|
NEWS
31 January 2012
(If I have forgotten anything -
sorry. Let me know and I will add it).
-
Brian M will
give his PhD seminar on Monday, 6 Jan @ 4pm. Be there.
-
Martin E and
Richard M are preparing DECRAs for submission in March. Wish
them luck
-
Megan H and
Conrad have 'officially' left to start their lectureships at JCU.
Good bye and good luck. We hope to see you again soon.
-
Dom R, Sandra &
Canadian collaborators submitted a study on shelter use by fish on
Caribbean coral reefs to PLoSOne. G'Luck.
-
Frances J (Jacomb)
(Visiting Summer Scholar) finished up last week - having looked
at far more Gambusia than is healthy. Frances is now en
route back to NZ via Melbourne. Good luck for your final year of
studies in Otago. We hope to see you back soon.
-
Brian M will be
submitting his human mate choice study this week. Hold thumbs.
-
Brian M has a
post-doc in Ottowa with Howard Rundle. Congratulations Brian.
-
Jennie M (Mallela)
is now in the dept and will officially start her DECRA when
Immigration finish the paperwork. Welcome Jennie!
-
Crystal V
(Vincent) is in the department as a visiting fellow. She will be off
for a few months mid-year then back towards the end of the year for
an extended stay in Canberra. Welcome Crystal!
-
Isobel B handed
in her PhD on Friday 13th Jan. A Great Party followed. No major
hangovers reported, but a lot of dancing.
-
Richard M
handed in his PhD on Friday 13th Jan. A Great Party followed. No
major hangovers reported, but a lot of dancing.
-
Brian M handed
in his PhD just before Xmas. A Great Party followed, followed by a
hangover that nearly killed one of us.
-
Richard M had
the final paper in his PhD thesis accepted for publication at
Ethology. Every chapter was published. Wow!
-
Andrew K and
Jules L had their paper on
effects of compensatory growth on attractiveness of males in
Gambusia published by Biology Letters. There was lots of
media attention (see their webpages).
-
Jean D has
submitted two chapters from her thesis to journals. Way to go Jean.
-
Andrew K and
Sophie C are back from the 2011 field season in Darwin and
now have plenty of crab work to write up.
-
Sophie C and Jess B
have submitted a paper based on their work in Zanzibar. Fingers
crossed for good news soon.
-
Brian M has
submitted his meta-analysis of correlations between sperm and
ornamental traits
-
Jono H is
working hard on his Honours thesis and cracking the evolution of
anisogamy in the marine world.
-
Dominique R is
almost finished writing up an experiment on fish metabolism from his recent trip to
the USA. He and Sandra are now back on Lizard Island collecting even
more data. Go team scuba.
-
Michael J & Co published a paper in J Evol
Biol that cites Kylie Minogue and so much more.
October 2011
-
Sophie C has
just had her paper on male mate choice in Gambusia
accepted by Behavioral Ecology. Yes. Hangover is
imminent.
-
Sophie C had her paper on wave rate and claw size in
Uca mjobergi accepted by J of Ethology. Nice work Soph.
-
Isobel B has
had her latest paper accepted by Behavioral Ecology.
-
Richard M has
had his fiddler crab paper on males copying each other accepted by Biology Letters.
Number 13 - Lucky for some!!
-
Isobel B is
now working on her next masterpiece on male choice in fish.
-
Brian M is submitting his Gambusia harassment paper this week
(Oct 21).
-
Brian M is in Melbourne
collecting data on human mate choice. Work is going very well.
-
Jono H has just
returned from a lizard hunting trip in the Flinders. He is now even
more appreciative of a theoretician's life.
-
Sophie C and
Andrew K are hard at work in Darwin doing fiddler crab with Pat Backwell.
-
Dominique R is
writing up an experiment on fish metabolism from his recent trip to
the USA.
-
Dominique R is
in Perth this week at a Coral Conference
-
Andrew K and
Jules L are revising their manuscript (still in review) on the
effect of compensatory growth on attractiveness of males in
Gambusia for Biology Letters.
-
Andrew K and
Hanna Kokko are revising an opinion piece for Evolution.
September 2011
-
Jean D is now
officially Doctor Jean Drayton! Yes!
Great referee reports too. We are all thrilled. Now there is just
the small matter of publishing the final two papers...
-
Isobel B is
revising a paper on the effects of male size and familiarity on
coalition formation in fiddler crabs for Behavioral Ecology.
