Anya Auerbach
@aauerbach.bsky.social
PhD candidate at UMN EEB studying Madagascar’s bird radiations | Loves birds, diversification, biodiversity, teaching evolution, and (natural) history museums | Queer. Organizer. Still a NYer at heart.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Such an extraordinarily beautiful youngster 🪶
February 15, 2026 at 9:55 AM
Such an extraordinarily beautiful youngster 🪶
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
A benefit of free buses I hadn’t heard enough about until this piece from @galvinalmanza.bsky.social
February 14, 2026 at 11:59 PM
A benefit of free buses I hadn’t heard enough about until this piece from @galvinalmanza.bsky.social
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Happy birthday to Charles Darwin,
patron saint of tired scientists, grumpy fieldworkers, and hating your own manuscript.
patron saint of tired scientists, grumpy fieldworkers, and hating your own manuscript.
February 12, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Happy birthday to Charles Darwin,
patron saint of tired scientists, grumpy fieldworkers, and hating your own manuscript.
patron saint of tired scientists, grumpy fieldworkers, and hating your own manuscript.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
I don’t really know what I expect in posting this, but maybe some people see it and can learn from it.
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
February 11, 2026 at 9:56 PM
I don’t really know what I expect in posting this, but maybe some people see it and can learn from it.
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Incredibly cool preprint on empirical fitness seascapes 🌊 by Swathi Nachiar Manivannan & @cbo.bsky.social – if you like thinking about adaptive landscapes, a must-read.
2/3
In one study--“Deconstructing empirical fitness seascapes across scales of granularity”---we break down fitness seascapes by measuring how environmental context shapes aspects of mutational steps, loci, epistatic interactions, and whole-landscape features.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
In one study--“Deconstructing empirical fitness seascapes across scales of granularity”---we break down fitness seascapes by measuring how environmental context shapes aspects of mutational steps, loci, epistatic interactions, and whole-landscape features.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org
February 12, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Incredibly cool preprint on empirical fitness seascapes 🌊 by Swathi Nachiar Manivannan & @cbo.bsky.social – if you like thinking about adaptive landscapes, a must-read.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
It is always the season to make latkes for a crowd.
February 12, 2026 at 3:52 AM
It is always the season to make latkes for a crowd.
It is always the season to make latkes for a crowd.
February 12, 2026 at 3:52 AM
It is always the season to make latkes for a crowd.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Pointy wings are thought to help migratory birds fly efficiently, but which bones and feathers are responsible? Pegan et al. describe morphological variation that contributes to hand-wing index, a common proxy for wing shape.
Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
February 11, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Pointy wings are thought to help migratory birds fly efficiently, but which bones and feathers are responsible? Pegan et al. describe morphological variation that contributes to hand-wing index, a common proxy for wing shape.
Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Read now ahead of print!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications.
My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
Replication studies: a win-win for early-career training and behavioral ecology
Replicating previous research builds confidence that results are real and meaningful. But close replications are rare due to limitations in resources and d
academic.oup.com
February 10, 2026 at 7:42 PM
How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications.
My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
On March 3rd @ 5pm CET, we are re-starting the Integration of speciation seminar series! The first 3 sessions feature talks by *Early-Career Researchers*, and include a Q&A with an established PI about their career path.
Sign up to get the link: speciation-network.pages.ist.ac.at/seminar-seri...
Sign up to get the link: speciation-network.pages.ist.ac.at/seminar-seri...
February 9, 2026 at 3:40 PM
On March 3rd @ 5pm CET, we are re-starting the Integration of speciation seminar series! The first 3 sessions feature talks by *Early-Career Researchers*, and include a Q&A with an established PI about their career path.
Sign up to get the link: speciation-network.pages.ist.ac.at/seminar-seri...
Sign up to get the link: speciation-network.pages.ist.ac.at/seminar-seri...
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
My dad was career US Public Health Service. He deployed after 9/11, after Katrina, helping to set up the basic infrastructure that saved lives. Its nauseating thinking about the position these folks are being put in.
I talked w/ uniformed health workers about their deployments to prisons where ICE holds immigrants.
ICE's operation is especially secretive at Guantanamo -- the place where America flouted its own rules to torture detainees post 9/11.
@wired.com and @kffhealthnews.org (no paywall)
ICE's operation is especially secretive at Guantanamo -- the place where America flouted its own rules to torture detainees post 9/11.
