Dr George RA Hancock 🦋🦎

@grahancock.bsky.social

Postdoc zoologist interested in how ecology shapes form and function in particular colouration. Creator of the CamoEvo toolbox and professional nerd. [email protected]

@plosbiology.orgReposted by @grahancock.bsky.social

Birds such as nightjars must fly at different speeds during feeding and migration. This study identifies unexpected aerodynamic and kinematic #flight features related to these ecological demands that suggest a link between wing folding and upstroke thrust generation.
🧪 #AcademicSky
plos.io/3Tw3Ful

Nightjar vortex wake displays double tip vortices and upstroke thrust. Wake vortices shown as iso-surfaces of total vorticity [s−1] (iso value = 100), color-coded by downwash velocity (vz) of a sample sequence of a European nightjar flying at 9 m/s. Note the double tip vortices during the downstroke (upper inlet) and the reversed vortices at the outer wing during the upstroke (lower inlet). The inlets show in-plane velocity vectors on a background of the streamwise vorticity with blue showing clockwise rotation and yellow/red counterclockwise rotation. Vectors are not scaled the same in the two inlets but are scaled to facilitate interpretation of the flow. Units on the 3D-axes are in m.
@leiltonluna.bsky.socialReposted by @grahancock.bsky.social

I'm looking for PhD student to join my lab at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Fall 2027)! If you're interested in evolutionary genomics, conservation genetics, or biogeography, please reach out.

I'll also be at #AOS2026 this week talking about sexual selection in small populations.

@grahancock.bsky.social

As most attacks will be from above, the ventral markings are less likely to be important, but there is some potential for confusion / deflection from "flashy" colouration that can't be over looked. This likely allows butterflies to focus the ventral patterns towards being cryptic.

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