SHIFTS IN BILATERAL ASYMMETRY WITHIN A DISTRIBUTION RANGE: THE CASE OF THE CHUKAR PARTRIDGE

Abstract Three major types of bilateral asymmetry (fluctuating asymmetry, directional asymmetry, and antisymmetry) have long been recognized in the literature. Little, however, is known about transitions between asymmetry types, especially in natural populations. It is often assumed that directional asymmetry and antisymmetry have a larger genetic basis than fluctuating asymmetry. This leads many scientists to exclude traits or populations showing either directional asymmetry or antisymmetry from developmental instability studies, focusing attention on fluctuating asymmetry alone. This procedure may bias the findings and thus our understanding of patterns of bilateral asymmetry and the factors influencing it. To examine changes in bilateral asymmetry across the distribution range of a species, I studied the length of the third toe in 11 chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) populations across a steep environmental gradient of 320 km within the species' range in Israel. This trait was selected due to its adaptive value in the chukar, a species that spends much of its activity walking, and due to its high measurement repeatability. Moving from the core toward the very extreme periphery of the range, the following four trends are detected: (1) the expression of the directional asymmetry component significantly increases; (2) the frequency of symmetrical individuals in the population significantly decreases, with a sharp decline at the steepest part of the climatic and environmental gradient studied, within the Mediterranean‐desert ecotone; (3) mean asymmetry levels, as estimated using the unsigned difference between the right and left toe, significantly increases; and (4) the range of asymmetry increases such that the most asymmetrical individuals originate from the very edge of the range. These findings provide primary evidence that substantial shifts in asymmetry may occur across short geographical distances within a species' distribution range. They show a continuum between asymmetry types and support the notion that all three types of asymmetry can reflect developmental instability. Further studies of developmental instability should be designed so that they enable detection of transitions between asymmetry types across natural populations. Such a procedure may partly resolve some of the contradictions seen in the literature regarding the relationship between bilateral asymmetry and environmental stress.     

THE NICHE CONSTRUCTION PERSPECTIVE: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL

Niche construction refers to the activities of organisms that bring about changes in their environments, many of which are evolutionarily and ecologically consequential. Advocates of niche construction theory (NCT) believe that standard evolutionary theory fails to recognize the full importance of niche construction, and consequently propose a novel view of evolution, in which niche construction and its legacy over time (ecological inheritance) are described as evolutionary processes, equivalent in importance to natural selection. Here, we subject NCT to critical evaluation, in the form of a collaboration between one prominent advocate of NCT, and a team of skeptics. We discuss whether niche construction is an evolutionary process, whether NCT obscures or clarifies how natural selection leads to organismal adaptation, and whether niche construction and natural selection are of equivalent explanatory importance. We also consider whether the literature that promotes NCT overstates the significance of niche construction, whether it is internally coherent, and whether it accurately portrays standard evolutionary theory. Our disagreements reflect a wider dispute within evolutionary theory over whether the neo‐Darwinian synthesis is in need of reformulation, as well as different usages of some key terms (e.g., evolutionary process).     

“假磨楔式”:一个概念的发展历史(英文)

大多数情况下古生物学是事后解释的科学,也就是说,在大多数情况下它的中心任务是解释存在的资料。古生物学成为预测科学的一个罕见的实例见诸于"假磨楔式"这个概念的发展历史中。根据一个假磨楔式哺乳动物的单个齿骨上的下臼齿结构,推测出当时尚不知道的上臼齿结构。随后,被认为很可能属于假磨楔式哺乳动物的单个上臼齿以及更晚的一件具有咬合在一起的上下臼齿的标本的发现证实了最初的假设。磨楔式臼齿结构作为哺乳动物历史中一个关键的创新结构,本身相当复杂。假磨楔式概念的被接受在认识磨楔式臼齿结构方面具有重要意义,这个结构可能发生不止一次。"假磨楔式"这个术语最初提出之后,随着它的使用,一些后来的研究者的用法严重偏离了它的本义。这一术语既被用来描述并不以原始定义的假磨楔式方式咬合的柱齿兽类牙齿,也被用于描述明显属于原始定义的磨楔式而不是假磨楔式牙齿。结果是古生物学界对其定义的理解变得更不准确,这个概念的实用性因此大大削弱。所以,回归最初的定义是合适的。     

