Professor
Member, CISAB

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1992

Program Affiliation: Evolution, Ecology and Behavior

Research Groups Affiliation: Behavior | Evolution

Phone: 812/856-5840
Fax: 812/855-6705
Email Emília

Martins Lab web page

My primary research interest is in the evolution of complex behavioral traits such as communication and social behavior. Our goal is to understand how microevolutionary processes acting on a generation time scale (e.g., random genetic drift, selection, learning) translate into the macroevolutionary patterns we see in a set of interspecific data. Primarily, we strive to understand the evolutionary forces driving the evolution of communication and social behavior in lizards. How do genetic and social factors interact over long periods of evolutionary time? Are major patterns of behavioral differentiation best explained by the strongest selective pressures or by those which are the most persistent, albeit sometimes weak?

Research in my lab combines comparative studies of communicative signals, empirical research on the social, genetic, hormonal, and chemical mechanisms underlying behavioral plasticity, and development of theoretical methods and software. Our comparative research focuses mostly on lizard headbob displays, spanning taxa in North America (spiny lizards: Sceloporus),the Caribbean (rock iguanas: Cyclura), South America (Liolaemus), and Africa (chameleons). Our studies of behavioral mechanisms began with Sceloporus lizards and include playback experiments with a robotic model (Fig. 1). More recently, we have conducted several projects comparing the communication and social behavior of Zebrafish, making use of the wealth of genetic and developmental tools available to answer core questions in the evolution of complex traits.

We develop and maintain the COMPARE computer program which allows researchers in all fields of biology to apply phylogenetic comparative methods to their own data. We are also developing EthoBank, a complex, public database to store behavioral data (tables of numbers, figures, film clips, etc.) and make it more easily accessible to the scientific community. And our lab is spearheading EthoSource, an international effort to make behavioral data more easily accessible over the internet.

Ord, T. J., E. P. Martins, S. Thakur, K. K. Mane, K. Borner. 2005. Trends in animal behaviour research (1968-2002): ethoinformatics and mining library databases. Animal Behaviour 69: 1399-1413.

Housworth, E. A., E. P. Martins, and M. Lynch. 2004. The phylogenetic mixed model. American Naturalist 163:84-96.

Martins, E.P. and K.E. Lacy. 2004. Complex behavior and ecology of rock iguanas. I. Evidence for an appeasement display. IN: "Iguanas: Biology and conservation" edited by Allison Alberts, Ron Carter, William Hayes, & Emilia Martins. University of California Press. PP. 101-108.

Martins, E.P., A. Labra, M.P. Halloy and J.T. Thompson. 2004. Large-scale patterns of signal evolution: An interspecific study of Liolaemus lizard headbob displays. Animal Behaviour, 68: 453-463.

Martins, E. P. 2004. EthoSource: storing, sharing and combining behavioral data. BioScience, 54:886-887.

Martins, E. P., J.A. Diniz-Filho, and E. A. Housworth. 2002. Adaptation and the comparative method: A computer simulation study. Evolution 56: 1-13.