Mélissa Berthet
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berthetmelissa.bsky.social
Mélissa Berthet
@berthetmelissa.bsky.social
1.6K followers 470 following 74 posts
Researcher in primatology 🐒 and animal linguistics 🎤🙊
Titi monkeys & bonobos ❤️🦍
Postdoc at the University of Rennes, France
She/Her
https://sites.google.com/view/melissa-berthet
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berthetmelissa.bsky.social
Mélissa Berthet @berthetmelissa.bsky.social · Apr 4
🚨New in @science.org🚨
With Simon Townsend (@nccrlanguage.bsky.social) and Martin Surbeck, we have investigated whether wild bonobos can combine calls in complex combinations, similar to how humans combine words into sentences 🧪
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#ScienceResearch #AnimalCommunication
Extensive compositionality in the vocal system of bonobos
Compositionality, the capacity to combine meaningful elements into larger meaningful structures, is a hallmark of human language. Compositionality can be trivial (the combination’s meaning is the sum ...
www.science.org
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
mhoeschele.bsky.social
Looking for a Postdoc position and have a background in bioacoustics and animal cognition? Interested in whether other animals might have something akin to language? Join our team: www.oeaw.ac.at/en/oeaw-home...
December 19, 2025 at 2:08 PM
berthetmelissa.bsky.social
Congratulations @johnbasil.bsky.social! Amazing news!
December 19, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
nicolasmathevon.bsky.social
Admissions to the International Master of Bioacoustics for the 26-27 academic year are now open. Please spread the word!
More info here 👇 www.masterofbioacoustics.com?lang=fr

#bioacoustics
International Master of Bioacoustics
Home page of the International Master of Bioacoustics
www.masterofbioacoustics.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
nccrlanguage.bsky.social
@johnbasil.bsky.social has received an ERC grant for the project “Conceptual Diversity and the Evolution of Abstract Thought”, to develop a method for reconstructing the evolution of abstract concepts, especially spirituality, ethics, and social relations.

evolvinglanguage.ch/studying-the...
Studying the Evolution of Abstract Thought - NCCR Evolving Language
In the new ERC-funded project, “Conceptual Diversity and the Evolution of Abstract Thought” (CONCEVO), Mansfield will lead a team of researchers to develop a method for reconstructing the evolution of...
evolvinglanguage.ch
December 19, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
jolindevlaeyen.bsky.social
My first PhD paper is published! 🎉 We compared how wild bonobo and chimpanzee infants (0-5.5y) become independent from their mothers. Here is the open-access link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

🧵(1/5)
Great Ape Childhoods: Social and Spatial Pathways to Independence in Bonobo and Chimpanzee Infants
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 16, 2025 at 12:19 PM
berthetmelissa.bsky.social
Très honorée d'être invitée à la conférence d'AUBE (Association Universitaire Bretonne d'Ethologie) ce soir à Rennes !

www.instagram.com/aube_rennes/...
AUBE on Instagram: "Sortez vos agendas 📅 L’AUBE revient avec une nouvelle conférence qui s’annonce passionnante 🌿🐒 Cette fois, nous accueillons Mélissa Berthet, chercheuse en comportement animal e...
75 likes, 1 comments - aube_rennes on December 11, 2025: "Sortez vos agendas 📅 L’AUBE revient avec une nouvelle conférence qui s’annonce passionnante 🌿🐒 Cette fois, nous accueillons Mélissa Berthe...
www.instagram.com
December 15, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
scientificdiscovery.dev
Big new blogpost!

My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more.

--> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
screenshot of my post
December 9, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
christophvoelter.bsky.social
Fully funded #PhDposition in Comparative Cultural Psychology @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social.
We will use touchscreen experiments & eyetracking to study mental simulations in nonhuman apes & human children across different cultures.

All info here: www.eva.mpg.de/career/posit...
Please share / apply!🙏
Positions available - Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
www.eva.mpg.de
November 13, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
efp2026.bsky.social
📢 Calling all primatologists 📢

EFP2026 in Montpellier is now open for abstracts & registration!

🗓 Deadline for abstract : 13 March 2026 (before if mobility grant application)

Submit: www.alphavisa.com/efp/2026/abs...

Register: www.alphavisa.com/efp/2026/reg...