STRONG GENETIC DIVERGENCE AMONG POPULATIONS OF A MARINE FISH WITH LIMITED DISPERSAL, ACANTHOCHROMIS POLYACANTHUS, WITHIN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF AND THE CORAL SEA

Abstract Acanthochromis polyacanthus is an unusual tropical marine damselfish that uniquely lacks pelagic larvae and has lost the capacity for broad‐scale dispersal among coral reefs. On the modern Great Barrier Reef (GBR), three color morphs meet and hydridize at two zones of secondary contact. Allozyme electrophoreses revealed strong differences between morphs from the southern zone but few differences between morphs from the northern counterpart, thus suggesting different contact histories. We explore the phylogeography of Acanthochromis polyacanthus with mitochondrial cytochrome b region sequences (alignment of 565 positions) obtained from 126 individuals representing seven to 12 fish from 13 sites distributed over 12 reefs of the GBR and the Coral Sea. The samples revealed three major clades: (1) black fish collected from the southern GBR; (2) bicolored fish collected from the GBR and one reef (Osprey) from the northern Coral Sea; (3) black and white monomorphs collected from six reefs in the Coral Sea. All three clades were well supported (72–100%) by bootstrap analyses. Sequence divergences were very high between the major clades (mean = 7.6%) as well as within them (2.0–3.6%). Within clades, most reefs segregated as monophyletic assemblages. This was revealed both by phylogenetic analyses and AMOVAs that showed that 72–90% of the variance originated from differences among groups, whereas only 5–13% originated within populations. These patterns are discussed in relation to the known geological history of coral reefs of the GBR and the Coral Sea. Finally, we ask whether the monospecific status of Acanthochromis should be revisited because the sequence divergences found among our samples is substantially greater than those recorded among well‐recognized species in other reef fishes.     

POLLEN FLOW WITHIN A TRISTYLOUS SPECIES: LYTHRUM SALICARIA

Lythrum salicaria L. is a classic example of tristyly. Pollen flow within a natural population of this species was studied by analyzing pollen loads on stigmas of both intact and emasculated plants. The data obtained indicated that a significant amount of self pollination occurs within flowers but that between flowers or plants pollinations are predominantly legitimate, i.e. between stamens and styles of equal length. It is concluded that while the multiallelic system excels in reducing frequency of incompatible pollinations between plants, the heteromorphic system is relatively more effective in reducing self pollinations within a plant.     

A NEW APPROACH TO CATEGORY SCALES OF INTENSITY I: TRADITIONAL VERSUS RANK-RATING

A traditional approach to intensity scaling, using ratings on a 9-point category scale was compared to a method that combined elements of ranking called Rank-Rating. The latter method forced judges to retaste stimuli whose tastes they had forgotten and accordingly reduced discrimination errors, thus increasing ability to discriminate.     

A NEW APPROACH TO CATEGORY SCALES OF INTENSITY II: USE OF d'VALUES

Using a Rank-Rating method, d'values were obtained for stimuli from a model system using 15-point, 9-point, 7-point and 5-point category scales. For an apple/grape juice system, d'values were compared for 9-point and 7-point scales. There was general agreement on d'values among the scales, except where stimuli had their scores 'bunched'into one category: this tended to occur for the strongest and weakest stimuli for Rank-Rating and for the scales with fewer points. Bunching altered distribution variances and distorted the calculated d'values. Further study gave d'values for the discrimination of confusable stimuli, using paired-comparison and rating data, thus providing numerical measures of their relative sensitivity.