Weekly Schedule Fall 2015
Week 1 Aug. 28 Catherine Markham
Week 2 Sep. 4 Carola Borries
Week 3 Sep. 11 Elise Lauterbur
Week 4 Sep. 18 Alicia Lamb
Week 5 Sep. 25 Andreas Koenig
Week 6 Oct. 2 Khum Thapa Magar
Week 7 Oct. 9 Evelyn Pain
Week 8 Oct. 16 Katherine Kling
Week 9 Oct. 23 Marcy Ekanayake-Weber
Week 10 Oct. 30 Eliot Monaco
Week 11 Nov. 6 Lauren Petrullo
Week 12 Nov. 13 Guest speaker Claudia Valeggia
Week 13 Nov. 20 Kait Farrell
Week 14 Nov. 27 No meeting, Thanksgiving
Week 15 Dec. 4 John True
Dec 04, 2015
John True presents his research on "Simple genetic models of the evolution of parental care"
Parental care has evolved many times independently in animals. The most well-studied parental care systems are those in mammals, birds, fish, and eusocial insects, which are highly derived. Far less attention has been paid to the initial evolution of parental care from species lacking parental care. The paper (Gomez and Koelliker, 2013) on European earwigs, which I will discuss briefly, studies aspects of the early evolution of parental care. For the rest of the talk, I will discuss genetic models I have recently constructed to ask some basic questions about the initial evolution of parental care. I use Monte Carlo, individual based simulations, each involving only two loci, a parental care locus and an innate fitness locus, to study the dynamics of the evolution of care from non-care. The first model demonstrates that parental care evolves readily given strong enough competition among offspring. The second model envisions an intermediate life history stage in which individuals may either receive extended parental care or, lacking care, may advance immediately to parenthood. Innate fitness across the life history is determined by a single locus whose mutation is constrained such that stage-specific fitness changes must sum to zero. This model is expected to evolve antagonistic life history pleiotropy in which low innate fitness evolves during juvenile stages, where it is compensated by parental care, and fitness gains are preferentially apportioned to the adult stage. This type of antagonistic pleiotropy is the converse of that proposed in the evolution of aging, in which fitness gains early in life are balanced by senescence later.
Gomez Y, Koelliker M. 2013. Maternal care, mother-offspring aggregation and age-dependent coadaptation in the European earwig. J Evol Biol 26:1903-1911.
Nov 20, 2015
Kaitlin Farrell leads the discussion on
Szipl G, Boeckle M, Wascher CAF, Spreafico M, Bugnyar T. 2015. With whom to dine? Ravens' response to food-associated calls depend on individual characteristics of the caller. Anim Behav 99:33-42.
Nov 13, 2015
Guest speaker Claudia Valeggia
Department of Anthropology, Yale University
"Life history transitions among the Toba/qom of Argentina"
Nov 06, 2015
Lauren Petrullo present her project "Maternal care and the developing stress response in juvenile rhesus macaques."
Oct 30, 2015
Eliot Monaco leads the discussion on
Strandburg-Peshkin A, Farine DR, Couzin ID, Crofoot MC. 2015. Shared decision-making drives collective movement in wild baboons. Science 348:1358-1361.
Oct 23, 2015
Marcy Ekanayake-Weber leads the discussion on
Beck S, Kuningas S, Esteban R, Foote AD. 2012. The influence of ecology on sociality in the killer whale (Orcinus orca). Behav Ecol 23:246-253.
Oct 16, 2015
Katherine Kling leads the discussion on
Nekaris et al. 2013. Mad, bad and dangerous to know: the biochemistry, ecology and evolution of slow loris venom. J Venom Anim Toxins 19: 21
Oct 09, 2015
Evelyn Pain presents her project "Radioimmunoassay validation for Lagothrix poeppigii: implications for future work and conservation."
Oct 02, 2015
Khum Thapa Magar leads the discussion on
Karban R. 2008. Plant behaviour and communication. Ecol Lett 11:727-739.
Sep 25, 2015
Andreas Koenig presents on "Agonism and despotism among primate females: ecological and phylogenetic perspectives."
This presentation will be give at Duke University on October 2, 2015, in their Evolutionary Anthropology Talk Series.
Sep 18, 2015
Alicia Lamb presents on her research into grouping behavior in whirligig beetles.
Whirligig beetles are an ideal species for studying collaborative motion and other behaviors because they travel in 2D on the surface of the water (rather than in 3D like fish or birds) and can easily be brought into the lab allowing for different variables to be manipulated. Alicia studied the phenomenon of flash expansion in whirligigs. This occurs when the beetles, which congregate in order to decrease their likelihood of being preyed upon, rapidly disperse the moment before a predator attacks in order to cause confusion. The flash expansion is an important study system for examining general theories about information transfer and the collective motion of grouping animals such as herds, flocks, swarms, schools, and even human crowds that are more difficult to study.
Sep 11, 2015
Elise Lauterbur leads the discussion on
Aplin LM, Farine DR, Morand-Ferron J, Cockburn A, Thornton A, Sheldon BC. 2015. Experimentally induced innovations lead to persistent culture via conformity in wild birds. Nature 518: 538-541.
Sep 04, 2015
Carola Borries leads the discussion on
Kuzawa CW, Chugani HT, Grossman LI, Lipovich L, Muzik O, Hof PR, Wildman DE, Sherwood CC, Leonard WR, Lange N. 2014. Metabolic costs and evolutionary implications of human brain development. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111:13010-13015.
Aug 28, 2015
Catherine Markham reports on her recent travels to long-term research sites studying baboons and meerkats.
We will also be signing up for the remaining presentation slots this semester (see 'Semester Schedule' for current list).
