Life Sciences Commons^™

Plumage Convergence In Picoides Woodpeckers Based On A Molecular Phylogeny, With Emphasis On Convergence In Downy And Hairy Woodpeckers, Amy C. Weibel, William S. Moore

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Adult and juvenile plumage characters were traced onto a well-resolved molecular based phylogeny for Picoides woodpeckers, and a simple phylogenetic test of homology, parallelism, and convergence of plumage characters was performed. Reconstruction of ancestral character states revealed multiple events of independent evolution of derived character states in most characters studied, and a concentrated changes test revealed that some plumage characters evolved in association with habitat type. For example, there was a statistically significant association between loss of dorsal barring and use of densely vegetated habitats among Picoides species. Two analyses indicated that convergence, as opposed to parallel evolution or shared …

Further Analysis Of Allozyme Variation In The Northern Flicker, In Comparison With Mitochondrial Dna Variation, Stephen D. Fletcher, William S. Moore

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Banding Recovery Data To Estimate Dispersal Rates And Gene Flow In Avian Species: Case Studies In The Red-Winged Blackbird And Common Grackle, William S. Moore, Richard A. Dolbeer

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Dispersal resulting in gene flow strongly affects the evolution of genetic structure in populations. This report describes statistical estimators of dispersal parameters based on USFWS banding recovery records. Finite-area studies of avian species yield estimates of root-mean-square (RMS) dispersal along a transect of about 1 km per generation. In contrast, estimates of RMS dispersal for the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) and Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), based on USFWS banding recovery records, are 94.6 and 111.4 km per generation, respectively. Distributions for both species are extremely leptokurtic, and confidence intervals based on jackknife statistics are large because the estimators are sensitive …

Genic Population Structure And Gene Flow In The Northern Flicker (Colaptes Auratus) Hybrid Zone, Thaddeus A. Grudzien, William S. Moore, J. Richard Cook, Danilo Tagle

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

The Yellow-shafted Flicker (Colaptes auratus auratus) and Red-shafted Flicker (C. a. cafer) form a stable, narrow hybrid zone on the western Great Plains of North America. Allozyme data were obtained from 31 structural gene loci for 33 samples representing 246 Northern Flickers from throughout the Great Plains. Flickers were approximately equivalent to other birds in terms of proportion of polymorphic loci (P = 0.207) and average heterozygosity (H = 0.056). There was no concordant variation between plumage characters and allelic frequencies.

Gene-diversity analysis indicated that 92.5% of the genic variation occurred as within-deme heterozygosity ( …

Comparative Reproductive Success Of Yellow-Shafted, Red-Shafted, And Hybrid Flickers Across A Hybrid Zone, William S. Moore, Walter D. Koenig

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Alternative hypotheses of hybrid zones make specific predictions about reproductive components of fitness in the hybrids. The dynamic-equilibrium and reinforcement hypotheses are premised on reduced hybrid fitness, which should be apparent as reduced clutch or brood size or as increased embryonic mortality. The hybrid-superiority and introgression hypotheses predict normal clutch and brood size and embryonic mortality.

Reproductive success was measured at four study sites on a transect across the hybrid zone between the Yellow- (Colaptes auratus auratus) and Red-shafted (C. a. cafer) subspecies of the Northern Flicker. Two additional clutch size samples representing pure Yellow- and …

An Evaluation Of Narrow Hybrid Zones In Vertebrates, William S. Moore

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

A review of the literature on vertebrate hybridization reveals the existence of a number of narrow hybrid zones. Three hypotheses have been suggested to explain the occurrence of these zones. The ephemeral-zone hypothesis states that hybridization will end either in speciation or fusion of the hybridizing taxa by means of introgression. The dynamic-equilibrium hypothesis allows the possibility that narrow hybrid zones might be stable: where hybrids are confined to a small area by steep selection gradients, "crystallization" of an antihybridization mechanism might be prevented by naive immigrants from the parental populations even though hybrids are selected against. The hybrid-superiority hypothesis …

Stability Of Small Unisexual-Bisexual Populations Of Poeciliopsis (Pisces: Poeciliidae), William S. Moore

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

All-female species of Poeciliopsis depend upon ♂ ♂ of closely related species for sperm. This relationship creates a competitive situation in which bisexual ♀ ♀ compete with unisexual ♀ ♀ for sperm from ♂ ♂ of the bisexual species. Earlier studies demonstrated a sufficient mechanism inherent in the behavior of ♂ ♂ for allowing coexistence in mixed unisexual-bisexual populations. Courtship preference of ♂ ♂ for conspecific ♀ ♀ is dynamically countered by social interaction among ♂ ♂ : subordinate males mate with unisexual ♀ ♀ in impetuous courtships. The Poeciliopsis monacha-Poeciliopsis 2 monacha-lucida complex occurs naturally in small isolated populations …

Coexistence In Unisexual-Bisexual Species Complexes Of Poeciliopsis (Pisces: Poeciliidae), William S. Moore, Frances E. Mckay

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

All-female forms of Poeciliopsis rely on males of closely related bisexual species for sperm. The natural habitat of Poeciliopsis in Sonora, Mexico, consists of a variety of small ponds connected by intermittent watercourses. Optimal areas, containing mixed female aggregates, are defended by territorial males. Social structure in natural populations very closely resembles that of laboratory experiments, wherein subordinant males show reduced mate discrimination and inseminate unisexuals.

An equation relating male density to unisexual inseminations is used in a computer simulation model of a population. A stable equilibrium is inherent in unisexual-bisexual species complexes but the level of equilibrium is affected …