Joan Silk
@jbsilk.bsky.social
Evolutionary anthropologist, primate behavioral ecologist, and part-time baker.
#GreatAdaptations New data from a species that keeps teaching us more about how females hold their own in reproductive conflicts with males.
Not all sexual swellings signal fertility. Some signal strategy. In our new Current Biology paper, we show how gelada females “fake it” during male takeovers—and why it works.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1m7%7E93QW...
authors.elsevier.com/a/1m7%7E93QW...
November 20, 2025 at 2:18 PM
#GreatAdaptations New data from a species that keeps teaching us more about how females hold their own in reproductive conflicts with males.
Reposted by Joan Silk
Hard to think of a better epitaph for a scientist than this: “She inspired us to see the world with both rigor and heart”
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
In Memoriam Jane B. Lancaster (1935–2025), a Pioneer in Anthropology
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Hard to think of a better epitaph for a scientist than this: “She inspired us to see the world with both rigor and heart”
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
So very sad and so very unnecessary.
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 3:37 PM
So very sad and so very unnecessary.
Reposted by Joan Silk
The elimination of USAID was an unforgivable moral atrocity that should haunt Trump, Elon Musk and Marco Rubio for the rest of their days and beyond
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 2:36 AM
The elimination of USAID was an unforgivable moral atrocity that should haunt Trump, Elon Musk and Marco Rubio for the rest of their days and beyond
More interesting data on Guinea baboons and more evidence of the diversity in social/mating systems among the awesome Papionins
Nested Male Reproductive Strategies in a Tolerant Multilevel Primate Society https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.27.684814v1
October 28, 2025 at 5:58 PM
More interesting data on Guinea baboons and more evidence of the diversity in social/mating systems among the awesome Papionins
Reposted by Joan Silk
Post-doc position with James Higham at NYU looking at the effects that hurricanes have on aging and how sociality may mitigate these effects.
bioanth.org/jobs/post-do...
bioanth.org/jobs/post-do...
Post-Doctoral Associate - AABA
Note - while the position is available immediately, the start date is flexible. Interested applicants should just apply as soon as possible - we will evaluate applications on a rolling basis. Descri...
bioanth.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Post-doc position with James Higham at NYU looking at the effects that hurricanes have on aging and how sociality may mitigate these effects.
bioanth.org/jobs/post-do...
bioanth.org/jobs/post-do...
An interesting (and unusual) fission event in olive baboons.
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Social patterns underlying a new group formation in olive baboons
In group-living animals, social and ecological challenges can push groups to fission into two or more ‘daughter’ groups. Here, we describe the demographic and social behavioral changes that were assoc...
journals.plos.org
October 23, 2025 at 4:53 PM
An interesting (and unusual) fission event in olive baboons.
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Lovely new data on how Himba women learn to breastfeed successfully.
New paper out on the important role of social learning in breastfeeding! academic.oup.com/emph/article...
Social learning is critical to breastfeeding success: evidence from rural Namibian pastoralists
AbstractBackground and objectives. Lactation is one of the defining features of mammals, yet many humans struggle with breastfeeding. One reason for this i
academic.oup.com
October 22, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Lovely new data on how Himba women learn to breastfeed successfully.
Did everyone but me know about CtrF to search PDFs?
October 20, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Did everyone but me know about CtrF to search PDFs?
There are a lot of disappointed second year graduate students whose have already invested time and energy in preparing GFRP applications. There is no excuse for phasing in this new rule without prior notice.
🧪The NSF has made changes to the GRFP solicitation and eligibility TODAY that may change your eligibility! PLEASE read through the solicitation if you were planning to apply and speak to your mentors about the merits of applying: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 27, 2025 at 3:34 AM
There are a lot of disappointed second year graduate students whose have already invested time and energy in preparing GFRP applications. There is no excuse for phasing in this new rule without prior notice.
Reposted by Joan Silk
🧪The NSF has made changes to the GRFP solicitation and eligibility TODAY that may change your eligibility! PLEASE read through the solicitation if you were planning to apply and speak to your mentors about the merits of applying: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 26, 2025 at 6:55 PM
🧪The NSF has made changes to the GRFP solicitation and eligibility TODAY that may change your eligibility! PLEASE read through the solicitation if you were planning to apply and speak to your mentors about the merits of applying: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
Some very good advice for thriving in graduate school dorsaamir.medium.com/modest-advic...
Modest Advice for New Graduate Students
Throughout the course of my years in graduate school, I kept a running list of the best advice given to me, and the strategies that helped…
dorsaamir.medium.com
September 22, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Some very good advice for thriving in graduate school dorsaamir.medium.com/modest-advic...
New evidence about how do people in a small scale society acquire foraging skills and knowledge?
💙New paper!💙
How is knowledge transmitted across generations in a foraging society?
With @danielredhead.bsky.social
we found: In BaYaka foragers, long-term skills pass in smaller, sparser networks, while short-term food info circulates broadly & reciprocally
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
How is knowledge transmitted across generations in a foraging society?
