Alexander T. Baugh, University of Texas: The Development and Execution of Mate Choice in Túngara Frogs

Date:Monday, November 9, 2009
Time:4:00 PM
Place:2040 Valley Life Sciences Building
Format:IB Seminar
Sponsors:Tyrone Hayes
Interest in the question of when and how species recognition and mate
preferences emerge in animals with strong species-typical predispositions
has faded since the time of the classical ethologists. In its place, the
role of plasticity has surfaced as a central emphasis in the study of animal
behavior. Here, I step back and examine the origin and execution of sexual
behavior in a tropical frog for which auditory predispositions are key.
First, I illustrate when and how a sex- and species-typical
behavior—conspecific phonotaxis—emerges during development. This study
demonstrates that phonotaxis, presumably restricted to sexually mature
females, is present in both sexes early in postmetamorphic
development—potentially long before such behavior might serve an adaptive
function. Next, I describe a set of dynamic mate choice studies that
highlight how decision-making in frogs is more flexible than was previously
assumed. Results here show that frogs temporally update their mate choice
decisions in a moment-to-moment fashion as advertisement signals change in
real time. Lastly, I describe a mate choice study that revealed categorical
perception in frogs, the first “lower” vertebrate now known to exhibit a
perceptual mode previously considered a hallmark of “higher” organisms.