-
Richard M has
submitted a paper on male-male eavesdropping in fiddlers and has a
final draft of another on choice of opponents that will soon be
submitted.
-
Brian M has
completed data collection & analysis for a meta-analysis - just an
Intro and Discussion to go until ready to submit.
-
Sophie C and
Andrew K are now in Darwin doing fiddler crab work with Pat
Backwell.
-
Jono H has
started Honours - given a great intro talk and submitted a classy
thesis proposal. Now onto the world of models.
-
Sophie C gave
an awesome talk at ESEB on robo-crab. It was fun, informative and
engaging. Just like Sophie.
-
Andrew K, Sophie C
and Isobel B have just returned from the ESEB
conference in Tubingen, Germany.
-
Sophie C and Jess B
have had a paper on crab coalitions accepted by Ethology.
Well done both.
-
Andrew K and
Jules L have submitted a paper about about how compensatory
growth affects male attractiveness.
-
Jules L
received an outstanding 1st class mark for her Honours. She was then
awarded a university medal. Congrats. Jules is now travelling in
France, Portugal, Austria and Italy on holiday, but will soon return
to write up her project and clean some fish tanks!
-
Brian M has ethics approval for his work on attractiveness in humans
and is finalising the software.
-
Sophie C was
awarded a Lehrner Gray Grant by the American Museum of Natural
History.
-
Martin E is
still hard at work collecting the final data for his large scale
studies.
-
Dominique R has
been awarded a fancy grant with a complicated name which I forget -
remind me. Well done.
-
Dr Megan Higgie
is now a
lecturer at James Cook University in Townsville. You will be missed.
-
Isobel B has
finished her fish male mate choice study. Whew! Next stop is writing
it up (but first several fiddler papers...)
-
James D have
survived the great asbestos scare of 2011 and is setting up what
might be the penultimate replicate of fish lines. This will mean
that we will be able to measure the effects of seven generations of selection on genitalia.
Sexy.
MAY 2011
-
Sophie C has
received official confirmation that her very first paper is now accepted at B.E.S.
Beer O'clock
-
Jules L hands
in her Honours thesis on time today. She will then be sleeping for a
week. Beer O'clock
-
Andrew K and
Hanna Kokko are revising a paper for Evolution. Impressive.
-
Andrew K and Jules
L have some cool results about the effects of compensatory
growth on male attractiveness. Paper to follow.
-
Martin E is
just about to finish a draft of a paper.
-
Dominique R has
submitted a grant to the Ecological Society of Australia - fingers
crossed.
-
Dr Megan Higgie (full name on this occasion) ...DRUM ROLL... has accepted a
lectureship at James Cook University in Townsville. Megan will be
starting in July. Many congratulations from everyone.
-
Megan H has two
new papers in press at American Naturalist and Evolution;
Megan has also been co-awarded (with Conrad) an Asia Pacific
Science Foundation Grant
-
Isobel B has
been awarded a research grant by the Animal Behavior Society
(USA). Brilliant! NEW
-
Sophie C has
been awarded a research grant by Sigma Xi and Linnean Society
of New South Wales. On a roll!
-
Isobel B has
finished her initial fish choice trials. She is now starting to look at
actual male
copulatory success in the choice contexts.
-
Brian M is
finalising ethics approval for his work on attractiveness in humans.
His new paper is now
Online [PDF]
-
James D have
successfully set up the final replicate set to fish to breed after a
sixth bout of selection on genitalia
-
The rest of you are
apparently still doing what you were in April......surprise me, do
something weird, soon!
APRIL 2011
-
A very happy Easter to
all of you.
-
Dominique Roche has
joined the lab. A warm welcome. Check out his
webpage
-
Michael J has
now officially won the lab record for procrastination. Note the interval
between the two dates
here.
-
Isobel B has
only a handful of trials to go and then Part 1 of her fish
experiment is done! A mammoth effort.
-
Andrew K has
started his fish mating trials looking at how compensatory growth
affects attractiveness.
-
Brian M has
completed data collection and 'quality control' checking for his
next meta-analysis on....
-
Megan H is back
from Brisbane having fruitflied her way to success. Welcome back
Megan.
-
Jules L has
"finished" data analysis and is now in the writing phase of her
Honours year. Keep going!
