A PhD project is available to investigate the function of elaborate female song and plumage in a cooperatively breeding bird, the lovely fairy-wren (Malurus amabilis). The position will be based in the Evolution and Behaviour Group in the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Assoc Prof Raoul Mulder, and co-supervised by Dr Michelle Hall.
Studies on elaborate male traits have formed the foundation of the field of sexual selection. However, ornamentation in females is only recently attracting attention, and there is controversy over whether sexual selection or alternative mechanisms drive the evolution of female ornamentation. Lovely fairy-wrens have the most colourful female plumage among the Australian fairy-wrens, but have never been studied before. The student will be able to work independently to establish a new project investigating the function of elaborate female song and plumage in lovely fairy-wrens, and test competing hypotheses for the evolution of female ornamentation in birds.
Interested students should email their CV, contact details of two academic referees, academic transcript, and a letter describing their research interests to Raoul Mulder (r.mulderATunimelb.edu.au<
The candidate will need to obtain an Australian Postgraduate Award or International Research and Fee Remission Scholarships (for details and scholarship application forms see http://services.unimelb.edu.
Dr Michelle L Hall
Research Fellow
Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne
Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia
email: hall.mATunimelb.edu.au
phone: + 61 3 83446232
www: Google Scholar Profile<http://scholar.google.
