Predictability in evolution: From behaviour to genome

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This project aims to determine whether evolution is primarily unpredictable and stochastic, or predictable and constrained along certain pathways. By using a natural experiment that caused wood-feeding cockroaches to evolve into soil-burrowing cockroaches in response to climate change millions of years ago, this project will determine how the genomes of these organisms responded. This will show whether the same molecular changes are repeatedly used in the evolution of complex traits, including burrow construction. This will contribute to the understanding of how predictable evolution is at the molecular level, and provide insights into how genomes change in response to prolonged climate change.