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Morphological evolution is often assumed to be causally related to underlying patterns of ecological trait evolution. However, few studies have directly tested whether evolutionary dynamics of—and major shifts in—ecological resource use are coupled with morphological shifts that may facilitate trophic innovation. Using diet and multivariate cranial (microCT) data, we tested whether rates of trophic...
Ecologists and evolutionary biologists routinely estimate selection gradients. Most researchers seek to quantify selection on individual phenotypes, regardless of whether fixed or repeatedly expressed traits are studied. Selection gradients estimated to address such questions are attenuated unless analyses account for measurement error and biological sources of within‐individual variation. Estimates...
Sauropod dinosaurs include the largest terrestrial vertebrates that have ever lived. Virtually every part of the sauropod body is heavily modified in association with gigantic size and associated physiological alterations. Sauropod skulls are no exception: they feature elongated, telescoped facial regions connected to tilted neurocrania and reoriented jaw adductor muscles. Several of these cranial...
Evolution via natural selection has continually shaped the coloration of numerous organisms. One coloration of particular importance is the eyespot: a phylogenetically widespread, conspicuous marking that has been shown to effectively reduce predation, often through its resemblance to the eye. Although widely studied, most research has been experimental in nature. We approach eyespots using a comparative...
Darwin spent years investigating the effects of self‐fertilization, concluding that “nature abhors perpetual self‐fertilization.” Given that selection purges inbred populations of strongly deleterious mutations and drift fixes mild mutations, why does inbreeding depression (ID) persist in highly inbred taxa and why do no purely selfing taxa exist? Background selection, associations and interference...
Microbes must adapt to the presence of other species, but it can be difficult to recreate the natural context for these interactions in the laboratory. We describe a method for inferring the existence of symbiotic adaptations by experimentally evolving microbes that would normally interact in an artificial environment without access to other species. By looking for changes in the fitness effects microbes...
Predicting how social environment affects life history variation is critical to understanding if, and when, selection favors alternative life history development, especially in systems in which social interactions change over time or space. Although sexual selection theory predicts that males and females should respond differently to variation in the social environment, few studies have examined the...
Incompletely reproductively isolated species often segregate into different microhabitats, even when they are able to survive and reproduce in both habitats. Longer term evolutionary factors may contribute to this lack of cross‐habitat persistence. When reproductive interference reduces immigrant fitness, assortative mating, including self‐fertilization, increases immigrants’ fitness in a single generation,...
Urban‐driven evolution is widely evident, but whether these changes confer fitness benefits and thus represent adaptive urban evolution is less clear. We performed a multiyear field reciprocal transplant experiment of acorn‐dwelling ants across urban and rural environments. Fitness responses were consistent with local adaptation: we found a survival advantage of the “home” and “local” treatments compared...
Macroevolutionary consequences of competition among large clades have long been sought in patterns of lineage diversification. However, mechanistically clear examples of such effects remain elusive. Here, we postulated that the limited phenotypic diversity and insular gigantism in lagomorphs could be explained at least in part by an evolutionary constraint placed on them by potentially competing ungulate‐type...
Which sources of variance in socially monogamous species offer the largest opportunity for sexual selection? Germain et al. study this question in a double‐brooding songbird and find that male reproductive success gained within the social bond stands out as an important source of variance across years and lifetimes.
To what extent do parallel and unique local adaptation occur along elevational gradients? In a reciprocal transplant experiment, Bachmann and Van Buskirk found stronger evidence for parallel adaptation to elevation than for unique local adaptation in Rana temporaria populations of the Swiss Alps. This finding has important implications for understanding gene flow effects on adaptive patterns and provides...
In socially monogamous species, male reproductive success consists of “within‐pair” offspring produced with their socially paired mate(s), and “extra‐pair” offspring produced with additional females throughout the population. Both reproductive pathways offer distinct opportunities for selection in wild populations, as each is composed of separate components of mate attraction, female fecundity, and...
Sexual selection is thought to shape phylogenetic diversity by affecting speciation or extinction rates. However, the net effect of sexual selection on diversification is hard to predict because many of the hypothesized effects on speciation or extinction have opposing signs and uncertain magnitudes. Theoretical work also suggests that the net effect of sexual selection on diversification should depend...
Species that have sex determined by environmental conditions during development (i.e., environmental sex determination [ESD]) are especially vulnerable to environmental change, including altered stress levels, habitat loss, and species translocations. These factors can produce multigenerational trends in population size and eco‐evolutionary dynamics not captured by existing theory based on lifetime...
We performed a reciprocal transplant experiment to estimate “parallel” adaptation to elevation and “unique” adaptation to local sites at the same elevation, using the frog Rana temporaria in the Swiss Alps. It is important to distinguish these two processes because they have different implications for population structure and ecological specialization. Larvae were reared from hatching to metamorphosis...
Understanding the processes of population divergence and speciation remains a core question in evolutionary biology. For nearly a hundred years evolutionary geneticists have characterized reproductive isolation (RI) mechanisms and specific barriers to gene flow required for species formation. The seminal work of Coyne and Orr provided the first comprehensive comparative analysis of speciation. By...
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