| fission and fusion in island taxa--serendipity, or something to be expected? | a well-used metaphor for oceanic islands is that they act as 'natural laboratories' for the study of evolution. but how can islands or archipelagos be considered analogues of laboratories for understanding the evolutionary process itself? it is not necessarily the case that just because two or more related species occur on an island or archipelago, somehow, this can help us understand more about their evolutionary history. but in some cases, it can. in this issue of molecular ecology, garrick et ... | 2014 | 25330853 |
| lineage fusion in galápagos giant tortoises. | although many classic radiations on islands are thought to be the result of repeated lineage splitting, the role of past fusion is rarely known because during these events, purebreds are rapidly replaced by a swarm of admixed individuals. here, we capture lineage fusion in action in a galápagos giant tortoise species, chelonoidis becki, from wolf volcano (isabela island). the long generation time of galápagos tortoises and dense sampling (841 individuals) of genetic and demographic data were int ... | 2014 | 25223395 |