Comparative study of adaptive radiation
Principal Investigators:
Jonathan B. Losos
Despite intensive study over the past half century, our conceptual understanding of adaptive radiation has advanced relatively little. A primary reason is that there has been no synthetic, integrative study of adaptive radiation across different evolutionary lineages. The result is that our database on adaptive radiation is composed of a hodgepodge of studies. Disparities among studies in approach, methodology, and organisms mean that each study is unique and that, as a result, testing general hypotheses, much less deriving new generalities, is... more
Despite intensive study over the past half century, our conceptual understanding of adaptive radiation has advanced relatively little. A primary reason is that there has been no synthetic, integrative study of adaptive radiation across different evolutionary lineages. The result is that our database on adaptive radiation is composed of a hodgepodge of studies. Disparities among studies in approach, methodology, and organisms mean that each study is unique and that, as a result, testing general hypotheses, much less deriving new generalities, is difficult. This working group will bring together experts in ecology and evolutionary biology with different taxonomic specialties to develop appropriate methods to conduct a comparative study of adaptive radiation. Group members will gather data from both their own studies and from other studies on related taxa, thus amassing a large base of comparable data, allowing for
the testing of general questions about adaptive radiation, as well as leading to the development of new approaches and questions. Members of current working groups focusing on related questions will be invited to participate in some of this working group's activities, leading to mutually beneficial advances and synthesis.
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Participants and Meetings

Working Group Participants
Activity | Dates | Further Information |
---|---|---|
Working Group | 26th—30th August 2001 | Participant List |
Graduate Student | 1st November—31st December 2001 | Participant List |
Working Group | 23rd—25th July 2002 | Participant List |
Working Group | 15th—18th January 2003 | Participant List |
Working Group | 24th—27th January 2006 | Participant List |
Participant Contact Information
John Alroy | jalroy@science.mq.edu.au | University of California, Santa Barbara |
Michael J. Benton | mike.benton@bris.ac.uk | University of Bristol |
Michael J. Donoghue | michael.donoghue@yale.edu | Yale University |
Niles Eldredge | epunkeek@amnh.org | American Museum of Natural History |
Brian D. Farrell | farrellb@oeb.harvard.edu | Harvard University |
Rosie G. Gillespie | gillespi@nature.berkeley.edu | University of California, Berkeley |
John L. Gittleman | ecohead@uga.edu | University of Virginia |
Thomas J. Givnish | givnish@facstaff.wisc.edu | University of Wisconsin, Madison |
Peter R. Grant | prgrant@princeton.edu | Princeton University |
Harry W. Greene | hwg5@cornell.edu | University of California, Berkeley |
Scott A. Hodges | hodges@lifesci.lscf.ucsb.edu | University of California, Santa Barbara |
Allan Larson | larson@biology.wustl.edu | Unknown |
Jonathan B. Losos | jlosos@oeb.harvard.edu | Washington University in St. Louis |
Carlos Martinez del Rio | cmdelrio@uwyo.edu | University of Wyoming |
Mark A. McPeek | mark.mcpeek@dartmouth.edu | Dartmouth College |
Andy Purvis | a.purvis@ic.ac.uk | Imperial College, London, Silwood Park Campus |
Robert E. Ricklefs | ricklefs@umsl.edu | University of Missouri, St. Louis |
George Roderick | roderick@nature.berkeley.edu | University of California, Berkeley |
Dolph Schluter | schluter@zoology.ubc.ca | University of British Columbia |
Ole Seehausen | ole.seehausen@aqua.unibe.ch | University of Hull |
Peter J. Wagner | wagnerpj@si.edu | Field Museum |
David B. Wake | wakelab@uclink.berkeley.edu | |
Luke J. Harmon | lukeh@uidaho.edu | Washington University in St. Louis |
Arne Mooers | amooers@sfu.ca | Simon Fraser University |
Thomas J. Near | tnear@utk.edu | University of California, Davis |
Mark Pagel | m.pagel@reading.ac.uk | University of Reading |
Melanie L. J. Stiassny | mljs@amnh.org | American Museum of Natural History |
T. Jonathan Davies | j.davies@mcgill.ca | University of Virginia |
Jason Weir | weir@zoology.ubc.ca | University of British Columbia |
Products: Publications, Reports, Datasets, Presentations, Visualizations
Type | Products of NCEAS Research |
---|---|
Journal Article | Gillespie, Rosie G. 2004. Community assembly through adaptive radiation in hawaiian spiders. Science. Vol: 303. Pages 356-359. (Online version) |
Journal Article | Harmon, Luke J.; Schulte, James A.; Larson, Allan; Losos, Jonathan B. 2003. Tempo and mode of evolutionary radiation in Iguanian lizards. Science. Vol: 301. Pages 961-964. (Online version) |
Journal Article | Harmon, Luke J.; Losos, Jonathan B.; Davies, T. Jonathan; Gillespie, Rosie G.; Gittleman, John L.; Jennings, W. Bryan; Kozak, Kenneth H.; McPeek, Mark A.; Moreno-Roark, Franck; Near, Thomas J.; Purvis, Andy; Ricklefs, Robert E.; Schluter, Dolph; Schulte, James A.; Seehausen, Ole; Sidlauskas, Brian L.; Weir, Jason; Mooers, Arne. 2010. Early bursts of body size and shape evolution are rare in comparative data. Vol: 64(8). Pages 2385-2396. (Online version) |
Journal Article | Webb, Campbell O.; Losos, Jonathan B.; Agrawal, Anurag A. 2006. Integrating phylogenies into community ecology. Ecology (Special Issue: Phylogenetic approaches to community ecology). Vol: 87(7). Pages S1-S2. (Online version) |
"Comparative study of adaptive radiation" is project ID: 4263