Sea kraits are venomous marine adapted snakes belonging to the single genus Laticauda in the family Elapidae. There are eight species in the genus, three are wide-ranging, with distributions spanning from Myanmar to Tonga, and north to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. The other five…
"139" Result
Sort By:
Genetics at the population level can illuminate important information about the evolutionary health and history of a population, which can be especially important for threatened or endangered species. The Alabama sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus suttkusi) is the rarest and most endanger…
Ant colonies are a hub of diverse interactions that are affected by a multitude of factors, such as colony members, external environment, and possibly the symbiotic bacteria that live within individual colony members. While symbiotic microbes are well-known to manipulate the phy…
DNA methylation has been proposed as an epigenetic, evolutionary mechanism for acclimation, transgenerational plasticity, and local adaptation without changes in DNA sequence. In this thesis, I assess the highly targeted evolutionary nature of DNA methylation in Chinook salmon f…
The revolutionary advancements in phylogenetic theory and sequencing technology have revived hope of resolving recalcitrant relationships but also revealed the common nature of more complexed genome evolution that leads to extensive gene tree heterogeneity. In various lineages o…
Animal behavior is shaped both by ultimate and proximate forces. While evolutionary biologists have focused primarily on understanding the ultimate mechanisms driving behavioral variation in natural populations, geneticists and neurobiologists have largely been concerned with pr…
Marine fishes and invertebrates are an essential human food resource and are becoming more important as the human population continues to grow. As the climate continues to change, the overall impact of these changes on fisheries is unknown. It is necessary to understand the effe…
Comparative phylogeography is the study of the effects of biogeography and evolutionary history on the spatial distribution of genetic variation of codistributed species. This approach allows investigation of the links between population processes and regional patterns. Here, I …
Accelerated rates of climate change are expected to either lead to adaptation and persistence, or extinction. Traditionally, ecological models predict extinction risk based on how environmental change alters a population’s intrinsic growth rate (r). However, these predictions of…
Over the last 800 million years, animals have evolved an incredible array of diverse forms, life histories, ecologies, and traits. In the age of genome-scale resources for many animal taxa, researchers have a unique opportunity to investigate animal diversity and evolution throu…
Life history theory has been a major focus for evolutionary biologists since the field’s inception. A multitude of studies have been performed over various organisms, however, the underlying mechanisms that predict life history strategies remain elusive. The genus Sceloporus has…
Sirenids are enigmatic in their biology, behavior, and phylogenetic relationships. These eel-like salamanders are morphologically unique, with slender bodies and absent lower extremities. Species in the genus Siren all maintain this body plan, with some slight variation in pheno…
The history of life is often viewed as a evenly branching tree; however, in reality it is more like a tangled hedgerow. Many groups of organisms are known to have such a net-like or reticulate evolutionary history, but it is particularly common in ferns and lycophytes (also know…
Fireflies are a cosmopolitan group of bioluminescent beetles classified in the family Lampyridae. The first catalogue of Lampyridae was published in 1907 and since that time, the classification and systematics of fireflies have been in flux. Several more recent catalogues and cl…
Genomic diversity is shaped by the interplay between mutation, genetic drift, recombination, and natural selection. A major goal of evolutionary biology is to understand the relative contribution of these different microevolutionary forces to patterns of genetic variation both w…
Predator-prey interactions shape the natural histories of both species as each tries to adapt and counter-adapt to the tactics of the other. This important evolutionary dynamic is crucial for ecosystem formation and stability. Predation is a fundamental aspect of life for most o…
Understanding interspecies patterns and the mechanisms that generated them is key in macroevolutionary theory. Often, these patterns can be attributed to selection affecting groups of lineages in different manners. Under the ecomorphological paradigm, we investigated the macroev…
The entire diversity of life on earth exists in air or water. Whether an organism lives in air or water provides the most fundamental description of its physical world and establishes an organism’s ecological niche on the most essential level. Because these two fluids are vastly…
Weather creates energetic and survival challenges for organisms that can influence demography. Harsh weather often causes increased energy expenditure in adults, but how weather affects other life stages is less well understood. Juveniles are especially vulnerable because they m…