After successfully defending my DPhil thesis on ancient dog genomics, I’m now officially a Doctor! Thanks to everyone who’s been a part of this almost 10-year academic journey, which started in @otago and finished in @UniofOxford!

Stoked to have been awarded “Best Presentation” at the 12th International Conference of Canine and Feline #Genetics and #Genomics in #Helsinki! Huge thanks goes to the scientific organising committee for coordinating such an outstanding conference #ICCFGG

@shanemeekin Great work Shane 👏🏻

We also challenge the idea that maintaining discrete, non-overlapping lineages through reproductive isolation is a requirement in the domestication process, as domestic animal genomes reflecting a palimpsest of domestic and wild ancestry.

As my first academic mentor, Ewan Fordyce always encouraged me to follow passion rather practicality. His sage advice still guides my choices to this day. You will be deeply missed.

Extinction is forever, except when you’re Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna! Huge discovery by fellow Mertonian @JamesKempton8, showing the value of preserving Earth’s remaining wilderness!

We’re about unravel the complicated evolutionary histories of mokomoko in Aotearoa! So excited to be a part of this research!

What are the odds that @nosuchthing’s fact was on discovering new gecko species, including those in Aotearoa! Couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a spot of science communication from the audience.

Forget mammoths, it’s “time for ancient DNA to sweat the small stuff”. @BunceDNA’s brilliant perspective piece in Molecular Ecology reminds us that big stories are hiding in tiny critters

@nosuchthing Thanks for letting me nerd out about New Zealand geckos!

@AlexDSkeels Try the online program interactive tree of life (iTOL). That works well for me, and has a lot of customisation options.

Can you spot the difference? Our research out in Zootaxa describes te mokomoko a Tohu (Hoplodactylus tohu) – a new species of New Zealand gecko hidden in plain site! Read more below:

Spent the last two days #microCT scanning historic breed dogs at the @NHM_London with the help of Brett Clark. Here’s the skull of ‘Chesham Silvio’ — a King Charles Cavalier born in the late 19th century!

You can read more about the extinction of the NZ grayling in our @ConversationEDU piece: