Research

How animals interact with their environment, and consequently the type of selection pressures they are confronted by, can often be highly plastic. This is especially true of animal behaviour. But to what extent does plasticity buffer or accelerate adaptive evolution? And how does evolutionary history constrain or dictate the trajectory of adaptive evolution?

We tackle these questions through the study of morphology and behaviour using broad macroevolutionary analyses in lizards, amphibious fish and mammals.

Efficient communication is shaped by the environment, is often plastic, determines mating success, the ability to compete for resources and likely exposure to predators. Given this, animal communication is a wonderful model to investigate plasticity, how animals respond adaptively to large changes in habitat and how complex behaviour evolves. It can also reveal the extent to which different species are likely to interact with one another when competing for common resources, and how mistakes in species recognition can occur and its ramifications.

We investigate the design, function and evolution of territorial displays in lizards, the evolution of conspicuous ornamentation in lizards and fish, and how environmental "noise", predation and other factors of natural selection impact communication.

Lizards, fish and ants are ectotherms and the physiological impact of temperature can have a profound impact on the type and efficiency of behaviour performed. It may have also instigated the evolution of amphibious behaviour in fish, and dictate the microhabitats in which ants establish successful colonies.

Our work in this area examines why the rate of signal production in ectotherms is temperature-dependent, how temperature affects the foraging efficiency, anti-predator behaviour, and establishment success of ant colonies, and whether temperature-dependent stress or deoxygenation of water in warming tide-pools pushes fish to abandon water to try their luck on land.