Tag Archives: mate choice

Can birdsong signal immune gene quality?

This post is by MSU postdoc Joel Slade.  “BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!” – I wake up to the dreaded sound of my alarm clock at 3:45 am in my cabin. Even though it’s mid-April at the Queen’s University Biological Station in Elgin … Continue reading

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Male battles split species apart

This post is by MSU postdoc Jason Keagy How do species form? Stated more precisely, how does one species become two? This turns out to be an immensely difficult question to answer, because 1) species are not always distinct entities (species … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Are Electric Fish Magic?

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by postdoc Will Pitchers from the Gallant Lab at MSU. The fishes in our lab — African freshwater fish called Mormyrids — seem pretty magical when one first hears about them; … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Mating behavior in treefrogs

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by NC A&T undergraduate Darian Mollock, who worked as an Undergraduate Research Apprentice (URA) at MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station in summer 2014. My name is Darian Mollock, I am a junior … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Making and breaking species

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by MSU graduate student Alycia Lackey. The world’s biodiversity represents a balance between the formation and extinction of species. To understand what drives diversity, scientists study what generates, maintains, and degrades … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: If Sticklebacks Could Talk…

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by MSU postdoc Liliana Lettieri. “My what a red throat you have, and such a blue belly!  You’ve got some impressive dance moves, and you’ve built a nice nest.” If stickleback … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: How the cricket lost its song

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work post is by MSU postdoc Robin Tinghitella. Last April I had the pleasure of writing the very first BEACON Researchers at Work blog post. I shared a story about how a tropical field cricket, … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Portrait of a Damsel

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work post is by MSU postdoc Idelle Cooper. If damselflies were painters, they would surely be watercolorists, and probably impressionists, too. As soon as the morning sun strikes the vegetation along the riverbank, the damselflies … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: The "Mating" Game

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by MSU graduate student Emily Weigel. What would a fish say if it could talk? How about, “Hey, baby. What’s your sign?” Male threespine sticklebacks court females in a constant game … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Tropical crickets hitchhike their way to rapid evolution

This week we are introducing a new feature on the BEACON Blog: BEACON Researchers at Work! Please enjoy the first post from Michigan State University postdoc Robin Tinghitella. What would happen if all the lions suddenly lost their manes, or … Continue reading

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