Matthew Sims

My research focuses three different, yet interconnected questions regarding biological systems: What are the different mechanisms by which organisms both adaptively respond to the structure in their environments and create fitness relevant structure ? How do these mechanisms influence one another over both evolutionary and developmental timescales? What factors have facilitated the evolution of learning, memory, and anticipation? In oder to approach these questions, my research investigates lifecycles, ecology, and phenotypic plasticity across a wide swath of taxa. One organism that I have focused on extensively to investigate these questions is the an acellular slime mould, P. polycephalum. I am currently interested in how extant differences in anguimorph lizard cognition and ecology can shed light on the role that ecological drivers played in diversifying cognitive sophistication in this group of closely related vertebrates.