Natalia Przelomska

Outline map UK and Ireland indicating approximate locations all Botanical University Challenge 2026 teams. Also logos of the 32 institutions.

🌱🌾🌍🌺🍄🧪🌳🐝 Botanical University Challenge #BUC2026. All this year's teams signed-up; a record 32 from around the UK and Ireland. Some new, some returning, some regular, two present in every competition since the start in 2016! Welcome to all! Which ones are you supporting?

IMAGE SHOWS GRAPHIC OF CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY PHYLOGENY EXPLORER TOOL.

MAJOR NEWS! We just launched an awesome new tool! The illustrated Birds of the World Phylogeny Explorer lets users trace any bird’s lineage, compare species relationships, and explore major evolutionary milestones with a click of a button. SHARE and EXPLORE! birdsoftheworld.org/bow/news/phy...

📢 Announcing the speakers for the @aarc-community.bsky.social TikTalk seminar for January 2026! Look forward to hearing from @tatianafeuerborn.bsky.social and Arianna Weingarten, presenting on their work on Greenland Sled Dog 🐶 and Middle Pleistocene (!) horses 🐴 respectively. Exciting! Join us!

NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts

Some people think science is just for nerds, but science is the foundation of the modern world and science is what made America great.

Even though many of us don’t work directly in space science, we were inspired to become scientists by NASA. Destroying it makes zero sense.

just hours away from Christmas break and my brain has been broken upon discovery of the recent taxonomic splitting of one of my favourite genera (Acipenser)… fair enough!

The dispersal of domestic cats from North Africa to Europe around 2000 years ago The domestic cat (Felis catus) descends from the African wildcat Felis lybica lybica. Its global distribution alongside humans testifies to its successful adaptation to anthropogenic environments. Unc...

What's that? 5 ancient doggy papers in 10 days is too many dogs?

Can I interest you in some cats?

Perhaps a complete retelling of cat domestication, dispersal, and replacement across Eurasia?

As you wish!

Science
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cell Genomics
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...

A legacy of genetic entanglement with wolves shapes modern dogs | PNAS Dogs evolved through interactions between people and gray wolves during the Late Pleistocene and have been ubiquitous in human societies ever since...

Our paper is out! Although wolves and dogs can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, hybridization between the two is rare. We found that most dogs today have low but detectable levels of post-domestication wolf ancestry that has shaped their evolution in human environments. tinyurl.com/yt4x4r7n

⏰ The clock is ticking❗

LESS THAN 10 DAYS LEFT to submit your abstracts (30th Nov).

Do it here👉 icp2026.palaeogenomics.org/abstracts/

Many of you are asking for the registration fees 💸. We are still working out the details, but we estimate 400-500€ for regular attendees and 300-400€ for students.

Photo info and credits:
1/ Mike Scott, 6 June 1975, Sincock's Camp, Kauai, Hawaii, USA
2/ Matt Lowe, University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge (UMZC), UK
3/ [inset photos] UMZC, UK
5/ [inset illustrations] Angela Przelomski
6/ Natalia Przelomska, Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, Hawaii, USA

This was a highly collaborative project based in the lab of Robert C Fleischer (Smithsonian's NZCBI) w/ key contributions from Michael G Campana (admixture analyses), Helen F James (morphology), as well as Logan Kistler, Jim J Groombridge, Molly Hagemann, Nancy McInerney and Oscar Pérez-Escobar.

Exploring a Hawaiian honeycreeper habitat: Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, Hawaii, USA

6/🧵 No evidence of inbreeding in the ‘ō’ū 🦜 – likely large populations prior to its decline. Loss of a highly frugivorous #Hawaiian #honeycreeper = ⬇️ functional diversity in a clade where ~72% species diversity has disappeared. 15/17 remaining species are endangered and thus of conservation concern

Figure 2B from Przelomska et al. (2025) doi:10.1098/rsbl.2025.0265 Illustrations credit: Angela Przelomski

5/🧵 #Admixture has seldom been detected in #Hawaiian #honeycreepers. We find:
❌ no evidence that ‘ō‘ū 🦜interbred with kiwikiu 🐦
✅ significant evidence of gene flow from Lāna’i ‘ō‘ū 🦜into the Lānai hookbill🐤 (extinct in early 1900s)
highlighting a pre-extinction breeding strategy in this clade

Figure 2A from Przelomska et al. (2025) doi:10.1098/rsbl.2025.0265

4/🧵 Most Hawaiian honeycreeper lineages diversified: different species on different islands. Our ‘ō‘ū population structure results suggest speciation initiation – a distinct Kaua’i population (PC1) and minimal differentiation between other islands. But why are the Lāna’i birds so different?! (PC2)

Figure 1 from Przelomska et al. (2025) doi:10.1098/rsbl.2025.0265 Inset photo credit: University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge

3/🧵 ‘Ō‘ū display sexual dimorphism in head colour – females: olive green, males: yellow. Our morphometrics on 89 ‘ō‘ū specimens also show dimorphism – in size, with smaller females. Further, males are differentiated between islands – the largest on Kaua’i (most isolated) smallest on Maui-Nui islands

Ornithological collections of Hawaiian honeycreepers. Credit: University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge.

