Behavioral Ecology Blog

HELP!
Does anybody have a reference to a paper where sequence data was used to estimate theta (rather than microsatellites) for the purpose of controlling for effective population when looking at selection in different populations and species.
It seems that when looking at selection in multiple species, msats may not offer the best way to subtract out [...]

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Published in 1974, this paper is arguably Bob Trivers 2nd most influential paper behind the paper describing reciprocal altruism… Because very few people read long blog posts, and the idea is to introduce these ideas to people that might not already be familiar, I’l go ahead and list the main points/finding, and then go into [...]

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It’s always coolto hear about a new species discovery, especially when it’s a mammal. Unlike other taxa (thinking insects and “bugs”) there are probably very few new species left to discover.. Those new species are usually from relatively unexplored regions of the world. Particularly troubling is the fact that these areas are extremely threatened by [...]

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I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this very nice study by a fellow IB grad student and associate of the MVZ published this month in the Proceedings of the Royal Society London B. It represents the bulk of the dissertation research of Chris Clark, who has studied sound production in The Anna’s Hummingbird.
As [...]

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For the practicing scientist readers. you know that feeling of excitement you get when you read a paper sometimes… That “Holy Shit, this is one of the nicest papers I’ve read in a long time” feeling.. Well hold on, cause if your interested in behavioral ecology, sexual selection, mate choice, birds, biology, ect, this paper [...]

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.. and sorry your dead. John Maynard-Smith was one of the major players in the formation of the modern synthesis. He applied the principals of game theory to evolutionary biology which allowed us to make quantitative predictions about outcomes… Here is a video from 2002 where he discusses the science, his life, and other things..

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Although its practice has been questioned, partly because of its abuse in the EvoPsych world- the analysis of human behavior in an evolutionary framework is super interesting and is one of my favorite things to think about. Within the realm of human behavior, particularly interesting are the selective pressures surrounding human mate choice and [...]

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Now I’m no Coleoptera systematist, but it’s hard not to say “Holy Shit” when you look- really look at the evolution of the Coleoptera.
There is a new paper in Science: A Comprehensive Phylogeny of Beetles Reveals the Evolutionary Origins of a Superradiation that is really impressive. Here is the abstract:
Beetles represent almost one-fourth of all [...]

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For the practicing scientists reading this blog (are there any??), you know that there are certain people whose work it pays to take note of. For behavioral ecologists (and evolutionary biologists in general), Tim Clutton Brock (TCB) is one such researcher. His work as spanned multiple decades, and has ranged from hard-core field oriented studies [...]

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There is a cool paper in Evolution this month that demonstrates the power of natural selection. By Kleven, et. al. “Intraspecific Variation in Sperm Length is Negatively Related to Sperm Competition in Passerine Birds“
Abstract:

Spermatozoa are among the most diversified cells in the animal kingdom, but the underlying evolutionary forces affecting intraspecific variation in sperm morphology [...]

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