#61 Dan Papaj, Ph.D.

This month, Mary got to have a fascinating exchange with Dr. Dan Papaj, a Full Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with the University of Arizona. Vastly dedicated to pollinators - in particular, the Blue Swallowtail, Dan is an esteemed and longstanding researcher and faculty member. He completed his undergraduate work at Cornell University and earned his PhD in zoology from Duke University. He's a fellow in the Animal Behavior Society and has won fellowships with Bellagio and Fullbright. All along the way, he's retained inspiring relationships with his students. His inflluence now spreads through scholarly and ecological communities.In their conversation, Mary and Dan dipped into the social life of bees, the evolutionary trajectory of humans and the impact of drought on the desert. Listen in for new insights into how it looks to an active entemolotist.You can learn more about Dan by checking out his University of Arizona faculty profile. Just below, he’s also provided a few links to some of his writing, and to resources on cultural evolution. Check them out. Learn more. And as Dan suggests, always make choices for our relatives, the pollinators.And a quick postscript. Early in the life of HILFH, we had the delightful honor of welcoming Sara Mapelli Tink as a guest (HILFH episode 5). Sara is known for her activism in support of bees - she dances with them covering her body. Check out her interview - it never gets old! LEARN MOREThe role of similarity of stimuli and responses in learning by nectar-foraging bumble bees: a test of Osgood’s modelM Baek & DR Papaj. Animal Behaviour 219, 123036The relationship between preference and switching in flower foraging by beesDR Papaj & AL Russell. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 78 (3), 40______Dan's recommendations for learning more about cultural evolution:Cumulative cultural evolution. Culture and the Evolutionary Process. (1985). University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo5970597.html Dan’s comment, “Boyd and Richerson's 1985 Culture and the Evolutionary Process is still in print at U. Chicago Press and for good reason.”An article by Gerbauly et al. on the development of lactose tolerance in humans. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/FMfcgzQcqtjBxVGRsHBrrNlBrnwFXxPC?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1 And a very cool photo of Bees ~https://photoawards.com/winner/zoom.php?eid=8-222523-21 MUSICJazz Restaurant Café Music. Music by Ievgen Poltavskyi from Pixabay Jazz Background Music. Music by Mykola Sosin from Pixabay Jazz Lounge Elevator MusicMusic by Andrii Poradovskyi from PixabayOriginal theme music composed and performed by Gary Ferguson.