Using Experiments in Nature to Study Evolution in Real Time: Research on Lizard Adaptation in the Bahamas

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Jonathan Losos, Ph.D., director, Living Earth Collaborative, William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor, department of biology, Washington University in St. Louis

Speaker bio(s)

Biologists used to think that evolution proceeded at a glacial pace, so slow that change could only be detected over the span of eons. We now know that when environments change and natural selection pressures are strong, evolution can occur very quickly, rapidly enough to be detected over short periods. A corollary of this finding is that the experimental method, the gold standard of scientific research, can now be applied to test evolutionary hypotheses. In this talk, Jonathan Losos describes a 30-year experimental evolution research program studying lizard adaptation to changing conditions in the Bahamas. Despite the intervention of too many hurricanes, the researchers documented that natural selection pressures can be intense and that, correspondingly, lizard populations evolve rapidly and in the predicted direction.

Jonathan Losos is an evolutionary biologist known for his research on how lizards rapidly evolve to adapt to changing environments. He is the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor at Washington University and Director of the Living Earth Collaborative, a biodiversity partnership between the university, the Saint Louis Zoo and the Missouri Botanical Garden. Losos has written more than 240 papers and three books, and is an author of a leading college biology textbook. Losos has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and many other awards.

This Friday Lecture will take place in Caspary Auditorium and virtually via Zoom. We recommend virtual participants log out of VPN prior to logging in to Zoom. Please do not share the link or post on social media.

Open to

Tri-Institutional