With @danielredhead.bsky.social
we found: In BaYaka foragers, long-term skills pass in smaller, sparser networks, while short-term food info circulates broadly & reciprocally
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Transmission networks of long-term and short-term knowledge in a foraging society
Abstract. Cultural transmission across generations is key to cumulative cultural evolution. While several mechanisms—such as vertical, horizontal, and obli
academic.oup.com
September 14, 2025 at 9:23 PM
New evidence about how do people in a small scale society acquire foraging skills and knowledge?
Good news. Better news, there are still GFRPs for Life Sciences (due Oct 27) and Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences (due Oct 28).
The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 9, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Good news. Better news, there are still GFRPs for Life Sciences (due Oct 27) and Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences (due Oct 28).
#GreatAdaptations Better than science fiction www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother
Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.
www.nature.com
September 4, 2025 at 2:35 PM
#GreatAdaptations Better than science fiction www.nature.com/articles/d41...
#GreatAdaptations Even cuter and more amazing than regular size sea horses How the Pygmy Sea Horse Lost Its Snout www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/s...
How the Pygmy Sea Horse Lost Its Snout
www.nytimes.com
August 26, 2025 at 6:44 PM
#GreatAdaptations Even cuter and more amazing than regular size sea horses How the Pygmy Sea Horse Lost Its Snout www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/s...
#GreatAdaptations A new spin on the old adage: I'm all thumbs
New paper: Human dexterity and brains evolved hand in hand www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Human dexterity and brains evolved hand in hand - Communications Biology
Thumbs and brains coevolved in primates. Across living and extinct species, longer thumbs predict bigger brains, highlighting the neural cost of dexterity.
www.nature.com
August 26, 2025 at 3:38 PM
#GreatAdaptations A new spin on the old adage: I'm all thumbs
Reposted by Joan Silk
New paper: Human dexterity and brains evolved hand in hand www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Human dexterity and brains evolved hand in hand - Communications Biology
Thumbs and brains coevolved in primates. Across living and extinct species, longer thumbs predict bigger brains, highlighting the neural cost of dexterity.
www.nature.com
August 26, 2025 at 11:21 AM
New paper: Human dexterity and brains evolved hand in hand www.nature.com/articles/s42...
This would be fun
Seeking scientist volunteers for this fall! Want to practice science communication and help author a 🌟comic🌟 about your research? I need collaborators for the next cohort of SciComm & Comics art and design students. All countries and scientific fields eligible.
August 21, 2025 at 3:35 AM
This would be fun
#GreatAdaptations In the deep blue sea, it's hard to find mates. So, male anglerfish latch on to females and don't let go.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com
August 18, 2025 at 7:00 PM
#GreatAdaptations In the deep blue sea, it's hard to find mates. So, male anglerfish latch on to females and don't let go.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Herzog & Demps argue for the role of adversity in shaping the human adaptive niche
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Adaptive Responses to Adversity Drive Innovation in Human Evolutionary History
Thinking is costly. Nonetheless, humans develop novel solutions to problems and share that knowledge prosocially. We propose that adversity, not prosperity, created a dependence on innovation in our ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 18, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Herzog & Demps argue for the role of adversity in shaping the human adaptive niche
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
#GreatAdaptations Power and leverage are not always based on size.
Female mountain gorillas can outrank males twice their size...
...and exhibit priority of access to resources over these males
Article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225008723
Press release:
https://www.mpg.de/25119311/0730-evan-it-s-not-just-about-size-150495-x
...and exhibit priority of access to resources over these males
Article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225008723
Press release:
https://www.mpg.de/25119311/0730-evan-it-s-not-just-about-size-150495-x
August 8, 2025 at 3:07 PM
#GreatAdaptations Power and leverage are not always based on size.
Reposted by Joan Silk
Female mountain gorillas can outrank males twice their size...
...and exhibit priority of access to resources over these males
Article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225008723
Press release:
https://www.mpg.de/25119311/0730-evan-it-s-not-just-about-size-150495-x
...and exhibit priority of access to resources over these males
Article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225008723
Press release:
https://www.mpg.de/25119311/0730-evan-it-s-not-just-about-size-150495-x
August 7, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Female mountain gorillas can outrank males twice their size...
...and exhibit priority of access to resources over these males
Article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225008723
Press release:
https://www.mpg.de/25119311/0730-evan-it-s-not-just-about-size-150495-x
...and exhibit priority of access to resources over these males
Article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225008723
Press release:
https://www.mpg.de/25119311/0730-evan-it-s-not-just-about-size-150495-x
A newer synthesis, 50 years after the publication of Sociobiology www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...
www.sciencemagazinedigital.org
August 8, 2025 at 2:47 PM
A newer synthesis, 50 years after the publication of Sociobiology www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...
Jane's contributions, as founding editor of Human Nature and patron saint of biosocial perspectives on human behavior, have had an important impact on the scope and direction of evolutionary social science. She will be missed.
Jane was a force of nature, a brilliant mind, and a lovely person. Human behavioural ecology owes her so much.
In Memoriam: Dr. Jane Lancaster, Pioneer in Human Evolutionary Sciences (1935-2025)
anthropology.unm.edu/news-events/...
anthropology.unm.edu/news-events/...
August 5, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Jane's contributions, as founding editor of Human Nature and patron saint of biosocial perspectives on human behavior, have had an important impact on the scope and direction of evolutionary social science. She will be missed.