Jan.
8, 2013 — Chris Martin has bred more than 3,000 hybrid fish in his time as
a graduate student in evolution and ecology at UC Davis, a pursuit that has
helped him create one of the most comprehensive snapshots of natural selection
in the wild and demonstrated a key prediction in evolutionary biology.
"We
can see a surprisingly complex snapshot of natural selection driving the
evolution of new specialized species," said Martin, who with Professor
Peter Wainwright published a paper on the topic in the Jan. 11, 2013, issue of
the journal Science.
The
"adaptive landscape" is very important for evolutionary biology, but
rarely measured, Martin said. He's been fascinated with the concept since high
school.
An
adaptive landscape takes variable traits in an animal or plant, such as jaw
size and shape, spreads them over a surface, and reveals peaks of success (what
evolutionary scientists call fitness) where those traits become most effective,
or adaptive.
It
is a common and powerful idea that influences thinking about evolution. But
while the concept is straightforward, it is much harder to map out such a landscape
in the wild.
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