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I am broadly interested in the evolutionary significance of social signals and behaviour in tropical birds. My current work explores the processes underlying avian diversity and biogeography in South America, focusing on the relative roles of ecology and sexual selection in driving speciation and facilitating species co-existence. With two diverse assemblages of suboscine passerines, the antbirds (Thamnophilidae) and the ovenbirds (Furnariidae) as my study systems, I am currently using a combination of comparative analyses and experimental field studies to tackle the following interconnected research themes:
The relative roles of natural selection and sexual selection in shaping the evolution of social signals
The role of social signals and sexual selection in avian speciation
Models of avian diversification in the Amazon basin
Mechanisms of species coexistence in rainforest communities
I also have strong, on-going interests in the evolution of cooperative behaviour, the role of vocalizations in mediating cooperation and conflict in social groups, and, in particular, the conservation of tropical ecosystems. For a complete list of publications, please click here
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