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Category Archives: speciation
The Hidden History of Kiwi Diversification
Of the millions of Earth’s species that likely remain to be described, a majority is thought to be invertebrates, plants, fungi, or microbes. Nevertheless, the pace of species description in some vertebrate groups has not slackened over the past few … Continue reading
Divergence and Linked Background Selection
We have widely discussed the reduction in neutral diversity due to demography and linked selection effects (e.g. selective sweeps and hitchhiking, or background selection) in several previous posts (e.g see here, here, and here). However, how linked selection affects neutral divergence … Continue reading
Posted in evolution, genomics, methods, selection, speciation, theory
Tagged ecological speciation, Evolution, genomics, Homo sapiens, natural selection, population genetics
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A Primer on the Great BAMM Controversy
Update, 26 August 2016, 2:30PM. A number of readers brought my attention to a series of blog posts by Moore et al. responding to Rabosky’s rebuttal of their published critique of BAMM. I’ve included links to the posts and summarized their … Continue reading
On Integrative Species Delimitation…
Accurate delimitation of species is a fundamental first step that underlies much of what we do in biology. But this can prove challenging in many situations. Why? Let me count the ways. Incomplete lineage sorting, hybridization, morphological conservatism, and niche … Continue reading
The slow, and sometimes incomplete, journey to diploidy
Whether you are reading this as a plant, an animal, or fungus, it is likely that some ancestor of yours doubled up on genomes. However, it is likely that these extra genomes disappeared over evolutionary time. What gives? Where are those extra … Continue reading
Posted in evolution, genomics, quantitative genetics, speciation
Tagged Bob Ross, polyploidy, whole genome duplication
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The simpler cichlid: a recent adaptive radiation
If I was asked to name a few of the most compelling systems in evolutionary biology, I’d certainly start with Darwin’s Finches. Next might come peppered moths, African cichlids, stickleback, Caribbean Anolis lizards, or Lenski’s E. coli. What’s interesting about … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, evolution, selection, speciation
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The rise of the fruit flies – Can good science communication make or break a model system?
The answer is: probably not. It is probably more important that the organism thrives in a lab environment, reproduces and hybridizes with speed and ease, and has some additional “desirable” features: think visible mutations in the fruit fly Drosophila, constant cell … Continue reading
Posted in evolution, phylogenetics, speciation
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How to build a mimic
The history of evolutionary and ecological studies on mimic species is deep and chock-full of familiar names (Bates, Darwin, Muller, Wallace are just a few). There has also been no limit on the number of jaw-droppingly gorgeous species that have been under … Continue reading