Research Fellow: EGI Research Fellow in Ornithology.

Current Members | Former Members | Photos


Dr. Charlie Cornwallis

Dr. Charlie Cornwallis

Details

Name: Dr. Charlie Cornwallis
Position: EGI Research Fellow in Ornithology
Email: charlie.cornwallis@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Autobiography

I studied Zoology at Sheffield where I continued to do a PhD on mechanisms of sexual selection, which I obtained in 2004. During this time I also ran field expeditions and worked on projects encompassing a variety of topics from sea bird ecology in Northern Canada to conservation of giant otters in Bolivia. Following my PhD I moved to Oxford as a NERC funded post-doc to continue work on sperm competition and in November 2005 I was appointed Research Fellow in Ornithology.

Research Activities

My research centers on revealing how sexual selection shapes the reproductive biology of males and females and the implications this has for evolutionary and ecological processes. Reproductive success is a product of events that occur both before and after copulation and I am particularly interested in the interaction between these two distinct stages and how they affect individuals, groups and populations. Currently I am focusing on the following topics:

Individual level:

  • Genetic and physiological control of reproductive traits.
  • Environmental influence on reproductive traits and the importance of phenotypic plasticity in sexual selection.
  • The way sexual selection and kin selection interact to generate sexual cooperation and spite.

Group level:

  • The influence of sexual selection and kin selection on the genetic structure of groups and populations

Population level:

  • The role of sexual selection in determining rates of gene flow between populations and the implications this has for population biology and speciation.

Study Systems

To pursue these ideas I have primarily used the fowl as a model study species, but am starting to utilize the strengths of other species to broaden the range of questions I can address:

Gallus gallus The fowl, Gallus gallus, present an ideal system for examining the processes of sexual selection and kin selection at the individual and group level
Struthio camelus Using ostriches, Struthio camelus, I will examine how sexual selection and kin selection influence the genetic structure of social groups and gene flow between populations.
Cygnus olor I am using a long term dataset on mute swans, Cygnus olor, to assess how sexual selection influences gene flow between populations and the implications this has for fitness.

Selected Recent Papers

Cornwallis, C. K. West, S. A. & Griffin A. S. In press. Routes to indirect fitness in cooperatively breeding vertebrates: kin discrimination and limited dispersal. Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

Cornwallis, C. K. & Uller, T. In press. Towards an evolutionary ecology for sexual traits. Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Cornwallis, C. K. & O'Connor, E. A. 2009. Sperm: seminal fluid interactions and the adjustment of sperm quality in relation to female attractiveness. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B. 276, 3457-3467.

Cornwallis, C. K. & Birkhead, T. R. 2008. Plasticity in reproductive phenotypes reveals status specific correlations between behavioral, morphological and physiological sexual traits. Evolution62, 1149-1161.

Cornwallis, C. K. & Birkhead, T. R. 2007. Changes in sperm quality and numbers in response to experimental manipulation of male social status and female attractiveness. Am. Nat.. | Read abstract/paper online

Cornwallis, C. K. & Birkhead, T. R. 2009. Experimental evidence that female ornamentation increases the acquisition of sperm and signals fecundity. Proc. Roy. Soc. B. 276, 3457-3467. | Read abstract/paper online

Pizzari, T., Cornwallis, C. K. &Froman, D. P. 2007. Social competitive ability is associated with rapid fluctuations in sperm quality in male fowl. Proc. Roy. Soc. B.. 274, 853-860. | Read abstract/paper online

Cornwallis, C. K. & Birkhead, T. R. 2006. Social status and availability of females determine patterns of sperm allocation in the fowl. Evolution. 60, 1486-1493. | Read abstract/paper online

Løvlie, H. Cornwallis, C. K. & Pizzari T. 2005. Male mounting alone reduces female promiscuity in the fowl. Curr. Biol. 15, 1222-1227. | Read abstract/paper online

Keeling, L., Andersson, L., Schütz, K. E., Kerje, S., Fredriksson, R., Calborg, Ö., Cornwallis, C. K., Pizzari, T. & Jensen P. 2004. Chicken genomics: Feather-pecking and victim pigmentation. Nature. 431, 645-646. | Read abstract/paper online

Pizzari, T., Løvlie, H., & Cornwallis, C. K. 2004. Sex-specific, counteracting responses to inbreeding in a bird. Proc. Roy. Soc. B. 271, 2115-2121. | Read abstract/paper online

Pizzari, T. Jensen, P. & Cornwallis, C. K. 2004. A novel test of the phenotype-linked fertility hypothesis reveals independent components of fertility. Proc. Roy. Soc. B. 217, 51-58. | Read abstract/paper online

Pizzari, T. Cornwallis, C. K., Løvlie, H. Jakobsson, S. & Birkhead, T. R. 2003. Sophisticated sperm allocation in male fowl. Nature, 426, 70-74. | Read abstract/paper online