Martin Whiting

Biography

Professor at Macquarie University

Research Interest

Research in my lab is broadly focused on behavioural and evolutionary ecology, for which we use lizards as a model system although we have also studied mole-rats, snakes, cichlids, tree frogs and cane toads. Currently, we are focused on three major themes: 1.) animal communication; 2.) cognition; and 3.) social behaviour, social organisation, and understanding the early evolution of sociality in vertebrates. In the context of animal communication, my interest lies in the design and information content of animal signals, particularly colour signals, and their role in fitness. For example, we may ask what information a male’s colour signal conveys about their quality to a female or about their competitive ability to a rival male. Similarly, we also work on male chemical signals and their role in sexual selection. Recently, we have been working on colour signals that are naturally selected and which appear to act as a flash signal to a predator. Flash signals are almost completely unstudied in lizards. We have identified flash signals in independently evolved lizard clades in Africa, Asia and Australia that have high UV reflectance and are working to understand the proximate and ultimate factors that may be driving convergent evolution of signal design. We are also working on the evolution of complex, dynamic tail waving in Australian dragons and Asian toad-headed agamas. In these systems, we are taking a comparative approach to understanding how elements of courtship and display behaviour have evolved as a result of phylogeny and/or environmental factors.