New publication : a new term in evolutionary biology and paleontology

Martinez-Abrain, A. 2015 Stoch-aptation: a new term in evolutionary biology and paleontology. Ideas in Ecology and Evolution. doi:10.4033/iee.2015.8.6.n

Following two seminal papers published in the journal Paleobiology by Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba several decades ago, I suggest a new term (stoch-aptation) to refer to those individual traits or sets of traits that provide, just by chance, fitness adventages to species when faced with catastrophes (i.e. geological events triggering massive mortality), and that may lead to the origin of taxonomical entities above the species level.

Photo from http://www.aqua.org/explore/animals/chambered-nautilus

I provide as an example of stoch-aptations the set of features that helped mammals pass the Cretaceous-Paleogene transition, as well as traits behind the success of living fossils. However, the identification of specific stoch-aptations can be difficult. This missing term is necessary and useful to (a) consolidate the idea of selection at different hierarchical levels, (b) acknowledge the role of chance in the evolution of higher taxonomical categories and (c) think of the role of geological catastrophes as generators of innovation.

Lizards

The Lizard 2015 Spring Campaign has started

New Publication !

Sergio, F., Taferna A., De Stephanis, R., López Jiménez, L., Blas, J., Tavecchia, G., Preatoni, D., and Hiraldo, F., 2014: 'Individual improvements and selective mortality shape lifelong migratory performance'. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature13696

Billions of organisms, from bacteria to humans, migrate each year and research on their migration biology is expanding rapidly through ever more sophisticated remote sensing technologies. However, little is known about how migratory performance develops through life for any organism. To date, age variation has been almost systematically simplified into . These comparisons have regularly highlighted better migratory performance by adults compared with juveniles, but it is unknown whether such variation is gradual or abrupt and whether it is driven by improvements within the individual, by selective mortality of poor performers, or both.

Here we exploit the opportunity offered by long-term monitoring of individuals through Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite tracking to combine within-individual and cross-sectional data on 364 migration episodes from 92 individuals of a raptorial bird, aged 1–27 years old. We show that the development of migratory behaviour follows a consistent trajectory, more gradual and prolonged than previously appreciated, and that this is promoted by both individual improvements and selective mortality, mainly operating in early life and during the pre-breeding migration. Individuals of different age used different travelling tactics and varied in their ability to exploit tailwinds or to cope with wind drift. All individuals seemed aligned along a race with their contemporary peers, whose outcome was largely determined by the ability to depart early, affecting their subsequent recruitment, reproduction and survival. Understanding how climate change and human action can affect the migration of younger animals may be the key to managing and forecasting the declines of many threatened migrants.

See also at IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB) and IMEDEA Divulga here 

The ecological detective in video

I had the opportunity recently to give a talk at the Universities of Vigo, Santiago and Coruña with the excuse of the presentation of my popular science book "El detective ecológico: reflexiones sobre historia natural". Despite the title of the book my reflections are on ecology, evolution and conservation biology although directly inspired by the observation of the natural world in the field. I did not cover exactly the content of the book in my talks, not to upset would be readers, but I talked about some of my main interests and concerns in these three big fields. You may listen and watch the entire conference if you please under the following:

LINK TO THE TALK

LINK TO QUESTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC

The video was recorded at the University of Vigo and I thank Xose Holgado for his good work with this. I am also thankful to Dr. Alberto Velando for organizing the talk.

(Alejandro Martínez-Abraín, PhD)