Title

The origins of novelty in communication between the sexes

Abstract

For most of the last 150 years we assumed that evolution took place over extremely long timescales, thousands to millions of years. Yet, recent work points to incredibly fast evolution, often following from anthropogenic change like accidental or purposeful introduction to new locations, habitat modification, harvesting, and climate change. My lab is particularly interested in how the conditions conducive to rapid evolution impact animal communication systems. How do human impacts alter the mating environment in which males and females communicate with one another? Can evolution keep up with the incredible pace of environmental change? In this talk I will 1) highlight recent work demonstrating the extremely rapid evolution of new male mating signals in introduced island populations of a field cricket that encounter a novel natural enemy, and 2) discuss how I integrate my research on the contemporary evolution of animal communication with the teaching and practice of science communication through community engagement.

 

You can check out more of Robin's work here.

 

Zoom details

Topic: Workshops in Ecology and Behaviour (WEB)

Time: This is a recurring meeting on irregular Tuesdays

Join Zoom Meeting

https://bristol-ac-uk-dev.zoom.us/j/95557007499?pwd=WkxSYVF3VVVDNzI0T0RMMTB4K05Qdz09

Meeting ID: 955 5700 7499

Passcode: 823822

A cricket in some grassland