Biological & Biomedical Seminar | Phylogenomics, Comparative Phylogenetics, and Macroevolutionary Dynamics of Squamate Adaptive Radiations, Nov. 28

The Biological Sciences & Biomedical Sciences Research Seminar Series features Dr. Phil Skipwith , an Assistant Professor from University of Kentucky, on Monday, Nov. 28, at 4 p.m. in Irvine 159 and on Teams .

Abstract : The asymmetry of both species and phenotypic diversity amongst clades is a well‐established pattern in evolutionary biology. Squamate reptiles, as one of the most diverse groups of tetrapods, represent an ideal system for studying diversification dynamics. Using geckos and snakes, we tested the relationships between speciation, phenotypic diversification, and ecological opportunity. In some geckos, it appears that speciation and trait diversification are uncoupled, which contradicts the expectations of adaptive radiation theory. Rather, speciation and trait diversification seem to respond to ecological opportunity independently and trait evolution is largely idiosyncratic amongst clades. In caenophidian snakes we find strong signatures of ‘deterministic’ evolution at the osteological level with ecomorphs being replicated across highly divergent taxa. Conversely, there appears to some level of many‐to‐one mapping for superficially similar taxa where
different changes between elements lead to functionally similar modules.