gibbons visually process faces, revealing a strong preference for looking at the eyes, particularly those of their own species.
#Ethology #Primatology #EvolutionaryBiology #CognitivePsychology #BehavioralEcology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/ebio08262601.html

Paleovirology is the study of ancient viruses and their evolutionary history, primarily conducted by examining endogenous viral elements (EVEs) that have integrated into the genomes of host organisms over millions of years.
#Paleovirology #Virology #EvolutionaryBiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/cat08232601.html

We are a species strictly engineered for deep, empathetic connection. Protecting the integrity of that connection—by understanding exactly how it functions, how it is genetically moderated, and how malevolent actors can exploit it—is arguably the most critical scientific and societal endeavor of our time.
#Neuroscience #CognitivePsychology #Neurobiology #BehavioralGenetics #EvolutionaryBiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/wi08212601.html

Evolutionary genome topology is a new comparative framework that projects the structural evolution of animal chromosomes onto a single map. It reveals that animal genomes do not change at random, but rather evolve along distinct, irreversible pathways over millions of years.
#EvolutionaryBiology #Genomics #MolecularGenetics #Zoology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/ebio08202601.html

Institute of Evolutionary Biology (Evolutionary biology 🧬)

The Institute of Evolutionary Biology is a joint research center of Pompeu Fabra University and the Spanish National Research Council founded in 2008. IBE is the only research center in Catalonia and the rest of Spain that is entirely dedicated to evolutionary biology and ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Evolutionary_Biology

#InstituteOfEvolutionaryBiology #EvolutionaryBiology #EducationInBarcelona #PompeuFabraUniversity

Researchers have identified two new species of subterranean, shrimp-like amphipods, Bogidiella isajii and Bogidiella painushima, within the groundwater and cave systems of Japan's Ryukyu Islands.
#EvolutionaryBiology #SubterraneanEcology #Taxonomy #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/ebio08172601.html

Parallel evolution (Evolutionary biology 🧬)

Parallel evolution is the similar development of a trait in distinct species that are not closely related, but share a similar original trait in response to similar evolutionary pressure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_evolution

#ParallelEvolution #EvolutionaryBiology

Dogs possess specific neural mechanisms that allow them to process and distinguish between various human facial expressions, such as happiness, fear, anger, and sadness.
#Neuroscience #Ethology #EvolutionaryBiology #Psychology #Dogs #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/ns08112601.html

Tetonius varleyorum is a newly identified, mouse-lemur-sized species of extinct omomyid primate that challenges the previously accepted step-by-step evolutionary model of early mammals.
#Paleontology #EvolutionaryBiology #BiologicalAnthropology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/pal08102601.html

This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- Another second-hand volume to my growing collection of The Correspondence of #CharlesDarwin, this one Volume 26: 1878, published by Cambridge University Press.
- #Warhammer: The Art of #GamesWorkshop, a rather rare exhibition catalogue of grimdark artwork that I bought via eBay.
- I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in #NaturalHistory, the final of the essay bundles from #StephenJayGould, published by Harmony Books.

#Books #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Evolution #EvolutionaryBiology #Scicomm @bookstodon

Quantum evolution (Evolutionary biology 🧬)

Quantum evolution is a component of George Gaylord Simpson's multi-tempoed theory of evolution proposed to explain the rapid emergence of higher taxonomic groups in the fossil record. According to Simpson, evolutionary rates differ from group to group and even among closely related lineages. These different rates of evolutionary change were desi...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_evolution

#QuantumEvolution #RateOfEvolution #EvolutionaryBiology

Ring species (Evolutionary biology 🧬)

In biology, a ring species is a connected series of neighbouring populations, each of which interbreeds with closely sited related populations, but for which there exist at least two end populations in the series which are too distantly related to interbreed, though there is a potential gene flow between linked neighbouring populations. Such non-breeding, though genet...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_species

#RingSpecies #Species #EvolutionaryBiology

An international research team utilized advanced genomic sequencing to construct the first comprehensive evolutionary map of Hawaiian honeycreepers, resolving the complex relationships among living, extinct, and fossilized species.
#EvolutionaryBiology #Genomics #Paleontology #ConservationBiology #Ornithology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/ebio08042601.html

