NewsFebruary 2020 - New paper out exploring plumage evolution and speciation history of Pacific robins! "Complex mosaic of sexual dichromatism and monochromatism in Pacific robins results from both gains and losses of elaborate coloration" https://t.co/81FZgEWmfv January 2020 - I've started a new position as a James Bond Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian's Center for Conservation Genomics. I'll be focusing on two projects - one exploring the population genomics of the Bachman's Warbler before it (most likely) went extinct, and the other looking at relationships, colonization history and conservation genomics of Caribbean crow species. August 2019 - I joined Rob Fleischer and Elin Videvall (team "ancient amakihi") on two back to back collecting trips to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC and Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia to sample toepads from Hawaiian and Oahu Amakihis collected in the early 1900s for our genomic work on their adaptation to avian malaria. June 2019 - I presented my preliminary work on Pacific reedwarblers at the Evolution 2019 meeting in Providence, RI. We are using SNPs captured across the nuclear genome to test the origin of mtDNA paraphyly previously documented in this group (Cibois et al. 2011) and infer their hybridization and colonization history. 17 Oct 2018 - Two new papers published exploring the diversification history of the Australo-Pacific Petroica robins! 28 March 2018 - Our paper detailing a case of "speciation reversal" in ravens continues to receive a lot of press! It has reached an Altmetric score of 414 (https://www.altmetric.com/details/33843002), and has been featured in 24 news outlets including National Geographic, The Washington Post, The Guardian and Science! Click here for other press coverage highlights. 02 March 2018 - NEW paper published in Nature Communications exploring the genomic signature of ancient 'speciation reversal' of two distinct raven lineages. Kearns et al. 2018 Genomic evidence of speciation reversal in ravens. doi: 0.1038/s41467-018-03294-w (Photo credit: Bjørn Aksel Bjerke). 06 Nov 2017 - Check out our new paper detailing mitogenome-wide paraphyly of the Common Raven. Sequencing of the complete mitochondrial genome of the common raven Corvus corax (Aves: Corvidae) confirms mitogenome-wide deep lineages and a paraphyletic relationship with the Chihuahuan raven C. cryptoleucus. Johnsen et al. (2017) PLOS ONE. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187316 21-23 February 2017 - Lots of fascinating talks so far at BioGenomics2017 (Global Biodiversity Genomics Conference). Come see my poster detailing genomic evidence of speciation reversal in ravens on Wednesday! 13 Januray 2017 - Quick trip to NYC to sample the toepads of raven specimens collected by the American Museum of Natural History in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 01 October 2016 - Center for Conservation Genomics representing at the Smithsonian Autumn Conservation Festival. #scienceoutreach 23 August 2016 - Blue Chaffinch paper is out in the first ever issue of BMC Zoology. Species-level divergences in multiple functional traits between the two endemic subspecies of Blue Chaffinches Fringilla teydea in Canary Islands - Lifjeld et al. (2016) BMC Zoology - https://bmczool.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40850-016-0008-4 16-20 August 2016 - I attended NAOC in Washington DC. The largest ornithology meeting ever held with over 2000 attendees. I presented work on speciation reversal in ravens from my postdoc with Arild Johnsen at the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo and Kevin Omland at UMBC. 01 July 2016 - I'm starting a Smithsonian Biodiversity Genomics Postdoctoral Fellowship in Robert Fleischer's lab at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. My goal is to use paleogenomic techniques and old museum specimens to unravel the temporal dynamics of speciation reversal in ravens. 13 March 2016 - Our Norfolk Island Robin paper has appeared in the April 2016 issue of Conservation Genetics. Norfolk Island Robins are a distinct endangered species: ancient DNA unlocks surprising relationships and phenotypic discordance within the Australo-Pacific Robins. Conservation Genetics. Kearns et al (2015) Conservation Genetics. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10592-015-0783-4?wt_mc=alerts.TOCjournals 11 March 2016 - I presented our latest results detailing "Speciation Reversal in ravens" at the Smithsonian Ornithology Exchange held at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History. 05 May 2015 - Our paper describing a new subspecies of Pacific Robin was just published in Emu and featured on the cover!! Distinctiveness of Pacific Robin subspecies in Vanuatu revealed from disparate patterns of sexual dichromatism, plumage colour, morphometrics and ancient DNA. Kearns et al (2015) Emu http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=MU14076 20 March 2015 - I will be attending the 2015 ESEB conference in Lausanne, Switzerland in August. I'll be presenting our recent genomic work on the Common Raven secondary contact zone in the western USA. 15 December 2014 - Vanuatu robin paper accepted! Kearns, White, Austin & Omland. Distinctiveness of Pacific Robin subspecies in Vanuatu revealed from disparate patterns of sexual dichromatism, plumage colour, morphometrics and ancient DNA. Emu. Photo taken at the American Museum of Natural History while measuring phenotypic differences across the many subspecies of Pacific Robin. 20 September 2014 - I'm now based out of the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway. 30 May 2014 - My final PhD thesis chapter on Australo-Papuan butcherbirds has just been published in NATURE COMMUNICATIONS! Kearns et al. (2014) Australia’s arid-adapted butcherbirds experienced range expansions during Pleistocene glacial maxima. 25 March 2014 - Check out the Omland lab facebook page! Cool photos from recent field trips to Puerto Rico and around Maryland, and also some lab updates: https://www.facebook.com/OmlandLab 01 February 2014 - Off to Norway for a month to learn how to analyse RAD-seq data. 01 September 2013 - I've joined Arild Johnsen's lab at the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway! I'll be working on the project "The early stages of the speciation process - prezygotic reproductive isolation and diversification in passerines” funded by the Research Council of Norway and UiO NHM, and in collaboration with Kevin Omland at UMBC, USA. I will be focusing on a probable case of speciation reversal in ravens. 01 June 2013 - I'll be at the 2013 American Ornithological Union meeting (Chicago USA, Aug 13-17)! I'll be presenting a poster with Kevin Omland (UMBC) about probable 'speciation in reverse' in ravens. But hoping to also have time to talk about my current project on species tree estimation and testing of species boundaries in the Australasian red-robins. 25 May 2013 - New website! |