Speciation
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
Category archives for Speciation
How and Why Species Multiply: The Radiation of Darwin’s Finches
Posted by "GrrlScientist" on May 12, 2008 tags: How and Why Species Multiply, evolution, ecology, Darwin’s finches, Rosemary Grant, Peter Grant, book review Peter and Rosemary Grant have been studying the phenomenon of speciation in Darwin’s finches for 35 years, using every technique available to them from molecular biology to population ecology. They have written several books about various aspects of their…
Rapid Evolution Driven by Invasion into New Habitats
Posted by "GrrlScientist" on April 23, 2008 tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, speciation, Pod Mrcaru lizard, Podarcis sicula, reptiles Pod Mrcaru lizard, Podarcis sicula. Image: Anthony Herrel (University of Antwerp) [larger view] Evolution has long been thought to occur slowly, due to small and gradual genetic changes that accumulate over millions of years until eventually, a new species arises. However, recent research has been…
Darwin’s Neglected Crabs
Posted by "GrrlScientist" on February 22, 2008 tags: Charles Darwin, crabs, crustaceans, University of Oxford, Oxford Museum of Natural History, online database Fiddler crabs are easily recognised by their distinctive asymmetric claws. This specimen was captured in May 1835 when the Beagle arrived in Mauritius. Image: Oxford University Museum of Natural History [larger view]. The University of Oxford Museum of Natural History…
New Bird Discovered in Nepal
Posted by "GrrlScientist" on February 5, 2008 tags: researchblogging.org, birds, Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia, Prinia burnesii nipalensis, ornithology, speciation, new species, Nepal A new subspecies of the Rufous-vented Prinia, Prinia burnesii, has been found in Nepal. This new bird is now known as the Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia, Prinia burnesii nipalensis. [larger view]. A new subspecies of bird has been discovered on marshy grasslands…
Speciation in Birds
Posted by "GrrlScientist" on January 23, 2008 tags: Speciation in Birds, Trevor Price, book review, evolution, birds The question of what is a species and how they arise has generated numerous discussions and tremendous controversy throughout the decades. This interest is more than academic, as any bird watcher will tell you since the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) routinely splits one species into…
There Are More Giraffe Species Than You Think
Posted by "GrrlScientist" on December 22, 2007 tags: researchblogging.org, giraffe species, Giraffa camelopardalis, speciation, evolution, conservation, molecular phylogeny West African giraffe, currently Giraffa camelopardalis peralta. Image: Wikipedia (Creative Commons) [larger view] How many species of giraffes are there? Well, it may surprise you to learn this, but some people have actually thought about this throughout the decades, and they decided that there…
The Tree of Life
Posted by "GrrlScientist" on December 1, 2006 The Tree of Life Click image for larger view.
Darwin OnLine
Posted by "GrrlScientist" on October 19, 2006 A friend emailed this link and even though I have only begun to poke around on it, but already I find it fascinating. Darwin OnLine is a searchable webbed database that contains more than 50,000 text pages and 40,000 images of publications and handwritten manuscripts. It also has the most comprehensive Darwin bibliography ever published…
Another Origin of Species
Posted by "GrrlScientist" on June 29, 2006 Wild specimen of the butterfly species, Heliconius heurippa. Researchers recently demonstrated that this species is a naturally-occurring hybrid between H. cydno and H. melpomene. Image: Christian Salcedo / University of Florida, Gainesville. Speciation typically occurs after one lineage splits into two separate and isolated breeding populations. But it is has been hypothesized that two “parental”…
Electrifying Speciation
Posted by "GrrlScientist" on June 6, 2006 Although these fish look similar and have the same genetic makeup, they produce very different electrical signals (right) and will only mate with fish that produce the same signals. Cornell researchers believe that these different electrical signals are the fishes’ first step in diverging into separate species. [Image: Carl Hopkins.]