Volume 2 Issue 7, July 2018

Recent calls for the reintroduction of functionally important animal species are motivated by a desire to restore ecological function, but overlook the ecological roles performed by humans. Here, we consider humans in ecological context, exploring our roles in the maintenance and restoration of ecosystem function.

The amount of open data in ecology and evolution is increasing rapidly, yet this resource remains underused. Here, we introduce a new framework and case study for conducting meta-analyses of open datasets, and discuss its benefits and current limitations.

Two deer bones from the 120,000-year-old Neanderthal site of Neumark-Nord 1 bear damage consistent with impact from a wooden spear. The hunting lesions are the earliest clear examples of such bone damage and give clues to how Neanderthals hunted their prey.

An extensive dataset indicates that nitrogen-fixing trees are most abundant in young, dry tropical forests. The finding expands the potential for natural nitrogen fertilization and carbon dioxide sequestration in areas recovering from land use.

A comparison of men who migrated from Bangladesh to the United Kingdom at different ages, alongside men who were lifelong residents of both countries, reveals that early environments determine levels of reproductive hormones and secondary sexual characteristics.

While most species have two sexes, multi-sex systems also occur in nature. The frequency of sexual reproduction is a key parameter to explain how many sexes a species has.

Environmental factors affect cancer incidence in humans. Here, it is argued that anthropogenic environmental disturbances are likewise responsible for cancer in wild animal populations via a range of different mechanisms.

An evidence map of global biodiversity loss research over the past decade suggests foci do not match predicted severity and impact, and that research and policy need to be realigned.

Experimental removal of corallivorous snails from corals in the Caribbean Sea shows that this local management action can improve coral resilience to severe warming through reducing bleaching severity and post-bleaching tissue mortality.

Multi-proxy data from Wonderwerk Cave reveal that both C₃ and C₄ grasses and prolonged wetlands formed major components of Early Pleistocene hominin palaeoenvironments in southern Africa, with regional trends distinct from contemporary ones in eastern Africa.

Experimental archaeological ballistic modelling suggests that lesions on 120,000-year-old deer skeletons from Neumark-Nord, Germany, were caused by close-range use of thrusting spears on the part of Neanderthals.

Environmental change affects both heritability and selection, but how the two co-vary is less well understood. Compiling a multi-taxa dataset from open repositories, the authors find only weak evidence for coupling among wild populations.

Data from 42 chronosequence sites show a geater abundance of legumes in seasonally dry forests than in wet forests, particularly during early secondary succession, probably owing to legumes’ nitrogen-fixing ability and reduced leaflet size.

Combining phylogenetic, morphological and environmental data on range overlap among 1,115 pairs of bird species, the authors show that coexistence is best explained by a model integrating both dispersal-assembly and niche-assembly processes.

It is unclear whether biodiversity evolves gradually or in rapid bursts associated with speciation. Here, the authors show that patterns of avian trait divergence are not gradual and that early pulses of trait divergence promote subsequent transitions to sympatry.

Adaptation to a new niche results in reduced genetic variation and the ability of derived populations to adapt to new environments is unclear. Here, the authors show rapid adaptive genomic change in a derived ecotype in the adaptive radiation of threespine stickleback.

Genome sequences of Bos species are sequenced and compared to determine their phylogeny and evolutionary history. Introgression pathways for genes under domestication selection are identified.

A comparative study of Bangladeshi men who had migrated to the United Kingdom as children or adults and British men of European origin finds that male reproductive function is independent of ethnic origin but is plastic until late childhood and influenced by early ecological conditions.

Loss of eyes is a common feature of cave-adapted animals such as the blind cave morphs of Astyanax mexicanus. Here, the authors show that DNA methylation mediates eye-specific gene repression and globally regulates early eye development in A. mexicanus.

Division of labour is common in social groups from microbes to animals. Here, the authors show that natural selection favours extreme specialization, suggesting that division of labour may drive major evolutionary transitions.

While most sexually reproducing organisms with gametes of similar morphology have two mating types, some species have many. Here, the authors use a theoretical model to show that the distribution of mating type numbers can be explained by mutation rate, population size and the rate of sex.

Analysis of cell-type-specific transcription in non-bilaterian animals provides insight into the evolution of the gene regulatory networks that underlie metazoan cell types.