Category Archives: speciation

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

Posted on 13 Feb, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Many animals use visual signals to scope out potential mates. In a new paper in Molecular Ecology, Sandkam et al. (2015) demonstrate that the variation underlying preference in female guppies could be explained by simple changes in expression and coding of … Continue reading →

Posted in Coevolution, evolution, Molecular Ecology, the journal, natural history, population genetics, speciation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Breaking free of the guide tree: two new species delimitation methods

Posted on 9 Feb, 2015 by Melissa DeBiasse

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a new method to incorporate morphology and DNA sequences into species delimitation. Including both data types improved the results but a couple of tricky spots remained: 1) correctly assigning individuals to putative species and 2) estimating … Continue reading →

Posted in methods, species delimitation | Leave a comment

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

Incorporating phenotype and genotype in model-based species delimitation

Posted on 26 Jan, 2015 by Melissa DeBiasse

  Species are the fundamental unit of biology but identifying them is a challenging task that receives a lot of theoretical and empirical attention. In a recent Evolution paper, Solís‐Lemus et al. (2015) introduce a new model-based method that integrates phenotypic and genetic data … Continue reading →

Posted in methods, speciation, species delimitation, theory | 2 Comments

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

Hybrid speciation is for the birds (and plants, reptiles, fish, and insects)

Posted on 5 Jan, 2015 by Melissa DeBiasse

R. A. Fisher once called hybridization ‘‘the grossest blunder in sexual preference which we can conceive of an animal making.” While there may be negative fitness consequences for an individual who mates across species boundaries, the evolutionary significance of hybridization in speciation, introgression, … Continue reading →

Posted in population genetics, speciation | Tagged | 2 Comments

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

The forest resounding at rare intervals with the note of … reproductive isolation

Posted on 14 Nov, 2014 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Hybrid zones are often used as a window with which to gaze upon the evolutionary process (Barton and Hewitt 1989). With the advent of genomic tools, it is possible to detect the genomic signatures and the architecture underlying reproductive isolation. In … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, conservation, genomics, next generation sequencing, population genetics, speciation | 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

How many genes does it take to make a new species?

Posted on 5 Aug, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

Three-spined sticklebacks are speciation machines. When retreating glaciers exposed lakes and rivers around the coasts of northern North America and Eurasia, these armor-plated little fish colonized the new freshwater habitats from the ocean, and adapted to the threats and resources … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, population genetics, quantitative genetics, speciation | Tagged , | 5 Comments