.@Evol2018 #evol2018 made the newspaper! "Congress attendees- tourists not like any others"

A great conservation genetics management symposium @Evol2018 #evol2018! (PS not all speakers were present at end of day- our gender ratio was actually better in total!)

Seen at #evol2018 banquet: Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros; pic: Daniele Occhiato)

#evol2018 22 Italian evolutionary biologists from a number of universities & research institutes in Italy (Bologna, Ferrara, Padova, Pisa) & abroad (Montpellier, Michigan, Adelaide, Monash, Cambridge, Prague, Zurich) meeting during Evolution 2018 (txs to A. Luchetti for photos)

#evol2018 MURRAY: this did not happen in band-tailed pigeon; passenger pigeon population was probably pretty stable; large pop size had been maintained for long time; maybe this made them susceptible to extinction once human actions reduced their pop size

#evol2018 MURRAY: linkage betweenn sites in region of low recombination rates in passenger pigeon has reduced genetic diversity and reduced efficacy of selection

#evol2018 MURRAY: estimated rate of adaptive evolution, higher in passenger pigeon

#evol2018 MURRAY: mapped assembly of band-tailed pigeon to chicken genome. Regions of high genetic diversity are at edges of chromosomes, low diversity at center of chromosomes. This also seen in other studies

#evol2018 MURRAY: in spite of several orders of magnitude in difference of pop size, diversity only twice as large in passenger pigeon

#evol2018 MURRAY: looked also at band-tailed pigeon, close relative but found in pop size of few millions, instead of billions like passenger pigeon

#evol2018 MURRAY: changes in pop size, pop structure, mutation rate, or natural selection alone or in combination all could explain this phenomenon

#evol2018 MURRAY: that species with large population size may have low genetic diversity is not unique to passenger pigeon, known as Lewontin paradox, also known in many other cases. Several potential explanations for this

#evol2018 MURRAY: many museum specimens available, makes it possible to sequence genome. Sequencing of entire genome in 2014 showed that genome similar to that of birds with much smaller population size, huge population size observed in 19th century maye have been very recent

#evol2018 MURRAY: subject to massive hunting pressure, still seems unlikely hunting alone responsible for their extinction. Habitat loss also potential cause. Behaviour also could have played a role (social raising of young, once population size dropped strategies not effective)

#evol2018 MURRAY: passenger pigeons possibly most abundant bird in world at beginning of 19th centrury, billions of them, flocks probably numbering in many millions, all over NE North America. By beginning of 20th century virtually extinct

Many thanks to all of the speakers in the “Ecological Models of Macroevolution” symposium for an exciting, energizing morning #Evol2018 (photo credit: K. Kaur)

#evol2018
S-43 Ancient DNA Studies of Adaptive Processes Through Time
Natural selection shaped the rise and fall of passenger pigeon genomic diversity - Gemma MURRAY

#evol2018 SILVESTRO: important to consider species in fossil record to determine how different they are and how they interact with one another

#evol2018 SILVESTRO: however quaternary extinctions linked to sea level changes and functional redundancies. Competition within functional entities likely important, sp. diversity declined 40% but functional diversity did not change. Many redundant species disappeared

#evol2018 SILVESTRO: looked at quaternary extinctions in Caribbean molluscs (esperienced 40% extinction during Pleistocene). 5 functional traits scored by mollusc experts used to define functional entities. Several traits irrelevant for extinction rates

#evol2018 SILVESTRO: have developed trait-dependent extinction models, where one or more traits can affect extinction. Redundancy of functional entities also important to consider

#evol2018 SILVESTRO: speciation and extinction rates inferred from fossil record. Mechanistic models of competition often assume that all species compete equally

#evol2018 SILVESTRO: dispersal models are best explained by sea level changes. For extinction best model is one with both climate change and invasive lineages increasing local extinctions

#evol2018 SILVESTRO: project on carnivore dispersal and extinction in North America. Formulated different mechanistic models of both dispersal and local extinction due to both abiotic (i.e., climate change) and biotic factors

#evol2018 SILVESTRO: macroevolutionary analyses are usually done with phylogenetic analyses or fossil record, many recent developments attempt to bring these 2 together. Today will focus on fossil record

#evol2018 S-33 Ecological Models of Macroevolution
Modeling biotic interactions in the estimation of origination, dispersal and extinction rates from the fossil record - Daniele SILVESTRO

.@MeganRRuffley used Smith & Brown megaphylogeny pruned to 0.1% of tips (^_−)☆ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajb2.10... #evol2018

Luke Dunning @funnings: LGT is widespread, functionally important in grasses and occurs throughout 4 high-quality assembly genomes. Great talk! Keep an eye out, paper coming out soon. #evol2018

#evol2018 LIOW: over 6000 "battles" observed in fossil record data; searched for best models but space very large; effect of size always large but varies across time/groups

#evol2018 LIOW: size is big predictor of competitive advantage, being bigger is better. What about small species? Is it better to have weapon if you are small? Bryozoans can have spines, spikes, shields...