All abstracts will be accepted!
December 9, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
amichaut.bsky.social
🚨 Je cherche des chercheur-ses de toutes disciplines pour un doc radio pour parler de leur sujet de recherche mais aussi de leur quotidien (une journée type au labo). Contrainte supplémentaire, le labo doit être hors de Paris.
Plus d'infos : forms.gle/hw9wH2p5UH4A...
Interview de chercheur-ses pour doc radio
À l'occasion d'un projet de documentaire radio sur France Culture, je cherche des chercheur-ses représentant une diversité de disciplines mais également de statuts à interviewer. L'idée est de partir...
forms.gle
December 5, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
kirindy.bsky.social
Job alert! Fully funded PhD position on the link between curiosity and cognition in lemurs at our long-term field site Kirindy Forest in Madagascar @kirindy.bsky.social & @primatenzentrum.bsky.social. This project is part of @rtg2906-curiosity.bsky.social.
Apply here: www.dpz.eu
December 5, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
lazaroillustration.bsky.social
Commissions for 2026 are now open!
Researchers, labs, institutions:
I’m taking new projects. If you need scientific illustrations for figures, posters or presentations, contact me at lazaroillustration@gmail.com
Let’s bring your research to life with detailed, engaging art! #SciArt
Scientific illustration of a seaweed life cycle #art Illustration of two bats occupying a bird nest #art #bats Illustration of a sword-tailed newt #art #salamander Illustrationj of two hyenas #art #mammals #hyaena
December 2, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
bridgetwaller.bsky.social
Fully-funded PhD position with Yuri Kawaguchi at NTU, associated with her BBSRC Fellowship on parenting in rhesus macaques. Join us! @yurikawaguchi.bsky.social @ntupsychology.bsky.social (note - open to UK students only)

www.ntu.ac.uk/study-and-co...
Enhancing welfare through cognitive assessment of parenting skills in captive managed animals
Find out more about this PhD opportunity funded by BBSRC, hosted through the NTU fully funded studentship scheme.
www.ntu.ac.uk
December 2, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
chriskrupenye.bsky.social
🚨Job Alert plz RT!

Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition!

We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals

Open-rank

apply.interfolio.com/178146
December 2, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
eleanor.lockhart.contact
to be *really* clear: this is LLM related research but if you read it what they are very much *not* doing is just pointing a model at it and asking "what do you think the whales are saying"
apoorvanyt.bsky.social Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 20d
Mind-blowingly cool use of AI
“Altogether, these findings are leading us to an extraordinary conclusion: Whales may possess a communication system more intricate than our own, one that possibly predates human language by tens of millions of years.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
Opinion | I’m a Marine Biologist. This Is How I Talk to Whales.
www.nytimes.com
November 30, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
mpi-nl.bsky.social
The ‘design features’ of language revisited. Just published (open access) by Pleyer, Perlman, Lupyan, de Reus & @limorraviv.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
Redirecting
doi.org
November 26, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
amyleedale.bsky.social
📢 JOB ALERT!
Interested in #Bioacoustics, #Linguistics and the #Evolution of #Language? We are seeking a #ResearchAssistant to join our project 'Convergent Evolution of Vocal Communication: Exploring the Parallels between #Birdsong and Human Speech'.👇 www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...
The University of Salford hiring Research Assistant in Bioacoustics in Manchester, England, United Kingdom | LinkedIn
Posted 10:02:26 AM. Research Assistant in BioacousticsUniversity of Salford, School of Science, Engineering &…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
www.linkedin.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
andyradford.bsky.social
📢Two fully-funded #PhD opportunities to work with us:

Topic: Social monitoring & manipulation

UK-domiciled black-heritage scheme: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6

NERC DLTP: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp

Cosupervisors: #PatrickKennedy @ljnbrent.bsky.social
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social
#bioacoustics #mammals #fieldwork
Meerkat pups in the Kalahari, South Africa Rhesus macaques in Cayo Santiago Dwarf mongoose staring at a camera, South Africa.
November 21, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
pnas.org
After the Ngogo chimpanzee group killed 21 members of neighboring groups and expanded their territory by 22%, female birth rates more than doubled and infant survival increased sharply—showing clear fitness benefits from intergroup killing. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/TKmf50XuPjY
Jolie, an adult female chimpanzee of the Ngogo community in Kibale National Park, Uganda, with sleeping infant son, Zawinul. CREDIT: Kevin Langergraber
November 22, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
vcampanacho.bsky.social
Women unite! We need to consciously like & engage with other women's content at a higher level than we do now. Besides the biases we already suffer just for being a woman, movements are trying to silence us more. Remember mediocre posts by men get more attention without much effort. Support women!
amydiehl.bsky.social Amy Diehl, Ph.D. @amydiehl.bsky.social · 28d
Earlier this year Jane Evans ran an informal LinkedIn experiment: 2 women & 2 men, posted identical content at the same time. The women had a combined 154K followers, the men had only 9,389. Guess who got the highest reach? Yep, the men.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Bro boost: women say their LinkedIn traffic increases if they pretend to be men
Collective experiment found switching profile to ‘male’ and ‘bro-coding’ text led to big increase in reach, though site denies favouring posts by men
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
mpi-nl.bsky.social
What enables human language? A biocultural framework. New paper by Inbal Arnon & al. with @limorraviv.bsky.social , @profsimonfisher.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1126/science.adq8303
What enables human language? A biocultural framework
Explaining the origins of language is a key challenge in understanding ourselves as a species. We present an empirical framework that draws on synergies across fields to facilitate robust studies of l...
doi.org
November 21, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
stuwest.bsky.social
Kissing evolved at least 21 million years ago. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @matildabrindle.bsky.social
November 19, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Reposted by Mélissa Berthet
animal-sounds.bsky.social
🚨Who wants to work with Kalahari meerkats? A MSc project with @mathildemartin.bsky.social at the University of Zurich.
#bioacoustics 🧪
November 10, 2025 at 3:41 PM