Peter R. Marler

Peter Robert Marler (born February 24, 1928 in Slough , † July 5, 2014 in Davis , California ) was a British - American neurobiologist and ethologist . Until his retirement he was Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavioral Research at the University of California, Davis .

Life

Peter Marler grew up in the southern county of Berkshire and attended Slough Grammar School , which had a science focus, at the age of 15 . Due to the influence of his bio teacher he decided to study botany as a major and zoology and chemistry as a minor after graduating from school ; at the same time he was interested in ornithological topics during his school days. Marler earned a bachelor's degree from University College London in 1948 and a Ph.D. in 1952. in botany ( plant ecology ). In 1954 he earned a second Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. in zoology ( animal behavior ). From 1954 to 1956 he worked as a research assistant with William Thorpe and Robert Hinde at Jesus College, University of Cambridge. In 1957 he received a professorship at the University of California at Berkeley . In 1966 Marler became a professor at Rockefeller University in New York City , where he became head of the Institute for Research in Animal Behavior in 1969 , and in 1972 of the Field Research Center for Ethology and Ecology in Millbrook , Dutchess County , New York. In 1989, Marler was appointed professor at the University of California, Davis. In 1994 he retired, but was still in charge of the Center for Animal Behavior there from 1996 to 2000 .

Marler died in July 2014 at the age of 86 after a prolonged illness in a hospital in Davis, California.

Act

Marler was an internationally recognized researcher in the field of bird song , in particular with his work on songbirds such as chaffinches and badgers , he was able to gain fundamental knowledge about their acquisition of song. As early as the 1960s, using the example of the badger hammers, he had demonstrated that young birds learn the song of their species as nestlings at the age of 10 to 50 days through imprinting from older conspecifics - usually from their father - at a point in time when they not sing myself yet. With his model animal, Marler u. a. prove that the male nestlings 'store' their father's singing in their memory during the sensitive phase, “and later they practice and perfect their singing by comparing their singing with the memory of his.” This by Marler as an auditory template hypothesis (analogously: hypothesis using templates created by the hearing center) called the interpretation of the behavioral observations that summarized the model, character and the gradual adaptation of the self-produced sounds through 'practice' to the sounds heard in the model to form a functional whole. Initially, however, there was no evidence of those nerve cells from which the presumed 'auditory template' is built; Allison J. Doupe provided in-depth knowledge on this from the late 1980s.

Marler also did important work on the acquisition of communication skills in primates - studies on chimpanzees and gorillas together with Jane Goodall and Hugo van Lawick ; Studies on the southern green monkey with Tom Struhsaker , Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth . Marler 's work led to groundbreaking insights into memory and learning research and the importance of auditory and social experiences.

Marler's group included numerous well-known ornithologists and behavioral researchers such as Mark Konishi , Fernando Nottebohm , Susan Peters , Don Kroodsma , Bill Searcy , Steve Nowicki , Ken Yasukawa and John Wingfield .

Awards (selection)

• 1964/1965 Guggenheim Fellow
• 1970 membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1971 membership in the National Academy of Sciences
• 1988 membership in the American Philosophical Society
• 1999 Neuronal Plasticity Prize of the Fondation Ipsen , together with Masakazu Konishi and Fernando Nottebohm
• 2001 Prix ​​International of the Fondation Fyssen
• 2004 Rosenstiel Award , together with Masakazu Konishi and Fernando Nottebohm
• 2008 Loye and Alden Miller Research Award from the Cooper Ornithological Society
• 2008 Foreign member of the Royal Society

Fonts (selection)

• Peter Marler and Miwako Tamura: Culturally Transmitted Patterns of Vocal Behavior in Sparrows. In: Science. Volume 146, No. 3650, 1964, pp. 1483-1486, doi: 10.1126 / science.146.3650.1483 .
• Peter R. Marler: A comparative approach to vocal learning: Song development in white-crowned sparrows. In: Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. Volume 71 (2, Pt. 2), 1970, pp. 1-25, doi: 10.1037 / h0029144 .
• Peter Marler and Hans Slabbekoorn: Nature's Music: The Science of Birdsong. Elsevier, San Diego 2004, ISBN 0-12-473070-1 .

literature

• Fernando Nottebohm : Peter Marler (1928–2014). In: Nature . Volume 512, No. 7515, 2014, p. 372, doi: 10.1038 / 512372a .
• Gregory F. Ball and Robert J. Dooling: Peter R. Marler, 1928–2014. In: The Auk. Volume 134, No. 4, 2017, pp. 932-934, doi: 10.1642 / AUK-17-135.1 .

Web links

• Profile at the University of California, Davis (ucdavis.edu). ( Memento from November 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• Curriculum Vitae ( Memento from June 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, 78 kB) at the University of California, Davis (ucdavis.edu)
• Steve Chawkins: Peter Marler dies at 86; bird scientist, birdsong, animal behaviorist. Obituary in the Los Angeles Times on July 13, 2014
• Paul Vitello: Peter Marler, Graphic Decoder of Birdsong, Dies at 86. Obituary in The New York Times of July 27, 2014, (full text at archive.org ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter Marler: Hark Ye to the Birds: Autobiographical Marginalia. In: Donald A. Dewsbury: Studying Animal Behavior. Autobiographies of the Founders. Chicago University Press, Chicago and London 1985, ISBN 978-0-226-14410-8 , pp. 314-345, here: p. 316
2. ↑ Anita Craemer: Residents evacuated as fire near Winters grows. In: sacbee.com. The Sacramento Bee, July 6, 2014, accessed May 31, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Peter Marler and Miwako Tamura: Culturally Transmitted Patterns of Vocal Behavior in Sparrows. In: Science. Volume 146, No. 3650, 1964, pp. 1483-1486, doi: 10.1126 / science.146.3650.1483 .
   Peter R. Marler: A comparative approach to vocal learning: Song development in white-crowned sparrows. In: Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. Volume 71 (2, Pt. 2), 1970, pp. 1-25, doi: 10.1037 / h0029144 .
4. ↑ Samuel Barondes and Michael P. Stryker: Allison Doupe: In Memoriam. In: Neuron. Volume 85, No. 4, 2015, S 667–668, doi: 10.1016 / j.neuron.2015.01.030 .
5. ^ Jill Soha: The auditory template hypothesis: a review and comparative perspective. In: Animal Behavior. Volume 124, 2017, pp. 247-254, doi: 10.1016 / j.anbehav.2016.09.016 .
6. ^ John Simon Guggenheim Foundation - Peter Robert Marler. In: gf.org. Retrieved February 7, 2016 . 
7. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter M. (PDF; 1.1 MB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved May 7, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Dr. Peter Marler at the American Philosophical Society (amphilsoc.org); Retrieved October 5, 2012
9. ^ Fondation-ipsen.org: Neuronal Plasticity Prize. ( Memento from July 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ Laureates. In: fondationfyssen.fr. Fondation Fyssen, accessed on May 31, 2020 (French). 
11. ^ Past Winners - Rosenstiel Award - Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center - Brandeis University. In: brandeis.edu. Retrieved January 23, 2016 . 
12. ^ Loye and Alden Miller Research Award. In: americanornithology.org. American Ornithological Society, accessed May 31, 2020 . 
13. ^ Foreign Members of the Royal Society . ( Memento of December 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive )