What We’re Reading – Jan 26, 2018

Temporal Genotyping for Conservation Monitoring This paper advocates using museum specimens to quantify recent losses of genetic diversity in species of conservation concern.  The authors note that older demographic processes leave a signature on genetic diversity that can be difficult to distinguish from recent changes.  Thus they show how using temporal sampling allows researchers to…

Landmark Studies for Evolution

First up, this post is about using landmarks (on bones) to answer evolutionary questions, not my list of significant papers in evolution*.  Landmarks are points on a specimen (e.g. bones, leafs, etc) that can be identified based on a specific rule (example- widest part of the cheek bone).  I’ve highlighted a few landmarks on two bear…

What we’re reading: Aug 15, 2014

PC SciComm This short editorial (open) introduces three new papers in BioScience (open, sub, sub) about how scientists and science communicators should use language more carefully to avoid misinterpretation. Integrating behavioral research with conservation This opinion piece (open) echos previous ideas on WildlifeSNPits about the importance of integrating behavior and conservation. The paper highlights the…