Evolution Commons^™

Multilocus And Parametric Analyses Of The Evolutionary History Of The Amazonian Peacock Cichlids, The Genus Cichla (Teleostei: Cichlidae), Stuart Clayton Willis

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Accurate knowledge of species boundaries and species phylogeny are fundamental to testing hypotheses of recent evolutionary processes, but the estimation of these partitions is challenging due both to inherent confusion about what is being estimated as well as the data available to estimate them. Using multilocus data from mtDNA, microsatellites, and nuclear locus sequences of over 1100 individuals, we delimited eight separately evolving species of Cichla rather than the 15 described. Among species we found evidence of rare but widespread introgressive hybridization, while within these species we observed evidence of long-term gene exchange and constrained evolutionary trajectories. In most cases …

Drafting Human Ancestry: What Does The Neanderthal Genome Tell Us About Hominid Evolution? Commentary On Green Et Al. (2010), Michael Hofreiter

Human Biology

Ten years after the first draft versions of the human genome were
announced, technical progress in both DNA sequencing and ancient DNA
analyses has allowed a research team around Ed Green and Svante Pa¨a¨bo to
complete this task from infinitely more difficult hominid samples: a few
pieces of bone originating from our closest, albeit extinct, relatives, the
Neanderthals. Pulling the Neanderthal sequences out of a sea of contaminating
environmental DNA impregnating the bones and at the same time
avoiding the problems of contamination with modern human DNA is in itself
a remarkable accomplishment. However, the crucial question in the long …

Evolutionary Genetics Of African Toads (Anura: Bufonidae: Amietophrynus), Nancy P. Conkey^, Eli Greenbaum*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2011

African "true" toads (frog genus Amietophrynus) include 39 morphologically conserved species that live in a panoply of habitats from the fringes of the Sahara to the mountains of South Africa. We examined the evolutionary relationships of these African bufonids by sequencing a 550 bp fragment of the 16S mitochondrial gene, and based on these results, collected a further 4 kb of combined mitochondrial (12S–16S) and nuclear (CXCR4, POMC, and RAG1) sequence data from sixty-two divergent samples of the genus Amietophrynus, and several bufonid outgroups. DNA sequences were analyzed with maximum parsimony,maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inference with the programs PAUP, RAxML and …

Contributions To Scorpion Systematics. Iv. Observations On The Hadrurus “Spadix” Subgroup With A Description Of A New Species (Scorpiones: Caraboctonidae), Michael E. Soleglad, Victor Fet, Graeme Lowe

Euscorpius

In this study new data are presented on the “spadix” subgroup of genus Hadrurus, including the description of a new species, H. anzaborrego, sp. nov., found primarily in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (ABDSP) in southern California, USA. This species is distinguished by its internal trichobothrial pattern of the chela and its unique carapace pattern. The status of Hadrurus obscurus Williams, 1970 is discussed and new locality data for this species are provided. A phylogenetic key to the genera, species, and subspecies of subfamily Hadrurinae is provided.

Serradigitus Miscionei (Scorpiones: Vaejovidae), A New Species From Southern Arizona, Richard F. Ayrey

Euscorpius

A new scorpion species, Serradigitus miscionei, is described, placed in the genus Serradigitus Stahnke, 1974. These are small reddish-brown scorpions found on vertical surfaces, in the San Pedro River system and other river systems in southern, Arizona.

The Genus Chaerilus Simon, 1877 (Scorpiones, Chaerilidae) In The Indian Ocean Islands And Description Of A New Species, Wilson R. Lourenço, Bernard Duhem, Elise-Anne Leguin

Euscorpius

A new species is described belonging to the genus Chaerilus Simon, 1877. Chaerilus andamanensis sp. n. was discovered in the Island of Little Andaman in the Indian Ocean. The new species shows affinities with Chaerilus variegatus Simon, 1877 and Chaerilus borneensis Simon, 1880, respectively described from Java and Borneo. This s the first record of the genus Chaerilus in the Andaman Islands.

