Royal Society funding awarded

Kathryn has received a Research Grant from the Royal Society, for equipment and field research support for the project "Colouration biodiversity on the landscape: a case study on European amphibians". Just in time for the next field excursion with James!

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NEW PAPER: Dollo's law and evolutionary reversals

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 Published this week is a new paper I wrote with Jean Clobert, asking 'how to study (putative) evolutionary reversals?' We look at the current state of agreement about what is needed, provide some history and context to the arguments about Dollo's law, and finally propose a roadmap for how to test evolutionary reversals now that we are in the so-called post-genomic era.  Open access paper available in Trends in Ecology and Evolution Thanks to TULIP for funding a research visit that let me work on this paper at SETE Abstract Dollo’s law of irreversibility argues that evolution cannot revert to earlier states. It has remained controversial ever since its inception in the 19th century. Enabled by advances in phylogenomics and functional genomics, recent studies show that there are very likely some cases of ‘breaking Dollo’s law’. As post-genomic research grows from showing patterns to revealing processes, new emphasis is needed on the molecular mechanisms by which Dollo’s law...
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Fieldwork Update from Austria: summer 2024

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by J. Smout Fieldwork update:  Summer 2024 saw the start of a new phase of research on our field site in the Gailtal region of Austria. The site hosts a hybrid zone of oviparous (egg laying) and viviparous (live bearing) lineages of common lizards, Zootoca vivipara. Past research by Elmer Lab members and alumni has focussed on understanding the genetic architecture of viviparity and oviparity as well as investigating differences in reproductive investment, and reproductive success of the different lineages and hybrids.  Our new project, funded by a NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant, centres on a controlled breeding experiment to take place in situ at the hybrid zone. By setting up experimental crosses between oviparous, viviparous, and hybrid lizards of both sexes and by keeping the offspring for the duration of the project, we can address gaps in our existing knowledge of the hybrid zone such as differences in the inclusive fitness of male vs. female lizards and how hybridisat...
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NEW PAPER: landscape genomics reveal that oviparous and viviparous lizards have innately different population patterns

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