Week 7

 

Oct 11th

Animal Communicationfirefly

Why do different animals use different "chanels" for communication?

Which chanels carry what types of information best?

How do communication systems evolve?

To what extent, or how, does the environment shape the evolution of communiction systems?

What is meant by Code Breaking?

READ (required)
Dugatickin Chapter 12
Dugatikin Chapter 6 p 211 - 215

I changed my mind. Originally I'd required the Endler and Basolo paper which is a much more rigorous paper but on second thought... it is a bit too complicated for right now. This Ryan paper gives an overview that will be more useful in terms of the way we are discussing Communication

Ryan, M.J. (1998) Sexual Selection, Receiver Biases, and the Evolution of Sex Differences. Science, 281:1999-2003       


EXTRA READING (not required but covered in lecture)

Endler and Basolo 1998 Sensory Ecology, receiver biases and sexual selection TREE 13:415-420.    
Garcia, C. M. and Ramirez E. (2005) Evidence that sensory traps can evolve into honest signals. Nature 434:501-505.

 

 

Oct 13th & 15th

Migration and Orientation

notAmazing migrations require amazing mechanisms. We will talk about why animals migrate as well as how animals migrate. Much of migration relies upon accurate orientation and navigation. Consider how it is that you know where you are and where you are going? Without a map, what cues could you use?

How are these migrations accomplished? What physiological changes occur in the animals? How do they know the route? What is the role of genes in establishing migration routes?

 

READ:
Dugaktin Chapter 13why


EXTRA READING (not required) I will be adding a lot here as I decide which examples to use in lecture.
Cain, S.D., Boles, L.C., Waang, J.H., Lohmann, K.J. (2005)
Magnetic Orientation and Navigation in Marine Turtles, Lobsters, and Molluscs: Concepts and Conundrums. Integrative and Comparative Biology 45:539-546.
This paper provides a good summary of magentic sense in different animals. There have been some very recent advances in this area (see below) however we are still far from understanding this sense which is far from our own umwelt.