Project 17
Plasticity as a bridge between micro- and macroevolution

Led by Erik Svensson, Charlie Cornwallis & Tobias Uller

This project investigates the dynamics of thermal adaptations in beetles, dragonflies and damselflies on both micro-evolutionary and macro-evolutionary time scales. We are exploring the links between thermal plasticity, behavioural thermoregulation, tolerance to different thermal conditions and thermal depended morphological traits, as well as the relationship between these traits and speciation and extinction rates.

Blog posts

Linking micro- and macroevolution through studies of thermal plasticity in an old insect order
de Lisle S. 1 June 2017.

EES predictions this project tests

i. phenotypic accommodation can precede, rather than follow, genetic change, in adaptive evolution
iii. novel, evolutionarily consequential, phenotypic variants will frequently be environmentally induced in multiple individuals
viii. taxonomic diversity will sometimes be better explained by features of developmental systems (evolvability, constraints) than features of environments