The time reversible model Q.met and non-reversible model NQ.met for studying metazoan evolutionary. NQ.met enables us to reconstruct the rooted phylogenetic tree for Metazoa.

I investigated male attractiveness, mating success, and paternity success using males of the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum selected for higher (H) and lower (L) locomotor endurance. Although there was no difference in male attractiveness between the selection regimes, H males had significantly higher mating success than L males. Conversely, L males had significantly higher paternity success than H males. Therefore, there was a trade-off between mating success and paternity success among the selection regimes, suggesting that locomotor endurance affects male reproduction in T. castaneum.

Habitat segregation can evolve in response to maladaptive hybridization (i.e., reinforcement). Our model shows that, if there is some extent of (pre-existing, non-evolving) species recognition, male and female habitat preferences are selected differently. When male and female habitat preferences have different genetic bases, these traits show interesting coevolution. The diagrams (top) summarise sex-specific selection pressures, and the heatmaps (bottom) show how pre-existing, sex-limited partial habitat segregation (PHS) influence the eventual coexistence with established habitat segregation.

“We collected 150 fire salamander larvae (in black) from sites at different altitudes and exposed them to rich and poor food conditions. After metamorphosis all the individuals were kept for 6 weeks. We depicted causal relationships (showed by the graph on the left, indicated by arrows with colours suggesting the predominant effect within the data range of both direct and interaction; positive relationships are blue; negative relationships are red; and relationships with a sign that depended on an interaction are coloured magenta with the interaction effect summarised in the edge labels) between several traits and identified possible adaptations to food deprivation in larvae from higher altitudes.”

Effect of food restriction on individual and colony life histories.

Shown is an overview of the experimental evolution design (left) and key results (right). These results show rapid and mainly nonparallel evolution in multiple SNPs in response to experimental drought in Brassica rapa (field mustard).

Why warning patterns are so diverse is an enduring evolutionary puzzle. Because predators associate particular patterns with unpleasant experiences, an individual’s predation risk should decrease as the local density of its warning pattern increases, promoting pattern monomorphism. Male Heliconius use warning patterns as mating cues, but mated females may suffer costs if this leads to disturbance, favouring novel patterns.

To a lesser extent than male conspicuous plumage, female plumage colouration may also vary across bird species. This study explores the role of egg production and male parental care in the evolution of female plumage colouration, using 133 species of songbirds. Pictures were provided by Justine Le Vaillant, David López-Idiáquez and Matthew Silk.

In this work, we studied a new evolutionary perspective for Salvia by employing macroevolutionary analyses to address the tempo and mode of diversification. We also studied the association of the lever-mechanism pollination system to Salvia diversification. Our phylogenetic data in combination with divergence time estimates were used to examine the evolution of floral traits. A medium corolla length (15–18 mm) was reconstructed as the ancestral state with multiples to shorter and longer corollas. There were multiple shifts from a corolla longer than 25 to a shorter corolla within and among clades. Based on our result, the lever mechanism is not directly associated with Salvia diversification.

Common Killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus; coloured blue) and Banded Killifish (Fundulus diaphanus; coloured orange) hybridize in areas of overlap; 95% hybrids between these species are F1s with F. diaphanus mothers. We examined reproductive isolation (RI) using all possible cross types across a range of ecologically relevant salinities (0-15ppt, with 10ppt shown here) to examine how different barriers may contribute to the observed hybrid asymmetry.

Can specialization on either low or high resource explain coexistence in fluctuating environments? When two phenotypes initially coexist, competitive exclusion will remove one. However, two species can coexist over evolutionary timescales. Therefore, resource specialization can contribute to explaining diversity in natural fluctuating environments.