A new individual entering a population may be said to have a reproductive probability distribution. The reproductive probability is zero from zygote to reproductive maturity. Later, perhaps shortly...

Pleiotropy, natural selection, and the evolution of senescence

Pleiotropy, Natural Selection, and the Evolution of Senescence

▪ Abstract Niche conservatism is the tendency of species to retain ancestral ecological characteristics. In the recent literature, a debate has emerged as to whether niches are conserved. We suggest that simply testing whether niches are conserved is not by itself particularly helpful or interesting and that a more useful focus is on the patterns that niche conservatism may (or may not) create. We focus specifically on how niche conservatism in climatic tolerances may limit geographic range expansion and how this one type of niche conservatism may be important in (a) allopatric speciation, (b) historical biogeography, (c) patterns of species richness, (d) community structure, (e) the spread of invasive, human-introduced species, (f) responses of species to global climate change, and (g) human history, from 13,000 years ago to the present. We describe how these effects of niche conservatism can be examined with new tools for ecological niche modeling.

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Niche Conservatism: Integrating Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation Biology

Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the great variation among regions in species richness. These were tested by first examining patterns of species richness of birds, mammals, amphibians,...

Energy and large-scale patterns of animal- and plant- species richness

The social behaviour of anuran amphibians

A field guide to western reptiles and amphibians

This is a book for all readers who want to learn about amphibians, the animal group that includes frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians. It draws on many years of classroom teaching, laboratory experience, and field observation by the authors. The authors explore some of nature's most interesting creatures, interspersing their own observations throughout the book. The book can serve as a textbook for students and independent learners, as an overview of the field for professional scientists and land managers, and as an introduction for general readers. The class Amphibia contains more than 4500 known living species. New species are being discovered so rapidly that the number may grow to more than 5000 during our lifetimes. However, their numbers are being rapidly diminished around the globe, largely due to the encroachment of humans on amphibian habitats and from growing human-caused environmental pollution, discussed at length in the final chapter. The authors focus our attention on the "natural history" of amphibians world-wide and emphasize their interactions with their environments over time: where they live; how they reproduce; how they have been affected by evolutionary processes; what factors will determine their destinies over time.

Robert C. Stebbins

Papers

A field guide to western reptiles and amphibians

A natural history of amphibians

Amphibians and Reptiles of Western North America

Amphibians of Western North America

Speciation in salamanders of the plethodontid genus Ensatina