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Natural History

W.T. Edmondson Endowed Lecture: Why are painted turtles painted? Insights into longevity and antioxidants from a common species

Understanding diversity in nature requires not only elucidating the mechanisms that underlie it, but also understanding the fitness consequences of variation. Reptiles and amphibians have unique life histories, but their patterns of aging are under-studied despite the potential to answer unique questions about the evolution of senescence. We take advantage of long-term mark-recapture datasets to untangle the drivers of longevity and rates of aging in these groups.

Changing Perspectives on the Synapsid Evolutionary Radiation and the Evolution of Mammals

The emergence of the mammals from morphologically disparate synapsid ancestors is one of the great macroevolutionary transitions preserved in the fossil record. The quality of the synapsid record allowed the basic steps of the transition to be recognized early. Yet, the lack of tools like modern phylogenetic comparative methods and the difficulty of preparing a diverse sample of specimens resulted in simple transitional sequences based on small numbers of exemplar taxa representing broad evolutionary grades.

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