Dear colleagues,
a friendly reminder of this week's Biology Thursday seminar, today at 12:15, live on site in room AT117, with
Dr. Julian Melgar, who is currently a visiting post doc here in Oulu, Ecology and Genetics unit, on "Environmental harshness and the evolution of social complexity - a tale of ostriches and ants"
Abstract: The environment plays a critical role in the evolution of sociality. Harsh environments are believed to increase the benefits of living in a social, cooperative group. However, in nature, there is a lot of variation in social complexity that cannot be explained by environmental factors. I this seminar, I will talk about my work on the social complexity of ostriches in the Karoo, a harsh Soth African semi-desert, and what it taught me about natural variation in social complexity. I will also talk about my future plans of using ants to disentangle the causal relationship between the environment and sociality.
https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/julian-melgar
Unfortunately I'm at home struck down by fever, but Philip Downing kindly promised to host the seminar!
Have a great seminar!
Heikki
=============================================== Heikki Helanterä Professor Ekologian ja genetiikan tutkimusyksikkö / Ecology and Genetics Research Unit Oulun Yliopisto / University of Oulu / Finland heikki.helantera@oulu.fimailto:heikki.helantera@oulu.fi +358-40-7507 334