Thomas "Tom" N. Sherratt is a professor of

evolutionary ecology Evolutionary ecology lies at the intersection of ecology and evolutionary biology. It approaches the study of ecology in a way that explicitly considers the evolutionary histories of species and the interactions between them. Conversely, it can ...

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

, Canada. He is known for his research on

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

aposematism Aposematism is the Advertising in biology, advertising by an animal, whether terrestrial or marine, to potential predation, predators that it is not worth attacking or eating. This unprofitability may consist of any defenses which make the pr ...

and

mimicry In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simples ...

Life

Sherratt earned his bachelor's degree at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, and gained his Ph.D. at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

. He states that the two main themes in his research laboratory are the evolution of surprising traits in behaviour and morphology, including co-operation with unrelated individuals (as opposed to

kin selection Kin selection is a process whereby natural selection favours a trait due to its positive effects on the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even when at a cost to the organism's own survival and reproduction. Kin selection can lead ...

) and the existence of conspicuous warning signals; and the way that individual behaviour shapes the spatio-temporal dynamics of populations, as when

travelling wave Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel can ...

s are set up when individuals move over a landscape feature.

Work

Sherratt has contributed to more than 100 papers in major journals. His co-written 2004 book ''Avoiding Attack'' on

and

has been cited at least 1175 times, while his co-written papers "Development of cooperative relationships through increasing investment" and "Evidence of intra-specific competition for food in a pelagic seabird" have each been cited over 300 times.

Books

* Sherratt, T. N.; Wilkinson, D. M. (2009). ''Big Questions in Ecology and Evolution''. Oxford University Press. * Ruxton Graeme D., Sherratt, T. N.; Speed, M. P. (2004). ''Avoiding attack: the evolutionary ecology of crypsis, warning signals and mimicry''. Oxford University Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherratt, Thomas N. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Scottish ecologists Alumni of the University of Dundee Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Academic staff of Carleton University Camouflage researchers