Fitness depends entirely on how well individuals can survive and reproduce – both of which can be quite stressful. What makes these even more challenging is that the traits that may increase reproductive success can often decrease survivorship. So, when and in what ways should organisms trade-off the development of some traits over others? I will draw from our work with colourful herpetofauna to explore how morphology, behaviour, and hormones integrate to build phenotypic complexes. Given that the effectiveness of traits depends on the context, I will also share how traits shift with changes in selection pressures across ecological and evolutionary timescales. In many cases, we find that trait complexity may be easier to maintain than we think they should be. Overall, I hope to illustrate the remarkable variation within and between species, and the critical role that stress and nutrition plays in building colourful animals.

Biography

Maria Thaker is a Professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore India. Her lab takes an integrative and comparative approach to understanding phenotypic form and function, using study systems ranging from lizards to elephants. She is particularly interested in understanding the implications of environmental change, such as urbanization and climate warming, on animal responses. Maria Thaker is currently the coordinator of the new Masters in Life  Sciences program at IISc and is leading the Movement Ecology component of the Long-Term Ecological Observatories Program in India.