2/🧵 Dataset: our morphometric 📐 & genomic 🧬 data come from 12 different museum collections! Almost all samples from the 1800s. We genomically analysed 49 ‘ō‘ū + the only known Lāna’i hookbill 🐤 specimen using ancient DNA methodologies + target capture. The only extant specimen used: a Maui kiwikiu🐦

small, olive green passerine bird with a yellow head and parrot-like billed beak, perched on a lichen-covered tree branch

1/🧵 Today at #BOUasm25, I’m presenting on the ‘ō‘ū 🦜 a parrot billed-like #Hawaiian #honeycreeper, last seen in 1989. We dive into its population ecology and investigate – did it interbreed with other parrot-billed Hawaiian honeycreepers prior its extinction? doi:10.1098/rsbl.2025.0265 #ornithology

1/6 Today I will be presenting my masters research on the #phylogeny of the waterfowl family Anatidae via the #BOUasm25 conference on BlueSky. What came first, the duck, the goose or the swan? #ornithology #systematics #waterfowl #ducks #geese #swans
1/6

Cassie Stoddard'a talk was really insightful and colorful:
"sure, we're living exciting times to study the genome, but also to study the phenome, the birds' phenotypes using collections"

#BOUasm25 #ornithology #evolution @bou.org.uk

Historical genomics of the declining red squirrel in Britain | Aries Dr Anders Bergström, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia Professor Cock van Oosterhout, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia Dr Selina Brace…

A PhD project on historical genomics in the declining red squirrel in Britain is available in my group, through the @aries-dtp.bsky.social. Use historical genomes to track the effects of decline and genetic rescue in this charismatic species. aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...

Hey @paigebyerly.bsky.social exciting that you are going! sadly I’ll miss you - I can’t attend in person but will be presenting online!

Deciphering plant-insect interactions in a diverse urban botanical garden and the implications for developing urban planting schemes at Birkbeck, University of London on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Deciphering plant-insect interactions in a diverse urban botanical garden and the implications for developing urban planting schemes at Birkbeck, University of London, listed on FindAPhD...

Exciting fully-funded PhD project in my group, working with #ChelseaPhysicGarden @acmjulier.bsky.social to explore plant-insect interactions in urban gardens, and for urban planting schemes. Funded through NERC TREES DTP, all details here: tinyurl.com/mr3u42b8 Pls repost + email me if interested!

A legendary request for narwhal DNA

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

looking forward to presenting at this NHM event next month! 🦜

🌱 Applications are now open for the @ukri.org NERC
TREES DLA! Join a vibrant research community tackling key challenges in environmental science, from climate change to biodiversity and geospatial analysis
🔗 Apply now: trees-dla.ac.uk/apply
#PhD #EnvironmentalScience #Climate

Return of the huia? Why Māori worldviews must be part of the ‘de-extinction’ debate There is nothing to stop de-extinction companies using specimens from museum collections, despite little Māori support for reviving lost native species.

"In Aotearoa New Zealand, hapori Māori (tribal groups) are the kaitiaki (guardians) of many threatened taonga (treasured) species. There is growing international interest in the resurrection of some of New Zealand’s extinct birds...despite Māori concerns."

theconversation.com/return-of-th...

LSE Collaborative Studentship with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew LSE Collaborative Studentship with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

New funded PhD opportunity at Kew Gardens/LSE: Planting Decolonization: Plantation Science and Empire in the Twentieth Century. Closes 14/1/26: www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse...

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.

This is extremely cool: 700 years worth of archaeological artefacts being collected from old nests of bearded vultures (strong contender for the best vulture)

www.popsci.com/environment/...

Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured Mākereti Papakura died weeks before handing in her thesis at Oxford university documenting the life and customs of her tribe, work that is still used by Māori today

What an amazing woman, at last honoured for her work.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Join us on 31st October to celebrate Día de los Muertos with some #ancientDNA from Mexico! Two very exciting talks on 🦣 and 🪴, by Federico Sánchez-Quinto and Marcela Sandoval-Velasco of LIIGH UNAM.

Note the later 3pm London time!

#aDNA @aarc-community.bsky.social

grateful for the opportunity to present in this fantastic session on plants animals and epidemics at ISBA last month @isbarchaeology.bsky.social