Gavin M. Leighton, Ph.D.

Research Interests

I am a broadly trained biologist that works at the intersection of evolutionary biology and animal behavior. I received my Ph.D. at the University of Miami, and did postdocs at The University of Arizona and Cornell University before joining the department at Buffalo State College. My current research foci include examining the effect of social complexity on the evolution of vocal complexity in birds; and the evolution of social behavior in ants.

Courses Taught
BIO 213: Introduction to Ecology, Evolution, & Behavior
BIO 213: Introduction to Organismal Function & Diversity
 

Recent Publications

MacLeod, K.M., Freidenfelds, N.A., Leighton, G.M., Langkilde, T. Tree selection is linked to locomotor performance and associated noise production in a lizard. Journal of Zoology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12632

Leighton, G.M., Lees, A.C., Miller, E.T. (2018) “The Hairy-Downy game revisited: an empirical test of the Interspecific Social Dominance Mimicry Hypothesis”. Animal Behavior 137: 141-148. 

Leighton, G.M. (2017) “Cooperative Breeding Influences the Number and Type of Vocalizations in Avian Lineages”. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 284(1868): 1-9.

Webster, M.S.; Ligon, R.A.; Leighton, G.M. “Honest signaling of quality in animal aggregations”. Animal Behavior 143: 167-176. 

Leighton, G.M.; Charbonneau, D.; Dornhaus, A. (2017) “Task-switching is Associated with Temporal Delays in Temnothorax rugatulus Ants”. Behavioral Ecology 28(1): 319-327.

Leighton, G.M.; *Echeverri, S. (2016) “Population genomics of Sociable Weavers Philetairus socius reveals considerable admixture among colonies”. Journal of Ornithology 157(2): 483-492.

Leighton, G.M. (2016) Evolutionary Mechanisms Maintaining Nest Construction in Avian Clades. Avian Biology Research, 9(1): 44-51.