Speaker
Description
Alfred Russell Wallace is known for his fundamental contributions to the theory of evolution as we know it. He was an exceptional naturalist who carried out extensive fieldwork in places acknowledged nowadays as biodiversity hotspots, which led him to ask key questions on the geographic distribution of animals. But some of its most influential ideas relate to the function of the wide array of colours and patterns found in animals and plants. Wallace ventured into classifying such colours into five categories, most of which continue to be valid to date. During this talk, I will focus on the evolution one of such categories, warning colours, using poison frogs as a study system, but will also briefly touch upon some of my group’s work on protective coloration and sexual colours, two of the other categories proposed by Wallace. Finally, I will discuss the implications that anthropogenic activities have on animal coloration and its function(s).
