SEMINARI: The ecology and evolution of feeding innovations

Louis Lefebvre, Professor at McGill University , impartirà un seminari el proper 20 de març sobre L'ecologia i la evolució de la cerca d'aliment. 

DIA: 20 de març

HORA: 15:00

LLOC: Sala de Graus II

TÍTOL:

The ecology and evolution of feeding innovations

AUTOR:

Louis Lefebvre, Professor at McGill University (Quebec, Canada)

RESUM

Feeding innovations are a quantitative index of opportunism, behavioural flexibility and general intelligence now available for close to 900 species of birds. I will present comparative analyses showing that ecological generalism (estimated with a new method) is an important co-variate of innovation rate. I will also present results of fieldwork, experiments in captivity, and molecular neurobiology on species of finches in Barbados that differ sharply in their opportunism and problem-solving, presenting candidate neurotransmitters that might be involved in evolutionary divergence of flexible versus conservative species.