Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

The Influence Of Signaling Conspecific And Heterospecific Neighbors On Eavesdropper Pressure, Paula A. Trillo, Christopher S. Benson, Michael S. Caldwell, Tiffany L. Lam, Oliver H. Pickering, David M. Logue

Biology Faculty Publications

The study of tradeoffs between the attraction of mates and the attraction of eavesdropping predators and parasites has generally focused on a single species of prey, signaling in isolation. In nature, however, animals often signal from mixed-species aggregations, where interactions with heterospecific group members may be an important mechanism modulating tradeoffs between sexual and natural selection, and thus driving signal evolution. Although studies have shown that conspecific signalers can influence eavesdropper pressure on mating signals, the effects of signaling heterospecifics on eavesdropper pressure, and on the balance between natural and sexual selection, are likely to be different. Here, we review …

Predicting The Future: Parental Progeny Investment In Response To Environmental Stress Cues, Leah Gulyas, Jennifer R. Powell

Biology Faculty Publications

Environmental stressors can severely limit the ability of an organism to reproduce as lifespan is decreased and resources are shifted away from reproduction to survival. Although this is often detrimental to the organism’s reproductive fitness, certain other reproductive stress responses may mitigate this effect by increasing the likelihood of progeny survival in the F1 and subsequent generations. Here we review three means by which these progeny may be conferred a competitive edge as a result of stress encountered in the parental generation: heritable epigenetic modifications to nucleotides and histones, simple maternal investments of cytosolic components, and the partially overlapping phenomenon …

Leonardo And The Whale, Kay Etheridge

Biology Faculty Publications

Around 1480, when he was 28 years old, Leonardo da Vinci recorded what may have been a seminal event in his life. In writing of his travels to view nature he recounted an experience in a cave in the Tuscan countryside:

Having wandered for some distance among overhanging rocks, I can to the entrance of a great cavern... [and after some hesitation I entered] drawn by a desire to see whether there might be any marvelous thing within..."

[excerpt]