Dan has a background in theoretical physics. He is interested to apply ideas from theoretical physics to study collective animal behaviour.
Category: 2019
Conor Heins
Conor is a PhD student interested in the basic principles underlying the dynamics and organization of complex systems. In particular, he investigates the notion that such systems, from single cells to economies, look as if they implicitly ‘model’ their surroundings. In pursuing this idea, he relies heavily on a theoretical framework called the Free Energy Principle. He completed a BA in Neuroscience at Swarthmore College and a MSc. in Neuroscience at the University of Göttingen, with a focus on computational neuroscience and active inference. Currently, Conor borrows methods from non-equilibrium thermodynamics,
If a fish can pass the mark test, what are the implications for consciousness and self-awareness testing in animals?
Kohda M, Hotta T, Takeyama T, Yoshimura N, Jordan A. 2019. If a fish can pass the mark test, what are the implications for consciousness and self-awareness testing in animals? PLOS Biology February 7, 2019
Bi-parental mucus provisioning in the scale-eating cichlid Perissodus microlepis (Cichlidae)
Satoh S, Awata S, Tanaka H, Jordan A, Kakuda N, Hori M, & Kohda M. 2019. Bi-parental mucus provisioning in the scale-eating cichlid Perissodus microlepis (Cichlidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 128(4), 926-935
Francesca Santostefano
Francesca is interested in how social interactions among animals shape their behaviours and fitness. After completing her university studies in Padua, Italy, she moved to Germany where she earned a PhD between the Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. Her project focused on the consequences of social interactions on the evolution of individual differences in behaviour in Field crickets, bridging the fields of behavioural ecology and quantitative genetics.
The multilevel society of a small-brained bird
Papageorgiou, D., Christensen, C., Gall, G.E.C., Klarevas-Irby, J., Nyaguthii, B., Couzin, I.D., Farine, D.R. (2019) The multilevel society of a small-brained bird. Current Biology 29(24): R1120-R1121.
Read coverage by CNN, NY Times, IFL Science, Audubon Magazine, Smithsonian Mag, Cosmos Magazine.
Current Biology: The multilevel society of a small-brained bird
The first publication of the vulturine guineafowl project is out! The team in the Farine lab have revealed the best evidence yet for a multilevel society in a bird species. The study demonstrates that vulturine guineafowl live in stable groups that comprise of multiple breeding units, and that these groups interact preferentially with other groups, both during the day and at communal roosts. The study combined large-scale census data with high-resolution GPS tracking to reveal the highly detailed information about the vulturine guineafowl society.
Spurious inference when comparing networks
Farine, D.R., Aplin, L.M. (2019) Spurious inference when comparing networks. PNAS 116(34): 16674-16675.
Camera traps provide a robust alternative to direct observations for constructing social networks of wild chimpanzees
McCarthy, M.S., Després-Einspenner, M.-L., Farine, D.R., Samuni, L., Angedakina, S., Arandjelovica, M., Boesch, C., Dieguez, P., Havercamp, K., Knight, A., Langergraber, K.E., Murai, M., Wittig, R.M., Kühl, H.S. (in press) Camera traps provide a robust alternative to direct observations for constructing social networks of wild chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour
DeepPoseKit, a software toolkit for fast and robust animal pose estimation using deep learning
Graving, J.M, Chae, D., Naik, H, Li, L, Koger, B, Costelloe, B.R & Couzin, I.D (2019) DeepPoseKit, a software toolkit for fast and robust animal pose estimation using deep learning, eLife. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.47994
- Coverage by Quanta Magazine, Nature Methods, Nature News & Views, eLife Science Digests
