Dr. Matthew Dugas

Research Interests & Areas

In my lab, we ask questions about the social and environmental factors that shape communication. Our primary focus is on communication within avian and anuran families, in particular how and why offspring solicitation traits evolve. This includes life-history studies that address the selective pressures shaping families as well as observational and experimental efforts to understand the information content and function of offspring signals. Other areas of interest include visual signal evolution generally, a topic we consider by studying the avian begging display and freshwater fishes.