Biology Under Cover Abstract

Selected Journal & Book Covers from SBS Faculty

“Coevolution of Life on Hosts: Integrating Ecology and History”

Clayton, D. H., S. E. Bush and K. P. Johnson

Commentary

This book provides an introduction to coevolution in both microevolutionary (ecological) and macroevolutionary (historical) time. It emphasizes the integration of cophylogenetic, comparative, and experimental approaches for testing coevolutionary hypotheses. Recent work in coevolutionary biology has been successful in demonstrating coadaptation between species in response to reciprocal selection. Fewer studies have tested the influence of coadaptation on the diversification of interacting taxa. We review studies that attempt to do just this. The overriding question addressed is "how do ecological interactions influence patterns of codiversification?" We focus on the coevolution of interacting species, particularly those involving external parasites that live on hosts. Many of the examples in the book involve parasitic lice of birds and mammals. Lice and their hosts are unusually tractable systems for studies that attempt to integrate coevolutionary ecology and history. The book, published in 2015, has been well received.