Wright State University\u27s Celebration of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Book of Abstracts from Friday, April 11, 2014

The student abstract booklet is a compilation of abstracts from students\u27 oral and poster presentations at Wright State University\u27s second annual Celebration of Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities on April 11, 2014.https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/urop_celebration/1007/thumbnail.jp

The shape of penguins in four dimensions : assessing macroevolutionary shifts in a constructional morphology framework : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology at Massey University, Albany Campus, New Zealand

Figures 1.1 and 1.3 were removed for copyright reasons. Appendix A also removed for copyright reasons.Describing the morphology of a clade through deep time provides rich insight into the drivers that shaped modern diversity. It is in this context that Adolph Seilacher developed the constructional morphology concept, in order to describe which are the major pressures acting on an organism's morphological appearance. The three components or apices of constructional morphology are the evolutionary history of the organism, the constraints placed on the structure, and the opportunity provided by adaptation. The structure of this thesis is based on the constructional morphology concept with each chapter focusing on the impact of each of the three components of constructional morphology with the scope to provide a novel approach to quantify morphological macroevolution. After introducing concepts of constructional morphology, geometric morphometrics and Bayesian statistics in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 presents an analysis to estimate the historical apex: a phylogenetic analysis based on the synthesis of previous published matrices, as well as a description of the giant fossil penguin Kairuku waewaeroa. The resulting phylogenetic tree indicates that the penguin evolutionary history was characterised by many monophyletic large groups that challenges previous results and indicate that the body plan of extinct penguins could be more diverse than previously thought. Chapter 3 focused on the structural apex, aiming to provide a generalisable Bayesian approach to estimate the size of extinct giant penguins in the context. By measuring the total volume of the femur and the humeral articular facet of the coracoid it was possible to generate two sets of models that together provided novel evidence in favour of reduced body mass estimates for giant penguins when compared with prior published estimates. Moreover, although the two sets of estimates are derived from two distinct features, the body mass estimates from the two models tend to converge, providing confidence in the accuracy of the Bayesian-informed method. Chapter 4 presents and investigation into the impact of adaptation on two separate locomotory modules, the humerus and the tarsometatarsus, using 3D geometric morphometric techniques. Comparing morphological rates of change reveals a steady rate decrease in the humerus and more heterogeneous rates for the tarsometatarsus. Similar results are obtained by estimating the morphospaces for humeri and tarsometatarsi from hypothetical ancestors using a penalized likelihood approach. The synthesis that this constructional morphology framework approach provides highlights the important relationship between shape and size, showing how size can be a driver of morphological innovation. More importantly, the results of this thesis highlight the relevance that constructional morphology still has today, and how it can be integrated into palaeontology and evolutionary biology studies through the use of advanced statistical techniques. A constructional morphology approach is not solely applicable to penguins and may be extended to a broad range of groups of organisms, contributing thus to better understand the underlying forces that shaped the origins of modern biota

Female mate-searching strategies and behavioural correlates of copulation success in lekking long-tailed manakins (Chiroxiphia linearis)

Mate choice, a complex searching and decision-making process, is relatively understudied. I explore the process of mate choice in lekking long-tailed manakins (Chiroxiphia linearis) using video recordings to determine male quality, and a novel radiotracking system to monitor female search behaviour. I report how females may play an important role in the evolution of cooperative display through their choices and behaviours during courtship. I show that females are more likely to copulate at leks with higher attendance and display effort, and more cooperative dance manoeuvres. I also characterize the complex mate searching strategies employed by females. I show that females visit an average of 4.02±0.42 leks when assessing mates, and also revisit higher quality leks multiple times. Overall, my thesis provides insight into mate choice in long-tailed manakins, revealing that females make complex decisions that have important fitness consequences, and that females may also influence the courtship behaviours of males

Fitting genes:Sexual selection in the blue tit

De genen van het Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) spelen een belangrijke rol in de herkenning van ziekteverwekkers door het immuunsysteem. Individuen met diverse MHC genen kunnen veel verschillende ziekteverwekkers herkennen. Mijn proefschrift onderzocht de partnerkeuze van een bekende zangvogelsoort, de pimpelmees. Pimpelmeesvrouwen met diverse MHC genen bleken een partner hebben die ook diverse MHC genen heeft, terwijl vrouwen met een lage diversiteit een man met lage diversiteit hebben. Dit patroon is te verklaren doordat zowel man als vrouw een voorkeur hebben voor een partner met diverse MHC genen. Individuen met diverse MHC genen zullen succesvol zijn in hun partnerkeuze, terwijl individuen met minder diverse MHC genen het moeten doen met een partner die minder hun voorkeur genoot. Het vinden van een partner met diverse MHC genen zal leiden tot nakomelingen met diverse MHC genen en een goede gezondheid. Seksuele selectie eindigt echter niet bij het vinden van een partner. Ongeveer 11% van alle pimpelmeesjongen is namelijk buitenechtelijk. Tijdens en na de paring kunnen zowel de man als de vrouw de vaderschap beïnvloeden. Zo kan een man meer sperma insemineren als hij weet dat de vrouw met andere mannen heeft gepaard en kan de vrouw besluiten het sperma van onaantrekkelijke mannen niet op te nemen. Wij onderzochten het aantal spermacellen in het reproductieve systeem van vrouwelijke pimpelmezen. Uit onze resultaten blijkt dat vrouwtjes gepaard met een grotere man meer sperma hadden. Dat zou kunnen betekenen dat grotere mannen aantrekkelijker zijn, meer sperma produceren of dat vrouwtjes gepaard met een grotere man meer vreemdgaan

Why Can't all Males be Attractive? Inter-individual Variation in Male Spotted Bowerbird Display

One of the greatest conundrums facing evolutionary biologists is how variation between individuals is maintained in situations where there is expected to be strong directional selection on an elaborate male trait. Sexual selection via female choice leads to the evolution of elaborate male traits, and consensus among females in their mate choice decisions can result in high reproductive skew. Such strong directional selection pressure may be expected to reduce genetic variation over time, yet high levels of inter-individual variation sustain such preferences. In this thesis I explored potential mechanisms that may maintain variation between individuals in one of the most unusual and exaggerated avian male traits; the bowers displayed by male spotted bowerbirds, Ptilonorhynchus maculatus. Choosy females exert strong selection pressure on males, yet males vary widely in their ability to exhibit a high quality display. My results showed that male bower owners were remarkably consistent in their display of decorations, a trait expected to experience a high level of fluctuation due to variation in the ecological and social environment. Given the range of factors that may introduce inconsistency, my results suggest that males actively maintain consistent displays, although I found no evidence for the adaptive benefits of doing so. I then explored three mechanisms that may be expected to maintain variation in bowerbird display. I found that attending the bower imposed physical costs on males, but these costs were only apparent in seasons of environmental stress. Males varied in their cognitive and problem-solving abilities, but I found no impact of higher cognitive performance on a male’s reproductive fitness. The final mechanism I tested was the impact of the social environment on male mating success. I found that males actively engage in marauding, a form of intrasexual competition targeting the bowers of rival males. Marauding was highly targeted and non-random within the population, and predominantly occurred between neighbouring bower owners. However, I was unable to determine what factors predicted these non-random interactions, and found no impact of the marauding rates experienced on male mating success. In the final part of this study, I looked at the novel occurrence of collaborative display between male bower owners and other non-bower-owning males. I found that these auxiliary males may gain delayed benefits from attending the bowers of experienced males, but was unable to determine what impact contributions from auxiliaries had on bower owning males and females attempting to assess them. I conclude by discussing the implications of my results for models of sexual selection