Project 5
The role of developmental plasticity in innovation and diversification of Onthophagus beetles

Led by Armin MoczekEmile Snell-Rood

 

dung bettles and dung ball

 

This projects tests how evolutionary innovation, or the development of novel phenotypic variation, is affected by developmental processes and ecological conditions. Using the well-established dung beetle model, Onthophagus, we are testing the prediction that plasticity biases the evolution of morphological and life-history traits.

 

Publications

Adaptive maternal behavioral plasticity and developmental programming mitigate the transgenerational effects of temperature in dung beetles.
[download PDF]
Macagno ALM, Zattara EE, Ezeakudo O, Moczek AP, Ledón‐Rettig CC. 2018. Oikos DOI: 10.1111/oik.05215.
 
The role of ancestral phenotypic plasticity in evolutionary diversification: population density effects in horned beetles.
[download PDF]
Casasa S, Moczek AP. 2018. Animal Behaviour 137:53-61.
 
Signals of selection in conditionally expressed genes in the diversification of three horned beetle species.
[download PDF]
Pespeni MH, Ladner JT, Moczek AP. 2017. J Evol Biol 10.1111/jeb.13079.

 

Blog posts

Behavioral and developmental plasticity enable dung beetles to cope with temperature stress within and across generations
Macagno ALM, Zattara EE, Moczek AP, Ledón-Rettig CC. 23 April 2018.

Español: La plasticidad de comportamiento y desarrollo de los escarabajos estercoleros les permite sobrellevar el estrés térmico a través de las generaciones
Deutsch: Plastizität im Verhalten und der Entwicklung ermöglicht es Mistkäfern mit stressvollen Temperaturen umzugehen, sowohl innerhalb einer Generation als auch darüber hinaus
Italiano: La plasticità comportamentale e di sviluppo consentono agli scarabei stercorari di far fronte allo stress termico nel corso di generazioni
 
Rapid evolution and phenotypic plasticity: insights from horned beetles
Casasa S, Moczek AP. 16 April 2018.
 
What functional ectopic compound eyes can teach us about the role of context in development and evolution
Zattara EE, Moczek AP. 25 October 2017.
 
Conditional gene expression, developmental plasticity, and the diversification of horned beetles
Moczek AP. 21 July 2017.

 

EES predictions this project tests

Back to top