In early November 2013, Marcus and a very diligent field assistant, Michael Bertram, went up to Lane Cove National Park, Sydney to collect delicate skinks. The skinks were to be used as part of Marcus’ PhD research investigating behavioural syndromes in the species. In addition, skinks were caught using three trapping methods (mealworm fishing, pitfall traps and hand capture) to determine whether certain trapping techniques preferentially capture individuals with a particular behavioural type. In between fishing for lizards, Marcus and Michael indulged in cheese and wine whilst enjoying the natural views from their park cabin.
Sexual selection in the sea
Biologists have uncovered new insights into the mating tactics of the peculiar southern bottletail squid, a small species found in the sandy shallows of Southern Australia. Research led by PhD student Benjamin Wegener found females eat the ejaculates of their mates, a trait never before associated with cephalopods, the group that includes squid, octopus, cuttlefish and nautilus. Moreover, the study revealed smaller females tended to eat the most ejaculates of their mates, potentially decreasing the chances of successful fertilization of her eggs.
(Photo: Kade Mills)
Check out some examples of popular press coverage here , here and here.
Lab retreat at Daylesford
The research group recently enjoying a wonderful three-day retreat in Daylesford, Victoria.(Photo: Nori Kawasaki)
Science tests the size debate
Women take into account male body shape, height and size of genitalia to determine the sexual appeal of men. Before clothing, the non-retractable human penis would have been conspicuous to potential mates. This has generated suggestions that penis size partly evolved due to female choice. We show, based upon female assessment of digitally projected life-size, computer-generated images, that penis size interacts with body shape and height to determine male sexual attractiveness. Our results support the hypothesis that female mate choice could have driven the evolution of larger penises in humans. In a broader context, our results show that pre-copulatory sexual selection can play a role in the evolution of genital traits.
Watch a youtube video discussing the science here
Check out a write-up in The Conversation here
Congratulations to Nick Moran!
Congratulations to Nick Moran, who was awarded a Great Artesian Basin Coordinating Committee (GABCC) top-up Scholarship for his research.
Congratulations to Ben Wegener!
Congratulations to Ben Wegener (PhD student) for getting the cover in the latest issue of Behavioural Ecology for his paper Strategic male mate choice minimises ejaculate consumption.
(Photo: Julian Finn/Museum Victoria)
For birds, red means go
New research has shown that certain Australian native flowers have shifted away from using insects as pollinators and evolved their flower colour to the red hues favoured by birds.
We demonstrate, for the first time, that Australian native flowers exclusively pollinated by birds have evolved colour spectral signatures that are best discriminated by those birds.
We collected spectral data from over 200 flowering plants and identified the pollinators as birds or insects. We found that flowers exclusively pollinated by birds had initially evolved to suit insect vision, but more recently the spectral signature of bird-pollinated flowers had shifted towards longer wavelengths. The research showed that rather than just having any type of red reflection, bird-pollinated flowers targeted the specific wavelengths that best match the long wavelength tetrachromatic (four colour) vision of many Australian native birds.
(Photo: Adrian Dyer)
Read an example of the media coverage here
