Indiana University
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- Zebrafish behavioral genetics - We are collaborating with Barrie Robison on a project looking at the genetic and hormonal bases of complex behavior. By studying strain differences caused by laboratory domestication of Zebrafish and also population differences among recently wild-caught fish, we explore how relationships between complex behavioral traits are created on both genetic and physiological levels, relying on a combination of QTL mapping, microarrays, steroid hormone assays and behavioral tests. We've also been collaborating with high school teachers to bring these studies into the classroom.
- Comparative
studies of lizard displays
- Why do territorial displays differ so much among species, whereas
courtship displays are virtually identical across taxa? Are population and sex differences in visual and chemical physiology related to the function of display elements in different contexts?
How do sexual and natural selection interact to produce phenotypic diversification
in species that do not exhibit female choice? Does social experience alter display production and perception? We're using field studies, playbacks with a robotic lizard, behavioral tests of visual sensitivity and hormone assays to understand the long-term evolution of visual and chemical displays of lizards around the world (Sceloporus in Mexico, chameleons in Africa, Cyclura, anoles and Sphaerodactylus in the Caribbean, and Liolaemus in South America).
- EthoInformatics
- We are designing and programming EthoBank, an on-line, public repository of behavioral information. To begin, we are focusing on focal animal sample data, video clips, and published tables of data. This effort is part of EthoSource, a new global initiative to gather behavioral data in electronic form, which we have also been helping to found.
- We are developing software (e.g., BeSt) and statistical approaches to manipulate behavioral data automatically. Current efforts are focused on behavioral sequences in a focal animal sample, and the combination of dyadic interactions into social networks.
- Lizard Display Archive - We have stocked EthoBank with information on lizard displays, including Charles Carpenter’s extensive collection of film clips of more than 100 species of lizards producing headbob displays.
