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Urban Genes
Urbanization impacts species in many different ways, including behavior, morphology, and physiology. Although many of the documented phenotypic shifts show evidence of a genetic basis, the actual genetic differences and the genes they occur in are unknown for most urban…
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Auditory Resources for Urban Evolution
No matter what career stage you are in- maybe you just stumbled upon this blog, or maybe your works are being cited in it- vision is arguably the most critical sense for anyone intent on becoming a scientist. We are…
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The Future of Darwin’s Finches with Intensifying Urbanization
Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos are the poster children of adaptive radiation. These birds have formed many species that differ in their beaks. The size and shape of beaks make them uniquely suited to take advantage of different food resources.…
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Tools of the Trade: the Blood Glucose Monitor
One way that animals may adapt to urban environments is by expanding their diet to include anthropogenic food, as discussed in the earlier post “Is Anthropogenic Food Waste Driving the Evolution of Urban Animals?”. But how can we tell if…
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Natural History of Urban Organisms
As the field of urban ecology and evolution advances, one major issue consistently jumps out at me: the lack of information on basic ecology and natural history of many species in urban environments. Such information provides a background for hypothesis…
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Urban Speciation
Above: Fig. 2 from Rivkin et al: many species have been shown to adapt to cities. Thompson et al. ask whether or not this could lead to speciation. Organisms that persist in urban environments are subject to novel selective pressures as…
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City Trails of Urban Snails
Urban life is often described as a fast-paced and frantic thing. But one of my favourite study species, the urban snail, is the living proof you can take your time and still enjoy what your city has to offer. I…
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What Makes an Urban Habitat?
As a scientist that works in the field of urban evolution I often have to consider, “what makes an urban habitat?” While this seems like a fairly easy question to answer, there’s actually a lot of different ways that we…
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