Nick Antonson, PhD

NSF POSTDOCtoral fellow
2022-present
website

Nick is a current Postdoctoral Researcher in the Fuxjager Lab. Nick received his PhD in Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studied brood parasitic interactions between nestling brown-headed cowbirds and one of their hosts, the prothonotary warbler, in Mark Hauber’s Lab. Nick is broadly interested in how physiology constrains the behavioral displays that mediate competitive interactions within and across species. For his postdoctoral research, Nick is interested in broadening his technical skills and focusing on the evolution of competitive behaviors through a physiological lens. As such, Nick plans to study the evolution of drumming displays amongst North American woodpeckers (Piciformes) and the associated physiological innovations that facilitate these competitive behaviors.

Education

Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
B.A., Augustana University

publications

N.D. Antonson, W.M. Schelsky, D. Tolman, R.M. Kilner, M.E. Hauber. 2022. Niche construction through a Goldilocks principle maximizes fitness for a nest-sharing brood parasite. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 289, 20221223. 10.1098/rspb.2022.1223

N.D. Antonson, M. Rivera, M. Abolins-Abols, S. Kleindorfer, W.-C. Liu, M.E. Hauber. 2021. Early acoustic experience alters genome-wide methylation in the auditory forebrain of songbird embryos. Neuroscience Letters. 755, 135917. 10.1016/j.neulet.2021.135917

S.K. Winnicki, B.M. Strausberger, N.D. Antonson, D.E. Burhans, J. Lock, A.M. Kilpatrick, and M.E. Hauber. 2021. Developmental asynchrony and host species identity predict variability in nestling growth of an obligate brood parasite: a test of the “growth-tuning” hypothesis. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 99(3) 213-220. 10.1139/cjz-2020-0147

S.L. Lawson, J.K. Enos, N.D. Antonson, S.A. Gill, and M.E. Hauber. 2021. Do hosts of avian brood parasites discriminate parasitic vs. predatory threats? A meta-analysis. Advances in the Study of Behavior. 53, 63-95. 10.1016/bs.asb.2021.03.002

N.D. Antonson and M.E. Hauber. 2021. Conflict and Violence in Avian Siblings: A Natural History Perspective. The SAGE Handbook of Domestic Violence, Chapter 50, 822-838. 10.4135/9781529742343.n50

N.D. Antonson, M.E. Hauber, B.C. Mommer, J.P. Hoover, and W.M. Schelsky. 2020. Physiological responses of host parents to rearing an avian brood parasite: An experimental study. Hormones and Behavior. 125, 104812. 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104812

N.D. Antonson, D.R. Rubenstein, M.E. Hauber, and C.A. Botero. 2020. Ecological uncertainty favours the diversification of host use in avian brood parasites. Nature Communications. 11(1) 1-7. 10.1038/s41467-020-18038-y

C. L. Carney, N. D. Antonson, J. Alvarez, K. Foss, K. Kettler, A. J. Lloyd, D. Matzner, D. Mohan, K. Shroll, C. Snyder, M. Van Essen, J. W. Vander Windt, C. Miles and S. L. Matzner. 2019. Fatal Attraction: what is the role of visual cues in attracting prey to carnivorous plants? Bios. 90(2) 79-86. 10.1893/0005-3155-90.2.79

E.L. Westerman, N.D. Antonson, S. Kreutzmann, A. Peterson, S. Pineda, M.R. Kronforst, C.F. Olson-Manning. 2019. Behavior before beauty: signal weighting during mate selection in the butterfly Papilio polytes. Ethology. (125) 565-574. 10.1111/eth.12884