Dr Tanmay Dixit

Tanmay grew up in the UK and – despite this – was fascinated by biodiversity from an early age. This fascination generated a deep interest in evolution and animal behaviour, which led to him studying Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. During and after Tanmay’s undergraduate degree, he conducted projects across the world, including in the neotropics (Panama and Trinidad), and in Africa. He became fascinated by coevolution and specifically the interactions between brood parasites and their hosts, which he now studies.

Tanmay began his PhD research with Prof. Claire Spottiswoode in October 2018, studying the antagonistic interactions between cuckoo finches Anomalospiza imberbis and their hosts (family Cisticolidae) in Zambia. He collaborated with mathematicians and computer scientists such as Prof. L Mahadevan (Harvard) and Dr. Christopher Town (Cambridge) to use top-down and bottom-up approaches in studying the evolution of egg signatures and forgeries. In particular, he studied the perception and evolution of egg pattern complexity and imperfect mimicry to ask whether birds behave as optimally as we might (or might not!) do in their place.

In October 2023, he began a Research Fellowship at Jesus College, Cambridge. He continues to study cuckoo finches and their hosts, now focussing on mechanisms underpinning coevolution. He is particularly interested in whether perception of egg colours and patterns is continuous or categorical, and how cuckoo finches respond to host perceptual capabilities and phenotypic distributions. He is hoping to add theoretical and modelling components to his research to further understand evolution across biological scales.

Tanmay’s research requires cross-disciplinary approaches to studying both adaptation and maladaptation, and he particularly enjoys the collaborations with researchers across a range of fields. Nevertheless, he feels particularly lucky to have been able to pursue scientific questions in the beautiful setting of Zambia’s miombo woodland.

