Hybrid zones are currently of interest because they offer experimental material for studies of
the characters and processes involved in divergence and speciation. Parapatric su6species …

We evaluate Sewall Wright's three‐phase “shifting balance” theory of evolution, examining
both the theoretical issues and the relevant data from nature and the laboratory. We …

Publisher Summary This chapter provides a general overview of evolution of
metapopulations. Evolution in a metapopulation can be substantially different from the …

We propose a series of simple models of founder effect speciation. In these models, the
resulting reproductive isolation (as measured by the proportion of inviable hybrids or the …

Natural selection has both genetic and ecological dynamics. The fitnesses of individuals
change with their ecological context, and so the form and strength of selective agents …

The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s remains the paradigm of
evolutionary biology (Futuyma 1998; Gould 2002; Pigliucci 2007; Ridley 1993). The …

The increase in phenotypic variance that occurs in some populations as a result of
bottlenecks and founder events can cause a dramatic increase in the probability of a peak …

We examine the third phase of Wright's shifting‐balance theory of evolution, the exportation
by migration of favorable gene combinations from a fitter subgroup to the rest of the …

One of the main challenges to the adaptationist programme in general and to the use of
optimality models in behavioural and evolutionary ecology in particular is that natural …

The theory of founder-effect speciation proposes that colonization by very few individuals of
an empty habitat favors rapid genetic changes and the evolution of a new species. We report …