Jen Walsh and Shawn Billerman recently had an invited review paper on using historical DNA from museum specimens come out for a special issue of Molecular Ecology Resources, “Using ancient DNA to understand evolution in the Anthropocene.” Their paper, “Historical DNA as a tool to address key questions in avian…
Grad student Stepfanie Aguillon authored a new paper in The Auk assessing the level of genetic differentiation between red-shafted, yellow-shafted, and gilded flickers. Up until now it was impossible to consistently differentiate these birds using genetics. Stepfanie looked at genomic patterns across much of the North American range and…
After a busy four weeks in Ithaca, Belén who started with extractions of ~120 DNA samples has just one tube containing her ddRAD-seq library to be sequenced! Belén was visiting the Fuller Evolutionary Biology Lab as part of our International Scholar Research Support Program (ISRSP) and we wish Belén safe…
Postdoc Jen Walsh authored a new paper in the Auk looking at the role of divergent mating strategies, reproductive success, and compatibility in maintaining the Saltmarsh-Nelson’s sparrow hybrid zone. Looking at nesting and paternity data for 342 sparrows of both pure and hybrid origin, she found that F1-F2 hybrid males…
Undergraduate Chloe Mikles prepared and submitted her first ddRAD-seq library for sequencing. It’s crazy to go from so many blood samples and DNA extractions to 8 index groups and finally to one tiny tube for sequencing. Looking forward to lots of data to analyze!
Graduate student Nick Mason recently published a manuscript on damselfly behavioral ecology that appeared in Animal Behaviour. Nick’s manuscript is the product of his time with the Cornell Florida Field Course, which facilitates short research projects for graduate students at the Archbold Biological Field Station in south-central Florida. In this…
Graduate student Nick Mason and collaborators recently published a paper in Evolution about diversification, rates of song evolution, and vocal learning in passerine birds. By combining two large vocalization data sets, this study finds a positive association between accelerated bursts in speciation and vocal evolution. Furthermore, the authors find evidence…
Welcome back! At our first lab meeting of the semester Nick Mason presented a methods paper on Sequence Capture using PCR-generated Probes (SCPP – pronounced “skip”) by Penalba et al. This may provide an affordable method for phylogenetic studies making use of about 25-100 loci. Take a look and see…
We all welcome Bronwyn Butcher to her new position as the lab manager for the Lovette Lab/Fuller Evolutionary Biology Program.
Congratulations to PhD student Yula Kapetanakos on her new position as Associate Producer in the Lab’s Multimedia Program.
Daniel Baldassarre’s paper on extra pair mating in the Australian red-backed fairy-wren is published and Dan and Mike are featured in the popular press! “Fooled by a sharpie! Cheating birds steered to fidelity with red marker” NBC News “Painted fairy wrens quite the casanova” ABC News Australia “Cheating Fairywrens” AAAS…