{"id":4191,"date":"2015-03-23T09:19:18","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T13:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/?post_type=cu_event&#038;p=4191"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:51:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:51:57","slug":"dr-john-ratcliffe","status":"publish","type":"cu_event","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/event\/dr-john-ratcliffe\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr John Ratcliffe"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 pb-5 after:w-10 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n        \n    <\/h1>\n    \n        <\/header>\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    <div class=\"cu-buttongroup cu-component-updated flex flex-wrap md:flex-1 gap-3 md:gap-5 justify-start\">\n                                                                        <\/div>\n    \n<h3 id=\"convergent-evolution-of-a-flexible-acoustic-field-of-view-echolocation-attack-sequences-in-bats-and-whales\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Convergent evolution of a \u001eflexible acoustic \u001dfield&nbsp;of view: echolocation attack sequences in bats&nbsp;and whales<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>John Ratcliffe, PhD<br>\nAssistant Professor<br>\nUniversity of Toronto (Mississauga)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Host: <a title=\"Jayne Yack\" href=\"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/people\/jayne-yack\/\">Yack <\/a>lab<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Abstract: <\/strong>&nbsp;Toothed whales and bats are the only animals to use sonar to detect and track prey and the demands&nbsp;of prey capture are positively related to biosonar sophistication. Both groups are known to adjust&nbsp;emitted sound intensity, auditory sensitivity and signal emission rate in response to changing spatial&nbsp;relationships with targets. We have recently demonstrated that in bats superfast laryngeal muscles,&nbsp;rather than perceptual constraints, as previously argued, limit maximum echolocation call rate&nbsp;during the terminal phase of an attack (i.e. limit but power the buzz). We have also found that bats are&nbsp;able to optimize their acoustic \u001efield of view to the bestsuit habitat and task. Most recently, we have&nbsp;shown that toothed whales also broaden their biosonar beam<br>\nduring the buzz, but unlike echolocating bats, maintain the ability&nbsp;to change beamwidth within this terminal phase. Despite the&nbsp;independent evolution of echolocation in whales and bats, and&nbsp;vastly \u001fdifferent means of sound generation and transmission, both&nbsp;groups have evolved mechanisms to rapidly update their auditory&nbsp;scene and to change their acoustic FOV over the course of attack.&nbsp;These convergences suggest that the buzz and beam-breadth flexibility have been important drivers in the evolution of&nbsp;echolocation for prey tracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Acoustics &#8211; Echolocation &#8211; Mammals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_event_type":[],"cu_event_audience":[],"class_list":["post-4191","cu_event","type-cu_event","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"cu_event_start_date":"2015-03-27T15:30:00","cu_event_end_date":"2015-03-27T16:30:00","cu_event_location_type":"in-person","cu_event_meeting_address_type":"on-campus","cu_building":"TT","cu_event_meeting_room":"4440Q","cu_event_meeting_address_full":null,"cu_event_virtual_type":"tbd","cu_event_virtual_meeting_link":"","cu_post_thumbnail":"event-mic","cu_event_cost":"","cu_event_registration":"","cu_event_secondary_button":"","cu_event_contact_name":"Andrew Simons","cu_event_email":"andrew.simons@carleton.ca","cu_event_phone":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_event\/4191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_event"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_event"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_event\/4191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_event_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_event_type?post=4191"},{"taxonomy":"cu_event_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_event_audience?post=4191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}