Curator of mammals. Biogeographer, genomics, systematics. Scientist and mom. Tweets are mine.
Washington, DC
Joined June 2013
- Tweets1.1K
- Following258
- Followers586
- Likes3.3K
melissa hawkins retweeted
Nice coverage of our new paper comparing the relative importance of climate, habitat and human factors on 25 North American Mammals - climate #1 for most species, suggesting we'll be seeing some changes in their abundance and distribution w climate change
news.ncsu.edu/2024/07/climat…
melissa hawkins retweeted
#FlyingSquirrelWatch1 🐿
Borneo's forests are home to an incredible 14 different species of flying squirrel. We spotted one while we were climbing.. and got an ID! (My apologies for shoddy filming)
#RainforestGiants #Canopy2024 #Borneo #SquirrelStalking
Missing mutton? Check out the @SidedoorPod featuring yours truly!
si.edu/sidedoor/lost-woolly-…
melissa hawkins retweeted
Bhuwan estimated the mtDNA phylogeny of 2 SE Asian squirrel species complex (variable & Pallas’s squirrel) and found they formed 3 clades and are paraphyletic.
Niche modeling revealed that the clades have minimal overlaps in ecological space, supporting taxonomic differences.
melissa hawkins retweeted
Super fun to have this work published after years of hard work and great learning on Mt Kenya and at NC State!
In 2015 @Suyian4Science rediscovered the lost route that Teddy Roosevelt's team took to survey the mammals of Kenya in 1909. We then set camera traps to see what species survive today - check out the results in our new video youtu.be/x629xmVZ4yM
melissa hawkins retweeted
Did you know that #Borneo is home to the world's tallest tropical tree?
Discovered in 2019 using LiDAR, and confirmed by climbers with a tape measure, it stands at a whopping 100.8 metres
#RainforestGiants #Canopy2024 🧵
melissa hawkins retweeted
Scouting epic sampling & camp sites with
@treeshrew13
& Austin Chipps at Maliau Basin for our upcoming 2025 field trip! 🌳 Can't wait to dive into the mammalian diversity of this place!
melissa hawkins retweeted
Back from sampling small mammals at stunning Maligan Jungle Forest Reserve! Thankful to the people of Kampung Meligan for their help in the field and for sharing some of that Murut knowledge, food and rice wine with us!
Got to meet one of the most influential tv personalities from my childhood! @wildcorwin before ‘Going Wild’ I wanted to be a vet, now I’m curator in charge of the largest collections of mammals in the world! Unexpected and amazing to meet you, come for a tour at @NMNH sometime!
Also @wildcorwin there are actually 6718 mammals currently- sorry for the underestimate! Updated numbers here: mammaldiversity.org/
Great to see women in so many prominent roles @ DOI and USFWS while representing @NMNH at the ESA Symposium today! With @mcgowen10 @mud_Iark
melissa hawkins retweeted
Today is #InternationalDayofWomenAndGirlsInScience! 🔬🥼👩🔬
melissa hawkins retweeted
The "large and friendly monster resembling an anteater" made his first appearance in the Sesame Street's third season in 1971, but at that time only Big Bird saw him. bit.ly/3Sm8DoF
melissa hawkins retweeted
More woolly dog media with RGGS Gerstner Postdoc Scholar in Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Audrey Lin:
The Soundside (KUOW Seattle NPR): kuow.org/stories/woolly-dogs…
The Pet Buzz (radio): soundcloud.com/thepetbuzz/ja…
Mornings with Simi (980 CKNW Vancouver!) podcasts.apple.com/kg/podcas…
melissa hawkins retweeted
Come work with us!
The @lsu_mns is hiring three (!!!) collections managers!!!
Come work with us on mammals, birds or genetic resources! Please RT
Apply at the following links:
Mammals: lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LS…
Birds: lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LS…
Genetic Resources: lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LS…
Check this out! Someone made about our recent paper @ArloHinckley and @marcuschua make a special animated appearance instagram.com/reel/C1_evFZyS…
melissa hawkins retweeted
From identifying new species to revealing insights about humans' earliest ancient relatives, 2023 saw our scientists continue to expand our understanding of our planet and all that has inhabited it. Check out the most popular discoveries by clicking here: s.si.edu/3ROqzrT
melissa hawkins retweeted
Another MDD update! Definitely pretty late, but a pretty big set to end 2023 and start 2024! This update broke 6600 living mammal species as well.
Updated mammal taxonomy is live!
MDD v1.12 mammaldiversity.org
🦇+77 new spp recognized (38 de novo, 38 split, 1 reval – incl 2 extinct: Cordimus, Nesophontes)
🦇-8 lumps
🦇31 spp w genus change (7 new, 1 lump)
= net +69 to 6,718 accepted spp (6,611 extant)
@ConnorBurgin1 🙏
ALT https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cuba-circa-1982-postage-stamp-image-2345498555
melissa hawkins retweeted
Researchers in Science have pinpointed parts of the genome linked to a few exceptional traits in the mammalian world, such as extraordinary brain size, superior sense of smell, and the ability to hibernate during the winter. scim.ag/5md #Zoonomia
melissa hawkins retweeted
Completed our Margarita Salas postdocs at @NMNH with a bilingual outreach event on museum-based research, led by @TalaveraJ_A and me! Excited to keep on working in DC with @treeshrew13, Darrin Lunde, and @shrewangel on 2024!
