Roger Anderson Research |
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Research Interests Vertebrates are large creatures with complex behavior. Many are capable of remarkable feats of sensation, perception, and athletic performance in water, on land, and in air. An obvious set of questions is, “What are the ecological and evolutionary causes of the diverse and prodigious abilities within and among the major taxonomic groups of vertebrates?” That is, how have each of the major vertebrate taxa (e.g., bony fish, cartilaginous fish, frogs, salamanders, lizards, snakes, turtles, crocodilians, birds, and mammals) come to be the way they are, and live when and where they do? Moreover, these questions can be repeated for any taxon among the diverse array of taxa within each major vertebrate group. Indeed, the same sorts of questions can be posed when comparing among individuals within and among populations within single species. My field of research My field of research is evolutionary ecology, with more of a focus on evolutionary autecology. Evolutionary autecology is the integrated analysis of the behavior, morphotype, and physiology in both ecological and evolutionary contexts in an endeavor to understand adaptation, adaptedness, and adaptability. Adaptation is the evolutionary process of becoming adapted; adaptedness is the nature of the adaptive trait which permits fitness; adaptability (phenotypic plasticity) is the flexibility of the organism to display adaptedness to differing or changing environmental conditions. My research paradigm Pursuit of an integrated analysis of animals requires some simplifying assumptions or general tenets. The most useful paradigm for me has been that an animal has four basic tasks that must be integrated into an adaptive complex: |
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The first task usually may be the most important of the four; that is, differences among animals in mode of food acquisition (FAM) may be the principal reason for the differences in behavior, morphology, and physiology seen among related taxa of species, genera, and families within an order or class of vertebrates. The other three tasks may involve adaptive traits that should be viewed as consequential constraints on the particular food acquisition mode rather than as coequal adaptive traits. Nevertheless, adaptive traits for either of the four tasks serve to uniquely define the adaptive zone of the population or species. Adaptation via food acquisition mode may be largely responsible for the unique body form, body size, and numerous aspects of behavior and physiology of an animal which serve to differentiate it from congeners or confamilials. Predators, mate competitors, and the thermal environment are obvious constraints on food acquisition behavior, and are probably important constraints on the physiology and morphology as well. The animal systems I use in my research Among vertebrates, I have chosen lizards as my model research system. Lizards are an intermediate evolutionary grade among vertebrates. They are largely terrestrial, and have daily metabolism and exercise capacity exceeding amphibians. Some lizards are rather mammal-like in their peripatetic behavior; indeed, at maximum exercise, some lizards achieve the metabolic rates of resting mammals and birds. In arid and semi-arid ecosystems, lizards are abundant, easy to observe, easy to capture-mark-release-recapture; thus, lizards are propitious animals to study under field conditions. They also are easy to maintain in the laboratory. |
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My research methods My research with lizards incorporates 1) observational-descriptive studies under natural unmanipulated field conditions, 2) experiments on lizard locomotory performance in field mesocosms, and 3) experiments in the laboratory on locomotion, bite force, anti-predatory behavior, and effects of temperature on learning in lizards. My research spans organismal biology, population biology, and community ecology. Fruitful avenues of research I have chosen focus on the relationship of food acquisition mode (FAM) to lizard morphology, behavior, and physiology. I compare among lizards varying in FAM, their (1) locomotor abilities, including cost of locomotion, sprint capacity, and agility, and recovery from exhaustive exercise, and (2) compressive bite force. |
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Please also refer to: Graduate Research in Vertbrate Evolutionary Ecology Whether you are considering me as your prospective thesis chair (research advisor and mentor) in Biology, or as a possible thesis committee member in Biology, Environmental Science, Anthropology, PEHR, or Psychology at WWU, I hope some of the features in this webpage will help you in your quest. Documents of Interest:Evolutionary Autecology: a general research framework (pdf) Evolutionary Ecology of lizards in the northern Great Basin Desert Scrub (pdf) Lizard population dynamics in a controlled landscape of Florida (pdf) A sample of topics addressed in Dr. Anderson’s research papers-in progress (pdf) |
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