I am an evolutionary biologist interested in understanding speciation. Multiple processes have generated the modern patterns of amphibian and reptile species diversity. Our primary task is to combine as many types of data as possible to recover the history of one or many lineages (a clade) using different sources of information. Evolutionary Biologists rely on genetic and morphological data, including ecological and distributional information, to recover the history of past evolutionary events. Congruent and sometimes even incongruent data types help infer the events that drove the evolutionary divergence of populations, species, and potentially entire communities.
In this context, oceanic islands and the organism that inhabit them are fascinating to study because islands exhibit constrained temporal and spatial dimensions. Islands represent windows to infer the evolution and adaptation of lineages that successfully colonized one or many islands compared to organisms showing continental distributions.
In effect, Charles Darwin's remarkable abstraction capabilities led him to hypothesize — after a brief visit to the Galápagos Archipelago — that natural selection was central to species origins and that species were not immutable entities. Thus, islands and the organisms that inhabit them allow an unparalleled look into the contribution of distinct evolutionary forces mediating the birth of a new species. Ultimately helping us to establish the connection between past and present. Whether one studies the evolution of vertebrates in islands or mainland habitats –and ~150 years after the publication of "On the origin of species..."– we are still trying to understand the many processes that originate species diversity. The twigs and wigs of the Tree of Life.
In this context, oceanic islands and the organism that inhabit them are fascinating to study because islands exhibit constrained temporal and spatial dimensions. Islands represent windows to infer the evolution and adaptation of lineages that successfully colonized one or many islands compared to organisms showing continental distributions.
In effect, Charles Darwin's remarkable abstraction capabilities led him to hypothesize — after a brief visit to the Galápagos Archipelago — that natural selection was central to species origins and that species were not immutable entities. Thus, islands and the organisms that inhabit them allow an unparalleled look into the contribution of distinct evolutionary forces mediating the birth of a new species. Ultimately helping us to establish the connection between past and present. Whether one studies the evolution of vertebrates in islands or mainland habitats –and ~150 years after the publication of "On the origin of species..."– we are still trying to understand the many processes that originate species diversity. The twigs and wigs of the Tree of Life.
I am a Bolivian national. And, not too many people visit Bolivia. I hope you do one day. Crystal clear skies will surprise you. The picture above was taken in the Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt flats) and it somehow embodies my country — pristine (mostly), vast and wild. So if you are lucky enough to go, you should not expect the standard hotel accommodations at the exit of every small town (you can go to Chile, Brazil or Argentina for that). Bolivia is rarely uneventful, but know that you'll be visiting the most authentic country in South America.
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