Sam Ellis
LightNews LightNews
banner
samellisq.bsky.social
Sam Ellis
@samellisq.bsky.social
1K followers 120 following 14 posts
Lecturer at the University of Exeter. Interested in general but especially in life history evolution and social behaviour.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
samellisq.bsky.social
Sam Ellis @samellisq.bsky.social · Jun 6
Very excited to see our paper using historical data to infer toothed whale lifespans published this week in the Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society (@biojlinnsoc.bsky.social)

doi.org/10.1093/biol...

w. @darrencroft.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social @mialybkaer.bsky.social, Dan Franks
Reposted by Sam Ellis
mattjsilk.bsky.social
A new paper in @plos.org Complex Systems from my time at @nimbios.bsky.social with Nina Fefferman.
We set out some ways of classifying rules for social learning and knowledge exchange in higher-order networks.
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
A typology of rules for knowledge exchange in higher-order interactions
Author summary Learning from each other is important to humans and other animals as it provides safe or quick ways to gather information about the world around you. Because of this ‘social learning’, ...
doi.org
January 26, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
jaclynaubin.bsky.social
Our new review of beluga sociality and culture just dropped at Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology! Some of our key conclusions summarized 🧵
doi.org/10.1007/s002...
@marine-valeria.bsky.social @dmennill.bsky.social @raincoast.org
A white beluga surfacing in greenish-brown waters. Overlaid is the title of a new review published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology: Beluga Societies: the social and cultural lives of an enigmatic odontocete.
January 21, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
ukirsc.bsky.social
Charli Grimes discusses the social ontogeny of resident killer whales, exploring how lifelong social bonds form and change from early life through maturity. 🐋🤝 #UKIRSC26
January 16, 2026 at 11:06 AM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
darrencroft.bsky.social
We are hiring – postdoc position exploring how kinship shapes social ageing in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social and Prof Rufus Johnstone (Cambridge) starts 1st April 2026 and ends 31st March 2029. Apps close 2nd Feb. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPZ788/p...
January 13, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
timwfawcett.bsky.social
Fully funded #PhD studentships, start Sept 2026:
1. Weaponry and aggression in wild fiddler crabs, with me, Safi Darden, Martin How tinyurl.com/weaponsPhD
2. The emotional basis of behaviour, with me, Danny Williamson, Andy Higginson tinyurl.com/emotionsPhD
#AnimalBehaviour @crab-exeter.bsky.social
December 3, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
shoalgroup.bsky.social
Our paper is published today in Current Biology and is featured on the cover!

We report a neat, and somewhat counter-intuitive, finding: higher-ranking baboons get less and more interrupted night-time rest.
Cover image with sleeping baboon
January 6, 2026 at 9:39 AM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
crab-exeter.bsky.social
Late-reporting, but last year some of our CRABbers headed up to Edinburgh to present their posters at the @asab.org Winter meeting. Well done all! @libbychaps.bsky.social @charli-ocean.bsky.social and @ Manuela Carona R
January 5, 2026 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
crab-exeter.bsky.social
Festive Season in CRAB, which we celebrate with a quiz and by rediscovering the password to the CRAB Bluesky account.
December 10, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
williamohearn.bsky.social
New paper out in iScience. We found the pattern of Guinea baboon meat transfers follows the shape of their nested multi-level society. Transfers of meat are more tolerant at the lower levels of the society and are more likely to occur along stronger social relationships. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
Meat transfer patterns reflect the multi-level social system of Guinea baboons
Wildlife behavior; Biological sciences; Zoology; Evolutionary biology
www.cell.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
andyradford.bsky.social
❓ Want to join us?
📢 Fully funded #PhD for UK-domiciled Black heritage candidates
🐵 Biological market monitoring & manipulation in social animals #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork

👥 With me, #LaurenBrent & #PatrickKennedy
🎓 @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

ℹ️ www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

🙏Share widely
Dwarf mongoose Rhesus macaques grooming Meerkat
October 16, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
darrencroft.bsky.social
MSc by Res opportunity - developing behavioural indicators to inform killer whale conservation with
@exeter.ac.uk @whaleresearch.bsky.social @seadocsociety.bsky.social

People from underrepresented groups in marine science encouraged to apply.

