Genes code for the expression of phenotypic traits, such as behavioral (e.g., aggressiveness) and morphological (e.g., opposing thumbs) traits. Costly traits are phenotypic traits that evolved in spite of imposing a fitness cost, often in the form of a survival handicap. In non-human animals, the classic example of costly trait is the peacock’s train, used by males to signal good health to fema...

Selective mortality is an important process influencing both the dynamics of marine populations and the evolution of their life histories. Despite a large and growing interest in measuring selective mortality, studies of marine species can face some serious methodological and analytical challenges. In particular, many studies of selection in marine environments use a crosssectional approach in ...

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Digital microscopic pollen images are being generated with increasing speed and volume, producing opportunities to develop new computational methods that increase the consistency and efficiency of pollen analysis and provide the palynological community a computational framework for information sharing and knowledge transfer. • METHODS Mathematical methods we...

Conspicuous differences in floral morphology are partly responsible for reproductive isolation between two sympatric species of monkeyflower because of their effect on visitation of the flowers by different pollinators. Mimulus lewisii flowers are visited primarily by bumblebees, whereas M. cardinalis flowers are visited mostly by hummingbirds. The genetic control of 12 morphological difference...

Numerical efficient methods for sampling and evaluation of Gaussian Markov Random Fields (GMRFs) are used for making inference from Bayesian animal models (also known as additive genetic models, that are versions of general linear models). For single-trait animal models an approximation to the posterior distribution of variance components and the heritability can be found without using Markov c...

Evolution of mammalian skeletal structure can be rapid and the changes profound, as illustrated by the morphological diversity of the domestic dog. Here we use principal component analysis of skeletal variation in a population of Portuguese Water Dogs to reveal systems of traits defining skeletal structures. This analysis classifies phenotypic variation into independent components that can be u...

UNLABELLED • PREMISE OF THE STUDY Variation in how seeds are dispersed in grasses is ecologically important, and selection for dispersal mechanisms has produced a great variety of dispersal structures (diaspores). Abscission ("shattering") is necessary in wild grasses, but its elimination by selection on nonshattering mutants was a key component of the domestication syndrome in cereal grasses...

Shared environmental pressures often give rise to the convergence of morphological characters in unrelated and geographically distinct species. Darwin (1859) wrote that “analogous variation” of traits in different organisms could be explained by similar influences or challenges in their environment. Convergence of traits can be driven by adaptive radiation when animals invade similar ecological...

The opposing effects of environmental filtering and competitive interactions may influence community assembly and coexistence of related species. Competition, both in the domain of ecological resources, and in the sensory domain (for example, acoustic interference) may also result in sympatric species evolving divergent traits and niches. Delineating these scenarios within communities requires ...