As part of being the Vice President of the American Society of Naturalists, I had the opportunity to organize a symposium at the annual meeting in 2016 (Austin, TX). The topic was convergence, natural history, and the big questions in biology. The talks were great, and what I think (hope!) will really have an impact on the field is this collection of new papers, published as a Special Issue of the American Naturalist. Enjoy! Here is the table of contents:
Toward a Predictive Framework for Convergent Evolution: Integrating Natural History, Genetic Mechanisms, and Consequences for the Diversity of Life
Anurag Agrawal, pp. S1–S12
Pattern and Process in the Comparative Study of Convergent Evolution
D. Luke Mahler, Marjorie G. Weber, Catherine E. Wagner, Travis Ingram, pp. S13–S28
Convergently Evolved Toxic Secondary Metabolites in Plants Drive the Parallel Molecular Evolution of Insect Resistance
Georg Petschenka, Vera Wagschal, Michael von Tschirnhaus, Alexander Donath, Susanne Dobler, pp. S29–S43
Convergent Phenotypic Evolution despite Contrasting Demographic Histories
in the Fauna of White Sands
Erica Bree Rosenblum, Christine E. Parent, Eveline T. Diepeveen, Clay Noss, Ke Bi, pp. S44–S56
Convergence and Divergence in a Long-Term Experiment with Bacteria
Richard E. Lenski, pp. S57–S68
Evolutionary Scenarios and Primate Natural History
Harry W. Greene, pp. S69–S86
Convergence, Consilience, and the Evolution of Temperate Deciduous Forests
Erika J. Edwards, David S. Chatelet, Bo-Chang Chen, Jin Yao Ong, Shuichiro Tagane, Hironobu Kanemitsu, Kazuki Tagawa, Kentaro Teramoto, Brian Park, Kuo-Fang Chung, Jer-Ming Hu, Tetsukazu Yahara, Michael J. Donoghue. pp. S87–S104
Geographical Variation in Community Divergence: Insights from Tropical Forest Monodominance by Ectomycorrhizal Trees
Tadashi Fukami, Mifuyu Nakajima, Claire Fortunel, Paul V. A. Fine, Christopher Baraloto, Sabrina E. Russo, Kabir G. Peay, pp. S105–S122