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Professor Rebecca Kilner's research group investigates how animal behavior influences evolution, focusing particularly on social behavior within animal families. The group has shown that parental behavior can select for specific behavioral and morphological traits in nestling cuckoos, a species known for brood parasitism, effectively selecting complex defense strategies in their hosts. Kilner and her team have demonstrated that evolutionary conflicts of interest lead to co-adaptation among relatives within families. Current research combines experimental evolution in laboratory populations of burying beetles with field experiments and population genomics. Burying beetles are unique in that they exhibit parental care for their larvae. Kilner's work has revealed how behavior influences evolution by acting as an agent of natural selection, especially under changing ecological conditions, and affects the expression of genetic variation, thus providing a mechanism for non-genetic inheritance.
Standard postgraduate requirements for Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) and related humanities departments.