Podcast Interviews with Scientists

Elizabeth Derryberry was a graduate student in Steve Nowicki's lab at Duke University.  In 2007, she published a paper describing the evolution of mating barriers within songbird groups.  In this podcast, she provides background information for the question she investigated, and describes how she did the experiment.  The key concept concerns the causes of speciation, specifically how mating barriers arise between populations.

(Download from iTunes U)

(View on YouTube)

If you can see this text instead of a movie, you need to install or update Adobe's Flash Player (go to http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer).

Reference:

Derryberry, E. 2007. Evolution of bird song affects signal efficacy: an experimental test using historical and current songs.  Evolution 61(8): 1938–1945

 

Additional References:

Bird Songs Change with the Landscape

Science Daily, May 21, 2009

Derryberry et al. Ecology Shapes Birdsong Evolution: Variation in Morphology and Habitat Explains Variation in White-Crowned Sparrow Song. The American Naturalist, 2009; 090514093712063 DOI: 10.1086/599298