BRS: Felipe Zapata "Peering into the nature of species: considering genomic and phenotypic evidence on an equal footing"

host: Matthew Pennell, cookies provided by Wouter vB and Barbara N-B

abstract: An understanding of the nature of species is crucial for the understanding of the origins, evolution, and dynamics of biodiversity. Yet, what we mean by species and whether species have any biological reality has been widely discussed for generations. An influential insight of the New Synthesis was the proposition that species are real biological phenomena with an internal genomic cohesion resulting from reproductive isolation. A corollary of this premise is that species ought to be congruent in genotypic and phenotypic differentiation. This understanding of the nature of species has prevailed in biology for over 70 years. Recent genomic evidence, however, has revealed that species are more reticulated than previously thought calling into question the dominant paradigm about the nature of species. I will present our work on how to integrate genomic and phenotypic data on an equal footing to discover and delimit species. This approach relies on recent advances in rigorous statistical methods that are consistent with evolutionary theory and thus shed light on the nature of species. Using as an example a plant radiation from the mountains of South America, I show that different kinds of species exist in nature and discuss the implications of these results for understanding diversification. Re-assessing the nature of species and the role of evolutionary forces other than reproductive isolation will be vital to understand the dynamics of biodiversity in a changing world.