Abbi Koenigsmark defended her MS thesis this week, titled “Sex Differences in the Agonistic Behavior of the Stumpy-Spined Cuttlefish Sepia bandensis (Mollusca: Cephalopoda). Abbi’s work shows that both male and female cuttlefish engage in agonistic displays to conspecifics, and that both sexes use a color pattern that has previously been considered to be male-only. Her work sheds new light on the complex intraspecific communication that occurs in cephalopods, and is one of the few studies of interactions that attempts to manipulate chromatophore function to examine signal fidelity.
During her MS degree Abbi also worked on another project, looking at baseline sex differences in nociceptive thresholds in Euprymna berryi, adding to her interest in sex-specific behavior. We expect that both of these projects will lead to publications soon.
Abbi is heading off to a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, where she hopes to work on the octopus visual system. Congratulations Abbi!
Abbi celebrates her successful thesis defense! L-R Robyn Crook, Abbi Koenigsmark, Rachel Parsons, Gabby Bostwick, Sarah Detmering