Kevin de Queiroz

Bio: Kevin de Queiroz is an academic researcher from National Museum of Natural History. The author has contributed to research in topics: Clade & Anolis. The author has an hindex of 44, co-authored 334 publications receiving 13194 citations. Previous affiliations of Kevin de Queiroz include American Museum of Natural History & University of California, Berkeley.

Species Concepts and Species Delimitation

Abstract: The issue of species delimitation has long been confused with that of species conceptualization, leading to a half century of controversy concerning both the definition of the species category and methods for inferring the boundaries and numbers of species. Alternative species concepts agree in treating existence as a separately evolving metapopulation lineage as the primary defining property of the species category, but they disagree in adopting different properties acquired by lineages during the course of divergence (e.g., intrinsic reproductive isolation, diagnosability, monophyly) as secondary defining properties (secondary species criteria). A unified species concept can be achieved by treating existence as a separately evolving metapopulation lineage as the only necessary property of species and the former secondary species criteria as different lines of evidence (operational criteria) relevant to assessing lineage separation. This unified concept of species has several consequences for species delimitation, including the following: First, the issues of species conceptualization and species delimitation are clearly separated; the former secondary species criteria are no longer considered relevant to species conceptualization but only to species delimitation. Second, all of the properties formerly treated as secondary species criteria are relevant to species delimitation to the extent that they provide evidence of lineage separation. Third, the presence of any one of the properties (if appropriately interpreted) is evidence for the existence of a species, though more properties and thus more lines of evidence are associated with a higher degree of corroboration. Fourth, and perhaps most significantly, a unified species concept shifts emphasis away from the traditional species criteria, encouraging biologists to develop new methods of species delimitation that are not tied to those properties.

The General Lineage Concept of Species, Species Criteria, and the Process of Speciation

Abstract: Speciation, the process through which new species come into being, is one of the central topics of evolutionary biology. It links the great fields of microand macroevolutionary biology and intersects a wide variety of related biological disciplines, including behavioral biology, ecology, genetics, morphology, paleontology, physiology, reproductive biology, and systematics. For this reason, a persistent controversy regarding the definition of the term species may seem disconcerting. The continual proposal of new species definitions-commonly characterized as alternative species concepts-seems to suggest that there is no general agreement about what species are, and if this is the case, then the possibility of understanding how species come into being also seems unlikely. At the very least, there seems to be considerable potential for misinterpretation and confusion about what different biologists mean when they talk about species and speciation. But the situation is not really as troublesome as it may appear. Although real differences underlie alternative species definitions, there is really less disagreement about species concepts than the existence of so many alternative definitions seems to suggest. Each species definition has a different emphasis, but the various phenomena that they emphasize are all aspects or properties of a single kind of entity. In other words, almost all modem biologists have the same general concept of species. Differences among the many versions of this general concept are at least partly attributable to the complex and temporally extendednature of species and the process or processes through which they come into existence. In many respects, considering speciation as a temporally extended process is the key to understanding the diversity of species definitions. In this chapter, I provide a general theoretical context that accounts for both the unity and the diversity of ideas represented by alternative species definitions. First, I review the major categories of species definitions adopted by contemporary biologists. Next, I present evidence that all modem species definitions describe variants of a single general concept of species. I then discuss how the timeextended nature of species and the diversity of events that occur during the process of speciation provide the basis for the diversity of alternative species definitions. Based on a distinction between species concepts and species criteria, I propose a revised and conceptually unified terminology for the ideas described by contemporary species definitions, and I discuss the significance and limitations of different classes of species definitions. Finally, I examine an interpretation of species criteria that places alternative criteria in direct conflict and thus contains the key to resolving the species problem.

Contingency and Determinism in Replicated Adaptive Radiations of Island Lizards

Abstract: The vagaries of history lead to the prediction that repeated instances of evolutionary diversification will lead to disparate outcomes even if starting conditions are similar. We tested this proposition by examining the evolutionary radiation of Anolis lizards on the four islands of the Greater Antilles. Morphometric analyses indicate that the same set of habitat specialists, termed ecomorphs, occurs on all four islands. Although these similar assemblages could result from a single evolutionary origin of each ecomorph, followed by dispersal or vicariance, phylogenetic analysis indicates that the ecomorphs originated independently on each island. Thus, adaptive radiation in similar environments can overcome historical contingencies to produce strikingly similar evolutionary outcomes.

Phylogenetic relationships within squamata

Abstract: Camp, Charles Lewis ; Classification ; Congresses ; NH-Vertebrate Zoology ; Research Associate ; NMNH ; SDR

The genome of the green anole lizard and a comparative analysis with birds and mammals

Abstract: The evolution of the amniotic egg was one of the great evolutionary innovations in the history of life, freeing vertebrates from an obligatory connection to water and thus permitting the conquest of terrestrial environments 1 . Among amniotes, genome sequences are available for mammals and birds 2–4 , but not for non-avian

Phylogenies and Community Ecology

Abstract: ▪ Abstract As better phylogenetic hypotheses become available for many groups of organisms, studies in community ecology can be informed by knowledge of the evolutionary relationships among coexisting species. We note three primary approaches to integrating phylogenetic information into studies of community organization: 1. examining the phylogenetic structure of community assemblages, 2. exploring the phylogenetic basis of community niche structure, and 3. adding a community context to studies of trait evolution and biogeography. We recognize a common pattern of phylogenetic conservatism in ecological character and highlight the challenges of using phylogenies of partial lineages. We also review phylogenetic approaches to three emergent properties of communities: species diversity, relative abundance distributions, and range sizes. Methodological advances in phylogenetic supertree construction, character reconstruction, null models for community assembly and character evolution, and metrics of community ...

Species Concepts and Species Delimitation

Abstract: The issue of species delimitation has long been confused with that of species conceptualization, leading to a half century of controversy concerning both the definition of the species category and methods for inferring the boundaries and numbers of species. Alternative species concepts agree in treating existence as a separately evolving metapopulation lineage as the primary defining property of the species category, but they disagree in adopting different properties acquired by lineages during the course of divergence (e.g., intrinsic reproductive isolation, diagnosability, monophyly) as secondary defining properties (secondary species criteria). A unified species concept can be achieved by treating existence as a separately evolving metapopulation lineage as the only necessary property of species and the former secondary species criteria as different lines of evidence (operational criteria) relevant to assessing lineage separation. This unified concept of species has several consequences for species delimitation, including the following: First, the issues of species conceptualization and species delimitation are clearly separated; the former secondary species criteria are no longer considered relevant to species conceptualization but only to species delimitation. Second, all of the properties formerly treated as secondary species criteria are relevant to species delimitation to the extent that they provide evidence of lineage separation. Third, the presence of any one of the properties (if appropriately interpreted) is evidence for the existence of a species, though more properties and thus more lines of evidence are associated with a higher degree of corroboration. Fourth, and perhaps most significantly, a unified species concept shifts emphasis away from the traditional species criteria, encouraging biologists to develop new methods of species delimitation that are not tied to those properties.