-
Richard M's paper on the
effect of neighbour size on choice of opponent is now in press at Behav Ecol
MARCH 2011
-
Jean D has
submitted her PhD thesis is it now at the examiners. Her final two
chapters are both in review at journals. Her final PhD seminar went
extremely well. Now just waiting for the examiner's comments.
-
Brian M has
had his paper on male mate choice in Gambusia accepted by
Behav Ecol. Hell Yes
-
Brian M, Rachel
Slatyer and Pat Backwell's meta-analysis on polyandry has been
accepted by Biol Rev. Hallelujah.
-
Megan H has some
fantastically good news that we hope will soon be official.
Congratulations.
-
Martin E is STILL looking relaxed and in control. This is
very suspicious because he trying to record crickets calling.
Rumours that he is a Zen Master are growing. Ommmmmmm
-
Isobel B has
started her experiment on male mate choice in Gambusia. She
has 240 trials to run at 8 per day...welcome to the treadmill.
Meanwhile, the PDF of Isobel's paper on male mate choice is now
available on her webpage.
-
Richard M is
moving back to Braidwood to write up his thesis and work on his
DECRA (although thanks to the wisdom of the ARC he will not apply
this round due to the new requirement - compared to APDs - that you
must have your PhD on the date of submission).
-
Richard M has
had a paper provisionally accepted at Behav Ecol on the
effect of neighbour size on choice of opponent
-
Fleur dC is busy working on her DECRA. We wish her every
success with it and that her talent is rewarded.
-
Sophie C now has three finished manuscripts in submission
on crabs (2) and fish (1) and a draft written for another. Hang in
there.
-
Andrew K has started his PhD.
He and Hanna Kokko have just submitted an article to Evolution.
He also has male fish that are ready to have their attractiveness
measured for his collaborative study with Jules L on the effects of
compensatory growth. Meanwhile, he is writing up his Honours work on
offspring sex ratios.
-
Jules L has finished the data collection
phase for her endless honours project. Brilliant. She has a great
data set and is now writing up her Honours Thesis. She
did an excellent job with her final Honours seminar
-
James D managed to somehow get a unusually infertile set of
Gambusia to breed and, despite the delay, only missed the next
deadline by a week or so. Thank you. James also does an amazing
impression of someone doing aerobics. Beg him to do it.
-
Michael J is alive and well and maintaining his usual guilt
levels about not spending enough time chatting with students and
post-docs......Today he has on his desk a PhD thesis, 7 manuscripts
and a grant to review. Must learn to say No.
JANUARY 2011
-
Megan H has
survived the floods in Brisbane, kept her Drosophila alive
and has some other goods news (details to follow)
-
Martin E is looking suspiciously relaxed and in control. Must
learn the secret of his calmness.
-
Jean D has
submitted Chapter 5 of her thesis to Functional Ecology.
Chapter 1 has been revised and will be submit by Valentine's
Day.
-
Isobel B is
busy collecting Gambusia for a project on male mate choice
that will start soon.
-
Richard M is busy dreaming up projects for an ARC DECRA
post-doc application (ditto Isobel B and Fleur dC)
-
Brian M has
received the
online version
of his crab paper in Behav Ecol.
-
Sophie C is still fighting the good fight with reviewers and
now has three finished manuscripts in various stages of
submission
-
Andrew K will
be starting his PhD at the end of the month. Male fish are already
awaiting his return.
-
Jules L is getting closer to the end of the data collection
phase for her endless honours project.
-
Michael J is panicking about writing two ARCs while reviewing
eight 2011 MSs for journals (and it is only Jan 26!)
-
James D is nursing along an unusually infertile set of
Gambusia. Don't they know they are a pest species of enormous
fecundity?
DECEMBER 2010
-
Jean D has
almost completed Chapter 5 of her thesis. The paper will be
submitted to Functional Ecology in January (or else...)
-
Rachel S, Brian M,
Pat B and Michael J have sent a revised version of their meta-analysis of polyandry
to Biol
Rev. Final decision soon...
-
Richard M has
had another paper accepted at Behav Ecol Sociobiol. Congrats.
-
MAJOR NEWS: Andrew K has
been awarded a prestigious PhD Scholarship. His PhD starts
shortly.... Jules L and Andrew have already worked out a
cunning plan to extend Jules' s project to maximise the return on
her investment in rearing so many fish.