A highly contagious avian herpesvirus that causes Marek's disease, which manifests as tumors and paralysis in poultry, and has progressively evolved to evade multiple generations of vaccines.
#Virology #EvolutionaryBiology #Genomics #AgriculturalScience #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/08/vi08032601.html

Bacteriophages are the most abundant and diverse viral entities on Earth, functioning as microscopic apex predators that exist exclusively to infect, replicate within, and ultimately lyse bacterial populations.
#WhatIs #Virology #Microbiology #EvolutionaryBiology #MolecularBiology #Biophysics #Biogeochemistry #ClinicalImmunology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/07/wi07312601.html

A 113-million-year-old mass extinction event of marine planktic foraminifera was driven by severe ocean acidification caused by massive volcanic carbon dioxide emissions. Microscopic fossil evidence confirms that acidic surface waters dramatically reduced the ability of these organisms to build calcium carbonate shells.
#IsotopeGeochemistry #Paleoclimatology #EvolutionaryBiology #MarineBiology #EarthScience #PlanetaryScience #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/07/es07302601.html

University of Michigan researchers utilized advanced artificial intelligence to demonstrate that passerine birds (order Passeriformes) underwent rapid bursts of morphological evolution that directly coincided with major historical climate shifts.
#EvolutionaryBiology #Ornithology #Paleoclimatology #ComputationalBiology #AI #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/07/ebio07202601.html

As climate-driven sea level rise increases the salinity of freshwater environments, aquatic microbial communities lose biodiversity but maintain their overall growth rate and biomass production.
#MicrobialEcology #EvolutionaryBiology #EnvironmentalMicrobiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/07/eco07172601.html

The rate-mismatch hypothesis posits that global mass extinctions occur when the pace of environmental change outstrips the rate at which biological life can undergo evolutionary adaptation. It provides a mathematical model linking Earth's historic extinction events to the critical disparities between environmental shifts and species' adaptive capabilities.
#Paleobiology #Paleoclimatology #Geophysics #AppliedMathematics #EvolutionaryBiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/06/pal06242601.html

A recently re-evaluated moss gene, PpWOX13LC, actively regulates plant reproduction by acting as a genetic brake to limit sporophyte development and ensure efficient parental resource allocation.
#EvolutionaryBiology #PlantGenetics #MolecularBiology #Botany #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/06/ebio06182601.html

Genomic analysis of extinct cave lions reveals they represent a highly distinct evolutionary lineage that diverged from modern lions over 1.5 million years ago, significantly earlier than previously estimated.
#Paleogenetics #EvolutionaryBiology #Genomics #Paleoclimatology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/06/pal06042601.html

Praearcturus gigas is an extinct species of giant scorpion measuring nearly a meter in length that lived roughly 415 million years ago during the Early Devonian period.
#Paleoclimatology #EvolutionaryBiology #Zoology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/06/pal06032601.html

#bodyfat #evolutionarybiology #health #menshealth #womenshealth #fitness #wellnessgoals #wellnessadvocate #wellnesscoaching #wellnessfitness #wellnesscenter #science #bodypositivity #epndha #naturalbody https://mastodon.social/@biohackingpathway/116676668138963505

Elaborate courtship dances in male zebra #finches function primarily as indicators of superior physical health and motor skills rather than serving as markers of general intelligence.
#EvolutionaryBiology #Ethology #CognitiveScience #Ornithology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/04/ebio04172601.html

Microbes adapt to entirely new habitats—such as migrating from soil to freshwater lakes—by utilizing two divergent evolutionary pathways: expanding their genome to acquire new functional traits, or drastically reducing their genome to minimize resource dependency.
#EvolutionaryBiology #MicrobialEcology #Genomics #Limnology #Bioinformatics #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/04/ebio04142601.html

“Unhappy is the land that needs a hero”*…

To the extent that evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist Robert Trivers has been in the news over the last decade, it has been for his entanglement with and highly-questionable defense of Jeffrey Epstein. But as Lionel Page reminds us, two decades before that– well before he could have known the execrable “financier”– Trivers made hugely important contributions to his field…

Steve Stewart-Williams announced… that Robert Trivers passed away.

Trivers was one of the most—perhaps the most—influential evolutionary biologists of the 20th century. His work should be much more widely known in social and behavioural sciences, in particular in economics, as Trivers’ intellectual approach is very much in line with a game theoretic understanding of social interactions.