On Two Subspecies Of Mesobuthus Eupeus (C. L. Koch, 1839) In Turkey (Scorpiones: Buthidae), František Kovařík, Ersen Aydın Yağmur, Victor Fet, Shahrokh Navidpour

Euscorpius

Examination of 268 specimens of Mesobuthus eupeus eupeus (C. L. Koch, 1839) and 1765 specimens of M. eupeus phillipsii (Pocock, 1889) from 163 localities, 92 of them in Turkey, has enabled us to establish distribution of the two subspecies and limits of their ranges in southeastern Turkey. A map of distribution of these subspecies in Turkey and a key to Turkish Mesobuthus species and subspecies are provided. Buthus eupeus philippovitschi Birula, 1905 is synonymized with Mesobuthus eupeus eupeus, and Buthus eupaeus mesopotamicus Penther, 1912 is synonymized with Mesobuthus eupeus phillipsii.

A New Species Of Orthochirus Karsch, 1892 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) From Maharashtra, India, Amod M. Zambre, Zeeshan A. Mirza, Rajesh V. Sanap, Raman Upadhye, S. M. Maqsood Javed

Euscorpius

A new species of scorpions of the genus Orthochirus (Buthidae) is described from Jalna, Maharashtra, India. A key to Indian scorpion of the genus Orthochirus is provided.

Compsobuthus Sindicus Sp. N. From Pakistan (Scorpiones: Buthidae), František Kovařík, Zubair Ahmed

Euscorpius

Compsobuthus sindicus sp. n. of the werneri group is described from Pakistan, Sind Province, near the border with India. It is characterized chiefly by densely granulated carapace mesosoma, metasoma, telson, and femur and patella of pedipalps; the first to fourth metasomal segments bear 10 carinae. C. sindicus sp. n. is closest to C. rugosulus (Pocock, 1900) from India and Pakistan, from which it differs chiefly in having the first metasomal segment approximately as wide as long.

Extreme Environments Select For Reproductive Assurance: Evidence From Evening Primroses (Oenothera), Margaret E.K. Evans, David J. Hearn, Kathryn E. Theiss, Karen Cranston, Kent E. Holsinger, Michael J. Donoghue

EEB Articles

• Competing evolutionary forces shape plant breeding systems (e.g. inbreeding depression, reproductive assurance). Which of these forces prevails in a given population or species is predicted to depend upon such factors as life history, eco- logical conditions, and geographical context. Here, we examined two such predictions: that self-compatibility should be associated with the annual life history or extreme climatic conditions.

• We analyzed data from a clade of plants remarkable for variation in breeding system, life history and climatic conditions (Oenothera, sections Anogra and Kleinia, Onagraceae). We used a phylogenetic comparative approach and Bayesian or hybrid Bayesian tests to account …

On The Origin Of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, And Fiction, Hope Hollocher, Agustín Fuentes, Charles H. Pence, Grant Ramsey, Daniel John Sportiello, Michelle M. Wirth

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Disease And Behavior In Mammalian Ecology And Behavior, Christopher R. Collins

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Causes of mortality reflect the evolutionary forces shaping the physiology and behavior of species. To evaluate the relative importance of these in North American Mammals I compared published data from 69 populations across 27 species. Of the known causes, humans are the main cause of mortality (51.8%), followed by natural causes (48.5%), with predation being the largest natural cause. Populations in remote areas experienced higher hunting mortality, and those closer to human populations suffered increased vehicle collision. Predation mortality was negatively correlated with body mass.