-
Isobel B and Pat B have had their
latest paper on male mate choice accepted by Animal Behaviour
-
Brian M did a
project on fiddler crabs under the supervision of Pat B. The
resultant paper has been accepted by Behav. Ecol. Cool! Brian
also has a MS on male mate choice in Gambusia in revision
at Behav. Ecol. It is great to see the PhD chapters accumulating.
-
MAJOR NEWS:
Isobel B has been awarded
an A.S.S.A.B. Student Research Grant for a fish project.
Congratulations
JULY-NOVEMBER 2010
-
Lots has happened...but
it has been a long while since I updated, so sorry for anything I have
missed.
-
Pat B organised
a field season in Zanzibar working on fiddler crabs. A large number
of projects were successfully completed by Isobel B, Richard M
and Sophie C, alongside Pat's Honours student Catherine Hayes
and former student Jess Bolton.
-
James D has
returned from a short, but well earned, holiday in Hawaii. He
successfully dealt with the absence of most of us for the last few
months, and managed to keep our long-term artificial selection on
track. Many, many thanks James.
-
Jean D has now
published Chapters 2, 3 and 4 from her PhD. They are in press at
Behav Ecol., J. Evol. Biol and Evolution.
Richard M was also involved in two of these studies. A
side-project with Leeann Reaney was accepted for publication in
Behav Ecol Sociobiol. Well done Jean. The final push is
now to send off chapters 1 and 5 - both of which are basically
written.
-
Isobel B's
latest paper with Pat B on inter-specific coalitions
has been accepted for publication in Biology Letters.
-
Richard M , Isobel B and Pat B have a paper in
review on time sharing of territories in crabs.
-
Jules L is well
into the data collection for her Honours. She has done a fantastic
job of staying on top of breeding, rearing and photographing 100's
of fish. Everything is on track for a great thesis and lots of
papers. Yae.
-
Richard M and
Pat B have a fun titled paper in press at Biology Letters
("Eavesdropping
in crabs: an agency for ladies detection"). They also have a paper in
review on mate choice copying.
-
Martin E has
been short-listed for a lectureship @ Woolongong. Good luck with the
interview Martin.
-
Megan H
is still hard at work up in Brisbane turning fruitflies into
data points. Nearly done we hope. Time to come home....
-
Sophie C
has submitted two papers on female
choice in fiddler crabs (with Pat B) and male choice in
Gambusia respectively. Fingers crossed for their success. Next
task is to write up a paper on social interactions and calling
effort in crickets.
-
Rachel S, Brian M,
Pat B and Michael J have provisional acceptance (subject
to minor revision) of their meta-analysis of polyandry at Biol
Rev. Now I just need to get my act together and make those final
changes...
-
Andrew K produced
one of the best Hons thesis his examiners had seen in many years. He
is set to enroll for a PhD in the J-lab. Meanwhile he is writing up
his results, with modeling help from Hanna Kokko. He is also
collaborating with Jules L on a fish project.
-
Brian M, Martin E
and Andrew K attended the ISBE conference in Perth and
returned with their dignity more or less intact.
-
Michael J has
two new meta-analyses in the final stages of reviewing (let's hope)
with Clint Kelly (on strategic ejaculation) and Amy Davidson &
Adrienne Nicotra (plant invasions and plasticity). His next big task
is to write two ARC grant proposal to ensure there is still money
for us to keep on doing what we do in 2012. Panic? Me? You bet.
JUNE 2010
-
MAJOR NEWS: Isobel B
has had a paper reporting on a colleague's complicated quantitative genetics
study accepted by Current Biology. Great going. Hopefully one
day she will be able to say 'additive genetic variation' without
feeling nauseous.
-
MAJOR NEWS: James D
will soon be joined in Canberra by Jen. That will be many 1000's of
kilometers less to drive each month! Welcome Jen.
-
Jean D submitted chapter
4 of her thesis and it is now being revised for resubmission is
response to referee comments. She has also submitted chapter
2 of her thesis. Hold thumbs on both counts for good news soon.
-
Martin E and
Fleur dC are back from a brief trip home to Sweden. Welcome
back.
-
Richard M has
completed a paper on a form of mate choice copying in fiddler crabs
and will soon submit it.
-
Megan H
is making steady progress on her fly work up in Brisbane.
Fame, fortune and multivariate stats awaits.
-
Sophie C
is still
wait for her supervisor to edit a completed manuscript on mate
choice in crab. This week, I promise! She has meanwhile completed
data collection from analysis of many hours of videos of male mate
choice in Gambusia.
