Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation of Anoles

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University of California Press, 2009 M08 15 - 528 páginas
Adaptive radiation, which results when a single ancestral species gives rise to many descendants, each adapted to a different part of the environment, is possibly the single most important source of biological diversity in the living world. One of the best-studied examples involves Caribbean Anolis lizards. With about 400 species, Anolis has played an important role in the development of ecological theory and has become a model system exemplifying the integration of ecological, evolutionary, and behavioral studies to understand evolutionary diversification. This major work, written by one of the best-known investigators of Anolis, reviews and synthesizes an immense literature. Jonathan B. Losos illustrates how different scientific approaches to the questions of adaptation and diversification can be integrated and examines evolutionary and ecological questions of interest to a broad range of biologists.
 

Contenido

1 Evolutionary Biology as Historical Science
1
2 Meet the Anoles
11
3 Five Anole Faunas Part One
29
4 Five Anole Faunas Part Two
59
5 Phylogenetics Evolutionary Inference and Anole Relationships
81
6 Phylogenetic Perspective on the Timing and Biogeography of Anole Evolution
99
7 Evolution of Ecomorphological Diversity
113
8 Cradle to Grave
135
12 Natural Selection and Microevolution
233
13 Form Function and Adaptive Radiation
257
14 Speciation and Geographic Differentiation
291
15 The Evolution of an Adaptive Radiation
317
16 The Five Faunas Reconsidered
351
17 Are the Anoles Special and If So Why?
383
AFTERWORD
411
REFERENCES
421

9 Social Behavior Sexual Selection and Sexual Dimorphism
161
10 Habitat Use
189
11 Ecology and Adaptive Radiation
205

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Acerca del autor (2009)

Jonathan B. Losos is a Monique and Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America and Curator of Herpetology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. He is a newly elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recent recipient of the esteemed Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal. Losos is recognized for his novel and penetrating evolutionary studies of adaptive radiation in vertebrates, notably his comprehensive study of Anolis lizards in tropical America, as summarized in his recent book, Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation of Anoles.

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