DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Community Structure in Day Geckos (Phelsuma): Testing for Convergence

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One of the great questions in evolutionary biology concerns the extent to which evolution is deterministic. If it is deterministic, evolution may be repeatable; alternatively, the unique historical attributes of different lineages may mean that evolutionary direction is unpredictable. Studies on the evolutionary radiation of Anolis lizards on Caribbean islands have become a model system for the study of evolution. In this proposal we initiate a study of day geckos of the genus Phelsuma on islands in the Indian Ocean. Our general goal is to compare the evolutionary radiation of day geckos to that of anoles and to investigate the extent to which these two lizard groups from very different ancestral stock have followed similar evolutionary pathways. Using a combination of field studies, experiments, and laboratory work, we will describe in detail the way that communities of day geckos have evolved together. If day geckos show similar patterns to those found in Anolis, we will conclude that these two groups have evolved convergently; alternatively, if day geckos show their own unique idiosyncratic evolutionary patterns, we will conclude that this is a result of historically contingent differences between these two lizard groups.