U.S.-Argentina Cooperative Research: Testing for Behavioral Convergence

9870142马丁斯这个美洲计划奖将资助一个合作研究项目之间的艾米莉亚P.马丁斯博士，俄勒冈州，尤金和莫妮克哈洛博士，图库曼，阿根廷大学和安东尼埃塔Labra，智利大学，对进化过程的研究基础趋同，一个更显着的例子，进化的自然选择。 在这种进化现象中，远亲类群在适应相似的环境时变得彼此相似。 这项研究将包括在阿根廷和智利进行实地考察，收集录像带和组织样本。 分子实验室工作和计算机分析将在俄勒冈州大学进行。研究人员将应用最近开发的统计系统发育方法来测试两组蜥蜴的进化趋同性，这两组蜥蜴只是远亲，但它们有许多共同的形态和行为特征。 通过将交流展示叠加在进化过程上，并推断导致两组蜥蜴相似路径多样化的实际模式和过程，他们将确定进化是否在两组蜥蜴中遵循相似的路径，或者它是否只是降落在相似的最终解决方案上。 他们还将应用现代系统发育比较方法来解决趋同问题，开发一种统计方法来确定两组分类群是否经历了类似的选择压力。 该项目是美国、智利和阿根廷三个国家之间潜在长期合作的第一步。*

9870142MartinsThis Americas Program award will fund a collaborative research project between Dr. Emilia P. Martins, University of Oregon, Eugene and Drs. Monique Halloy, University of Tucuman, Argentina and Antonieta Labra, Universidad de Chile, on a study of the evolutionary processes underlying convergence, one of the more remarkable examples of evolution by natural selection. In this evolutionary phenomenon, distantly related taxa become similar to one another as they adapt to similar environments. The study will involve fieldwork in Argentina and Chile to collect videotapes and tissue samples. Molecular lab work and computer analyses will be conducted at the University of Oregon.The researchers will apply recently developed statistical phylogenetic methods to test for evolutionary convergence two groups of lizards which are only distantly related, but which share a number of morphological and behavioral features. By overlaying the communicative displays on a phylogeny, and inferring the actual patterns and processes leading to diversification of the similar pathways in the two groups of lizards, they will determine whether evolution has followed similar pathways in both groups, or whether it has simply landed on similar final solutions. They will also apply modern phylogenetic comparative methods to the question of convergence, developing a statistical approach to determining whether two groups of taxa have been undergoing similar sorts of selective pressures. This project is a first step in a potential long-term collaboration across three countries, the US, Chile and Argentina.***