Evolutionary biology colleagues: please consider to submit a title and Abstract suggestion to our forthcoming theme issue in "Methods in Ecology & Evolution" on time-dependency in micro- and macroevolutionary rates:
Deadline for Abstract submission: May 1 2026. Deadline for full article submission: October 31 2026.
Abstract A negative answer to the question about the reducibility of genetic processes at the level of macroevolutionary events to microevolutionary ones has been obtained by analyzing the evolutionary transition-transversion bias and estimating the rates of molecular transformations in a number of vertebrates by the example of the CYTB gene. As a result, it has been established that, at a divergence at a level below families, the frequency of transitions sustains “a jump,” due to which the rate of molecular evolutions increases by an order of magnitude, whereas there occurs a slight predominance of transversion frequencies with a synchronous linear increase in the frequency of different nucleotide substitutions at the levels of orders and higher. An obvious reason for distinctions between the genetic processes of micro- and macroevolution is the leading role of spontaneous mutations in the formation of species. Their canalization results in stable morphological distinctions formed during postnatal ontogenesis. At the same time, the stages of macroevolution are associated with the transformation of organogenesis to be fixed with by changes in the sets of genes governing the nature of gene regulation and the interaction of genes in development.
#DerekTurner - #Philosophy of #EvolutionaryBiology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3KPS7Yi7aY
#Philosophy #PhilosophyOfScience #Science #PhilosophyOfBiology #Biology #Evolution #Microevolution #Macroevolution #Stasis #Contingency #Selection #NaturalSelection #CloserToTruth #RobertKuhn
Many people think the history of the Earth is hard to decipher. The geological record jumbles everything up. We set out to fact-check this in my ERC Starting Grant MindTheGap. Focusing on the mode of evolution, because that is something that we can only glean from long records, longer than anything accessible to observation or experimentation today.
Thanks to collaboration with Peter Burgess we used forward models to simulate formation of carbonate rocks and see how completeness and stratigraphic resolution affect the reconstructions. Guess what! The geological record is 👌🏻 With a bit of understanding of #sedimentology and #physics we can test is with computer experiments and it turns out even very patchy rock strata will let us reconstruct the correct mode of evolution. This opens a lot of possibilities, especially for the #microfossil community: your data is priceless to understand #microevolution.
Check out the results at https://lnkd.in/eeiSuRwP
Also a big shoutout to an excellent review process at PCI Paleo, the thoughtful editors and reviewers, and to the lead author Niklas Hohmann for #code #reproducibility effort that meets the most stringent standards. Check out our software at https://lnkd.in/eJkwhhuh
Microevolution can be used to predict longer term evolution, new study shows #evolution #microevolution #macroevolution #study #climate #evolvability #change #selection #science
A new study in Science reveals that evolvability—populations' rapid adaptation ability—sheds light on macroevolution influenced by fluctuating environmental conditions. Using fossil and contemporary data, researchers highlight how genetic variation helps populations and species diverge under environmental pressures.
Deeply honoured for this invitation and to be able to present my research in front of an Indian scientific audience. Hopefully, I will be able to deliver!
#India #Odonata #macroevolution #microevolution #insects #Darwin #Wallace #evolution
Excited about this new preprint by my colleague Stephen De Lisle and myself about (the lack of) time-dependency across both micro- and macroevolutionary scales:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.02.569704v1
#macroevolution #microevolution #EvolutionaryBiology #Evolution
Rotifers have been studied in the laboratory and field for over 100 years in investigations of microevolution, ecological dynamics and ecotoxicology. This study presents a CRISPR/Cas9-based method for achieving knockout mutations of one or both alleles and knockin mutations in rotifers with high efficiency.
#Evolution refers to change in a biological population's inherited traits from generation to generation. All species on Earth originated by the mechanism of evolution, through descent from common ancestors. Evolution occurs as changes accumulate over generations. Charles Darwin recognized evolution by natural selection, also called "descent with modification", as the fundamental process underlying all of life, whether viewed at a large scale above the level of species (#macroevolution — in terms of formation of new species, changes within lineages, and extinction), or at a small scale within a species (#microevolution — in terms of change in gene frequency). In a nutshell, evolution by natural selection can be simplified to the following principles: 1) Variability 2) Differential Fitness 3) Heredity
#commondescent #naturalselection #charlesdarwin #RationalWiki
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Evolution
Erik Svensson
Cytology and Genetics
Jim Donegan 🎵 ✅
Emilia Jarochowska 🇺🇦🌱
Bill Loguidice
NIOO-KNAW
PLOS Biology
RationalWiki