Franklin & Marshall College

Jeff Podos '89 to Discuss Evolution in Darwin's Finches Feb. 28 at Franklin & Marshall

Jeff Podos '89, associate professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, will discuss "Evolution in Darwin's Finches" on Thursday, Feb. 28 at at 7:30 p.m. in the Bonchek Lecture Hall, Barshinger Life Sciences and Philosophy Building. The talk is part of the Faculty Symposium Speaker Series in celebration of the opening of the Barshinger Llfe Sciences and Philosophy Building, and is sponsored by the Center for Liberal Arts and Society and the Biology Department. It is free and open to the public.

Podos' research addresses the interface of animal behavior, organismal biology, and evolutionary biology. He is particularly interested in a question first articulated by the ethologist Niko Tinbergen: How do proximate mechanisms of behavior, such as biomechanics, physiological performance, and development, shape the evolutionary diversification of behavior?

His work focuses on vocal behavior and evolution in vertebrates, especially songbirds. Laboratory work aims to characterize the influences of acoustic experience and production mechanics on vocal expression in songbirds. Experimental studies of vocal learning in hand-reared sparrows are used to assess how limits on vocal proficiency constrain the evolution of vocal frequency, timing, and syntax features. Complementary laboratory activities include quantitative surveys of vocal diversity using bioacoustic analyses, characterization of vocal motor patterns through high-speed video analyses, and experimental manipulation of vocal tract function. Many of these studies are conducted in collaboration with Stephen Nowicki and Susan Peters of Duke University.

Podos' field work is conducted in the eastern United States, Brazil, and the Galapagos Islands. Local field studies address questions of song function and perception in birds. Studies in Brazil, conducted largely in collaboration with researchers from Brazil's Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia, aim to document vocal behavior in poorly known vertebrate taxa including river dolphins, arboreal rats, and poison-dart frogs. Work in the Galápagos asks how, in Darwin's finches, the evolutionary diversification of vocal tract morphology has shaped the evolution of vocal proficiency and song structure. The characterization of functional links between vocal tract morphology and song, together with field playback studies, is providing insight into relationships between morphological adaptation, vocal diversification, and reproductive isolation.

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