-
Andrew K is now
somewhere in France. His Honours thesis was exceptionally well
received by his examiners and the final mark will reflect this. Now
for writing it up......
-
Rachel S also
produced a really fantastic Honours thesis. She has just completed a
draft of a paper that will be submitted in early July.
-
Rachel S,
Brian M, Pat B & Michael J's meta-analysis on polyandry is now
in review at Biol Rev. Please, please accept it kind
reviewers.
-
Jules Livingston
has started Honours. She has already read 10 000 papers and set up
fish. Her project will be a quantitative genetics study
looking at ontogenetic changes in variance components for body size
and several reproductive traits, and the effect of compensatory
growth on these components. Prepare to be amazed.
-
Brian M has
finished a final draft of his study on male mate choice under competition
in Gambusia. It will be submitted this week.
-
Michael J
remains alive after a horrendous bout of grant and paper reviewing.
Now he just needs to catch up with student's papers and then life
will be perfect (except for the fact that South Africa won't win the
World Cup).
-
IF I FORGOT ANY
OTHER NEWS, MY APOLOGIES.
MAY 2010
-
James D
continues to smoothly run the Gambusia selection lines, cycle
100's of Km every week and remember everyone's birthdays.
Thank you!
-
Jean D has
submitted the fourth chapter of her thesis (which I think looks
great), and is just about to resubmit chapter 2.
-
Richard M has
had a paper on eavesdropping in fiddler crabs published in
Biology Letters. It includes the cheeky title "Agency for Lady
Detection".
-
Isobel B
has had a paper on cross species helping in fiddler crabs published
in Biology Letters. Isobel's title is more scientific.
-
Michael J and Clint Kelly had their enormous 28 000 word
meta-analysis/review rejected. Hot wet tears did flow, but the
reviewers had a valid point - Too much! We will dust ourselves off,
say !Aluta continua! and revise it and resubmit...sigh
-
Megan H
is now up in Brisbane and back in the dark
underworld of Drosophila sex. Good luck Megan.
-
Sophie C
has moved house, enticed Tim to Canberra,
entered most of the data for two chapters of her thesis and is still
wait for her supervisor to edit a completed manuscript. Sorry...
Meanwhile she is entering data on male interactions during male mate
choice. The results look intriguing - ideal free distribution? Not.
-
Andrew K handed
in his Honours thesis. His results on seasonal changes in offspring
sex ratios are fantastic. He and Hanna K will soon be
modeling the evolution of sex ratios when generations overlap to try
and explain them. Meanwhile he has about 30 0000 fish tanks to
clean.
-
Rachel S handed
in her Honours thesis. It contains some very cool results - never
mind penguin prostitutes, what about crab ones?
-
Rachel S
and
Brian M's meta-analysis is completed. Michael J has only to
write the discussion. This week guys......
-
Brian M has
finished a final draft of his fiddler crab paper. Still waiting
for a certain supervisor to edit it before submission.... Meanwhile
he is writing up a study on male mate choice under competition.
-
Michael J will
soon be hiding away to review a large number of grants and papers.
You are forewarned.
-
Jules Livingston
starts Honours shortly. She will be working on the evolution of
offspring size. (Jules, I will add you to the Group list in blue
above on all pages when I find the time - for technical reasons for
now you are only on the frontpage)
APRIL 2010
-
MAJOR NEWS: Jean D's
paper (co-authors included Richard M and Michael J)
on inbreeding and advertisement calling is now in press at
Evolution. A good place for a very large study.
-
MAJOR NEWS: Richard M has
been awarded a graduate scholarship by the Crustacean Society
and a grant by the Linnean Society of New South Wales.
Oh, and he married that Melita Baum chick. Congratulations.
-
Hanna Kokko
and Michael J had a News & Views piece in Nature (here).
They paid us, so the lab will soon be treated to an evening of free
drinks and snacks. Yes!
-
Megan H
and Conrad Hoskin's major review of how
species interactions affect speciation is now out in Ecology Letters
(here)
-
Sophie C
has just completed data collection for her
third PhD project looking at male mate choice decisions in
Gambusia. Well done.
-
Isobel B has
just submitted a very cool paper on heterospecifics
coalitions in
fiddler crabs (with Pat Backwell and team)
-
Rachel S and
Brian M's meta-analysis is completed. All that is left is to
write the discussion and submit. Soon....