It is hard to overstate the importance of his work. Einstein famously published four groundbreaking papers in 1905, a year often referred to as his “Annus mirabilis”, during which he revolutionised physics. Trivers might be said to have had a “Quinquennium Mirabile” for the five years between 1971 and 1976, during which he produced a series of ideas that revolutionised evolutionary biology…

[Page unpacks four of those contributions: Reciprocal Alturism, Parental Investment, Parental Offspring Conflict, and Self-Deception, each fascinating…]

… Trivers has been one of the most influential evolutionary biologists, and his papers are still worth reading today. His insights, published more than 50 years ago, are fascinating. They often align very well with economic theories of behaviour, and it is therefore regrettable that his ideas are not more well-known in economics, and in particular in behavioural economics.

A key feature of Trivers’ take across these contributions was to see that beneath the world of social interactions we observe, there are deep structures in terms of incentives that shape the game we play. Understanding these games and their structures helps us make sense of the seemingly endless complexity of human psychology and social dynamics. In several key contributions, Trivers helped lift the veil on the underlying logic of human behaviour…

From cooperation to conflict: the evolutionary grammar of social interactions: “The fascinating insights of Robert Trivers” from @lionelpage.bsky.social.

For more on Trivers and the controversies in his life (Epstein, but also the Black Panthers and a Rutgers set-to), all of which followed the burst of productivity described above, see here.

And for some thoughts on how one might reconcile appreciation for a scientist’s work with abhorence of his later sins, see “Ghosts of Science Past Still Haunt Us. We Can Put Them to Rest.“

* Bertolt Brecht (through the mouth of Galileo, in The Life of Galileo)

###

As we linger over legacies, we might send material birthday greetings to a man who helped lay the groundwork for the field to which Trivers contributed, Ludwig Büchner; he was born on this date in 1824. A philosopher, physiologist, and physician, he became one of the leading exponents of 19th-century scientific materialism. Büchner was an early champion of Darwin’s theory of evolution, endorsing it within a decade of its first issuance, then did much to spread it by citing and building on it in his own books.

As far as we know, Büchner’s life was free of the scandal and conflict that plagued Trivers. He taught at the University of Tübingen and published dozens of books and papers. Later in his life he founded he “German Freethinkers League” (“Deutsche Freidenkerbund”) and served as a member of the second chamber of the Landstände of the Grand Duchy of Hesse as a representative of the German Free-minded Party from 1884 to 1890. He was the younger brother of Georg Büchner, a famous revolutionary playwright, and Luise Büchner, a women’s rights advocate; and he was the uncle of Ernst Büchner, inventor of the Büchner flask.

source

Fascinating read on how Y chromosome changes drive reproductive incompatibility. Great work by Yukiko and her team at #WhiteheadInstitute! #YChromosome #EvolutionaryBiology #Biology #MIT #ResearchSky

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:376brirdwae4fayb4sd3bzdy/post/3mgn3fcvhv22z

The history of life on #Earth is often viewed through a strictly #Darwinian lens of competition—a relentless, zero-sum struggle where every organism fights for a larger slice of a finite resource pie. In this narrative, nature is, as Alfred, Lord Tennyson famously wrote, "red in tooth and claw," dominated by predation, #parasitism, and the survival of the fittest.
#WhatIs #Ecology #EvolutionaryBiology #Biology #SocialScience #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/02/wi02142601.html

#SamirOkasha - #Philosophy of #Evolutionary #Biology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-ZnUxopLM8

#PhilosophyOfBiology #Evolution #EvolutionaryBiology #PhilosophyOfScience #Science #Life #Cells #Organism #Organisms #Replication #PhaseTransition #PhaseTransitions #Groups #Culture #Prediction #Extinction #CloserToTruth #RobertKuhn

Excited to have been interviewed about my research in "Big Biology" - my favourite biology podcast! A nice conversation between myself and my colleagues Cameron Ghalambor and Marty Martin.

FYI: this is my first podcast ever! Check it out:

https://www.bigbiology.org/episodes/2023/10/19/ep-108-the-dialectical-biologists-challenges-of-studying-evolution-in-nature-with-erik-svensson?fbclid=IwAR1chACvVMdaHVL_RrMGETR6-Glxn6kT4QfAFd3fyozYIeR-3bsu9u4-dRM

#evolution #EvolutionaryBiology #ecology #damselflies #PhenotypicPlasticity