Research Output per year
Personal profile
Biography
I have an Honours degree in Zoology from the University of Sheffield, and a PhD from the University of Liverpool. I have held research fellowships in Australia and the UK. In the UK I spent 2000-2005 at the University of St Andrews (BBSRC David Philips fellowship) and one year at the University of Exeter (Royal Society URF). At the University of Western Australia I was employed on fellowships from 1997 - 2000 (Royal Society/ UWA Fellowship) and again from 2005 to 2011 (ARC ARF) I was an ARC Future Fellow from 2011-2015.
Roles and responsibilities
Seminar Series Coordinator 2007-2009
Health and Safety Committee Chair 2013
Honours coordinator 2011-2014
Graduate Research Cordinator 2014-2016
Teaching and Learning Committee 2014-2018
Research Committee 2018 -
Future research
I have ARC funding (DP 2017) to develop an empirical understanding of anisogamy. I am intrested in a breadth of subjects mostly centred around sexual selection, mutations adaptation and threshold evolution.
This combination of research is leading towards applied evolutionary biology, we are using experimental evolution to improve algal production and to understand adaptation to changing climate.
Teaching overview
Honours supervision
3rd Year Behavioural Ecology
3rd Year Evolutionary Processes
1st Year 'The Darwinian Revolution'
Research
My research began verymuch focussed on sexual selection. As a consequence I remain particularly interested in the genetic architecture of sexually selected and life-history traits, allometry, phenotypic plasticity and developmental integration. However I have I have a broad interest in threshold traits and their evolutionary quirks, that has lead me to study the evolution of human twinning by using simulations and mathematical models. I also used the threshold modelling approach to understand climate the behaviour of ticks that are becoming a major vector for disease as climate changes. I am currently developing methodologies for experimentally manipulating anisogamy in single celled algae. As a byproduct of the algal research we are exploring using experimental evolution to improve algal productivity. Please contact me if you would like to join in on any aspect of this diverse research enterprise!
Research expertise keywords
- Allometry
- Alternative reproductive tactics
- Alternative strategies
- Genetic variation
- Inbreeding
- Sexual selection
- Threshold traits
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Network
Recent external collaboration on country level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots.
Research Output
An age-dependent ovulatory strategy explains the evolution of dizygotic twinning in humans
Hazel, W. N., Black, R., Smock, R. C., Sear, R. & Tomkins, J. L., 11 May 2020, In : Nature Ecology and Evolution.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Experimental evidence for accelerated adaptation to desiccation through sexual selection on males
Gibson Vega, A., Kennington, W. J., Tomkins, J. L. & Dugand, R. J., 21 Apr 2020, In : Journal of Evolutionary Biology.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Males adjust their manipulation of female remating in response to sperm competition risk
Moschilla, J. A., Tomkins, J. L. & Simmons, L. W., 9 Sep 2020, In : Proceedings. Biological sciences. 287, 1934, 1 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
No evidence for divergence in male harmfulness or female resistance in response to changes in the opportunity for dispersal
Lymbery, S. J., Wyber, B., Tomkins, J. L. & Simmons, L. W., 12 Apr 2020, In : Journal of Evolutionary Biology.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Evaluating the genetic architecture of quantitative traits via selection followed by inbreeding
Dugand, R. J., Kennington, W. J. & Tomkins, J. L., 9 Apr 2019, In : Heredity. 123, p. 407–418 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Open Access
Datasets
Data from: Towards an evolutionary understanding of questing behaviour in the tick Ixodes ricinus
Tomkins, J. (Creator), Aungier, J. (Creator), Hazel, W. N. (Creator) & Gilbert, L. (Creator), Dryad Digital Repository, 21 Oct 2014
DOI: 10.5061/dryad.9p40s, https://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.9p40s
Dataset
Chlamydomonas flow data files
Seed, C. (Creator) & Tomkins, J. (Creator), Dryad Digital Repository, 4 Oct 2016
DOI: 10.5061/dryad.57j1t, https://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.57j1t
Dataset
Data from: Positive size-speed relationships in gametes and vegetative cells of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; implications for the evolution of sperm.
Seed, C. (Creator) & Tomkins, J. (Creator), Dryad Digital Repository, 2 Jan 2018
DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2mk56, https://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.2mk56
Dataset
No evidence for divergence in male harmfulness or female resistance in response to changes in the opportunity for dispersal
Lymbery, S. (Creator), Wyber, B. (Creator) & Tomkins, J. (Creator), Dryad Digital Repository, 12 Apr 2020
DOI: 10.5061/dryad.9w0vt4bbv, http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.9w0vt4bbv
Dataset
Data from: Contrasting effects of landscape features on genetic structure in different geographical regions in the ornate dragon lizard, Ctenophorus ornatus
Levy, E. (Creator), Tomkins, J. (Creator), Lebas, N. (Creator) & Kennington, J. (Creator), Dryad Digital Repository, 29 Apr 2013
DOI: 10.5061/dryad.g6jm6, https://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.g6jm6
Dataset
Projects
- 9 Finished
An empirical understanding of the evolution of anisogamy and the sexes
1/01/17 → 31/12/19
Project: Research
Go8 European Fellowship 2013-14 Joseph Tomkins - Lukasz Michalczyk
Tomkins, J. & Michalczyk, L.
1/01/14 → 31/12/15
Project: Research
Threshold traits: conditionality, instability and broken symmetry
1/01/13 → 31/12/15
Project: Research
Courses
Press / Media
Older Women more likely to concieve twins due to evolution
12/05/20
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media
Impacts
Conversation Article
Joseph Tomkins (Participant)
Impact: Other forms of decision making and behavioural change impact