Institute of Evolutionary Biology - Gallery of Pictures

Swollen thorn galls on an African 'ant acacia'. The swellings are home to ants that defend the trees against attack by herbivores. Work by researchers at IEB has shown that acacias have evolved ant-repellent pollen, to stop their ant guards from going onto their flowers, and chasing away the insect pollinators they need to set seed. Photo: Graham Stone

A field assistant in Kenya collecting acacia flowers. Many species of acacia grow and flower together in Kenya, and also share pollinators. Research at IEB has shown how the acacia species avoid competing for pollinator services by each releasing their pollen at a different time of day, so pollinators visit each species in turn. Work on other acacia communities shows that similar resource partitioning has evolved in Mexico and Australia. Photo: Graham Stone

Andricus curtisii. This is an oak gall from Iran, induced to develop on a bud by a gallwasp. This is one of the most dramatic oak galls, and Iran is emerging as a centre of diversity for oak gallwasps. Work in IEB shows that many lineages of oak gallwasps diversified in Iran and Turkey 5-10 million years ago, before sweeping westwards into Europe. Photo: Graham Stone

Ants and aphids on a gall. This image shows aphids feeding on sap from a gall induced by a wasp on an oak. The aphids are being tended by ants, which protect them from predators in return for the sweet honeydew they produce. The ants also protect the gall-making wasp from attack by its own enemies - so the loss of sap from its gall seems a small price to pay. IEB researchers are using these 'natural microcosms' as a window on the way complex interactions between species evolve. Photo: Graham Stone

The Daphnia or waterflea on the right is sick, but the waterflea on the left is healthy. IEB scientists use waterfleas to understand natural patterns in the distribution of disease.

Megastigmus wasp. Megastigmus stigmatizans is a parasite of gall-making wasps on oaks. The image shows one in the process of drilling into a gall of Andricus infectorius in search of the concealed larva, on which it lays a single egg. Research at IEB has shown how parasitoids including this species have pursued their oak gallwasp hosts across Eurasia in an arms race lasting millions of years. Photo. György Csóka.

A nine-year old red deer stag, Bulby, during the autumn rut on the Isle of Rum. Researchers at IEB are currently using the detailed information collected on individually recognisable deer over the last 35 years on the island to understand evolutionary processes in natural populations. Current topics of research include the evolution of ageing and differences between the sexes. Photo: Alison Morris.

These are larvae of the parasitoid wasp Melittobia acasta, feeding on their insect host's tissues. Parasitoid wasps are very useful lab organisms for investigating a range of questions in evolutionary ecology. (Photo: Stu West / Sarah Reece)

A pair of breeding guillemots preening one another on the Isle of May, SE Scotland. Researchers at IEB have shown that pairs showing higher levels of preening were more successful breeders and were also less aggressive (photo:Sheila Russell)

Two sub-species of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus meet and form hybrids in mountain passes of the Pyrenees. Naturally forming hybrid zones between closely related species allow biologists to explore how and when new species are formed (Photo: David Shuker).

Researchers at IEB are currently investigating the extent to which success in the sports of eventing, showjumping and dressage is heritable. We plan to provide UK sport horse breeders with estimates of genetic merit for horses competing in these disciplines. (Photo: Disan Stud)

Distinguishing between male and female malaria parasites can be difficult, but this problem can be solved using genetic modification techniques. For example, parasites in this infection express a red fluorescent protein if they are female and a green fluorescent protein if they are male. (Photo: Sinclair Stammers)

This shows in situ hybridization of a transposable element family to polytence chromosomes of Drosophila miranda, demonstrating accumulation of elements on the non-recombining neo-Y chromosome. Panel A shows a female (which lacks the neo-Y chromosome), with the arrows showing the sites on the chromosomes where elements are located. Panel B shows the neo-Y chromosome of a male, which has about the same number of elements as in the whole genome of the female. The neo-Y was formed by fusion of an autosome to the true Y chromosome about 1.75 million years ago, and is a model system for studying the evolution of Y chromosomes.

Infecting mosquitoes is an essential step in the life-cycle of malaria parasites and parasites produce specialised male and female sexual stages to do this job. When they find themselves in a mosquito gut, parasites mate with each other and then spend 2-3 weeks in their mosquito before can be transmitted to new hosts. (Photo: Sinclair Stammers)

Females of parasitic wasp species such as Nasonia vitripennis adaptively alter their offspring sex ratios depending on the environment. Sex ratio is proving a useful trait to try and understand the process of adaptation, both in Nasonia and more generally (Photo: David Shuker & Stuart West).

Araucaria nemorosa, a relative of the familiar Monkey Puzzle tree, is endemic to New Caledonia and is one of the world's rarest conifers. Joint research by IEB and RBGE has highlighted significant genetic problems faced by wild populations, but provided guidance for avoiding these problems in restoration programmes.

Native pinewoods represent one of the few remaining forest ecosystems in Britain. Research in IEB is concerned with understanding current adaptation and future response of Scots pine to climate change, together evolution of the fungi that inhabit their needles.

The Isle of Rum in the Inner Hebrides, NW Scotland, viewed from Skye to the north. Islands make exceptional outdoor laboratories for population biology studies due to their simplified ecosystems. Members of IEB are involved in long-term studies of individually-monitored animal populations on various Scottish islands including the Red deer on Rum, where all deer living in the 'North Block' are individually-recognised and followed throughout their lives.

Sika stag with red deer hinds, Scotland. The extent of hybridisation between introduced Japanese sika deer (Cervus nippon) and mainland Scottish red deer (Cervus elaphus) is studied using microsatellite and mtDNA markers (Photo ?DCS).

The top picture shows male and female flowers of white campion (Silene latifolia), one of the approximately 5% of flowering plants that have separate sexes. The bottom picture shows the chromosomes of a male plant, including the large Y chromosome (top left) and the slightly smaller X chromosome (among the chromosomes at the bottom right). This plant's sex chromosome system is less than 10 million years old, and is thus excellent for studying the first steps in sex chromosome evolution. We are developing genetic markers for white campion, and mapping genes to the sex chromosomes in order to understand the evolution of its Y chromosomes.

YB572, a nine year old Soay ram on Hirta, St Kilda. This individually-monitored, unmanaged population of sheep is the subject of intensive evolutionary and ecological research based at IEB, University of Edinburgh and other universities. Current research is focused on measuring how the population responds to natural selection using pedigrees and DNA profiling.

Coloured bands of microorganisms growing within Winogradsky columns (self-sustaining microbial microcosms of pond sediment and water driven by light energy). Researchers in IEB use these systems to study microbial diversity, ecology and evolution in an analogue of natural microbial ecosystems.