{"id":46,"date":"2022-01-14T20:27:08","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T20:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/research\/?post_type=research_theme&p=46"},"modified":"2022-02-25T14:05:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T14:05:59","slug":"evolutionary-origins-of-biological-diversity","status":"publish","type":"research_theme","link":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/research\/research-theme\/evolutionary-origins-of-biological-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolutionary Origins of Biological Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theodosius Dobzhansky famously wrote that \u201cnothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution\u201d. This is especially true for understanding biological diversity: research in the Centre for Biological Diversity focuses on how diversity is generated, and the evolutionary forces that maintain or erode it. The Centre for Biological Diversity has world-leading research programmes in the study of population diversification and speciation, which is the ultimate origin of biodiversity at the level of the species and above.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Centre for Biological Diversity has world-leading research programmes in the study of population diversification and speciation, which is the ultimate origin of biodiversity at the level of the species and above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":136,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-46","research_theme","type-research_theme","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"related_groups":[{"group_members":"Sonja Vernes<\/span>\r\nAleksandra Wcislo<\/span>\r\nKirsty Hamilton<\/span>\r\nSasha Newar<\/span>\r\nIne Alvarez van Tussenbroek<\/span>\r\nBenjamin Thompson<\/span>\r\nSixue Lee<\/span>\r\nNikita Groot<\/span>\r\nAlexa Clarke<\/span>\r\nAlice Crighton<\/span>\r\nMike Cummings<\/span>\r\nMeike Mai<\/span>","publications":"[publications flag='individual' code='scv1' dois='1' max='10' categorise='1']","research_projects":"As part of our quest to understand the neurogenetic bases of vocal learning and social-vocal communication, we devote particular attention to the study of vocal learning and communication behaviour in bats. We use cutting-edge molecular techniques to identify genes and neural circuits that are important for vocal communication and learned vocalisations in this species. We also investigate the causes of language disorders in clinical populations to gain insight into the causes of these disorders, but also to understand the genetic factors underlying normal language development. Candidate genes identified in clinical populations are also explored in our animal models to understand what role they play and why their disruption leads to language-related disorders.<\/span>","related_theme":[33,46,122,201,202],"related_centre":77,"contact":"scv1@st-andrews.ac.uk<\/span>","ID":244,"post_title":"Neurogenetics of Vocal Communication","post_content":"Our research group focuses on the study of vocal communication in mammals as a way to understand the biological basis of human speech and language and how this trait evolved.<\/span>\r\n\r\nMany species of mammal, including our primate cousins, have limited vocal repertoires. But a few mammals such as bats, whales and elephants use complex and varied vocalisations that share some characteristics with human speech, for example, the ability to learn vocalisations from other members of their social group.<\/span>\r\n\r\nCurrently very little is known about the genetic basis for these sophisticated vocal behaviours in non-human mammals. Studying such species could provide clues about how human language evolved, and how language abilities are encoded in the brain and the genome.<\/span>","post_excerpt":"Our research group focuses on the study of vocal communication in mammals as a way to understand the biological basis of human speech and language and how this trait evolved.","post_author":"86","post_date":"2022-12-12 16:15:12","post_date_gmt":"2022-12-12 16:15:12","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"neurogenetics-of-vocal-communication","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-11-07 13:05:13","post_modified_gmt":"2025-11-07 13:05:13","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/research\/?post_type=research_group&p=244","menu_order":0,"post_type":"research_group","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","comments":false,"_thumbnail_id":["245","4","2022-12-12 16:15:02","2022-12-12 16:15:02","","Phyllostomus discolor_pale spear-nosed bat_Cr_Sonja Vernes","","inherit","open","closed","","phyllostomus-discolor_pale-spear-nosed-bat_cr_sonja-vernes","","","2022-12-12 16:15:02","2022-12-12 16:15:02","","244","https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2022\/12\/Phyllostomus-discolor_pale-spear-nosed-bat_Cr_Sonja-Vernes.jpg","0","attachment","image\/jpeg","0","245"],"id":244}],"related_centre":[{"ID":85,"post_title":"Centre for Biological Diversity","post_content":"The Centre for Biological Diversity (CBD) is an interdisciplinary group of researchers across St\u00a0Andrews focused on the measurement, origin and consequences of biological variation. The Centre's\u00a0objective is to advance scientific understanding of the diversity of life and contribute pro-actively to policy that protects biological diversity.<\/span>\r\n\r\nMain website<\/a>","post_excerpt":"","post_author":"4","post_date":"2022-01-17 16:17:03","post_date_gmt":"2022-01-17 16:17:03","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"centre-for-biological-diversity","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-09-20 13:32:17","post_modified_gmt":"2022-09-20 12:32:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/research\/?post_type=research_centre&p=85","menu_order":0,"post_type":"research_centre","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","comments":false,"id":85}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research_theme\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research_theme"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/research_theme"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}