Fernando Villanea

Our paper on the evolution of MUC19 in humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans is finally out today in Science! This has been a six-year effort by 13 authors to weave together 3 separate but related evolutionary stories around this one gene (more on thread 🧵). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I am trying and failing to find a RTqPCR triplex assay for research use for SARS-CoV-2, flu and RSV - everything is a branded, automated assay. Can anyone recommend a research set of primers and probes?

Scientists @ucdavis.bsky.social find first fossil evidence of a fully marine amphibian. This salt-tolerant, armored bottom-dweller lived ~23M year ago. @ucdlands.bsky.social www.ucdavis.edu/curiosity/ne...

Ya'll know I was going to have something to say about the @itiscolossal.bsky.social and Anduril collab on "warhounds," so here it is: devoevomed.substack.com/p/de-extinct...

Still smiling this morning 😊

"Change in the demographic composition in anthropology and the broader academy has expanded, not reduced, the field’s purview. A few decades ago, the major theoreticians, journal editors, and senior scholars were a more homogeneous group than they are today."

Despite illegal US intervention, manipulation of Meta’s algorithms to favor Bolsonaro Jr., opposition from Brazil’s largest television network, and the politicization of Brazil’s electoral court, the impossible happened. LULA, PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL! 🇧🇷 Against all odds, democracy prevailed.

*enormous sigh of relief for the Amazon*

We are searching for a curious and motivated PhD candidate to work on the biogeography of plant-associated fungi on the Galapagos: if you are excited to develop diverse skills in big data, bioinformatics, field work, and experiments, please apply! vacatures.knaw.nl/job/PhD-posi...

That was a really interesting faculty meeting “Should we accept a World Series champion to our PhD program?” “Um, yes”. We are very excited to have Brad in our department! www.science.org/content/arti...

We are hiring a tenure-track assistant professor in computational biology at USC! area: AI method development and its applications in biology. Do you combine quantitative research with a drive to develop innovative approaches for tackling biological questions? usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

More on the Denisovans, in @nature.com: The proteome of Middle Pleistocene Xujiayao and common Denisovan morphology 🧪💀 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our Dept. of Genetics and Developmental Biology at the Institut Curie in the heart of Paris is hiring a new junior PI. It has a nice start up package and excellent I. Curie facilities. Please spread the word: Deadline Dec. 18th! jpi-recruitment-curie-umr3215-u934.curie.fr

The hobbit book is finally real and you can preorder it, which feels completely wild. Coming August 2027.

Please share! Our department has two tenure-track job ads up today. Here is the #SciEd job, a collaboration with the STEM Ed Center. Fantastic facilities, perfect-sized institution, easy living. Come work here! bsu.wd12.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job... @nabtbio.bsky.social @narst.bsky.social

My department at UCSF (Cell & Tissue Biology) is recruiting for a tenure-track Assistant/Associate Professor studying the fundamental cell biology underlying disease. Join us! App due Dec 1. aprecruit.ucsf.edu/JPF06272

Please share! Our department has two tenure-track job ads up today. Here is the #botany job, with an open mind towards multiple subdisciplines. Fantastic facilities, perfect-sized institution, easy living. Come work here! bsu.wd12.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job... @botsocamerica.bsky.social

🎉 VELVET WORMS & AN EXCERPT FROM MY BOOK 🎉 This creature is a velvet worm, which I recently saw in Tasmania. I attempted the difficult task of describing these wonderful animals in the epilogue of my book (last photo)... Would you describe them differently? If so, how? #TheWorldBeneathOurFeet 🧪🪱

LSU is hiring an Assistant Professor in Behavioral Ecology! Please see the job posting here and share. Application review begins November 15th. lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/LSU/jo...

We need your help - four of our satellite-tracked quail have gone missing in France! Any information would be interesting, e.g. if the signal comes from near a fox den, buzzard nest or hunting area 🦊🦅🔫 If you can recover the tag, we can re-use it - and you can name this quail 😉 Pls share widely 🇫🇷

We have an open Call for PhD positions at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social : www.leipzig-school.eva.mpg.de/application/... #adna #phd

We're hiring TWO postdocs in the Lea Lab at Vanderbilt! 🧬🐒 Both positions are part of a new NIH U19 studying life course experiences, gene regulation, and aging in the Cayo rhesus macaques. More details here: www.vanderbilt.edu/postdoc/pros... Please share widely and reach out with any questions!

Once ubiquitous among Coast Salish communities, woolly dogs went extinct in the late 1800s. The only known pelt is now on display at the Museum of Anthropology in Coast Salish territory, more than two decades after it was discovered in a drawer at the Smithsonian.

I’m really happy to share that my invited review on social insect genome evolution, co-authored with @corriemoreau.bsky.social, is out now in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social 🐝🐜 This is the paper I wish I’d had when studying for quals in grad school, and was a ton of fun to write.

Boulder Faculty Assembly passed a resolution calling for no extension of the OpenAI contract. Vote was 39-8-1 after suspending the bylaws. Everyone at CU Student Government public comment has been fired up about their corresponding resolution, talking about trust and societal impact. So energizing.

