Coverage in The New Scientist
Our recent study, in review and available as a pre-print, has been covered by The New Scientist online and in print Magazine issue 3155, published 9 December 2017 (author: Michael Le Page)
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631554-700-lizards-reevolved-eggs-after-2-million-years-of-live-births/
This study, led by Hans Recknagel, used high resolution genomics of 200,000 loci informed by our new high quality genome (Yurchenko et al. in prep) to resolve the phylogeny of the Zootoca vivipara species complex - or the Eurasian common lizard. This lizard species has egg-laying and live-bearing lineages but it has not been at all clear how and in what order the different reproductive modes evolved from the oviparous ancestry. Our topology is consistent with a single origin of viviparity from oviparity, and then a re-evolution of viviparity. While this remains to be assessed with more detailed experiments (in the works!), ours is the most robust and data-rich tackling of this long-standing question.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631554-700-lizards-reevolved-eggs-after-2-million-years-of-live-births/
This study, led by Hans Recknagel, used high resolution genomics of 200,000 loci informed by our new high quality genome (Yurchenko et al. in prep) to resolve the phylogeny of the Zootoca vivipara species complex - or the Eurasian common lizard. This lizard species has egg-laying and live-bearing lineages but it has not been at all clear how and in what order the different reproductive modes evolved from the oviparous ancestry. Our topology is consistent with a single origin of viviparity from oviparity, and then a re-evolution of viviparity. While this remains to be assessed with more detailed experiments (in the works!), ours is the most robust and data-rich tackling of this long-standing question.
