Postdoc David Toews at AOU/COS

Postdoc David Toews gave his talk at AOU/COS on Extensive biogeographic introgression and weak genomic divergence between phenotypically distinct wood warblers.  This collaborative project is using new genomic tools to better understand the dynamics of hybridization between golden-winged and blue-winged warblers. The new data confirm that hybridization is likely facilitating…

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Genomics of a rapid radiation, and the promises and pitfalls of massive datasets

Postdoc Leo Campagna’s new paper on dissecting the complex demographic and phylogenetic history of the Sporophila seedeaters is just out in Molecular Ecology.  In addition to revealing new insights into this avian rapid radiation, Leo and his collaborators also make some useful but sobering points about the potential for spurious…

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Luciano Calderón at Argentina Evolution conference

Luciano Calderón at Argentina Evolution conference: visiting Lab researcher Luciano Calderón is talking today at the first-ever Argentine Evolution meeting (I Reunion Argentina de Biología Evolutiva, in Cordoba, Argentina) about the population genomics of turtle doves across Europe. Luciano visited Cornell in February and worked with postdoc Leo Campagna to…

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David’s talk at Evolution: genomics of hybridizing warblers

David’s talk at Evolution: genomics of hybridizing warblers. Postdoc David Toews’ talk at the Evolution conference in Brazil covered his ongoing work on the hybridization genomics of the Myrtle and Audubon’s forms of Yellow-rumped Warblers, and on admixture mapping that is revealing interesting candidate genes for traits that differ between…

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Leo’s talk at Evolution: genomics of an avian radiation

Leo’s talk at Evolution: genomics of an avian radiation: Leo presented his most recent explorations into genome-wide patterns of divergence in Sporophila seed-eaters using analytical methods pioneered by our collaborators Ilan Gronau and Adam Siepel. This avian radiation is a wonderful test-case of (very) low genetic divergence among a suite…

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Current lab members in Guarujá

Current lab members in Guarujá: six of our current lab members are presenting their research this week at the Evolution conference in Guarujá, Brazil: (from left to right) Jake Berv, David Toews, Stepfane Aguillon, Leo Campagna, Scott Taylor, and Nick Mason. By all reports, their talks and presentations have all…

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Sebastian Cabanne at Evolution: ddRAD studies of Neotropical forest birds

Sebastian Cabanne at Evolution: ddRAD studies of Neotropical forest birds. At the Evolution conference in Brazil, our visiting collaborator from Argentina — Sebastian Cabanne — presented his studies of divergence and gene flow among populations of several Neotropical birds. Some of the underlying data were generated by Sebastian and Leo…

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Stepfanie on dispersal genomics at Brazil Evolution conference

Stepfanie on dispersal genomics at Brazil Evolution conference: grad student Stepfanie Aguillon just presented her work on the dispersal genomics of Florida Scrub-jays at the Evolution meeting in Brazil. This project was a robust ‘rotation’ endeavor that Stepfanie motivated during this first year for her at Cornell: Title: Genomic consequences…

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Stepfanie’s synthesis paper

Grad student Stepfanie Aguillon has a new paper out that is an extension of her MS research with Rene Duckworth: Duckworth, R.A. and S.M. Aguillon. 2015. Eco-evolutionary dynamics: investigating multiple causal pathways linking changes in behavior, population density and natural selection. Journal of Ornithology. Abstract: Correlations between population density, natural…

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Katie Wagner wins the Dobzhansky Prize!

Katie Wagner wins the Dobzhansky Prize! Warmest of congratulations to lab group alumna Dr. Katie Wagner for being recognized at the highest level by her community of scientific colleagues. The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution “to recognize the accomplishments and future…

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Redpolls hit the news, part III

Redpolls hit the news, part III … Nick and Scott’s redpoll study has been available for a while in Molecular Ecology’s pre-publication website and it has garnered an impressive amount of outside attention, including coverage in the news section of Science (http://www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagazine/17_april_2015?pg=44#pg44), and various popular media outlets and blogs like…

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