Simon Maddock
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simonmaddock.bsky.social
Simon Maddock
@simonmaddock.bsky.social
Ecology, evolution and conservation of reptiles and amphibians • Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Evolution at Newcastle University • Scientific Associate at Natural History Museum, London • He/Him
New paper led by Miranda Sherlock on "Submerged Corridors of Ancient Gene Flow in an Island Amphibian". In this paper we found that populations of the Seychelles #caecilian Hypogeophis rostratus would have been connected by palaeo-islands across Seychelles
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
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April 8, 2025 at 10:22 AM
And how good is this educational game about the yearly natural history of the adder. This has been a huge success in educating school kids.
March 7, 2025 at 10:56 PM
An awesome evening for the launch of the new Adder Pilsner label from Allendale Brewery. Beer and adder talks (the work going on in the North Pennines). What is not to like?!

Lucy and Samuel did a fantastic job presenting the work we have been doing on Conservation Genomics of adders in the region.
March 7, 2025 at 10:54 PM
And who can forget the amazing Seychelles tree #frog (Tachycnemis seychellensis). This is a female, and in this particular population the males are brown.

We also found two species of caecilian but I failed to get any pictures.

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January 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Thomasset's Seychelles frog (Sooglossus thomasseti) is the largest of the endemic Seychelles frog family Sooglossidae, and perhaps the rarest of them (or least frequently encountered at least). 🧪🐍🐸🔬
January 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
The IUCN Red List and Green Status workshops are going fantastically. Tonight we had a break from the computer and found several of the #amphibians that we have been assessing. Here is a beautiful Gardiner's Seychelles #frog (Sechellophryne gardineri), one of the smallest frogs in the World.

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January 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
The first day of the joint IUCN Red List and Green Status of Species workshop (the first time they have ever run concurrently) was a great success, focussing on the #frogs of the Seychelles. On to the #caecilians tomorrow
January 21, 2025 at 7:41 PM
We also had talks from the IUCN Red List (Louise Hobin) and Green Status of Species (Magdalena Cygan) authorities about their work. This is a precursor to the Red List and Green Status assessments coming up over the next four days.
January 20, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Ellen did a fantastic talk about her PhD topic looking at climate change in #caecilians.

The Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation were here, who will be doing a segment about the symposium, and Ellen and I gave an interview about the importance of getting people together for these events.
January 20, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Today's "SEYCHELLES ENDEMIC AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES: CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND NEXT STEPS FOR CONSERVATION" symposium was a great success, with many fascinating talks. There have been lots of updates since the last time we ran a Seychelles amphibian symposium in 2019.
January 20, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Proud supervisor alert 🚨

@ellensharkey.bsky.social is looking at the impacts of climate change on Seychelles caecilians for her PhD. Today she encountered her first ever #caecilian and it was a beauty ... a large female Stejneger's Caecilian (Hypogeophis alternans)

@seychellesherps.bsky.social 🧪🐸
January 17, 2025 at 8:15 PM
There is a symposium happening on Monday 20th Jan, titled "SEYCHELLES ENDEMIC #AMPHIBIANS AND #REPTILES: CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND NEXT STEPS FOR #CONSERVATION". We will be streaming the talks if you can't be here: Link tinyurl.com/Seychelleshe... or use QR code.

Nb. Schedule is Seychelles time.

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January 16, 2025 at 7:40 PM
We are looking for a PhD student to work on "Faunal diversity dynamics of the Seychelles using environmental DNA". Your primary supervisors would be David Gower (NHM, London) and Julia Day (UCL).
For more details of the project and funding see trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/fau...

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December 11, 2024 at 11:00 PM
🚨 PhD opportunity 🚨 We are looking to recruit someone to put forward for PhD funding under the IAPETUS DTP scheme. The project will work on adder (Vipera berus) conservation in the North Pennines, England. See iapetus2.ac.uk/studentships... for more info

#conservation #herpetology #snakes 🧪🐍🐸
November 19, 2024 at 1:01 PM
Will anybody on here be attending Venom Day this weekend at Bangor University?

Since starting it in 2010 it has gone from strength to strength. This year looks likely to be another amazing event with lots of fascinating talks! I look forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new ones!
November 14, 2024 at 12:13 AM
Led by my wonderful PhD student Rémi Martin, we look at approaches for recovery of DNA from buccal swabs in #frogs and provide recommendations. We used swabs to obtain data for Sanger, microsats, ddRADseq, and low-coverage whole genome seq.

Open Access onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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September 13, 2024 at 9:06 AM
I had a fun day on Friday looking for adders with Lucy and Samuel.

The Adder Team are doing a fantastic job of collecting genetic samples ready for investigating the genetic health and connectivity of adder (Vipera berus) populations in the North Pennines, UK. 🐍🧪
September 9, 2024 at 10:20 AM
Great work this evening by @ecology_ncl MSc student Ellie Davison who collected her first buccal and chytrid swabs. Ellie's project is looking at whether there is a link between genetic diversity and prevelance of amphibian chytrid in toads (Bufo bufo)
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March 13, 2024 at 11:29 PM
Just one week left to apply for our PhD position, which will investigate the impacts of climate change on Seychelles amphibians! Get in touch if you want more information.

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

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January 4, 2024 at 11:51 AM
Our new book "Snakes: Their diversity, ecology and behaviour" has officially been published today! As well as it being a very nice book (if I do say so myself), it is also great that the price is kept low with an RRP of just GBP£14.99.

#herpetology #snakes 🐍 🧪
October 26, 2023 at 7:47 PM
🚨PhD Alert🚨
I am currently recruiting for an awesome PhD project that will be looking at #ClimateChange and it's impact on Seychelles #amphibians. The project will involve plenty of fieldwork in the Seychelles, molecular lab work and climate modelling.

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October 24, 2023 at 4:55 PM