-
Brian M has
finished a final draft of his fiddler crab paper. It looks good and
he is just waiting
for a certain supervisor to read it before submission.
JANUARY-MARCH 2010
-
Andrew K and
Rachel Slayter gave excellent final Honours seminars. Now for the
thesis writing...
-
Tanya Detto,
Michael J and Pat B's Amer Nat paper on
coallitions in crabs was featured in Nature's
Research Highlights
-
Michael J and
former post-doc Clint Kelly (now in Iowa) have submitted a
mammoth meta-analysis on strategic ejaculation to Biological
Reviews. Watch this space for sighs of relief if accepted or
hot, wet tears if rejected.
-
Isobel B has
just submitted a paper on heterospecifics and mate recognition in
fiddler crabs (with Pat Backwell and team)
-
Richard M has
just submitted a paper on eavesdroppping in fiddler crabs.
-
Brian M has
completed drafts of papers on burrow defence in Uca capricornis
(with Pat Backwell and team) and male mate choice in Gambusia.
-
Sophie C has
almost completed a draft of her paper (with Pat Backwell and
team) on female choice in Uca mjoebergi.
-
Jess B has
written up and submitted her Honours thesis work on size-assortative
male fighting from Mozambique for
publication...hold thumbs.
-
Richard M got
on the cover of Behavioral Ecology for his latest paper. Well
done.
Cover Photo
-
Jean D submitted her third PhD Chapter to
Evolution (the feedback was good, so hold thumbs for full
acceptance). Jean is
submitting her fourth chapter today (March 15). Keep going!
-
Rachel Slayter (Hons student with Pat
Backwell)
and Brian M have completed
data collection and analysis for a meta-analysis. The paper is
3/4 written. Details to follow as soon as we submit it...
-
Michael J & Hanna
Kokko have completed two book chapters. The first book is now
available:
Sexual selection. In DF Westneat & CW Fox (Eds) Evolutionary
Behavioural Ecology, Oxford University Press, Oxford. The
second is in press:
Behavioral ecology: the natural history of evolutionary theory. In:
Bell MA, Eanes WF, Futuyma DJ, Levinton JS (Eds) Evolution After
Darwin: the First 150 Years. Sinaeur Publishing.
DECEMBER 2009
-
Rachel S has collected some
fantastic data following up on Richard's work on trading sex for favours!
-
Brian M and
Sophie C both completed their first field projects on fiddler
crabs up in Darwin under the wise supervision of Pat Backwell.
Papers to follow by mid-2010 (we hope)....
-
Isobel B &
Richard M completed their field seasons in Darwin with
Pat. They collected a heap of data.
-
Isobel B has had her
fifth paper accepted at Anim Behav. Congrats
-
Richard M has had his
sixth and seventh paper accepted (Behav Ecol and Anim Behav
respectively). Congrats.
-
Andrew K is well into
his Honors project and getting offspring sex ratio info for the second
half of the Gambusia breeding season.
-
Tanya Detto, Pat Backwell
& Michael J have had a fiddler crab paper accepted at Amer Nat.
It is out in March
click here
-
Michael J is
co-author on a new paper with Hanna Kokko, senior authored by Hope Klug
in J. Evol. Biol. that has some very interesting results relating
to the way in which sexual selection is (mis)measured. Now out
click here
NOVEMBER 2009
-
MAJOR NEWS: We won two ANU
Media Awards (Highest International Impact & Best Response to a
Media Release) for our work promoting Richard's Biol Letter paper on
'safe sex' in fiddler crabs.
-
Lots of media interest in
Richard's paper in Biol Letts. Over 350 Online News sites have
covered the story (Nov 6).
-
Isobel B has had her
fourth
paper on the 'dear enemy' effect accepted (Anim Behav). Nice.
-
Sophie, Brian, Isobel &
Richard are now all up in Darwin doing field projects under Pat
Backwell's super supervision. It is quiet back here in Canberra....
OCTOBER 2009
-
Isobel B has had her
third paper accepted (Behav Ecol Sociobiol).
-
Richard M has had his
fifth paper accepted (Biol Letts), is coauthor on Isobel's paper
and has a sixth in re-review (Behav Ecol)
-
Sophie C is now doing
a crab project in Darwin supervised by
Pat Backwell. She
has finished data collection for her first cricket project (and yes,
that is the sound of someone drawing a long breath of relief).
-
MAJOR NEWS: Andrew K has
his first paper published (Biol Lett). Now that the sun is
shining he starts fieldwork for his Honours. Among other media, this
work was covered by
Nature.