Week 1 Aug. 28 Catherine Markham
Week 2 Sep. 4 Carola Borries
Week 3 Sep. 11 Elise Lauterbur
Week 4 Sep. 18 Alicia Lamb
Week 5 Sep. 25 Andreas Koenig
Week 6 Oct. 2 Khum Thapa Magar
Week 7 Oct. 9 Evelyn Pain
Week 8 Oct. 16 Katherine Kling
Week 9 Oct. 23 Marcy Ekanayake-Weber
Week 10 Oct. 30 Eliot Monaco
Week 11 Nov. 6 Lauren Petrullo
Week 12 Nov. 13 Guest speaker Claudia Valeggia
Week 13 Nov. 20 Kait Farrell
Week 14 Nov. 27 No meeting, Thanksgiving
Week 15 Dec. 4 John True
Dec 04, 2015
John True presents his research on "Simple genetic models of the evolution of parental care"
Parental care has evolved many times independently in animals. The most well-studied parental care systems are those in mammals, birds, fish, and eusocial insects, which are highly derived. Far less attention has been paid to the initial evolution of parental care from species lacking parental care. The paper (Gomez and Koelliker, 2013) on European earwigs, which I will discuss briefly, studies aspects of the early evolution of parental care. For the rest of the talk, I will discuss genetic models I have recently constructed to ask some basic questions about the initial evolution of parental care. I use Monte Carlo, individual based simulations, each involving only two loci, a parental care locus and an innate fitness locus, to study the dynamics of the evolution of care from non-care. The first model demonstrates that parental care evolves readily given strong enough competition among offspring. The second model envisions an intermediate life history stage in which individuals may either receive extended parental care or, lacking care, may advance immediately to parenthood. Innate fitness across the life history is determined by a single locus whose mutation is constrained such that stage-specific fitness changes must sum to zero. This model is expected to evolve antagonistic life history pleiotropy in which low innate fitness evolves during juvenile stages, where it is compensated by parental care, and fitness gains are preferentially apportioned to the adult stage. This type of antagonistic pleiotropy is the converse of that proposed in the evolution of aging, in which fitness gains early in life are balanced by senescence later.
Gomez Y, Koelliker M. 2013. Maternal care, mother-offspring aggregation and age-dependent coadaptation in the European earwig. J Evol Biol 26:1903-1911.
Nov 20, 2015
Kaitlin Farrell leads the discussion on
Szipl G, Boeckle M, Wascher CAF, Spreafico M, Bugnyar T. 2015. With whom to dine? Ravens' response to food-associated calls depend on individual characteristics of the caller. Anim Behav 99:33-42.
Nov 13, 2015
Guest speaker Claudia Valeggia
Department of Anthropology, Yale University
"Life history transitions among the Toba/qom of Argentina"
Nov 06, 2015
Lauren Petrullo present her project "Maternal care and the developing stress response in juvenile rhesus macaques."
Oct 30, 2015
Eliot Monaco leads the discussion on
Strandburg-Peshkin A, Farine DR, Couzin ID, Crofoot MC. 2015. Shared decision-making drives collective movement in wild baboons. Science 348:1358-1361.
Oct 23, 2015
Marcy Ekanayake-Weber leads the discussion on
Beck S, Kuningas S, Esteban R, Foote AD. 2012. The influence of ecology on sociality in the killer whale (Orcinus orca). Behav Ecol 23:246-253.
Oct 16, 2015
Katherine Kling leads the discussion on
Nekaris et al. 2013. Mad, bad and dangerous to know: the biochemistry, ecology and evolution of slow loris venom. J Venom Anim Toxins 19: 21
Oct 09, 2015
Evelyn Pain presents her project "Radioimmunoassay validation for Lagothrix poeppigii: implications for future work and conservation."
Oct 02, 2015
Khum Thapa Magar leads the discussion on
Karban R. 2008. Plant behaviour and communication. Ecol Lett 11:727-739.
Sep 25, 2015
Andreas Koenig presents on "Agonism and despotism among primate females: ecological and phylogenetic perspectives."
This presentation will be give at Duke University on October 2, 2015, in their Evolutionary Anthropology Talk Series.
Sep 18, 2015
Alicia Lamb presents on her research into grouping behavior in whirligig beetles.
Whirligig beetles are an ideal species for studying collaborative motion and other behaviors because they travel in 2D on the surface of the water (rather than in 3D like fish or birds) and can easily be brought into the lab allowing for different variables to be manipulated. Alicia studied the phenomenon of flash expansion in whirligigs. This occurs when the beetles, which congregate in order to decrease their likelihood of being preyed upon, rapidly disperse the moment before a predator attacks in order to cause confusion. The flash expansion is an important study system for examining general theories about information transfer and the collective motion of grouping animals such as herds, flocks, swarms, schools, and even human crowds that are more difficult to study.
Sep 11, 2015
Elise Lauterbur leads the discussion on
Aplin LM, Farine DR, Morand-Ferron J, Cockburn A, Thornton A, Sheldon BC. 2015. Experimentally induced innovations lead to persistent culture via conformity in wild birds. Nature 518: 538-541.
Sep 04, 2015
Carola Borries leads the discussion on
Kuzawa CW, Chugani HT, Grossman LI, Lipovich L, Muzik O, Hof PR, Wildman DE, Sherwood CC, Leonard WR, Lange N. 2014. Metabolic costs and evolutionary implications of human brain development. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111:13010-13015.
Aug 28, 2015
Catherine Markham reports on her recent travels to long-term research sites studying baboons and meerkats.
We will also be signing up for the remaining presentation slots this semester (see 'Semester Schedule' for current list).