Postdoc researcher at BIOPOLIS-CIBIO | Evolutionary biology | Natural history | Science communication
GoogleScholar: https://scholar.google.pt/citations?user=o355sjwAAAAJ&hl=en
iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/741651
A Nigerian living in the UK has "discovered" a new lake and named it Iyi Ojemba.
Mazi Uba Acho, a native of Igbo Naton in W Africa, highlighted the absurdity of the colonialist mindset that sought to claim discovery of places already known to locals. He cited Mungo Park's claim to the River Niger in Nigeria and David Livingstone's claim to the Zambezi River, Zambia, and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
Hey #SMBE2023 goers! 👋
Make sure to stop by Prem Aguilar's poster with our work on the evolution of carotenoid colouration in lizards (SP_25 - 862 - 704).
Have fun at the conference everyone!
Found plenty of dead puffins (Fratercula arctica) on the beach today while counting birds
While many people discuss #TheLastOfUs, the show in which an infectious fungus turns people into zombies, a short reminder that weird behaviour-altering fungi exist all around us - as these two flies infected by Entomophtora sp. near my house learned the hard way...
For this #FossilFriday a piece of the skull and teeth of Iberosuchus macrodon, a large (probably) terrestrial crocodile that lived in what is now Portugal, Spain and France some ~40 million years ago. Photo taken in Museu Geológico de Lisboa.
Scientists discover a new way of sharing genetic information in a common ocean microbe https://phys.org/news/2023-01-scientists-genetic-common-ocean-microbe.html
Novel integrative elements and genomic plasticity in ocean ecosystems https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)01519-7
#Prochlorococcus #bacteria exchange genetic information with one another, even when widely separated, by a previously undocumented mechanism. This enables them to transmit whole blocks of genes even in regions where their population in the water is relatively sparse.
From the tropics to the poles, from the sea surface to hundreds of feet below, the world's oceans are teeming with one of the tiniest of organisms: a type of bacteria called Prochlorococcus, which despite their minute size are collectively responsible for a sizable portion of the oceans' oxygen production. But the remarkable ability of these diminutive organisms to diversify and adapt to such profoundly different environments has remained something of a mystery.
Not a bad way to end the birding year!
Yellow-browed warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus), a Siberian migrant that is becoming increasingly more common in Western Europe, but still rather rare (it typically migrates to Southeast Asia). This species has the potential to inform us on how vagrancy could act as a step to the establishment of new migratory routes in birds.
The bird in the photo was ringed and released safely after data collection and sampling, in a protected area in Northern Portugal.
Sauropod tracks in Ourém (Portugal), made during the Middle Jurassic (around 168 million years ago). Multiple tracks are known from this site - Monumento Natural das Pegadas de Dinossáurios - including some of the longest dinosaur tracks in the world, with 150 metres.
elliot 🇩🇪 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🏳️🌈
Sandy Lawrence
Lukas VFN 🇪🇺