Dying without wings: ecological correlates Seminar
For more information regarding this seminar, please telephone Maria Hilliard on 02380 598 148 or email M.Hilliard@soton.ac.uk .
Event details
Natalie Cooper's interests are macroecology and macroevolution, particularly the intersections between the two. Including work with phylogenies, ecological data, trait data collected from museum specimens, species geographic range maps and various databases to try and understand broad scale patterns of biodiversity and morphological evolution.
Humankind has always been fascinated with lifespan, searching endlessly for an elixir of life. Today, human ageing, with all its complex ramifications, is identified as a major challenge in science. More recently, the pursuit of "cures" for human ageing have looked to the animal kingdom, in particular within vertebrates where lifespans vary from just eight weeks in the pygmy goby up to 211 years in the bowhead whale. While much of this variation can be explained by body size, some species appear to live far longer than predicted given their body size. My talk will explore explanations for this in mammals and birds, focusing on interspecific variation in extrinsic mortality.
Speaker information
Dr Natalie Cooper , School of Natural Sciences. Trinity College Dublin.