-
Brian M is a
co-author on Andrew's paper. He has now finished his first two
Gambusia projects and will soon be in Darwin working on a fiddler
crab project with Pat
Backwell. He is also familiarizing himself with animation software
on his funky new Mac laptop.
-
James D completed yet
another 24 hour team mountain bike race. The man is
unstoppable.
-
Jean D is making the
final touches to the third data chapter of her PhD. It is looking good.
-
Martin E is mutating
crickets and beetles....someone has to do it.
-
Megan H is back from
fieldwork on frogs in Queensland, has completed organising the
Australasian Evolution Society Meeting in her role as Treasurer and
general trouble shooter, and just submitted a substantial review on the
role of species interactions in speciation that you will all soon
be reading.
-
Michael J is sitting
at his desk wondering why he has started using emoticons in his emails :
( He will be in Darwin in December : ) he is
also gearing up for the thrill of writing an ARC grant.. watch this
space for tears, sweat and more tears.
-
Hanna Kokko has
settled into a flat in Kingston, bought out Ikea, set up her
office and is now in official sabbatical mode. Welcome
-
Hope Klug has
been visiting and has just submitted a revised version of a review
on measuring sexual selection to J Evol Biol. It is a really
interesting paper - look out for it. Welcome and, so soon
already, a safe trip
home.
MAY 2009
-
Richard M has submitted his paper on seasonal
preferences in fiddler crabs
-
Isobel B has submitted her paper on female mimicry
and claw loss in fiddler crabs
-
Andrew K & Brian M have submitted their
paper on gonopodium size and female choice
-
Jess B has handed in
her Honours thesis. Congratulations
APRIL 2009
-
April 31 Brian M will
be celebrating his 29th birthday. Happy Birthday from everyone in J-lab.
-
Congratulations to Isobel B and Richard M
who have both been awarded Australian Geographic Research Grants
-
Congratulations to Martin
E , who has just had a paper accepted by Heredity [ Edvardsson M, Hunt
J, Moore AJ, Moore PJ. 2009. Quantitative genetic variation in the
control of ovarian apoptosis under different environments.
Heredity
( in press)]
-
MAJOR NEWS:
Megan H has
just been awarded the R.A. Fisher Award from the International Society for
the Study of Evolution.
Congratulations from all of us to Megan on this very impressive
achievement.
-
Jess B is in the
final birth pangs of delivering her Honours thesis. Nearly there Jess,
only a few more weeks.
-
Hanna Kokko has been
awarded a Sabbatical fellowship from the Academy of Finland and will be
based at the ANU in 2009-2010 (arrival date to be confirmed). A day of
sandals with socks will be organized to welcome her.
-
Isobel B
has had her poster short listed for the ANU
ResearchFest.
Well done Isobelle. You can vote for Isobelle's poster by going
here. Vote
early and vote often.
-
Richard M has produced the first paper from the trip to
Mozambique to be accepted for publication (Milner RNC, Detto T, Jennions MD, Backwell PRY. 2009. Hunting and predation
in a fiddler crab.
Journal of
Ethology)
-
Jean D has just
successfully completed her final field experiment for her PhD and is now
writing up her thesis for submission this year. Keep at it.
-
Brian M has just
completed his first year PhD review and it is now confirmed that he will
be going on do a PhD. (No surprise, but another red tape hoop jumped
through). He is also approaching the end of a very long study on polyandry
and sexual conflict.
-
Andrew K, along
with Brian, has just completed an experiment looking at female
choice for genitalia in Gambusia. They have found some very cool results that
are now being written up. The paper will be submitted this month.
-
Sophie C has
just arrived in the group as a new PhD student. She will be working on
both crickets and fish. We all wish her a happy and productive time here.
(Sophie will have a web page soon...)
-
Ruth Archer is a PhD
student in the lab of Dr John Hunt (U. Exeter in Cornwall). She will be
with us for most of April. Welcome Ruth!
-
Cover Photo for
Backwell PRY, Matsumasa M, Double M, Roberts A, Murai M, Keogh JS, Jennions MD. 2007. What are the consequences of being left clawed in a
predominantly right clawed fiddler crab?
Proceedings
of the Royal Society Series B
274: 2723-2729
[PDF]]
Cover Photo
For more on fiddler crabs, check out the website of
Pat Backwell
|
