Very happy to say my good friend and colleague Homa Papoli-Yazdi has finally put this one to bed! This has been a long time coming: an unfinished thesis chapter that took on a life of its own. But after a few rounds of reincarnation, some really good back-and-forth with Charlie Cornwallis, Homa, and our colleagues around the world, I think we’ve put together a really nice piece of work. Well done Homa! Check it out at PLoS Genetics:

Homa Papoli-Yazdi, C. Olito, T. Kawakami, P. Unneberg, M.F. Schou, S.W.P. Cloete, B. Hansson, C.K. Cornwallis (2023) The evolutionary maintenance of ancient recombining sex chromosomes in the ostrich. PLoS Genetics https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010801.