Version 1.0

Miquel Arnedo Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Fac. Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona. Hopping, splitting or shifting: How to diversify in isolation? Insights from the spider world Islands are the test-tube experiments of evolutionary biologist and have played a fundamental role in our current understanding of diversification. Processes such as adaptive radiation and convergent evolution are trademarks of island biotas. However, isolated ecosystems do also offer ample opportunities for non-ecologically driven speciation. Because of their airborne dispersal capabilities, spiders are among the first settlers of remote islands and their predatory habits and ability to endure starvation makes them important component of other isolated ecosystems, such as caves and mountain tops. In this presentation, I will review some of the research conducted in my lab on the diversification of spiders on island-like systems and will discuss its main drivers, and the underlying similarities and idiosyncrasies of the evolutionary process in remote and extreme habitats.

Download (731.1MB)

WebDAV URL Files and folders can be managed directly from the file explorer of your desktop operating system. Read more.