Emily V Griffith
@e-v-griffith
PhD Candidate pursuing a Ducktorate in Ecology, Evolution, & Earth Systems at Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University 🐲 Ornithology Department 🦆🦉🐓 She/Her 🏳️🌈 emilyvgriffith.com
Thank you to @fridaytea.com for being the primary caffeine supplier for my last year of my PhD (very excited to try some of these high caffeine blends)
Bad taxa get put into the banishment folder (which also I apparently can't rename)
Slowly but surely figuring out the pattern to make the perfect dice bag/ibuprofen and hand sanitizer carrier (which is what all of my dice bags end up being)
The made a wingspan card of my favorite bird 🥹 (also my partner got me the America’s expansion for Valentine’s Day)
Using this DNA washi tape for all of my letters to science friends from here on out
Glenna Clifton and students talk about ducks! More specifically how bone morphology shapes swimming behavior like diving vs dabbling. The key to diving ability may lie in the length of the fourth digit of the duck foot, but there is a lot to learn about their anatomy and locomotion #SICB2026
Two - count ‘em - two #SICB2026 talks that I’m giving today, Tuesday, January 6. Come watch me pour the absolute last of my energy into telling stories about two rather unique birds and about how nature is really weird and wonderful.
@jjinsing.bsky.social , an organizer of the Sex Across Origins symposium at #SICB2026, talks about how we can think of sex beyond the binary. There are many traits beyond gametes that shape an individual’s ability to reproduce. By treating sexes as polymorphic, we can communicate more clearly.
It’s national bird day! I appreciate that even the trash cans in Portland have bird art #SICB2026
Looking to support a good cause at #SICB206? Check out the student art raffle! Drawing will happen Tuesday at 3:30pm 🎨
Plasticity can be the key to many species surviving rapid environmental change. @kellywuthrich.bsky.social asks if slender anoles can tolerate changes in temperature. Short term heat stress produced long-term responses and changes at both cellular and genomic levels. Heat stress is costly! #SICB2026
Climate change impacting our future, especially of our oceans. How are marine species going to respond over multiple generations? Alexis Lundquist studies the California Grunion in cool, warm, and hot waters. Both growth and thermal sensitivity are heritable traits impacting survival #SICB2026
Morgan Muell is a master at finding lizard eggs. Tropical species, like the Anolis species Muell studies, are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Muell found that tropical anoles may be more resilient to changes in moisture than changes in temperature: microclimate may drive plasticity #SICB2026
that uses ebird data (community science photos) to measure soft part color - something we can’t do with museum specimens. Hybrids, and their color, follow a pattern defined by Amazonian rivers, creating a ring of gene flow across the system. #SICB2026
What do you get when you combine community science, tropical birds, and hardcore genomic methods? Jon Merwin’s talk at #SICB2026 ! Jon studies how convergent evolution evolves through model and mimic toucans. In addition to comparing phenotype and genotype, Jon developed an original R package (1/2)
Flightlessness in birds produces a distinct anatomy. Runner ducks 🦆 are a flightless breed of domestic Mallard that have these distinct features. Ashley Heers utilizes hybrid Mallard X Runner ducks to understand which traits are conserved and which traits are changed with flightlessness. #SICB2026
Stephanie Chia asks why birds are well, bird shaped? Why don’t we have bird phenotypes in nature that could theoretically exist? By exploring trait morphospace across millions of years in passerines, we can see that gaps in the morphology of songbirds are filled by other taxa of birds #SICB2026
@princetonvaughn.bsky.social seeks to understand how animals adapt to rapid environmental change. Lizards in the Caribbean have adapted to survive hurricanes - but how? By studying parallel populations on different islands, we can identify impacted genes and connect phenotype to function #SICB2026
Ants are… sticky? 🐜 Some Ponerinae ants use a glue-like adhesive to stick their larvae on surfaces, but not all do. Sammie Dolloff of asks how and why some ants have sticky larvae and others don’t using phylogenetic comparative methods to reconstruct their evolutionary history #SICB2026
Lamprey species can have unique life histories, all with their own unique demands. Utilizing morphospace and phylogenetic reconstruction, Noah Schley describes how their physiology represents these different life histories. Body size has the highest rate of evolution of all features #SICB2026
Need a brain break? Stop by the @sicbjournals.bsky.social booth to get creative with watercolors at #SICB2026. There are more art opportunities throughout the conference, so check back each day!
Science communication is more siloed than ever - platforms, algorithms, and lack of in-person contact can cost us opportunities to connect with one another about science. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social talks about how we, as scientists, can expand our audiences and connect with our communities. (1/2)
How do the shapes of feather barbules (microstructures) impact color? Rosalyn Price-Waldman finds that, in tanagers, there is high variation in feather microstructures and that barbule loss and development happens at different times in structural vs pigmented feathers #SICB2026
A lot goes in to having a successful nest - but can the weather impact the rate of extra pair paternity (EPP)? Valerie Brewer asks this question in western bluebirds and finds that cold weather increases the rate of EPP. But traits, like the age of EPP mates, may have a greater impact #SICB2026
House sparrows have found homes all over the world. But how do they adapt so well to different environments? Oluremi Ige compares the DNA methylation of house sparrows in native vs nonnative ranges and finds that methylation relates to temperature, precipitation, and range #SICB2026