Simone P. Blomberg's research while affiliated with The University of Queensland and other places

... negatively influenced when sample size is small and could potentially fall outside of its normal range (0-1), thus becoming unreliable (Münkemüller et al., 2012). One solution is to fix λ at 1 (a constant rates model) and explore any changes in outcomes of the regression (Todorov et al., 2022). To promote best practise and explore the effect of sample size upon phylogenetic comparative methods, the regression analyses were conducted here as a phylogenetically uncorrected linear model (λ = 0), PGLS (λ = maximum likelihood estimate) and PGLS (λ = 1). ...

... The quantification of bone shape presents itself as a useful solution to taxon differentiation in biodiverse deposits. Morphometric approaches are routinely used in biology to describe evolutionary, phenotypic and functionally adaptive traits [1][2][3][4] . Archaeologists have long recognised the utility of a quantitative approach to identifying and exploring shape variation in archeozoological bone, particularly skulls and teeth 5,6 . ...

... The diversity of ecology, wide range of body masses, and good phylogenetic resolution make the marsupial clade an excellent group to test how endocast morphology may aid interpretation of sensorimotor or cognitive abilities of fossil mammals (Pirlot 1981;Macrini et al. 2007c;Todorov et al. 2021;Weisbecker et al. 2021). This was recently assessed in a study including two of us (V.W. and T.M.; Weisbecker et al. 2021), focusing on 3D geometric morphometrics of endocast shape and its association with virtual dissections of the endocasts into its main four components (olfactory bulb, cerebrum, cerebellum, and brain stem). ...

... However, an apparent limitation of VPA was the high levels of unexplained variation, which are reasonably common in geometric morphometrics, but are generally not expected (51,52). These could be the result of unmeasured biotic or abiotic factors, directly or indirectly influencing bacterial communities (53,54). ...

... Morever, a semelparityiteroparity axis has been described (Gaillard et al. 1989). Multivariate analyses and large volumes of demographic data demonstrated that the investment of energy into different moments of reproduction (e.g., age at first reproduction, reproductive window, degree of parity, annual intensity of reproduction) are decoupled from the fast-slow continuum in animals-humans included-and plants (Gaillard et al. 1989;Salguero-Gómez et al. 2016;Capdevila et al. 2020;Salguero-Gómez 2021). Importantly, while the fast-slow continuum in these studies explains ~35% of the variation in life histories, the parity continuum explains ~30% in them. ...

... 10,11 Some researchers have worked on biomimetic micro-and nanostructures inspired by natural antifouling surfaces, 12 such as cicada wings, 13 dragonfly wings, 14 and gecko skin structures. 15 The effect of material surfaces on bacterial colonization appears to depend on the size of surface structures, surface roughness, hydrophilicity, hydrophobicity, and chemical composition of material surfaces, as well as the interaction of bacteria with material surfaces. Ge 16 et al. studied submicron-sized arrays of silica periodic columns and found that they could inhibit bacterial adhesion and proliferation through spatially restricted size effects. ...

... We believe that genome datasets of hundreds of thousands to millions of SNPs as well as ecological niche modeling will allow researchers to test exciting hypotheses related to local adaptation by identifying both NGV and AGV (Smith et al., 2020;Chen et al., 2022;Yang et al., 2022). With these approaches, researchers will be able to determine which populations of the target species are more susceptible to climate change (genomic vulnerability or offset; Hoffmann et al., 2021), while at the same time providing more objective tools to identify conservation units (by delineating MUs and AUs). ...

... Brownian motion (BM) and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) models were popular for the trait evolution (Blomberg et al., 2020). We compared the fitness of six models, including BM, OU, No-signal (l forced = 0) and Pagel's three models (l, d and k), through ML estimations in the R package geiger (Harmon et al., 2008). ...

... It is also likely that microornamentation of different types derived from the specific process of corneous material accumulation that took place during the evolution of the shedding complex in different lepidosaurians. The role of the corneous microstructures formed by the Oberhautchen varies according to the species but it has been indicated to function in different processes such as optimize the timing of epidermal shedding, producing skin friction of anti-friction, generating shining and iridescence, increasing infra-red wavelengths absorption for thermoregulation, removing fouling, dirt particles or microorganisms and parasites from the skin (Arnold, 2002;Gower, 2003;Riedel et al., 2019;Ruibal, 1968). The variable patterns of Oberhautchen surfaces so far analyzed in lizards and snakes by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), have been briefly summarized to form five main types: flat-smooth, lamellated, lamellated-spinulated, spinulated, and honeycomb (Irish et al., 1988;Peterson, 1984;Price, 1982;Ruibal, 1968). ...