The complex morphological evolution of the bivalve Ptychomya throughout the well studied Agrio Formation in the Neuquén Basin (west-central Argentina, lower/upper Valanginian – lowest Barremian) constitutes an ideal opportunity to study evolutionary patterns and processes occurring at geological timescales. Ptychomya is represented in this unit by four species, the morphological variation of which need to be temporally assessed in order to obtain a thorough picture of the evolution of the group. Here we use geometric...

Populations of isogenic cells often respond coherently to signals, despite differences in protein abundance and cell state. Previously, we uncovered processes in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae pheromone response system (PRS) that reduced cell‐to‐cell variability in signal strength and cellular response. Here, we screened 1,141 non‐essential genes to identify 50 “variability genes”. Most had distinct, separable effects on strength and variability of the PRS, defining these quantities as genetically distinct “axes” of system behavior. Three genes affected...

The Pleistocene refugia theory proposes that recurrent expansions and contractions of xerophytic vegetation over climate change periods affected the evolution of cactophilic Drosophila in South American continent. The resulting demographic fluctuations linked to the available patches of vegetation should have been prone to bottlenecks and founder events, affecting the fate of gene pool dynamics. However, these events also promoted the diversification of cacti, creating an ecological opportunity for host specialization. We tested the hypothesis of...

The vocalizations of some young brood-parasitic birds closely resemble those of their host’s young. Such similarities might arise because hosts bestow the greatest parental care in response to their own species’ call type. We used a playback experiment to assess the effectiveness of the nestling call structures of two brood parasites, the specialist screaming cowbird (Molothrus rufoaxillaris) and the generalist shiny cowbird (M. bonariensis), in stimulating parental provisioning in a shared host, the baywing (Agelaioides...

1. Habitat loss is the primary cause of local extinctions. Yet, there is considerable uncertainty regarding how fast species respond to habitat loss, and how time-delayed responses vary in space. 2. We focused on the Argentine Dry Chaco (ca. 32 million ha), a global deforestation hotspot, and tested for time-delayed response of bird and mammal communities to landscape transformation. We quantified the magnitude of extinction debt by modelling contemporary species richness as a function of...

1. Secondary succession may lead to novel, exotic-dominated community states differing in structure and function from the original native counterparts. We hypothesized that grassland soil processes associated with C and N cycling decelerate with community turnover from short-lived forbs and grasses to long-lived native grasses, whereas invasion by exotic perennial grasses maintains fast cycling rates. 2. We measured litter C and N turnover during decomposition, soil respiration, and soil N dynamics in synthetic plant communities...

Upper Maastrichtian to lower Paleocene, coarse-grained deposits of the Lefipán Formation in Chubut Province, (Patagonia, Argentina) provide an opportunity to study environmental changes across the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) boundary in a shallow marine depositional environment. Marine palynological and organic geochemical analyses were performed on the K–Pg boundary interval of the Lefipán Formation at the San Ramón section. The palynological and organic geochemical records from the San Ramón K–Pg boundary section are characteristic of a highly dynamic,...