Simon Baeckens
@simonbaeckens.bsky.social
Asst. Prof. at UCLouvain 🇧🇪 // Head of the Animal Evolutionary Ecology lab // macro- to micro-evolution and lizard adaptations🦎
Pinned
Evolutionary consequences of extreme climate events
Simon Baeckens and Colin Donihue review case studies of rapid evolutionary change
in response to extreme climate events and sketch a framework for future studies in
the rapidly changing climate of the...
www.cell.com
Extreme climate events can catalyze rapid evolutionary change! in our new Current Biology (@currentbiology.bsky.social) piece, Colin and I argue it’s time to study their evolutionary consequences systematically — beyond opportunistic observations. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Three field seasons
219 lizards 🦎
>1,000 hours of behavioural video scoring
Proud of Ioanna Gavriilidi for getting this major chapter of her PhD on insularity and lizard behaviur published.
Serious dedication!
219 lizards 🦎
>1,000 hours of behavioural video scoring
Proud of Ioanna Gavriilidi for getting this major chapter of her PhD on insularity and lizard behaviur published.
Serious dedication!
Creatures of habit: similar but more repeatable behaviours in insular compared with mainland lizards
Island habitats often differ markedly from those on the mainland in many biotic and abiotic factors. Typically, they harbour fewer predator, competito…
www.sciencedirect.com
February 16, 2026 at 1:17 PM
Three field seasons
219 lizards 🦎
>1,000 hours of behavioural video scoring
Proud of Ioanna Gavriilidi for getting this major chapter of her PhD on insularity and lizard behaviur published.
Serious dedication!
219 lizards 🦎
>1,000 hours of behavioural video scoring
Proud of Ioanna Gavriilidi for getting this major chapter of her PhD on insularity and lizard behaviur published.
Serious dedication!
🦎 Funded 4-year PhD position on Lizard Evolutionary Ecology in our lab at UCLouvain (Belgium)! Apply before 9 March! jobs.uclouvain.be/Personnelsci...
February 3, 2026 at 1:50 PM
🦎 Funded 4-year PhD position on Lizard Evolutionary Ecology in our lab at UCLouvain (Belgium)! Apply before 9 March! jobs.uclouvain.be/Personnelsci...
Humans are transforming the natural world at an unprecedented scale and rate. We, at #UCLouvain 🇧🇪, are organizing a symposium on how organisms, populations, and communities respond to these human-induced environmental changes. April 29–30, 2026! Join us: www.uclouvain.be/en/research-...
January 21, 2026 at 9:33 PM
Humans are transforming the natural world at an unprecedented scale and rate. We, at #UCLouvain 🇧🇪, are organizing a symposium on how organisms, populations, and communities respond to these human-induced environmental changes. April 29–30, 2026! Join us: www.uclouvain.be/en/research-...
Crossed the 100-paper mark as an editor for #BiologyLetters (@royalsocietypublishing.org). Still impressed by the quality and range of science the journal publishes. 🦎
January 21, 2026 at 12:20 PM
Crossed the 100-paper mark as an editor for #BiologyLetters (@royalsocietypublishing.org). Still impressed by the quality and range of science the journal publishes. 🦎
First PhD paper out for Eleesha Annear—and what a start!
Her work uncovers surprising variation in osteoderm size and shape across populations, sexes, and body regions in a cordylid lizard 🦎 academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...
Her work uncovers surprising variation in osteoderm size and shape across populations, sexes, and body regions in a cordylid lizard 🦎 academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...
January 5, 2026 at 4:53 PM
First PhD paper out for Eleesha Annear—and what a start!
Her work uncovers surprising variation in osteoderm size and shape across populations, sexes, and body regions in a cordylid lizard 🦎 academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...
Her work uncovers surprising variation in osteoderm size and shape across populations, sexes, and body regions in a cordylid lizard 🦎 academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...
We studied lizards from 12 Croatian islands and found substantial variation in their chemical signal profiles. Ecological factors didn’t explain it. Instead, divergence was best explained by non-adaptive processes 🦎🏝️ @oikosjournal.bsky.social nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
October 20, 2025 at 5:15 AM
We studied lizards from 12 Croatian islands and found substantial variation in their chemical signal profiles. Ecological factors didn’t explain it. Instead, divergence was best explained by non-adaptive processes 🦎🏝️ @oikosjournal.bsky.social nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Simon Baeckens
#AGW
#ecosystems
#biodiversity
More frequent and intense, extreme events threaten the survival of animals and plants. But when stress thresholds aren't exceeded, they seem to accelerate #adaptation and short-term #evolution.
And long-term? Under which conditions?.
OA review & research program:
#ecosystems
#biodiversity
More frequent and intense, extreme events threaten the survival of animals and plants. But when stress thresholds aren't exceeded, they seem to accelerate #adaptation and short-term #evolution.
And long-term? Under which conditions?.
OA review & research program:
Evolutionary consequences of extreme climate events
Simon Baeckens and Colin Donihue review case studies of rapid evolutionary change
in response to extreme climate events and sketch a framework for future studies in
the rapidly changing climate of the...
www.cell.com
September 14, 2025 at 10:55 AM
#AGW
#ecosystems
#biodiversity
More frequent and intense, extreme events threaten the survival of animals and plants. But when stress thresholds aren't exceeded, they seem to accelerate #adaptation and short-term #evolution.
And long-term? Under which conditions?.
OA review & research program:
#ecosystems
#biodiversity
More frequent and intense, extreme events threaten the survival of animals and plants. But when stress thresholds aren't exceeded, they seem to accelerate #adaptation and short-term #evolution.
