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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Development Of An Interactive Course Module: "Teaching And Learning Molecular Basis Of Evolution To Human Body", Soma Mukhopadhyay, Rachel Bishop, Brittany Blocker Nov 2014

Development Of An Interactive Course Module: "Teaching And Learning Molecular Basis Of Evolution To Human Body", Soma Mukhopadhyay, Rachel Bishop, Brittany Blocker

Soma Mukhopadhyay Ph.D.

Today’s youth expect to use technology in every aspect of their lives, including their education. Instead of being challenged by their considerable skills, educators should embrace the technology and use it to make the classroom experience more enjoyable for students, thereby improving learning outcomes. Evolution is no different – students must know the basics of evolution in order to be well-read members of society, and technology can help the students learn. The study of evolution today is incredibly interesting, particularly with new evidence coming to light almost daily. Human evolution, in particular, is the subject of copious amounts of research. …


Herbert W. Conn: Formative Decades Of Microbiology And Evolutionary Biology, Frederick M. Cohan, Alexa Boesel Sep 2014

Herbert W. Conn: Formative Decades Of Microbiology And Evolutionary Biology, Frederick M. Cohan, Alexa Boesel

Frederick M. Cohan

Herbert W. Conn (1859–1917) made outstanding contributions to both microbiology and evolutionary biology, reflecting his intellectual command of several biological disciplines. Conn endeavored to make the unseen world of microbes familiar, real, and consequential to members of the general public. He presciently considered the role of bacteria in our own bodies, describing them as being both harmful and beneficial to our health. He also contributed to our understanding of the concept of species, how they originate, and what those ideas might mean in terms of bacterial speciation. In Conn’s spirit, microbial ecologists studying speciation eschew the “species” taxa of bacterial …


Transcriptomic Insights Into The Diplontic Life History Of Diatoms, Colton Richard Kessenich May 2014

Transcriptomic Insights Into The Diplontic Life History Of Diatoms, Colton Richard Kessenich

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An organism's life cycle is the direct result of its evolutionary history and represents a fundamental aspect of its ancestry and ecology. Yet the process of linking alternating life-history stages has proven to be challenging, if not impossible in some cases. Diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) are no exception to this challenge, and their diversity of life stages and reproductive strategies add further challenges. A central focus of diatom research has been to unravel the evolutionary events that led to their extraordinary diversity, a line of inquiry that has been greatly aided by the availability of next-generation sequence data. Yet without proper taxonomic …


Evolutionary Change In Continuous Reaction Norms, Courtney J. Murren, Heidi J. Maclean, Sarah E. Diamond, Ulrich K. Steiner, Mary A. Heskel, Corey A. Handelsman, Cameron K. Ghalambor, Josh R. Auld, Hilary S. Callahan, David W. Pfennig, Rick A. Relyea, Carl D. Schlichting, Joel Kingsolver Apr 2014

Evolutionary Change In Continuous Reaction Norms, Courtney J. Murren, Heidi J. Maclean, Sarah E. Diamond, Ulrich K. Steiner, Mary A. Heskel, Corey A. Handelsman, Cameron K. Ghalambor, Josh R. Auld, Hilary S. Callahan, David W. Pfennig, Rick A. Relyea, Carl D. Schlichting, Joel Kingsolver

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


A Phylogenetic Reevaluation Of The Genus Gavia (Aves: Gaviiformes) Using Next-Generation Sequencing, Quentin D. Sprengelmeyer Apr 2014

A Phylogenetic Reevaluation Of The Genus Gavia (Aves: Gaviiformes) Using Next-Generation Sequencing, Quentin D. Sprengelmeyer

All NMU Master's Theses

Avian phylogenetic analysis based on DNA sequences, rather than morphological characters, has been used in recent decades to resolve systematic relationships. Advancements in molecular techniques have improved avian phylogenetics and have led to new insights on the relationships between and within taxa. Loons (Aves: Gaviiformes) are one of the oldest living lineages of birds, and the order includes five extant species. The morphological cladogram of Gavia placed G. arctica as a sister species to G. pacifica. However, a more recent study based on mtDNA resulted in a discordant tree splitting the G. arctica/G. pacifica clade, and …


Conservative Evolution, Sustainability, And Culture, Gábor Náray-Szabó Mar 2014

Conservative Evolution, Sustainability, And Culture, Gábor Náray-Szabó

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Conservative Evolution, Sustainability, and Culture" Gábor Náray-Szabó argues that evolution is conservative in the sense that throughout the history of the universe old constructs like elementary particles, amino acids, and living cells remained conserved while the world evolved/evolves in complexity. A similar process can be observed in cultural evolution as components of society and culture continue to evolve. Considering the increasing pressure on natural resources by material consumption, a close alliance between past, present, and future generations is unavoidable and thus Náray-Szabó posits that concepts of conservative evolution and sustainability are related. However, in order to avoid …


Evolution, Snakes, And God: A Brief Argument For Agreement, Jessica Stanze Jan 2014

Evolution, Snakes, And God: A Brief Argument For Agreement, Jessica Stanze

A with Honors Projects

Comparing the evolution and religious connotations of the snake, this short essay suggests that evolutionists and creationists might reach common ground if they attempted to collaborate.


Patterns Of Maximum Body Size Evolution In Cenozoic Land Mammals: Eco-Evolutionary Processes And Abiotic Forcing, Juha J. Saarinen, Alison G. Boyer, James H. Brown, Daniel P. Costa, S.K. Morgan Ernest, Alistair R. Evans, Mikael Fortelius, John L. Gittleman, Marcus J. Hamilton, Larisa E, Harding, Kari Lintulaakso, S. Kathleen Lyons, Jordan G. Okie, Richard M. Sibly, Patrick R. Stephens, Jessica Theodor, Mark D. Uhen, Felisa A. Smith Jan 2014

Patterns Of Maximum Body Size Evolution In Cenozoic Land Mammals: Eco-Evolutionary Processes And Abiotic Forcing, Juha J. Saarinen, Alison G. Boyer, James H. Brown, Daniel P. Costa, S.K. Morgan Ernest, Alistair R. Evans, Mikael Fortelius, John L. Gittleman, Marcus J. Hamilton, Larisa E, Harding, Kari Lintulaakso, S. Kathleen Lyons, Jordan G. Okie, Richard M. Sibly, Patrick R. Stephens, Jessica Theodor, Mark D. Uhen, Felisa A. Smith

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

There is accumulating evidence that macroevolutionary patterns of mammal evolution during the Cenozoic follow similar trajectories on different continents. This would suggest that such patterns are strongly determined by global abiotic factors, such as climate, or by basic eco-evolutionary processes such as filling of niches by specialization. The similarity of pattern would be expected to extend to the history of individual clades. Here, we investigate the temporal distribution of maximum size observed within individual orders globally and on separate continents. While the maximum size of individual orders of large land mammals show differences and comprise several families, the times at …