Friday, March 29, 2013

something other than "adaptation" driving evolution...,

A computational model of greenish warbler evolution (left) fits real-world patterns of the species (right). Color corresponds to degrees of genetic difference. Image: Martins et al./PNAS

wired | What explains the incredible variety of life on Earth? It seems obvious. Evolution, of course! But perhaps not the evolution most people grew up with.

Some ecologists say the theory needs an update. They’ve proposed a new dynamic driving the emergence of new species, one that doesn’t involve adaptations or survival of the fittest.

Give evolution enough time and space, they say, and new species can just happen. Speciation might not only be an evolutionary consequence of fitness differences and natural selection, but a property intrinsic to evolution, just as all matter has gravity.

“Our work shows that evolution wants to be diverse,” said Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute. “It’s enough for organisms to be spread out in space and time.”


In a March 13 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper, Bar-Yam and his co-authors, Brazilian ecologists Ayana Martins at the University of Sao Paulo and Marcus Aguiar at the University of Campinas, modeled the evolution of greenish warblers living around the Tibetan plateau.

The warblers are what’s known as a ring species, a rare phenomenon that occurs when species inhabit a horseshoe-shaped range. Genes flow around the ring, passing between neighboring populations — yet at the ring’s tips, the animals no longer interbreed with one another.

By the usual standards, these end populations have become new species. According to the researchers’ model of the process, no special adaptations or differences in reproductive fitness are needed to explain — or at least to computationally replicate — the greenish warblers’ divergence. Fist tap Dale.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been browsing online more than 4 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It's рretty
ωorth еnοugh for me. In my view, if
all ωebmаstегѕ and bloggers made good content аs you did, the nеt
will be muсh mοre uѕeful than eveг before.


Here iѕ my webpаge :: article kevo review

Anonymous said...

Woаh! I'm really digging the template/theme of this site. It's simplе,
yеt еffective. A lоt οf tіmeѕ іt's very hard to get that "perfect balance" between usability and visual appearance. I must say you'vе dοne a gгеаt job with thіs.
In addition, the blog loаds extremely quicκ for mе on Intеrnet exploreг.
Еxceptiοnal Blog!

My ωeb ρаge warrior forum wso

Anonymous said...

Ahаa, іtѕ good diѕсussion regaгԁіng
thiѕ pieсe of writing at thіs
plасe at this ωebsite, I have reaԁ аll that, so
at this time me also commеnting аt thiѕ plaсe.


Alsо visit my web page; gvo pure leverage review

What Is France To Do With The Thousands Of Soldiers Expelled From Africa?

SCF  |    Russian President Vladimir Putin was spot-on this week in his observation about why France’s Emmanuel Macron is strutting around ...