Darwin's Other Idea : Sexual Selection, Gender And Violence, Robert Samuel Moschgat

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation provides an empirical exploration of Darwin's theory of sexual selection, which views the male propensity to engage in short term mating strategies--sexual promiscuity and violence--as the result of sexual selection. Within an environmental context, biological father and mother household presence are expected to inhibit the initiation of short-term mating strategies and increase parental investment--paternal and maternal attachments, supervision, and protection. Whereas, structural disadvantage--living in poverty and in dangerous neighborhoods--is predicted to increase the initiation of a short-term mating strategies and compromise the parents' ability to protect their children and by weakening paternal and maternal attachments, thereby increasing the …

Egyptian Body Size: A Regional And Worldwide Comparison, Michelle H. Raxter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Human body size and limb proportions can provide important information about adaptation, population movements, and health disparities. This study investigated changes in body size and limb proportions of adult Egyptians temporally and geographically in relation to climatological, sociopolitical and economic developments. It was predicted that Egyptian groups that experienced more environmental stress would be shorter and exhibit less sexual dimorphism. It was also predicted that Egyptians would be intermediate between higher and lower latitude populations in body form and limb length ratios. The main skeletal sample consisted of 492 males and 528 females, all adults from the Predynastic and Dynastic …

Mechanisms For Decisions About The Future, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Evolutionary and psychological perspectives on decision making remain largely separate endeavors. The bounded rationality approach integrates these two perspectives by focusing on simple, plausible mechanisms of decision making and the cognitive capacities needed to implement these mechanisms. Decisions about the future provide a class of decisions that lend themselves to a bounded rationality approach. Though many different mechanisms may exist for making decisions about the future, only a subset of these mechanisms actually require a representation of the future. The bounded rationality approach helps focus on the cognitive capacities and decision mechanisms that are necessary for a full understanding of …

A Taxonomic Revision Of The New World Hypoponera Santschi, 1938 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Shawn Thomas Dash

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The New World taxa of the pantropic ant genus Hypoponera (Ponerinae: Ponerini) is revised for the first time. The 55 previously recognized taxa have been evaluated using morphological and, when possible, ecological and biogeographical data to resolve taxon validity and species limits. Currently I recognize 42 species of Hypoponera , a number of which are new. I propose the following taxonomic outline: Hypoponera agilis (Borgmeier), Hypoponera aliena (F. Smith), Hypoponera antoniensis (Forel) stat. nov., Hypoponera apateae sp. nov., Hypoponera capilosa sp. nov., Hypoponera clinei sp. nov., Hypoponera clavatula (Emery) [= fiebrigi (Forel) syn. nov., = neglecta (Santschi) syn. nov.], Hypoponera …

Phylogeography Of Northern Populations Of The Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus Molossus Baird And Girard, 1853) With The Revalidation Of C. Ornatus Hallowell, 1854, Christopher Anderson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The black-tailed rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus Baird and Girard, 1853) is a wide-ranging species complex with representatives from the southwestern United States through the highlands of central and southern Mexico. The systematics of this group has received little attention and in the past six decades only two taxonomic revisions have been proposed (the transfer of C. basiliscus oaxacus to C. molossus and the elevation of C. m. estebanensis to full species). However, a recent revision of the Neotropical rattlesnakes (C. durissus and C. simus) recovered a polyphyletic C. molossus. Sequenced data were obtained from three mitochondrial genes …

A Test Of An Evolutionary Theory Of Adiposity Gain Induced By Long Sleep In Descendants Of European Hunter-Gatherers, Oleksiy Chadyuk

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have identified inadequate sleep duration as one of the factors contributing to global obesity. The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesis deduced from a new sleep-duration-based evolutionary theory claiming that sleep extension in response to lengthening night duration in early fall evolved into a behavioral marker of an approaching winter; this adaptive trait was theorized to produce adiposity gain in White men in response to sleep extension. The hypothesis was that White Americans would show a greater increase in the age-adjusted fat mass index per unit of sleep duration compared to that of Black Americans. Data …

Communication For Mate Selection In Anurans: Dominant Frequency Versus Snout-Vent-Length, Shari Jean Kunert

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

No abstract provided.

