Int Middle East

International Barn Swallow Research Group

People

Primary Investigator

MIddle East

Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology Research Group

at the University of Colorado - Boulder

Primary Investigator - Rebecca Safran

Professor Arnon Lotem (lab website)

Department of Zoology

Faculty of Life Sciences

Tel-Aviv University

Tel-Aviv, Israel 69978, Israel

My research combines theoretical and experimental work and deals with the relationship between Behavior, Ecology and Evolution. I can be described as someone who attempts to explain the adaptive value of behavior in light of the realistic complexity of behavioral mechanisms, and to study behavioral mechanisms with evolutionary theory in mind. For example, in my early work on cuckoo-host co-evolution I showed that host acceptance of cuckoo parasitism can only make adaptive sense in light of the realistic complexity of learning and recognition mechanisms, and that these mechanisms may be better understood in light of their evolutionary and ecological context (Lotem 1993, Lotem et al. 1995, Rodriguez-Gironez & Lotem 1999). In my current research I explore the role of individual variation, phenotypic plasticity, and learning mechanisms in the evolution of parent-offspring communication, decision making, mate choice, and social behavior.

Dr. Roi Dor

Evolutionary Biology Program

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

159 Sapsucker Woods Road

Ithaca, New York

Associated Students