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Full-Text Articles in Behavior and Ethology
Functional Regionalization In The Fly Eye As An Adaptation To Habitat Structure, Carlos A. Ruiz
Functional Regionalization In The Fly Eye As An Adaptation To Habitat Structure, Carlos A. Ruiz
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
With over 150,000 described species, flies constitute one of the most species-rich groups of animals on earth, and have managed to colonize almost every corner of it. Part of their success comes from their amazing flying skills, which are strongly tied to their visual capabilities. To navigate fast and accurately through their habitats, they must be able to process the inordinate amounts of visual information necessary to sort obstacles, avoid predators and remain on course. Surprisingly, despite their tiny brains, flies have no problem in processing all that information to generate correcting maneuvers in just about 30 ms. To this …
Using Introduced Species Of Anolis Lizards To Test Adaptive Radiation Theory, James T. Stroud
Using Introduced Species Of Anolis Lizards To Test Adaptive Radiation Theory, James T. Stroud
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Adaptive radiation – the proliferation of species from a single ancestor and diversification into many ecologically different forms – has long been heralded as an important process in the generation of phenotypic diversity. However, the early stages of adaptive radiation are notoriously elusive to observe and study. In this dissertation, I capitalize on communities of introduced non-native Anolis lizards as analogues of early stage adaptive radiations. In Chapter II, I begin by reviewing the concept of “ecological opportunity” – a classic hypothesis put forward as a potential key to understanding when and how adaptive radiation occurs. In Chapter III, I …