This week’s edition of the 2017 Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series features. Dr. Ben Evans, associate professor of the Biology Department at McMaster University, who will give a presentation entitled “Ecological Opportunity and Adaptive Radiation of Fanged Frogs in Southeast Asia.”
Adaptive radiation is when a group of animals evolve into different forms to fill different roles in their environment.
In his talk, Dr. Evans will provide evidence for an example of an adaptive radiation; the fanged frogs of Southeast Asia. Different species of fanged frogs have unique characteristics, including body size and reproductive strategy that allow them to co-exist in the same habitat. Through comparison to frogs in the Philippines and other species of animals, Evans will discuss how fanged frogs underwent rapid speciation on Sulawesi, and how this fast-paced evolution led to remarkable changes.
He will also explain the broader context of fanged frog evolution for conservation and evolutionary studies.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series talks are free and open to the public. They are held every Thursday until April 27 at 11:00 a.m. in the Museum auditorium. Speaker Series talks are also available on the Museum’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/RoyalTyrrellMuseum.
