0603 - Evolutionary Biology
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This collection contains Flinders' staff research in Evolutionary Biology, reportable as part of Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), from 2001-
Items are added automatically from Flinders University Research Services Office.
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Item Biopotentials of marine sponges from China oceans; past and future(2003) Xue, S; Yuan, Q; Zhang, Wei; Zhang, Xun; Zhao, Quanyu; Yu, Xingju; Li, JItem Systematics and evolution of the sthenurine kangaroo(University of California Publications, 2004) Prideaux, Gavin JohnItem Host-driven diversification of gall-inducing Acacia thrips and the aridification of Australia(2007) McLeish, Michael John; Chapman, Thomas William; Schwarz, Michael PhilipBackground Insects that feed on plants contribute greatly to the generation of biodiversity. Hypotheses explaining rate increases in phytophagous insect diversification and mechanisms driving speciation in such specialists remain vexing despite considerable attention. The proliferation of plant-feeding insects and their hosts are expected to broadly parallel one another where climate change over geological timescales imposes consequences for the diversification of flora and fauna via habitat modification. This work uses a phylogenetic approach to investigate the premise that the aridification of Australia, and subsequent expansion and modification of arid-adapted host flora, has implications for the diversification of insects that specialise on them. Results Likelihood ratio tests indicated the possibility of hard molecular polytomies within two co-radiating gall-inducing species complexes specialising on the same set of host species. Significant tree asymmetry is indicated at a branch adjacent to an inferred transition to a Plurinerves ancestral host species. Lineage by time diversification plots indicate gall-thrips that specialise on Plurinerves hosts differentially experienced an explosive period of speciation contemporaneous with climatic cycling during the Quaternary period. Chronological analyses indicated that the approximate age of origin of gall-inducing thrips on Acacia might be as recent as 10 million years ago during the Miocene, as truly arid landscapes first developed in Australia. Conclusion Host-plant diversification and spatial heterogeneity of hosts have increased the potential for specialisation, resource partitioning, and unoccupied ecological niche availability for gall-thrips on Australian Acacia.Item Regressive evolution of an eye pigment gene in independently evolved eyeless subterranean diving beetles(2005) Leijs, Remko; Cooper, Steven J B; Strecker, Ulrike; Wilkens, HorstItem Molecular phylogenetics of the exoneurine Allodapine bees reveal an ancient and puzzling dispersal from Africa to Australia(2006) Schwarz, Michael Philip; Fuller, Susan J; Tierney, Simon M; Cooper, Steven J BItem Taxonomic update and Lucid key for introduced blackberry in Australia(Weed Society of NSW, 2004) Symon, David E; Oliver, Julie A; Whalen, Molly Ann; Barker, Robyn M; Evans, Katherine J; Hosking, John RItem Molecular phylogenetics of allodapine bees, with implications for the evolution of sociality and progressive rearing(2003) Schwarz, Michael Philip; Bull, N J; Cooper, Steven J BItem Systematics of the Rubus fruticosus aggregate (Rosaceae) and other exotic Rubus taxa in Australia(2007) Hosking, John R; Symon, David E; Barker, Robyn M; Whalen, Molly Ann; Evans, Katherine J; Oliver, Julie AItem Diversification of exogenous genes in vivo in Neurospora(2003) Rasmussen, J P; Yeadon, Patricia Jane; Bowring, Frederick James; Catcheside, David Edward; Gabe, G; Cambareri, E B; Kato, E; Stuart, W DItem Adaptive divergence in contiguous populations of Darwin's Small Ground Finch (Geospiza fuliginosa)(2006) Kleindorfer, Sonia Marie; Chapman, Thomas William; Winkler, Hans; Sulloway, FrankItem Distinct migratory and non-migratory ecotypes of an endemic New Zealand eleotrid (Gobiomorphus cotidianus): implications for incipient speciation in island freshwater fish species(2008) Stevens, Mark Ian; Hicks, Brendan; Stolting, Kai; Clarke, Andrew; Michel, Christian; Tana, Ray; Meyer, Axel; van den Heuvel, MichaelItem Systematic status of Aponomma tachyglossi Roberts (Acari: Ixodidae) from echidnas, Tachyglossus aculeatus, from Queensland, Australia(2006) Dixon, Bruce Richard; Petney, Trevor N; Andrews, Ross Hector; Beveridge, Ian; Bull, Christopher Michael; Chilton, Neil BItem Evolution of sociality by natural selection on variances in reproductive fitness: evidence from a social bee(2007) Schwarz, Michael Philip; Stevens, Mark Ian; Hogendoorn, KatjaThe Central Limit Theorem (CLT) is a statistical principle that states that as the number of repeated samples from any population increase, the variance among sample means will decrease and means will become more normally distributed. It has been conjectured that the CLT has the potential to provide benefits for group living in some animals via greater predictability in food acquisition, if the number of foraging bouts increases with group size. The potential existence of benefits for group living derived from a purely statistical principle is highly intriguing and it has implications for the origins of sociality.Item A taxonomic revision and morphological variation within Eucalyptus series Subulatae subseries Oleaginae (Myrtaceae), including the oil mallee complex, of south-western Australia(2005) Nicolle, Dean; Byrne, M; Whalen, Molly AnnItem A taxonomic revision and morphological variation within Eucalyptus series Subulatae subseries Spirales (Myrtaceae) of southern Australia(2006) Nicolle, Dean; Whalen, Molly AnnItem Resolution of the taxonomy of Eriocaulon (Eriocaulaceae) taxa endemic to Australian mound springs, using morphometrics and AFLP markers.(2007) Cheong, Judy P-E; Leach, Gregory L; Mackay, Duncan Alexander; Craigie, Andrew Ian; Whalen, Molly Ann; Davies, Richard Jean-PierreItem Sperm release strategies in marine broadcast spawners: the costs of releasing sperm quickly(2007) Bolton, Toby Fitzgerald; Marshall, DustinItem Evolution of subterranean diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae: Hydroporini, Bidessini) in the arid zone of Australia(2003) Leijs, Remko; Watts, Chris H.S.; Cooper, Steven J B; Humphreys, William FAbstract Calcrete aquifers in arid inland Australia have recently been found to contain the world's most diverse assemblage of subterranean diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae). In this study we test whether the adaptive shift hypothesis (ASH) or the climatic relict hypothesis (CRH) is the most likely mode of evolution for the Australian subterranean diving beetles by using a phylogeny based on two sequenced fragments of mitochondrial genes (CO1 and 16S‐tRNA‐ND1) and linearized using a relaxed molecular clock method. Most individual calcrete aquifers contain an assemblage of diving beetle species of distantly related lineages and/or a single pair of sister species that significantly differ in size and morphology. Evolutionary transitions from surface to subterranean life took place in a relatively small time frame between nine and four million years ago. Most of the variation in divergence times of the sympatric sister species is explained by the variation in latitude of the localities, which correlates with the onset of aridity from the north to the south and with an aridity maximum in the Early Pliocene (five mya). We conclude that individual calcrete aquifers were colonized by several distantly related diving beetle lineages. Several lines of evidence from molecular clock analyses support the CRH, indicating that all evolutionary transitions took place during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene as a result of aridification.Item Hasinamelissa: a new genus of allodapine bee from Madagascar revealed by larval morphology and DNA sequence data(2008) Chenoweth, Luke; Tierney, Simon M; Fuller, Susan J; Park, Yung Chul; Schwarz, Michael PhilipItem A new Pleistocene tree-kangaroo (Diprotodontia: Macropodidae) from the Nullarbor Plain of south-central Australia(2008) Warburton, Natalie M; Prideaux, Gavin John