Deadline 19Dec

www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
October 22, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
delphinedemoor.bsky.social
Social relationships are powerful predictors of fitness across social animals. But *why*?

In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.

tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
The Adaptive Relationships Framework illustrating how broad socioecological pressures shape the social solutions animals use to meet these challenges, and how these lead to social strategies and emergent structures that help them gain access to those solutions.
October 16, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
darrencroft.bsky.social
We are hiring - PDRA position exploring how information access shapes social dynamics in killer whales. Collaboration with @samellisq.bsky.social @drwhale.bsky.social Prof Dan Franks (York) start 1st Nov (or ASAP) end 31st Oct 2028. Apps close on 19th Oct.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOT336/p...
September 23, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
dingdingpeng.the100.ci
Ever stared at a table of regression coefficients & wondered what you're doing with your life?

Very excited to share this gentle introduction to another way of making sense of statistical models (w @vincentab.bsky.social)
Preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Website: j-rohrer.github.io/marginal-psy...
Models as Prediction Machines: How to Convert Confusing Coefficients into Clear Quantities Abstract Psychological researchers usually make sense of regression models by interpreting coefficient estimates directly. This works well enough for simple linear models, but is more challenging for more complex models with, for example, categorical variables, interactions, non-linearities, and hierarchical structures. Here, we introduce an alternative approach to making sense of statistical models. The central idea is to abstract away from the mechanics of estimation, and to treat models as “counterfactual prediction machines,” which are subsequently queried to estimate quantities and conduct tests that matter substantively. This workflow is model-agnostic; it can be applied in a consistent fashion to draw causal or descriptive inference from a wide range of models. We illustrate how to implement this workflow with the marginaleffects package, which supports over 100 different classes of models in R and Python, and present two worked examples. These examples show how the workflow can be applied across designs (e.g., observational study, randomized experiment) to answer different research questions (e.g., associations, causal effects, effect heterogeneity) while facing various challenges (e.g., controlling for confounders in a flexible manner, modelling ordinal outcomes, and interpreting non-linear models). Figure illustrating model predictions. On the X-axis the predictor, annual gross income in Euro. On the Y-axis the outcome, predicted life satisfaction. A solid line marks the curve of predictions on which individual data points are marked as model-implied outcomes at incomes of interest. Comparing two such predictions gives us a comparison. We can also fit a tangent to the line of predictions, which illustrates the slope at any given point of the curve. A figure illustrating various ways to include age as a predictor in a model. On the x-axis age (predictor), on the y-axis the outcome (model-implied importance of friends, including confidence intervals). Illustrated are 1. age as a categorical predictor, resultings in the predictions bouncing around a lot with wide confidence intervals 2. age as a linear predictor, which forces a straight line through the data points that has a very tight confidence band and 3. age splines, which lies somewhere in between as it smoothly follows the data but has more uncertainty than the straight line.
August 25, 2025 at 11:49 AM
samellisq.bsky.social
Pleasure and honour to have the opportunity to discuss some of the work we have been doing on over the last few years.

