标题:  The Language of Lizards (蜥蜴的语言) 

　　报告人: Richard Peters 

　　时间: 2014-6-27（本周五）上午10:00 

　　地点：成都生物所两爬楼二楼会议室 

　　Abstract 

　　To explain the evolution of signals it is crucial to understand the conditions in which signalling takes place. Signals must be transmitted through a given environment and their structure must enable reliable detection and efficient processing by receiver sensory systems. Signals need to be designed to minimise corruption by transmission channel properties and to remain salient in the ambient noise background. Not all sources of signal corruption and background noise are predictable and animals therefore can be expected to make use of any available feedback regarding the efficacy of their signals and adjust them accordingly. Clearly, consideration of signal structure must go hand-in-hand with the careful analysis of the structure and dynamics of noise. Only recently have we shown that the structure of movement-based visual signals depends on ambient motion noise caused by wind-blown plants, but our depth of understanding has been constrained by our limited knowledge of motion noise. This seminar will focus on the motion signals of lizards – the language of lizards – and will address how and why signals vary. The talk will focus on the role played by receiver sensory systems, the environment and the signalling context. This talk will also briefly review the various techniques used to understand and explain the diversity in signalling strategies.  

　　Richard Peters 

　　Richard leads the Animal Behaviour Group at La Trobe University (Australia), which has interests in all facets of behaviour and on a range of study organisms. His primary research interests, however, concerns the structure, function and evolution of animal signals and has published papers in journals such as Current biology, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biology Letters, Journal of Experimental biology and Animal Behaviour 

　　He completed Honours in cognitive science at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) in 1994 before working as a research assistant at the University of NSW (Sydney, Australia; 1995-99). Then Richard returned to Macquarie University to undertake a PhD in Animal Behaviour with Prof Chris Evans, which he completed in 2003. He held a brief postdoc at Macquarie (2003-4) before receiving an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Australian Rresearch Council to join Prof Jochen Zeil at The Australian National University (Canberra, Australia; 2005-7). He remained on staff at The ANU as a research fellow until his appointment in the Department of Zoology at La Trobe University in December 2009.