@wired.com and @kffhealthnews.org (no paywall)
Public Health Workers Are Quitting Over Assignments to Guantánamo
Doctors, nurses, and other officers are increasingly being deployed to ICE detention centers. Some have resigned in protest, while others offer a rare look into bleak conditions.
www.wired.com
February 10, 2026 at 4:36 AM
My dad was career US Public Health Service. He deployed after 9/11, after Katrina, helping to set up the basic infrastructure that saved lives. Its nauseating thinking about the position these folks are being put in.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Whale Evolution:
Flamingo-Legged Watermelon Mouse
Mutant Sewer Rat King
Gator Wolf
Steel-Jawed PollyWorg
Titan MerSausage
Flamingo-Legged Watermelon Mouse
Mutant Sewer Rat King
Gator Wolf
Steel-Jawed PollyWorg
Titan MerSausage
February 10, 2026 at 4:36 AM
Whale Evolution:
Flamingo-Legged Watermelon Mouse
Mutant Sewer Rat King
Gator Wolf
Steel-Jawed PollyWorg
Titan MerSausage
Flamingo-Legged Watermelon Mouse
Mutant Sewer Rat King
Gator Wolf
Steel-Jawed PollyWorg
Titan MerSausage
My dad was career US Public Health Service. He deployed after 9/11, after Katrina, helping to set up the basic infrastructure that saved lives. Its nauseating thinking about the position these folks are being put in.
I talked w/ uniformed health workers about their deployments to prisons where ICE holds immigrants.
ICE's operation is especially secretive at Guantanamo -- the place where America flouted its own rules to torture detainees post 9/11.
@wired.com and @kffhealthnews.org (no paywall)
ICE's operation is especially secretive at Guantanamo -- the place where America flouted its own rules to torture detainees post 9/11.
@wired.com and @kffhealthnews.org (no paywall)
Public Health Workers Are Quitting Over Assignments to Guantánamo
Doctors, nurses, and other officers are increasingly being deployed to ICE detention centers. Some have resigned in protest, while others offer a rare look into bleak conditions.
www.wired.com
February 10, 2026 at 4:36 AM
My dad was career US Public Health Service. He deployed after 9/11, after Katrina, helping to set up the basic infrastructure that saved lives. Its nauseating thinking about the position these folks are being put in.
They literally had to reschedule a game on the first day because an entire hockey team got Norovirus (and its been going around the other teams too).
Calling simple, reasonable, rational preventive measures “extreme” is ludicrous.
Calling simple, reasonable, rational preventive measures “extreme” is ludicrous.
For most people, the pandemic days of masking are behind us. In certain corners of the Winter Olympics, though, things still look a lot like they did in Covid times. Some athletes are taking extreme measures to stay healthy. n.pr/4akK70l
Olympic Covid restrictions are gone, but some athletes still self-quarantining
For most people, the pandemic days of masking are behind us. In certain corners of the Winter Olympics, though, things still look a lot like they did in Covid times. Some athletes are taking extreme measures to stay healthy.
n.pr
February 10, 2026 at 4:24 AM
They literally had to reschedule a game on the first day because an entire hockey team got Norovirus (and its been going around the other teams too).
Calling simple, reasonable, rational preventive measures “extreme” is ludicrous.
Calling simple, reasonable, rational preventive measures “extreme” is ludicrous.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
And as an evolutionary biologist I'd say meaning comes, partly, from history, in turn from awareness, of self, environment, and others, as well as continuity thereof. That some find a probabilistic word model equal to the meaning-making of a being (parrot or otherwise) does not make it so.
February 10, 2026 at 12:13 AM
And as an evolutionary biologist I'd say meaning comes, partly, from history, in turn from awareness, of self, environment, and others, as well as continuity thereof. That some find a probabilistic word model equal to the meaning-making of a being (parrot or otherwise) does not make it so.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Big fucking day for union power.
NEW: An immigration court has terminated removal proceedings against Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, finding that DHS did not meet its burden of establishing that she was removable, her lawyers tell the Second Circuit. live-awp-vermont.pantheonsite.io/app/uploads/...
February 10, 2026 at 12:25 AM
Big fucking day for union power.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Question for the comparative biology #evodevo crowd, I know there’s a term for this but I’m blanking on what you would call an organ/trait that serves to radically different functions at distinct points in an organism’s life history.
February 9, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Question for the comparative biology #evodevo crowd, I know there’s a term for this but I’m blanking on what you would call an organ/trait that serves to radically different functions at distinct points in an organism’s life history.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Switching fully over to @bookshop.org was both very easy and very pleasing. Cannot recommend highly enough.
While independent bookstores are giving out free whistles, hosting protest sign making events, and donating proceeds to mutual aid, Amazon is *checks notes* providing technology that assists ICE in their terrorizing of communities.
Independent bookstores deserve your support. Amazon does not.
Independent bookstores deserve your support. Amazon does not.
February 7, 2026 at 5:47 AM
Switching fully over to @bookshop.org was both very easy and very pleasing. Cannot recommend highly enough.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
When the original authors and those who find errors in their work, pull together for the sake of correcting the record and moving science forward, it's a beautiful thing
Retracted paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Retracted paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
February 6, 2026 at 9:52 PM
When the original authors and those who find errors in their work, pull together for the sake of correcting the record and moving science forward, it's a beautiful thing
Retracted paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Retracted paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
My first PhD dissertation chapter has been published! Let me know if you need a copy.
