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Monthly Archives: February 2016
The Carnivorous Rodents of Southeast Asia
Whoa, Wallace. There be carnivorous rats on those islands. Sixty-two species, to be exact, across the broader Indo-Australian Archipelago. Among them are small- and large-bodied rats, worm-eaters with elongated snouts (“vermivores”), and even amphibious forms (Fig. 1), and they are … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, evolution, natural history, phylogenetics, theory
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Supergenes and Sparrows with Four Sexes
Supergenes are groups of tightly-linked genes that influence suites of traits relevant to fitness. While long a fixture of evolutionary genetics theory, their role in empirical studies of non-model organisms has been relatively limited, due to limitations in both our … Continue reading
How the White Sands lizards lost their stripes
In molecular ecology, most of us work with study systems that are messy, uncooperative, or just plain difficult (note the fecal samples incubating on my lab bench). What I wouldn’t give for a nice, elegant study system — like the … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, genomics, population genetics, selection
Tagged coloration, lizards, selective sweep, White Sands
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Single dispersal of modern humans to Eurasia
In a typical ancient DNA study where the number of authors exceeds the number of specimens (actually, equals this time), Cosimo Posth and colleagues sequenced 35 pre-Neolithic modern humans from Europe. By sequencing 35 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes, Posth et … Continue reading
Posted in evolution, genomics, natural history, Paleogenomics, population genetics
Tagged ancient DNA, human evolution, mitochondrial DNA, paleogenomics
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New faces: Elin Videvall
This week we’re pleased to welcome a big group of new contributors to the blog. By way of introduction, I asked each of them to answer a few quick questions about him- or herself. —Jeremy Who am I? Elin Videvall, … Continue reading
Posted in housekeeping, introduction
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New faces: Reid Brennan
This week we’re pleased to welcome a big group of new contributors to the blog. By way of introduction, I asked each of them to answer a few quick questions about him- or herself. —Jeremy Who are you? Reid Brennan … Continue reading
Posted in housekeeping, introduction
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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
New Faces: Christine Ewers-Saucedo
This week we’re pleased to welcome a big group of new contributors to the blog. By way of introduction, I asked each of them to answer a few quick questions about him- or herself. —Jeremy Who am I? My name … Continue reading
Posted in housekeeping, introduction
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New faces: Patrícia Pečnerová
This week we’re pleased to welcome a big group of new contributors to the blog. By way of introduction, I asked each of them to answer a few quick questions about him- or herself. —Jeremy Who are you? My name … Continue reading
Posted in housekeeping, introduction
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New faces: Kelle Freel
This week we’re pleased to welcome a big group of new contributors to the blog. By way of introduction, I asked each of them to answer a few quick questions about him- or herself. —Jeremy Who are you? Kelle C. … Continue reading
Posted in housekeeping, introduction
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