Comparative study of adaptive radiation

• Jonathan B. Losos

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Abstract
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.