Congratulations to PhD student Jay Gallagher and postdoc David Zonana, both of the Tinghitella lab, who are co-first authors on a new paper in the high profile journal Evolution Letters! Co-authors include postdoc Dale Broder, undergraduate researcher Brianna Herner, and Associate Professor Robin Tinghitella. The new paper presents a huge body of work investigating how novel traits evolve even when there are multiple co-evolved, integrated underlying forms contributing to trait function. The researchers capitalize on the recent diversification of sexual signals in a cricket and show that novel songs have evolved through restructuring of relationships between songs and the underlying wing morphology that produces them. They characterize multiple newly evolved morphs that produce distinct songs via unique alterations to wings. These novel morphs are effective at attracting mates while avoiding death from a recently introduced parasitoid fly, demonstrating alternate solutions to conflicting selection from mates and natural enemies.
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