Thanks to @behaviour2025.bsky.social for the invite (and great conference), @asab.org for the funding and everyone who turned up to listen at 9am on day 5.
asab.org ASAB @asab.org · Aug 29
It may be 9am on Day 5, but of course nobody couldn’t miss @samellisq.bsky.social’s fascinating plenary on menopause in whales! 😍👵🐳 #Behaviour2025
Sam in front of a slide reading Social behaviour, and the evolution of menopause in toothed whales
August 29, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
ljnbrent.bsky.social
Animal Behaviour from Exeter and Bristol, plus some of our alumni, went to @behaviour2025.bsky.social in Kolkata and had mountains of rice. @crab-exeter.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social
August 27, 2025 at 5:15 PM
samellisq.bsky.social
It was a real pleasure to have accidently been involved in Joe Wilde's (not here) paper published last week: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

It has terrifying Bayesian Hidden Markov Models, important insights about dynamic sexual signalling, and a robot crab called "Wavey Dave"- what's not to love?
August 20, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
katelaskowski.bsky.social
BEHAVIOR IS THE WAY
andrejpaleo.bsky.social Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · Aug 7
Exhilarating to see organismal agency in evolution at such a large scale! Organisms chose where to live and what to eat, and only after tens of thousands of generations and after much later speciation events the efficiency was achieved
www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio
Testing the three pillars of behavioral drive.
August 7, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
danielredhead.bsky.social
🐒🕸️ New preprint! Confused about how to model animal social networks?

ASNA can be confusing—but also full of opportunity. We break down 5 common misunderstandings in animal social network analysis and share solutions from behavioural ecology, anthro, stats, & network science. Hope it helps!

A 🧵
Five misunderstandings in animal social network analysis
ecoevorxiv.org
August 4, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
ljnbrent.bsky.social
I learned a lot working on this new paper with this group of network scientists, sociologists, anthropologists and behavioural ecologists. We're hoping it helps anyone who feels (understandably!) lost in the animal social networks weeds.
danielredhead.bsky.social Daniel Redhead @danielredhead.bsky.social · Aug 4
🐒🕸️ New preprint! Confused about how to model animal social networks?

ASNA can be confusing—but also full of opportunity. We break down 5 common misunderstandings in animal social network analysis and share solutions from behavioural ecology, anthro, stats, & network science. Hope it helps!

A 🧵
Five misunderstandings in animal social network analysis
ecoevorxiv.org
August 6, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
robinmorrison.bsky.social
Loved listening to this discussion, and so pleased our research on the gorillas monitored by @savinggorillas.bsky.social, led by the fantastic Vic Martignac is resonating with so many!
August 6, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
lauraakelley.bsky.social
‪Come join us at the @asab.org Winter Conference 2025: how sensory info affects behaviour.

15th & 16th Dec, abstracts due end Aug. More info and registration asabwinter.github.io/2025

Co-hosted with @jtroscianko.bsky.social and Innes Cuthill
July 29, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
xkcd.com
Geology Murder

xkcd.com/3112/
Comic. [two people in labcoats look at body pierced with blade draped over bench] PERSON 1: We found him lying uncomformably on the lab bench. I wonder if the iron-rich intrusion in his back is related. PERSON 2 with ponytail: It could be clastic. Maybe a rift opened in his body, and the intrusive material later fell into the hole. [caption] The Geology Department Investigates Their First Murder
July 9, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Our #study finds that #male #dominance isn't the norm among #primates, and starts to unravel what shapes flexibility in intersexual power

paper (OA) https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2500405122

press release https://www.mpg.de/24986976/0630-evan-beyond-the-alpha-male-150495-x?c=2249
July 8, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Sam Ellis
xkcd.com
Good Science

xkcd.com/3101/
5-panel comic. (1) [teacher with long hair next to whiteboard] TEACHER: I’m supposed to give you the tools to do good science. (2) [teacher addressing students] But what *are* those tools? Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results. What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science? (3) TEACHER: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important: [embedded list in sub-panel, cut off at end] Outcome variable: correct scientific results. Predictors: collaboration; skepticism of others’ claims; questioning your own beliefs; trying to falsify hypotheses; checking citations; statistical rigor; blinded analysis; financial disclosure; open data (4) TEACHER: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial: 1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and 2) ammonium hydroxide. (5) STUDENT: Wait, why did *ammonia* score so high? How did it even get on the list? LONG HAIR: ...And now you’re doing good science!
June 12, 2025 at 8:28 PM