We are very excited to share our new paper in Science! We show that a diverse group of Jurassic and Cretaceous mammals all had darkly-colored fur. Well how did we do this? Let' start at the beginning! 🧵 (1/6) Science Magazine Matthew Shawkey Jess Dobson Julia Clarke and others!

Did you ever wonder what colors Jurassic mammals were? After 10+ years of study, we have the answer: dull and dark! Read the results of this super fun and collaborative project here science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Goldenberg, J., Bisschop, K., Lambert, J.W. et al. Habitat openness and squamate color evolution over deep time. Nat Commun 16, 2625 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s41467…

The early mammals that lived alongside the dinosaurs upwards of 150 million years ago were likely covered in dark and dusky greyish-brown fur, according to a quantitative reconstruction of Mesozoic mammal coloration in Science, hinting at their shrouded and nocturnal nature.

🧵 1/ New study on squamate color evolution hits the press: we show that brightness variation in lizards & snakes is strongly linked to habitat openness 🌞 nature.com/articles/s4146…

Awesome paper lead by Jonathan Goldenberg explained in a great thread! Makes me miss reptiles again.

🦖➡️🕊️ From dinosaur simple proto-feathers to bird intricate feathers? Our latest study shows that feather development is highly resilient to perturbations. 🧐✨ Read more here 👉 lanevol.org/news/article/d… #evolution #feathers #dinosaurs #birds Université de Genève Biologie - UNIGE

Adopt a goose hybrid! Due to university budget cuts, my experiment with captive goose hybrids will be terminated. To avoid culling the birds, I hope to relocate them a new and warm home. If you are interested in adopting a goose hybrid, you can reach out by DM or mail.

Birds never stop amazing. Especially if they cautiously wait until 3yo is on its own to swoop in and steal his cake. Trauma unlocked.

Congratulations Dr. Debruyn! Debruyn Gerben

Reptile eggs, while less colourful than bird eggs, have more diverse morphologies, including keratin nanofibers thought to enable variable H2O absorption. Here we (led by Yana Maudens) test this hypothesis by making biomimetic eggs of electrospun keratin! sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Our new preprint Scott V Edwards🧬🐦 Long-read genomes show songbird germline-restricted chromosomes (GRCs; expelled from somatic cells) are 70 % repeats and packed with active LTR retroviruses. A hidden reservoir for TE-driven innovation/diversification! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Happy to share our new paper "Inferring Species Trees" led by Scott V Edwards , which overviews coalescent models and methods for species tree inference. doi.org/10.1016/B978-0…

My talk at #eseb2025 is over, but do come and find me if you want to talk (bird) colour!

Iridescence is more common in mammals than thought, and always produced by the same mechanism! New from EON, led by PhD student Jessica Dobson royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…

The first paper from my PhD is out 🥳✨

🚨PhD offer 👩‍🎓: Fascinated by island biodiversity, palaeoecology & human impacts on ecosystems? 🌴🦜🌍 Join @CREAF to explore how island life changed over the last 11,700 years. Deadline: 27 Oct 2025 Selection process: November Starting date: ~January 2026 More info below👇

Predation is one of the most pervasive forces of natural selection. Researchers in Science report a globally replicated experiment that uncovers which factors explain the relative success of warning coloration and camouflage as antipredator color strategies. Learn more in this