Evolution's wedge : competition and the origins of diversity / David W. Pfennig, Karin S. Pfennig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pfennig, David W. (David William), 1955-

Contributor:

Pfennig, Karin S. (Karin Susan), 1969-

Series:

Organisms and environments ; no. 12

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Divergence (Biology).

Competition (Biology).

Animal diversity.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (319 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Evolutionary biology has long sought to explain how new traits and new species arise. Darwin maintained that competition is key to understanding this biodiversity and held that selection acting to minimize competition causes competitors to become increasingly different, thereby promoting new traits and new species. Despite Darwin's emphasis, competition's role in diversification remains controversial and largely underappreciated. In their synthetic and provocative book, evolutionary ecologists David and Karin Pfennig explore competition's role in generating and maintaining biodiversity. The authors discuss how selection can lessen resource competition or costly reproductive interactions by promoting trait evolution through a process known as character displacement. They further describe character displacement's underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms. The authors then consider character displacement's myriad downstream effects, ranging from shaping ecological communities to promoting new traits and new species and even fueling large-scale evolutionary trends. Drawing on numerous studies from natural populations, and written for a broad audience, Evolution's Wedge seeks to inspire future research into character displacement's many implications for ecology and evolution.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

1. Discovery of a Unifying Principle

2. Why Character Displacement Occurs

3. When Character Displacement Occurs

4. How Character Displacement Unfolds

5. Diversity and Novelty Within Species

6. Ecological Consequences

7. Sexual Selection

8. Speciation

9. Macroevolution

10. Major Themes and Unsolved Problems

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781283584142

128358414X

9780520954045

0520954041

OCLC:

811411282