Excited to share that my department has an open faculty search for an Assistant Professor! The search is broad, focused on candidates who plan to address fundamental questions in genetics and genomics. The due date is soon: Nov 13. You can apply through interfolio. apply.interfolio.com/190644

Today is the day to commiserate with Charles Darwin, on the 161st anniversary of his confessing to Charles Lyell that he felt "...very poorly today & very stupid & I hate everyone & everything." Here's more of the back story on Darwin writing about this not-so-good day. www.npr.org/sections/kru...

I'm hiring a postdoc in population and evolutionary genetics at Indiana University Bloomington! We're a computational lab working on spatial demographic inference using genomic data and machine learning. You can apply here: indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/34508

I am hiring a postdoc! Are you interested to work on population genetics/ drug resistance/ data? Want to work in Montpellier, France? Fastq files don't scare you? PhD required, start date hopefully Nov 1! (end date Sep 30 2028) Please share! abetterscientist.wordpress.com/2026/09/29/p...

I feel the need to note that the Romans don't really present 'power' (potentia, vis) as their chief virtue. Instead, the Romans were "always harping on fides ['faith, trust']" (Dioc. Sic. 23.1); Cicero gives the virtue where Rome surpasses others as pietas (piety, Cic. Har. resp. 9.19).

Thrilled: NSF awarded $11.9M to SCIBG, co-led by Rockefeller, ASU & KU, to sequence genomes of U.S. species. 🧬 As a Diné geneticist and ASU co-lead, I'm humbled this massive effort centers #Indigenous knowledges and #genomic #data #sovereignty from the start. 🙏 news.asu.edu/20260924-env...

Exciting news! We here at the LSU Museum of Natural Science @lsumns.bsky.social and Dept. of Biological Sciences are looking for Curator and Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Paleobiology! Come work with us! We are fun, supportive and active! lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/LSU/jo...

🚨We're hiring a new Curator of Mammals!!🚨 🦍🐕🦝🐅🦓🦌🐃🐖🐏🐫🐘🦏🦛🐿️🦔🦇🦥🦦🦨🦘🦡🐋🦭🦒🧸 Come join the Vertebrate Unit at @nhmdk.bsky.social—a fantastic team in the heart of Denmark's beautiful capital! Amazing collections, incredible history. Please share widely! 🧪🏛️ candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

We are searching for an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology! Looking for colleagues asking fundamental questions relating to evolutionary processes and drivers of evolutionary patterns. If you think it is you, please do apply! And please repost. facultypositions.stanford.edu/jobs/assista...

The Goodheart Lab is seeking a full-time Postdoctoral Fellow on an NSF-funded project to study the process of kleptocnidy, the theft and storage of nematocysts, in nudibranch mollusks. Project link: www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...). Application here: careers.amnh.org/postings/4908.

Excited to share the first published paper from my lab! Postdoc Helen Jordan led this study on 1) how metabolites change differently in inflammation in tissues versus in cells in a dish and 2) the role of one of the most-increased metabolites, soluble sialic acid www.jbc.org/article/S002...

I’m looking to hire an NIH funded postdoc to join our lab here at Davis (please RT). Ongoing areas of interest include: 1) polygenic signals of selection from time series, ARGs, GWAS, etc 2) The interpretation of GWAS, polygenic scores, & sources of confounding

I'm inordinately sad to hear the Academy of Natural Sciences is closing. It will always be the place my wife loudly exclaimed "Dino-nachos!" to get a rise out of me (Deinonychus). It will always be my first mosasaur with the inner row of teeth. It will always be many people's first paleo love.

We're hiring a Curator of Marine Invertebrates either at the Assistant or Associate level. Please spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested. Applications due October 15th! workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...

Come be my colleague!! 🎉 We’re hiring an Assistant Professor in Developmental Biology at UCSD! If you’re doing exciting work in development or regeneration, come join us!! Please spread the word and apply! apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04591

fellowships.si.edu/opportunity/... Please reach out if you are interested in developing an independent application for this postdoc opportunity with myself and Michael Campana. We have a lot of great bear genomics data that could be leveraged!

I’m excited to announce that we are looking for a Curatorial Associate to join our team and help lead the L. H. Bailey Hortorium Herbarium at Cornell University 🌿 Please help share with interested botanists! jobs.hr.cornell.edu/us/en/job/WD...

UMass Amherst Dept of Biology is hiring a TT faculty member in Evolutionary Biology! careers.umass.edu/jobs/assista... We have a diverse and wonderful dept - please consider joining us!

I am delighted to announce that The Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah is continuing a multi-year recruiting initiative for multiple tenure-track faculty positions at the rank of Assistant Professor. Please share and consider applying! utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/208...

The Natural History Museum of LA is hiring a Curator of Marine Invertebrates! Come join an amazing team and contribute to stewarding the largest marine invert collection in the Western US. 🐙🪼🦐 workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...

At what point do we start calling these El Adulto?

There is currently a Wikipedia edit war on the Great Lakes Wikipedia pages because everything is so stupid

The five Simpsons lines I’ve uttered most: 1. "Stupid, sexy Flanders" 2. "You'll release the dogs, or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark, they shoot bees at you?" 3. Monorail! Mono- D'oh! 4. "They're saying, 'Boo-urns! Boo-urns!'" 5. "Aww, the Denver Broncos?"

We have written a statement in support of Ghent Uni's decision to suspend Nathan Cofnas. We resist attempts to frame this as a punishment for "whistleblowing" or censorship of "controversial research". We invite all academics who share our views to sign our letter. forms.gle/qwN8xzEM5C7Q...