Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Speciation and patterns of biodiversity
- 2 On the arbitrary identification of real species
- 3 The evolutionary nature of diversification in sexuals and asexuals
- 4 The poverty of the protists
- 5 Theory, community assembly, diversity and evolution in the microbial world
- 6 Limits to adaptation and patterns of biodiversity
- 7 Dynamic patterns of adaptive radiation: evolution of mating preferences
- 8 Niche dimensionality and ecological speciation
- 9 Progressive levels of trait divergence along a ‘speciation transect’ in the Lake Victoria cichlid fish Pundamilia
- 10 Rapid speciation, hybridization and adaptive radiation in the Heliconius melpomene group
- 11 Investigating ecological speciation
- 12 Biotic interactions and speciation in the tropics
- 13 Ecological influences on the temporal pattern of speciation
- 14 Speciation, extinction and diversity
- 15 Temporal patterns in diversification rates
- 16 Speciation and extinction in the fossil record of North American mammals
- Index
- Plate section
- References
3 - The evolutionary nature of diversification in sexuals and asexuals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Speciation and patterns of biodiversity
- 2 On the arbitrary identification of real species
- 3 The evolutionary nature of diversification in sexuals and asexuals
- 4 The poverty of the protists
- 5 Theory, community assembly, diversity and evolution in the microbial world
- 6 Limits to adaptation and patterns of biodiversity
- 7 Dynamic patterns of adaptive radiation: evolution of mating preferences
- 8 Niche dimensionality and ecological speciation
- 9 Progressive levels of trait divergence along a ‘speciation transect’ in the Lake Victoria cichlid fish Pundamilia
- 10 Rapid speciation, hybridization and adaptive radiation in the Heliconius melpomene group
- 11 Investigating ecological speciation
- 12 Biotic interactions and speciation in the tropics
- 13 Ecological influences on the temporal pattern of speciation
- 14 Speciation, extinction and diversity
- 15 Temporal patterns in diversification rates
- 16 Speciation and extinction in the fossil record of North American mammals
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Species are fundamental units of biology, but there remains uncertainty on both the pattern and processes of species existence. Are species real evolutionary entities or not? If they exist, what are the main processes causing independent evolution and character divergence to occur? This chapter describes how systematic analyses of combined DNA and morphological data can be used to shed light on the evolutionary nature and origin of species. One widely debated test-case has been the question of whether asexual organisms diversify into species; but empirical studies are rare and discussions have often been hampered by allegiance to restrictive species concepts. We present an alternative approach, testing a set of hypotheses for what evolutionary entities might be present in a classic asexual clade, the bdelloid rotifers. Combined analyses of genetic and morphological data reveal the existence of distinct entities conforming to the predicted effects of independent evolution and isolation between sub-lineages. Interestingly, different components of what is meant by ‘species’ do not strictly coincide. We discuss the applicability of related methods to sexual lineages and to the question of whether higher taxa are real.
Introduction
Diversity is a fundamental property of the living world. However, despite long interest in the causes of diversification, we still have an incomplete understanding of patterns and processes behind the evolution of biodiversity. Most evolutionary theory has focused around the concept of species – diversity appears to be packaged in distinct units and a wealth of theory recognizes independent evolution as the cause for this phenomenon (Coyne & Orr 2004; Gavrilets 2004).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Speciation and Patterns of Diversity , pp. 29 - 45Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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