WOURMS, J.P.: Evolutionary trends in gut and trophotaenia-based embryonic nutrition in viviparous teleosts. Embryos of viviparous fishes acquire maternal nutrients via several routes. Enterotrophy involves the gut or gut derivatives. In the unspecialized state, nutrients imbibed from the ovarian fluid are absorbed in a simple, tubular gut. Resulting increases in embryonic weight range from slight […]

KURATANI, S.; SHIGETANI, Y.; KAWAKAMI, Y.; SUGAHARA, F.; MURAKAMI, Y.: Evolution of the vertebrate jaw through ontogenetic repatterning Evolutionary novelties can be brought about through the ontogenetic repatterning that often obliterates the structural homology. The vertebrate jaw may also be one of such novelties since oral structures of lampreys and gnathostomes cannot be homologized easily. […]

SCHLOSSER, G.*: Detection of Dissociated Coevolution of Characters using Heterochrony Plots: Mosaic Evolution of Brain Development in Direct Developing Frogs Many evolutionary modifications of development are accompanied by heterochronic shifts of character development. Frequently, only some developmental events are shifted relative to others. The detection of such mosaic alterations of character development is increasingly difficult, […]

SANTINI, F.: Speciation in the Sea During this presentation I will review the recent literature on patterns of speciation that has been used by some authors to support the claim that vicariance is the dominant mode of speciation in vertebrates. This conclusion has been reached by applying flawed models of speciation to the study of […]

KURPIUS, J.W.: Panmixia or genetic differentiation? : Phylogeographic patterns of a planktonic dispersing gastropod in the Eastern Pacific. Most phylogeographic studies focus on organisms that are predicted a priori to have genetic structure. However, there are relatively few studies that test whether species predicted to be panmictic actually are. Using a population genetic approach, this […]

WALKER, J.M.*; HOPKINS, T.S.: Morphological Analysis of Melongena corona Gmelin, 1791 Populations from the Gulf of Mexico (Gastropoda, Melongenidae) The current classification of Melongena corona in the Gulf of Mexico is based on morphological shell characteristics. Within the Gulf, this classification recognizes two species, Melongena corona which consists of three subspecies (Melongena corona corona, Melongena […]

MCFADDEN, C.S.*; HUTCHINSON, M.B.: Hybrid Origin of Soft Coral Species Suggested by Ribosomal DNA Sequence Heterogeneity Throughout its broad Atlanto-Mediterranean geographic range, the soft coral Alcyonium coralloides occurs in sympatry with three closely related species, A. hibernicum, A. sp. M2 and Bellonella bocagei. Although a recent allozyme study indicates the 4 species are reproductively isolated, […]

RAWSON, P*; SLAUGHTER, C; YUND, P: Asymmetric Gametic Incompatibility Among Two Species of Marine Mussel Two species of blue mussel, Mytilus edulis and M. trossulus, are sympatric on the east coast of North America. Although mussels with hybrid genotypes are commonly observed in this region, the frequency of hybrids is low relative to other mussel […]

DRIES, L.A.: Swords, Roots and Reliability: the DNA Phylogeny of Xiphophorus revisited Since the publication of Harvey and Pagel’s book, there has been a resurgence in the use of the comparative method in evolutionary biology. This approach is critically dependent on a reliable and accurate phylogeny, thus many investigators rely on previously published phylogenies of […]

O’STEEN, S.*; EBY, S.L.; BUNCE, J.A.: Sex and speed: do courtship locomotor skills predict skills when escaping predators? The indicator theory of sexual selection suggests that mating displays can provide honest signals of good genes or condition. Locomotor performance is a good candidate for such a signal, as many mating displays include rapid locomotion, and […]