And long-term? Under which conditions?.
OA review & research program:
Reposted by Simon Baeckens
Under #climate change, extreme weather events are liable to become more frequent and intense.
@simonbaeckens.bsky.social & Colin Donihue review the evidence for impacts on #evolution such events can have and how we can study them in the future.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
@simonbaeckens.bsky.social & Colin Donihue review the evidence for impacts on #evolution such events can have and how we can study them in the future.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Evolutionary consequences of extreme climate events
Simon Baeckens and Colin Donihue review case studies of rapid evolutionary change
in response to extreme climate events and sketch a framework for future studies in
the rapidly changing climate of the...
www.cell.com
September 8, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Under #climate change, extreme weather events are liable to become more frequent and intense.
@simonbaeckens.bsky.social & Colin Donihue review the evidence for impacts on #evolution such events can have and how we can study them in the future.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
@simonbaeckens.bsky.social & Colin Donihue review the evidence for impacts on #evolution such events can have and how we can study them in the future.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Extreme climate events can catalyze rapid evolutionary change! in our new Current Biology (@currentbiology.bsky.social) piece, Colin and I argue it’s time to study their evolutionary consequences systematically — beyond opportunistic observations. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Evolutionary consequences of extreme climate events
Simon Baeckens and Colin Donihue review case studies of rapid evolutionary change
in response to extreme climate events and sketch a framework for future studies in
the rapidly changing climate of the...
www.cell.com
September 8, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Extreme climate events can catalyze rapid evolutionary change! in our new Current Biology (@currentbiology.bsky.social) piece, Colin and I argue it’s time to study their evolutionary consequences systematically — beyond opportunistic observations. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Day one at UCLouvain, day one of the Animal Evolutionary Ecology Lab! Eager to get started!
September 1, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Day one at UCLouvain, day one of the Animal Evolutionary Ecology Lab! Eager to get started!
Reposted by Simon Baeckens
Thrilled to share our new paper out in BMC, part of my postdoc at @cornellvet.bsky.social! 🐘🐀
We found that larger mammals evolve more diverse morphologies, while smaller ones can explore many locomotor strategies without much change to their forelimbs.
bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
We found that larger mammals evolve more diverse morphologies, while smaller ones can explore many locomotor strategies without much change to their forelimbs.
bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Body mass evolution as a driver of morphological and ecological diversity in terrestrial mammals - BMC Ecology and Evolution
Body mass plays a fundamental role in the macroevolutionary dynamics of morphological, ecological, and phylogenetic diversification. Given biomechanical principles, large body masses in terrestrial ve...
bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com
July 11, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Thrilled to share our new paper out in BMC, part of my postdoc at @cornellvet.bsky.social! 🐘🐀
We found that larger mammals evolve more diverse morphologies, while smaller ones can explore many locomotor strategies without much change to their forelimbs.
bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
We found that larger mammals evolve more diverse morphologies, while smaller ones can explore many locomotor strategies without much change to their forelimbs.
bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
The talented Jindong Zhang analyzed 74,000+ papers, revealing how #biomimetic research relies on a narrow slice of biodiversity—missing out on nature’s untapped genius. In our paper, we call for broader, species-level, and comparative approaches!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 15, 2025 at 7:50 PM
The talented Jindong Zhang analyzed 74,000+ papers, revealing how #biomimetic research relies on a narrow slice of biodiversity—missing out on nature’s untapped genius. In our paper, we call for broader, species-level, and comparative approaches!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Simon Baeckens
A lizard in sight whets the appetite? 🦎 Read how conspecifics influence island and mainland lizards’ foraging decisions in @UAFunMorph's new paper by Ioanna Gavriilidi! Link to the full article: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lPDn1LenM...
July 10, 2025 at 12:30 PM
A lizard in sight whets the appetite? 🦎 Read how conspecifics influence island and mainland lizards’ foraging decisions in @UAFunMorph's new paper by Ioanna Gavriilidi! Link to the full article: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lPDn1LenM...
Another PhD chapter published for Ioanna Gavriilidi @uafunmorph.bsky.social, now in @jzoology.bsky.social! She finds that island-dwelling lizards tend to rely less on chemosensory cues compared to their mainland counterparts. zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
On the flick of the tongue: male island and mainland lizards' responses to self and conspecific chemical stimuli
We compared the chemosensory recognition abilities of mainland and island Italian wall lizards (Podarcis siculus). Both populations discriminated between self and conspecific scents, but island lizar...
zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
July 8, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Another PhD chapter published for Ioanna Gavriilidi @uafunmorph.bsky.social, now in @jzoology.bsky.social! She finds that island-dwelling lizards tend to rely less on chemosensory cues compared to their mainland counterparts. zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Excited to announce that I’ll be joining the Earth & Life Institute at UCLouvain (🇧🇪) as an Assistant Professor of Animal Evolutionary Ecology this September. Watch this space for upcoming opportunities for PhDs and postdocs!
June 30, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Excited to announce that I’ll be joining the Earth & Life Institute at UCLouvain (🇧🇪) as an Assistant Professor of Animal Evolutionary Ecology this September. Watch this space for upcoming opportunities for PhDs and postdocs!
Thinking about Elisabeth Vrba on this International Day of Women in Science. Sad to lose another one of the 'Three Musketeers' of evolutionary biology.
Exaptation—a Missing Term in the Science of Form | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core
Exaptation—a Missing Term in the Science of Form - Volume 8 Issue 1
www.cambridge.org
February 11, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Thinking about Elisabeth Vrba on this International Day of Women in Science. Sad to lose another one of the 'Three Musketeers' of evolutionary biology.