Complete species-level phylogeny of Madagascar’s tufted-tailed rats, Eliurus (Rodentia: Nesomyidae) reveals hidden diversity
doi.org/10.1093/zool...
And please enjoy this sonnet I wrote to summarize it:
Complete species-level phylogeny of Madagascar’s tufted-tailed rats, Eliurus (Rodentia: Nesomyidae) reveals hidden diversity
doi.org/10.1093/zool...
And please enjoy this sonnet I wrote to summarize it:
January 16, 2026 at 11:35 PM
My first PhD dissertation chapter has been published! Let me know if you need a copy.
Complete species-level phylogeny of Madagascar’s tufted-tailed rats, Eliurus (Rodentia: Nesomyidae) reveals hidden diversity
doi.org/10.1093/zool...
And please enjoy this sonnet I wrote to summarize it:
Complete species-level phylogeny of Madagascar’s tufted-tailed rats, Eliurus (Rodentia: Nesomyidae) reveals hidden diversity
doi.org/10.1093/zool...
And please enjoy this sonnet I wrote to summarize it:
This is an absolutely rancid solicitation and I totally get trying to work out a way to get funded through it anyway but we should be WAY angrier about it.
Also, my bluesky feed this evening has been a *great* illustration of how misinformation spreads even when we try to stop it.
Also, my bluesky feed this evening has been a *great* illustration of how misinformation spreads even when we try to stop it.
Hot take: folks are too focused on the AI emphasis of the PRFB & missing the most concerning part of the solicitation.
The heavy emphasis on bio-AI integration for “technological advances” is a concerning degradation of NSFs mission to fund basic biological research.
The heavy emphasis on bio-AI integration for “technological advances” is a concerning degradation of NSFs mission to fund basic biological research.
February 6, 2026 at 3:38 AM
This is an absolutely rancid solicitation and I totally get trying to work out a way to get funded through it anyway but we should be WAY angrier about it.
Also, my bluesky feed this evening has been a *great* illustration of how misinformation spreads even when we try to stop it.
Also, my bluesky feed this evening has been a *great* illustration of how misinformation spreads even when we try to stop it.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Dawg are you fucking kidding me bsky.app/profile/horm...
February 5, 2026 at 11:46 PM
Dawg are you fucking kidding me bsky.app/profile/horm...
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
More on NSF funding data
A deeper dive into the numbers of awards by Directorate.
1/9
A deeper dive into the numbers of awards by Directorate.
1/9
a picture of a person in the water with the words call of the deep below it
ALT: a picture of a person in the water with the words call of the deep below it
media.tenor.com
February 5, 2026 at 6:05 PM
More on NSF funding data
A deeper dive into the numbers of awards by Directorate.
1/9
A deeper dive into the numbers of awards by Directorate.
1/9
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Yesterday I returned from a symposium in Iceland. It was an incredible meeting with an incredible group of people in an incredible place.
I left feeling seen and excited about the work ahead.
I illustrated a common eider while there, a fitting symbol for the work of the symposium itself.
I left feeling seen and excited about the work ahead.
I illustrated a common eider while there, a fitting symbol for the work of the symposium itself.
February 5, 2026 at 3:54 AM
Yesterday I returned from a symposium in Iceland. It was an incredible meeting with an incredible group of people in an incredible place.
I left feeling seen and excited about the work ahead.
I illustrated a common eider while there, a fitting symbol for the work of the symposium itself.
I left feeling seen and excited about the work ahead.
I illustrated a common eider while there, a fitting symbol for the work of the symposium itself.
Reposted by Anya Auerbach
Temperature Check from Caucusing:
Participation is WAY tf up.
Angie Craig is cooked in this city for that Pro ICE vote.
Klob got half the votes in a straw poll where she was the only candidate.
People HATE ICE. I had to ask a neighbor to quit asking every candidate mid speech to arrest ICE.
Participation is WAY tf up.
Angie Craig is cooked in this city for that Pro ICE vote.
Klob got half the votes in a straw poll where she was the only candidate.
People HATE ICE. I had to ask a neighbor to quit asking every candidate mid speech to arrest ICE.
February 4, 2026 at 3:31 AM
Temperature Check from Caucusing:
Participation is WAY tf up.
Angie Craig is cooked in this city for that Pro ICE vote.
Klob got half the votes in a straw poll where she was the only candidate.
People HATE ICE. I had to ask a neighbor to quit asking every candidate mid speech to arrest ICE.
Participation is WAY tf up.
Angie Craig is cooked in this city for that Pro ICE vote.
Klob got half the votes in a straw poll where she was the only candidate.
People HATE ICE. I had to ask a neighbor to quit asking every candidate mid speech to arrest ICE.