Reconstructing Species Responses To Past Climatic Changes Using Niche Modeling And Genetic Data, Tereza Jezkova

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Glacial – interglacial cycles have a pronounced impact on species distributions and genetic structure. Many species shift their distributions to lower latitudes and altitudes during the colder glacial periods and expand northwards and up the elevation during warmer interglacial periods. Some species however are capable of adapting to changing environment which allows them to persist in place despite climatic changes. I explored how climatic changes after the last glacial maximum (LGM) effected two species inhabiting the deserts of western North America: one mammal (Chisel-toothed Kangaroo Rat, Dipodomys microps) and one reptile (Desert Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma platyrhinos). I used …

Micrornas Reveal The Interrelationships Of Hagfish, Lampreys, And Gnathostomes And The Nature Of The Ancestral Vertebrate, Alysha M. Heimberg, Richard Cowper-Sal{Middle Dot}Lari, Marie Semon, Philip C. J. Donoghue, Kevin J. Peterson

Dartmouth Scholarship

Hagfish and lampreys are the only living representatives of the jawless vertebrates (agnathans), and compared with jawed vertebrates (gnathostomes), they provide insight into the embryology, genomics, and body plan of the ancestral vertebrate. However, this insight has been obscured by controversy over their interrelationships. Morphological cladistic analyses have identified lampreys and gnathostomes as closest relatives, whereas molecular phylogenetic studies recover a monophyletic Cyclostomata (hagfish and lampreys as closest relatives). Here, we show through deep sequencing of small RNA libraries, coupled with genomic surveys, that Cyclostomata is monophyletic: hagfish and lampreys share 4 unique microRNA families, 15 unique paralogues of more …

Ecological Effects Of Virus-Resistant Transgenic Squash, Holly R. Prendeville

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Two ecological risks associated with the use of transgenic crops include the effects of transgene products on non-target organisms and the effects of a transgene after it moves from crops into a wild plant population. In work presented here, we specifically investigate the ecological risks of virus-resistant transgenic squash. We observed pollinator behavior to determine if pollinators are affected by nontarget effects of the virus-resistant transgene. We found that pollinator behavior did differ between conventional and virus-resistant transgenic squash due to pleiotropic effects of the transgene. This difference in pollinator behavior can affect plant mating patterns, thereby affecting crop-wild hybridization …

Evolutionary Rates And Gene Dispensability Associate With Replication Timing In The Archaeon Sulfolobus Islandicus, Kenneth M. Flynn, Samuel H. Vohr, Philip J. Hatcher, Vaughn S. Cooper

Molecular, Cellular & Biomedical Sciences

In bacterial chromosomes, the position of a gene relative to the single origin of replication generally reflects its replication timing, how often it is expressed, and consequently, its rate of evolution. However, because some archaeal genomes contain multiple origins of replication, bias in gene dosage caused by delayed replication should be minimized and hence the substitution rate of genes should associate less with chromosome position. To test this hypothesis, six archaeal genomes from the genus Sulfolobus containing three origins of replication were selected, conserved orthologs were identified, and the evolutionary rates (dN and dS) of these orthologs were quantified. Ortholog …

Intuitions Of Punishment, Owen D. Jones, Robert Kurzban

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Recent work reveals, contrary to wide-spread assumptions, remarkably high levels of agreement about how to rank order, by blameworthiness, wrongs that involve physical harms, takings of property, or deception in exchanges. In The Origins of Shared Intuitions of Justice (http://ssrn.com/abstract=952726) we proposed a new explanation for these unexpectedly high levels of agreement.

Elsewhere in this issue, Professors Braman, Kahan, and Hoffman offer a critique of our views, to which we reply here. Our reply clarifies a number of important issues, such as the interconnected roles that culture, variation, and evolutionary processes play in generating intuitions of punishment.

