Areas of Research
Important areas of current research include:
- Organismal performance as a central phenotype (e.g., measures of speed or stamina in animal locomotion)
- Role of behavior in physiological evolution
- Physiological and endocrinological basis of variation in life history traits (e.g., clutch size)
- Functional significance of molecular evolution
- Extent to which species differences are adaptive
- Physiological underpinnings of limits to geographic ranges
- Role of sexual selection in shaping physiological evolution
- Magnitude of "phylogenetic signal" in physiological traits
- Role of pathogens and parasites in physiological evolution and immunity
- Application of optimality modeling to elucidate the degree of adaptation
- Role of phenotypic plasticity in accounting for species differences
- Mechanistic basis of trade-offs and constraints on evolution (e.g., putative Carrier's constraint on running and breathing)
- Limits on sustained metabolic rate
- Origin of allometric scaling relations or allometric laws (and the so-called metabolic theory of ecology)
- Individual variation (see also Individual differences psychology)
- Functional significance of biochemical polymorphisms
- Analysis of physiological variation via quantitative genetics
- Paleophysiology and the evolution of endothermy
- Human adaptational physiology
- Darwinian medicine
- Evolution of dietary antioxidants
Read more about this topic: Evolutionary Physiology
Famous quotes containing the words areas of, areas and/or research:
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—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“In my writing I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas ... a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“The research on gender and morality shows that women and men looked at the world through very different moral frameworks. Men tend to think in terms of “justice” or absolute “right and wrong,” while women define morality through the filter of how relationships will be affected. Given these basic differences, why would men and women suddenly agree about disciplining children?”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)