Category Archives: phylogenetics

Night at the museum

Posted on 5 Feb, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Many population genetic and genomic studies document snapshots of a given population’s genetic diversity. Yet, there are many reasons to document changes over time in population parameters in response to perturbations, such as biological invasions (both in terms of the invader … Continue reading →

Posted in DNA barcoding, evolution, genomics, natural history, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, population genetics, speciation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Species and sensibility

Posted on 9 Jan, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Pante et al. (2014) performed a literature review of marine population connectivity in order to illustrate the biased estimates of connectivity which can result from the failure to recognize an evolutionary-relevant unit, such as a species. When exploring the connectivity … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, community ecology, conservation, DNA barcoding, natural history, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, population genetics, speciation, theory | 6 Comments

Geophylogeny plots in R for Dummies

Posted on 27 Nov, 2014 by Arun Sethuraman

Amid basting my tofurky, here’s a follow-up to my previous post on quick-fix overlays of admixture plots on geographical maps in R. I recently discovered a wonderful R package called “phytools” from Liam Revell, which makes really neat phylogenetic trees (with … Continue reading →

Posted in howto, phylogenetics, population genetics, R, software, STRUCTURE | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Consuming raw or undercooked frogs may increase your risk of getting a rare tapeworm in your brain

Posted on 25 Nov, 2014 by Noah Snyder-Mackler

A 50-year-old UK resident had been living with an unwelcome visitor for the past 4 years and it was such a headache. Surgeons from Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge removed the tapeworm during a biopsy after noticing a small circular lesion … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, medicine, phylogenetics | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

#EntSoc14, a quick review

Posted on 20 Nov, 2014 by Arun Sethuraman

I have had a wonderful time at my first big bug conference – the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Amid secretive (or not so secretive) break-out sessions to Voodoo Doughnuts, … Continue reading →

Posted in conferences, genomics, phylogenetics, population genetics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Growing the evolutionary relationship between green algae and salamanders

Posted on 19 Nov, 2014 by Rob Denton

The presence of  green algae within the developing egg masses of amphibians has been recognized since the early 1900s, but only recently have researchers discovered that the these algae (termed “Oophila”) persist in animal tissues far after leaving the egg. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Coevolution, phylogenetics, speciation | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

From cats to rats: two studies on domestication and tameness

Posted on 18 Nov, 2014 by Noah Snyder-Mackler

Anyone who has ever read Charles Darwin is acutely aware of his fascination with domestication – particularly how he fancied fancy pigeons. Darwin drew on his domestication obsession while writing his book, The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, association genetics, domestication, genomics, methods, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, quantitative genetics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bugs fighting bugs: the evolution of the arthropod immune system.

Posted on 11 Nov, 2014 by Noah Snyder-Mackler

Since the beginning of time, animals have needed to protect themselves from invaders. They primarily do so via their innate immune system, in which trained killer cells attack foreign pathogens – ranging from microscopic bacteria to macroscopic worms. While we … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, phylogenetics | 1 Comment

The Tortoise Time Warp

Posted on 5 Nov, 2014 by Rob Denton

Recent advances in genetic data analysis continue to provide the ability to reveal some amazingly detailed (and previously unattainable) information about species’ evolutionary history. In this recent study from Molecular Ecology, Dr. Ryan Garrick and colleagues use a variety of … Continue reading →

Posted in Molecular Ecology, the journal, phylogenetics, speciation | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Getting started with Ultra Conserved Elements

Posted on 1 Oct, 2013 by Nicholas Crawford

Cross posted on ngcrawford.com If you attended Evolution 2013, you probably heard quite a lot of chatter about ultra conserved elements. Essentially, ultra conserved elements (UCEs) are parts of the genome that are highly conserved between different species. Although UCEs … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, methods, phylogenetics | 1 Comment