Genomic Perspectives On Evolution In Bracken Fern, Joshua P. Der

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The fern genus Pteridium comprises a number of closely related species distributed throughout the world. Collectively they are called bracken ferns and have historically been treated as a single species, Pteridium aquilinum. Bracken is notorious as a toxic weed that colonizes open fields and poisons livestock. Bracken is also easily cultured and has become one of the most intensively studied ferns. Bracken has been used as a model system for the study of the fern life cycle, fern gametophyte development, the pheromonal mechanism of sex determination, toxicology, invasion ecology, and climate change. This dissertation places bracken within a global …

Phylogeography Of Two Closely Related Anurans, The Relict Leopard Frog (Rana Onca) And Lowland Leopard Frog (Rana Yavapaiensis), Viktoria Hemmings

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

I investigate the phylogeography of the relict and lowland leopard frogs (Rana onca; R. yavapaiensis) inhabiting the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. In Chapter 1, I summarize literature describing taxonomy, phylogenetics, and the possible effects of Quaternary climate change on distribution. Examples of phylogeographic patterns from generally co-distributed organisms are provided to develop background for interpreting the structure. In Chapter 2, I investigate the phylogeography of these frogs using mitochondrial DNA data. The analysis supports a previously determined phylogenetic break between taxa however further dividing R. yavapaiensis into two lineages. I estimate a possible Early Pleistocene divergence of R. onca and …

Ecology And Relationships Of Rhabdias Spp. (Nematoda: Rhabdiasidae) From North American Amphibians And Reptiles, Gabriel J. Langford

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Lungworms of the cosmopolitan genus Rhabdias (Nematoda: Rhabdiasidae) are among the most common parasites of amphibians and squamate reptiles. The life cycles, life histories, host specificities, and evolutionary relationships of Rhabdias spp. were studied through examination of their free-living and parasitic stages in amphibians and reptiles. This study found free-living development of anuran lungworms was primarily limited to heterogonic reproduction, whereas snake lungworms primarily reproduced homogonically. Infective anuran lungworms penetrated the skin of frogs and toads; in contrast, snake lungworms penetrated snake esophageal tissue during per os infections. Our molecular phylogeny strongly supported separate clades for anuran and snake lungworms, …

On The Physical Geography Of The Malay Archipelago (1863), Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace Classic Writings

No abstract provided.

Genetic Variation At Nuclear Loci Fails To Distinguish Two Morphologically Distinct Species Of Aquilegia, Elizabeth A. Cooper, Justen B. Whittall, Scott A. Hodges, Magnus Nordborg

Biology

Aquilegia formosa and pubescens are two closely related species belonging to the columbine genus. Despite their morphological and ecological differences, previous studies have revealed a large degree of intercompatibility, as well as little sequence divergence between these two taxa [1,2]. We compared the inter- and intraspecific patterns of variation for 9 nuclear loci, and found that the two species were practically indistinguishable at the level of DNA sequence polymorphism, indicating either very recent speciation or continued gene flow. As a comparison, we also analyzed variation at two loci across 30 other Aquilegia taxa; this revealed slightly more differentiation among taxa, …

Ecological Opportunity And The Origin Of Adaptive Radiations, J. B. Yoder, E. Clancey, S. Des Roches, J. M. Eastman, L. Gentry, W. Godsoe, T. J. Hagey, D. Jochimsen, B. P. Oswald, J. Robertson, B. Sarver, J. J. Schenk, S. F. Spear, L. J. Harmon

Biology

Ecological opportunity – through entry into a new environment, the origin of a key innovation or extinction of antagonists – is widely thought to link ecological population dynamics to evolutionary diversification. The population-level processes arising from ecological opportunity are well documented under the concept of ecological release. However, there is little consensus as to how these processes promote phenotypic diversification, rapid speciation and adaptive radiation. We propose that ecological opportunity could promote adaptive radiation by generating specific changes to the selective regimes acting on natural populations, both by relaxing effective stabilizing selection and by creating conditions that ultimately generate diversifying …