Need a helpful guide to assess distance from ecological baselines and change over time in your palaeoecological records? new paper led by Olivia Rata Burge with worked examples and code in 'baselines' at github.com/orb16/baselines journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09…

Using PAML to detect positive selection but need some guidance? Paschalia Kapli , Ziheng Yang's Group , and I have been working on a protocol that we hope you find useful. The 'Beginner's Guide on the Use of PAML to Detect Positive Selection' is now available!
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/40… (1/n)

Kākāpō survive on three small, predator-free islands, depending heavily on rimu fruit to breed. In the past, kākāpō were abundant across AoNZ - but rimu doesn't occur in all forests. So what did the birds eat? Fossilised scat sheds light.
buff.ly/3KaE9SH
#palaeoecology

First Peoples' knowledge of 'mysterious fairy circles' in Australian deserts has upended a long-standing science debate theconversation.com/first-peoples-… via The Conversation - Australia + New Zealand

New dietary study led by Alex Boast on coprolites and historic scats from endangered kākāpō identifies #palaeoecological surprises among the 24 Orders, 56 Families, and 57 native plant genera unrecorded in their modern diet #kakapo #metabarcoding #pollen frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

Our new paper is out. Check out our reverse engineered #phylogeny approach which uses #molecular phylogeny and #ecological /life-history characters to correct for functional and developmental correlations among #morphological data.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Our new paper, led by Matt Phillips at QUT, presents a novel approach for improving the accuracy of #morphological #phylogenetics - we used #marsupials as a case study, but it can be applied to any group!: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… #phylogeny #systematics

The Aussie fossil bird papers keep coming!
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Your daily #AvianHybrids story!

Blue-eyed Shags colonized Southern Ocean islands in two waves
avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2023/01/04/blu…

Blog post published 4 January 2023 | #ornithology

Published the first two papers from my PhD on the Pwerte Martne Martnte LF :) Australia’s ?oldest late Oligocene land mammal bearing assemblage

theconversation.com/25-million-yea…

Using historical detective work to shine light on the first recorded collection of megafauna fossils from the Naracoorte Caves. Now published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. Liz Reed 🦇🦴🦉🐀🐩 South Australian Museum Environment Institute - University of Adelaide Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

🚨Preprint alert🚨
chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxi…
After months and months of double-checking everything, I can finally say that short DNA fragments, similar in size to ancient DNA, surprisingly easy intercalate into smectite, even at low concentrations and neutral pH! We finally have a

The largest #Eagle in #Australia today is the Wedge-tailed eagle; but fifty thousand years ago, a much larger #fossil species flew the skies. Introducing Dynatoaetus gaffae, the largest Australian eagle that ever lived. Read the paper at the link below:
link.springer.com/article/10.100…

Congratulations Dr. Ellen Mather on describing Australia's biggest ever #raptor . Twice the size of a Wedge-tailed eagle but more closely related to old-world vultures. Another significant #megafauna predator for Pleistocene Oz #palaeontology Flinders Palaeontology theconversation.com/australias-ext…

New research combining historical observations and palaeoecological records of kākāpō with probabilistic extinction-date estimators reveals different and shifting drivers of decline across NZ over 800 yrs before its near extinction in the 1990s #kakapo doi.org/10.1016/j.gecc…

🚨 NEW RESEARCH 🚨 🧵
What conservation actions will be effective at saving the orange-bellied parrot?
Read about it here: theconversation.com/orange-bellied… 1/6

Whatever happened to North America’s lions?
hakaimagazine.com/news/the-lion-… via Hakai Magazine Devon Bidal

Great article featuring Al Salis and Julie Meachen 🦁🧬🦴

Really happy to have contributed with some knowledge to this amazing paper leaded by Roberto Rozzi on wonderful island mammals. Warning! No ancient DNA involved (so far!). Thanks so much to Roberto and all coauthors. ARAID IUCA Universidad Zaragoza

Islands🏝️+ mammals🐘🐃🐭+ body size evolution⚖️+ extinctions 🦤

Excited to share our paper ‘Dwarfism and gigantism drive human-mediated extinctions on islands’, published today in Science Magazine News from Science #ScienceResearch
science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

a🧵👇