Evolution highlights X

Here's a longish list of new papers I ought to read. I'm really posting it as a reference for my own benefit, but of course I think these are papers that everyone with even a cursory interest in evolution should read in detail. Most are behind pay-walls, so if you aren't sitting at an institution that has a subscription (like me at the moment), then you can only read the abstracts.

A Complete Skeleton of a Late Triassic Saurischian and the Early Evolution of Dinosaurs
I have kids, so I really need to keep up with dinosaur research. I will totally lose their respect if I don't. Here's a press-release on Tawa.

Two papers on group selection - a contentious topic concerning the evolution of altruism:

Demography and the tragedy of the commons

The group selection controversy

Evidence for abrupt speciation in a classic case of gradual evolution
This is in unicellular plankton with hard shell, so they're preserved in the fossil record.

The Genetic Basis of Phenotypic Adaptation II: The Distribution of Adaptive Substitutions in the Moving Optimum Model
Theoretical study with agent-based simulations.

Differences in human and chimpanzee gene expression patterns define an evolving network of transcription factors in brain
I have before hypothesized (somewhat provocatively) that the only differences between humans and chimps are in the gene expression patterns.

Competition between recombination and epistasis can cause a transition from allele to genotype selection
A paper by a friend of mine about a topic that I am working on myself (i.e. epistasis in the NK model).

Acting Like a Prion Isn't Always Bad
Prions, of course, misfold and cause disease in humans and animals, but not always (we do have genes to make them ourselves).

The Evolutionary Dynamics of a Rapidly Mutating Virus within and between Hosts: The Case of Hepatitis C Virus
Rapidly mutating anything is interesting, since evolution happens much faster. (PLoS is free, so you can read the whole paper.)

Adaptive Divergence in Experimental Populations of Pseudomonas fluorescens. IV. Genetic Constraints Guide Evolutionary Trajectories in a Parallel Adaptive Radiation
I totally love experiments with bacteria? Why? Basically because they have so short generation times. Like with viruses, evolution can be directly observed (yeah yeah yeah, they are still bacteria).

The evolutionary consequence of the individualistic response to climate change
Pertinent topic.

Detecting positive selection in the budding yeast genome
See, again unicellular organisms rock.