NSFDEB-NERC: The evolution of visual systems during major life history transitions in frogs

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How organisms interact with their environment depends on how they perceive external stimuli through, for example, tactile, chemical, electrical, magnetic, and visual cues. Animal sensory systems detect environmental variables that ultimately elicit behavioral responses to pursue prey, avoid predators, regulate homeostasis, and find mates. These behavioral responses depend on sensory systems that are adapted to particular environments and can thus have important consequences on the distribution of species (sensory ecology), which in turn can promote evolutionary divergence among populations and species. Because sensory systems play vital roles in multiple aspects of animals' lives, analyzing the evolution of sensory systems is fundamental to understanding the diversification of any particular animal group. Our project investigates how the visual system has evolved during the history of frogs, and particularly with respect to the many evolutionary changes in ecology and life history that frogs have undergone. For example, we will investigate how vision was influenced by and may have influenced the evolution of bright or sexually dimorphic colour patterns, and the evolution of burrowing and of different kinds of adult and tadpole lifestyles. Frogs are a major group, with > 6,600 living species that have evolved over >250 million years, yet they have barely been included in previous studies of vision of vertebrates. Our project will substantially advance knowledge of both vertebrate vision and frog evolution. The broader impacts of this project can be summarised in four categories: international collaboration, training, science communication, and museum exhibitions. First, this project is a collaboration between two of the world's best known and prolific natural history museums - the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., USA and the Natural History Museum, London (NHM) - a joint effort of its personnel that makes the goals of this project not just possible, but feasible. Furthermore, our team of collaborators (both frog experts and vision biologists) from Gabon, Brazil, the UK, the USA, Ecuador, and Australia forms the essential network and expert insight that allows us to address our specific aims and questions. Second, this project will train a postdoctoral researcher at the NHM and provide training opportunities for Masters and undergraduate students that study within the NHM Herpetology Research Group (where the project is based). Third, a focus on communicating the results of our research to a public audience is central to our proposal - via public engagement events at the NHM. Finally, our research products will be made available to the public via incorporation into the upcoming NHM temporary exhibition "Life in the Dark" (scheduled October 2018) - where an updated understanding of how frogs see at night will be presented.