Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology
Our research focuses on the evolution and ecology of phenotypic plasticity, particularly in reproductive strategies. When is plasticity adaptive, how does it evolve in different environments, and does it allow populations to track or adapt to changing environments? Topics of interest include the annual timing of reproduction in response to climate, division of resources among sons and daughters, temperature-dependent embryonic development, thermal biology under different climates, and alterations in behavior and reproduction under parasitic infection. We employ theoretical and empirical approaches to explore these questions, and focus on vertebrate study organisms. Our main research foci are in the study of sex allocation in mammals, temperature-dependent sex determination and thermal biology.
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News
May 2018
The Reptile Development Database has been accepted to Scientific Data and is reviewed in an upcoming special issue of Journal of Experimental Zoology. March 2018 Mitch Hodgson's work as an undergraduate summer scholar has been accepted to Journal of Zoology. We show that variable thermal worlds lead to poorer thermoregulation. August 2017 A successful working group to assemble the Reptile Development Database, with researchers from Australia, USA, China and Sweden. November 2017 Our new meta-analysis of how developmental temperature impacts reptile phenotypes - led by Dan Noble is available in Biological Reviews. 24 May 2016 Did you know parental temperature can influence the growth and survival of hatchling lizards? Watch for my new paper in J Experimental Biology! 19 December 2015 Our novel hypothesis for the evolution of environmental sex determination is accepted at Evolution 13 December 2015 Wallaby cross-fostering is hard! Soon to be explained in PLoS ONE. 20 August 2015 Jen Halstead's work on jacky dragon basking behaviour has been accepted and is available online early! 12 November 2014 Geckos are ruled by air temperature, as described by Cheng Tan in the AWMS newsletter 10 July 2014 Check out all of the great press that Maria Boyle's recent paper has gotten from BBC Nature and BMC Ecology. Also, read my blog about the research! |