News & events

Magpie-lark pair duetting. Image: Pawel Rek

Reality and illusion in magpie-lark song-and-dance duets

A new study shows Australian magpie-larks may use a ventriloquial illusion to make their vocal duets more threatening.

Wild animals are evolving faster than anybody thought

To measure the speed of adaptive evolution in the wild, we studied 19 populations of birds and mammals over several decades. We found they were evolving at twice to four times the speed suggested by earlier work.

Wild animals evolving much faster than previously thought

The raw material for evolution is much more abundant in wild animals than we previously believed, according to new research.

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E&E Seminar: Title TBA

1–2pm 2 May 2024
TBA

Event recordings

8 December 2020

Helmut Simon, Huttley Group, E&E, RSB

I examine how some established population genetic models can be extended to accommodate insights from newer data and analytic methods.

4 December 2020

Claire Taylor, Langmore Group, E&E, RSB

Individuals can benefit by varying their investment in offspring. The optimal amount of investment may vary in relation to both climatic conditions and social conditions (such as...

27 November 2020

Carlos Pavon, Keogh Group, E&E, RSB

Why do organisms look the way they do? Why do they live where they do? Wy are some groups more diverse than others? These basic questions are often addressed at different scales...

27 November 2020

Shukhrat Shokirov, Foley Group, E&E, RSB

Vegetation structure is an important habitat element for many animals.

12 November 2020

Marlene Zuk, University of Minnesota, USA

By nature of their conspicuousness, sexual signals can cause a conflict between natural and sexual selection, with natural selection favoring a decrease in exaggeration of an...

10 November 2020

Dr Thomas Guillemaud & Dr Denis Bourguet, INRA, Montpellier

The Peer Community in (PCI) project offers an alternative to the current system of publication - which is particularly expensive and not very transparent.

6 November 2020

Tobias Hayashi, Peakall Group, E&E, RSB

The cross-kingdom mimicry of female insect sex pheromones by sexually deceptive orchids has fascinated evolutionary biologists ever since the importance of chemistry in...

29 October 2020

Thomas Aubier, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Any antagonistic interaction has the potential of favouring sex, just as predicted by the "Red Queen hypothesis" in the case of host-parasite interactions. Is it really...

22 October 2020

Roxana Torres, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Reproductive success is strongly related to the display of extravagant sexual traits, such as the striking coloration of some bird species.

15 October 2020

Kirsty Macleod, Lund University, Sweden

Ecological stressors such as predation can shape ecosystems, driving prey population and community dynamics through indirect, non-consumptive effects that may cascade across...