Ponente
Descripción
For over a century, biologists have debated whether or not ecological interactions among different species play a role in driving evolution over geologic timescales (macroevolution). Many of the major figures in evolutionary biology have espoused opposing views on this issue, and the debate has long remained unresolved. In recent decades, advances in phylogenetics and phylogenetic comparative methods, as well as analyses of extensive fossil datasets, have shed new light on this old question. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the history of this debate, and then present recent research using mutualisms between plants in the family Phyllanthaceae (leafflowers in English) and their specialized pollinating moths in the genus Epicephala (leafflower moths; Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae). These plants and moths are diverse in the Old World tropics, and recent fieldwork indicates that they are likely diverse in the Americas as well, including the West Indies. Phylogenetic studies of these mutualisms shed light on codiversification, mutualism breakdown, and speciation, thus revealing ways in which ecological interactions can be integrated into the study of macroevolution.
