|
Background
My
general interests are centred on selective processes that generate
divergence in mating display traits and preferences among
populations, creating the potential for speciation. More specifically, I
am interested in the process of reinforcement and the implications that
the resulting reproductive character displacement can have on sexual
selection and premating isolation within a species. My
Honours and PhD research
focused on the evolution of reproductive character displacement in the
cuticular hydrocarbons of Drosophila
serrata
– caused by sympatry with a
close relative,
Drosophila birchii
– and how this displacement has interfered with sexual selection between
allopatric and sympatric populations of
D. serrata. I finished my PhD at the University of
Queensland in 2008 under the supervision of Prof Mark Blows.
I
am now based at the ANU. I was awarded an ARC Post-doc (2009-2011) and my
academic hosts are Scott Keogh and Michael Jennions. I am working on
mate choice and preference evolution in a contact zone between lineages of
the frog Litoria genimaculata in the Wet Tropics of Queensland.
Publications
10.
Hoskin CJ and
Higgie
M. 2008.
A
new species of velvet gecko (Diplodactylidae; Oedura) from North-east
Queensland, Australia. Zootaxa 1788:21-36
[PDF]
9. Higgie M
and Blows MW. 2008.
The evolution of
reproductive character displacement conflicts with how sexual selection
operates within a species.
Evolution
62:1192-1203
[PDF]
8.
Higgie
M
and Blows MW. 2007. Are traits that experience reinforcement also under
sexual selection?
American Naturalist
170:409-420
[PDF]
7. Van Homrigh A,
Higgie M,
McGuigan K, and Blows MW. 2007. The depletion of genetic variance by
sexual selection. Current
Biology 17:528-532
[PDF]
6.
Hoskin CJ,
Higgie M,
McDonald KR, and Moritz C.
2005. Reinforcement drives rapid allopatric speciation.
Nature 437:1353-1356
[PDF]
5.
Hoskin CJ and
Higgie M.
2005. Minimum calling altitudes of
Cophixalus
frogs on Thornton Peak, northeastern Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland
Museum 51:572
[PDF]
4. Blows MW and
Higgie M.
2003. Genetic constraints on the evolution of mate recognition under
natural selection.
American Naturalist
161:240-253
[PDF]
3. Blows MW and
Higgie M.
2002. Evolutionary experiments on mate recognition in the
Drosophila serrata
species complex.
Genetica 116:239-250
[PDF]
2.
Hine E, Lachish S,
Higgie M,
and Blows MW. 2002. Positive genetic correlation between female preference
and offspring fitness.
Proceedings
of the Royal Society Series B
269:2215-2219
[PDF]
1.
Higgie
M,
Chenoweth S, and Blows MW. 2000. Natural selection and the reinforcement
of mate recognition. Science
290:519-521
[PDF]
Contact
My email address is
megan.higgie@anu.edu.au
|