Peer-reviewed publications

• Catherall‐Ostler, A. M.*, & Dixit, T.* 2025. The Constructive Neutral Evolution of Behaviour. Ecology and Evolution, 15(7), e71736. *joint first authors
• Caves, E. M., Cheney, K. L., Dacke, M., Dixit, T., … & Schweikert, L. E. 2025. Emerging frontiers in visual ecology. Journal of Experimental Biology, 228(15), jeb250537.
• Hanley, D., Hauber, M.E., Holford, M., Moya, C., Spottiswoode, C.N., Dixit, T. 2025. Pigment concentrations only partially predict avian eggshell colour mimicry in a polymorphic host–brood parasite system. Biology Letters. 21:20250112. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0112
• Worsley, M. Z., Schroeder, J., Dixit, T., 2025. How animals discriminate between stimulus magnitudes: a meta-analysis. Behavioral Ecology, araf025. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/araf025
• McClelland, S. C., Lund, J., Dixit, T., Hamama, S., McClean, L. A., Spottiswoode, C. N., White, C. R., Louder, M. I. M., Hauber, M. E., Honza, M., Portugal, S. J. 2024. Highly virulent avian brood-parasitic species show elevated embryonic metabolic rates at specific incubation stages compared to less virulent and non-parasitic species. Biology Letters, 20(9), 20240411. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0411
• Dixit, T. 2024. A synthesis of coevolution across levels of biological organisation. Evolution 78(2). qpad082. https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpad082
• Dixit, T., Lund, J., Fulford, A.J.C., Apostol, A.L., Chen, K.-C., Tong, W., Feeney, W.E., Hamusikili, L., Colebrook-Robjent, J.F.R., Town, C.P., Spottiswoode, C.N., 2023. Chase-away evolution maintains imperfect mimicry in a brood parasite–host system despite rapid evolution of mimics. Nature Ecology & Evolution 7. 1978-1982. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02232-4. (also see blog post at https://ecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/an-evolutionary-chase-how-mimicry-remains-imperfect-despite-rapid-evolution-of-mimics)
• Dixit, T., Chen, K.C., Stoddard, M.C., Mahadevan, L., Town, C.P., Spottiswoode, C.N., 2023. Repeatable randomness, invariant properties, and the design of biological signatures of identity. Evolution 77(10), 2224-2233.
• Lund, J., Dixit, T., Attwood, M.C., Hamama, S., Moya, C., Stevens, M., Jamie, G.A., Spottiswoode, C.N., 2023. When perfection isn’t enough: host egg signatures are an effective defence against high-fidelity African cuckoo mimicry. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 290: 20231125.
• McClelland, S.C., Attard, M.R.G., Bowen, J, Horrocks, N.P.C., Jamie, G.A., Dixit, T., Spottiswoode, C.N., Portugal, S.J., 2023. Eggshell composition and surface properties of avian brood-parasitic species compared with non-parasitic species. Royal Society Open Science 10: 221023. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221023
• Dixit, T., Choi, G.P.T., al-Mosleh, S., Lund, J., Troscianko, J., Moya, C., Mahadevan, L., Spottiswoode, C.N., 2023. Combined measures of mimetic fidelity explain imperfect mimicry in a brood parasite–host system. Biology Letters, 19: 20220538.
• Dixit, T., Apostol, A., Chen, K.-C., Fulford, A.J.C., Town, C.P., Spottiswoode, C.N., 2022. Visual complexity of egg patterns predicts egg rejection according to Weber’s Law. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 289: 20220710.
• Cram, D.L., van der Wal, J.E.M., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J.L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffman, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, A.E., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pereira, V.L., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Sridhar, H., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W., Spottiswoode, C.N., 2022. The ecology and evolution of human-wildlife cooperation. People and Nature 4(4), 841-855.
• van der Wal, J.E.M., Spottiswoode, C.N., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Begg, C.M., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J.L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffman, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, A.E., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pereira, V.L., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W., Cram, D.L., 2022. Safeguarding human-wildlife cooperation. Conservation Letters 15(4), e12886.
• McClelland, S.C., Reynolds, M., Cordall, M., Hauber, M.E., Goymann, W., McClean, L.A., Hamama, S., Lund, J., Dixit, T., Louder, M.I.M., Safari, I., Honza, M., Spottiswoode, C.N., Portugal, S.J., 2021. Embryo movement is more frequent in avian brood parasites than birds with parental reproductive strategies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 288: 20211137.
• Dixit, T., Caves, E.M., Spottiswoode, C.N., Horrocks, N.P.C., 2021. Why and how to apply Weber’s Law to coevolution and mimicry. Evolution 75(8), 1906-1919.
• Caves, E.M., Dixit, T., Colebrook-Robjent, J.F.R., Hamusikili, L., Stevens, M., Thorogood, R., Spottiswoode, C.N., 2021. Hosts elevate either within-clutch consistency or between-clutch distinctiveness of egg phenotypes in defence against brood parasites. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 288: 20210326.
• Dixit, T.*, Riederer, J.M.*, Quek, S., Belford, K., Tavares de Wand, T., Sicat, R., Jiggins, C.D., 2020. Plasticity in flower size as an adaptation to variation in pollinator specificity. Ecological Entomology 45(6), 1367-1372.
• Sorensen, M.C., Dixit, T., Newton, J., Kardynal, K., Hobson, K., Bensch, S., Jenni-Eiereman, S., Spottiswoode, C.N., 2019. Migration distance does not predict blood parasitism in a Palearctic-African migratory bird. Ecology and Evolution 9(14), 8294-8304.
• Pickup, M., Brandvain, Y., Fraïsse, C., Yakimowski, S., Barton, N.H., Dixit, T., Lexer, C., Cereghetti, E., Field, D.L., 2019. Mating system variation in hybrid zones: facilitation, barriers and asymmetries to gene flow. New Phytologist 224(3), 1035-1047.
• Dixit, T., English, S., Lukas, D., 2017. The relationship between egg size and helper number in cooperative breeders: a meta-analysis across species. PeerJ 5: e4028.

Packages

Worsley, M.Z., Dixit, T., 2024. kber: Estimate the strength of the magnitude effect. https://github.com/mzw22/kber

Non-peer-reviewed articles

Dixit, T. 2025. Sleepy lizards perk up when they smell fire. Journal of Experimental Biology. 228(23), jeb251672. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.251672

Dixit, T. 2025. Fiddler crab claws divert predator attacks from their bodies. Journal of Experimental Biology. 228(17), jeb251149. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.251149

Dixit, T. 2025. Tricksy thornbills cry wolf to scare off predators. Journal of Experimental Biology, 228(11), jeb250562. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.250562

Dixit, T., 2025. Warmer-coloured vehicle headlights could save moths. Journal of Experimental Biology 228(5): JEB250068. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.250068

Dixit, T., 2024. The cuckoo finch and the Red Queen. African Birdlife. 12(2): 24.

Dixit, T., 2023. An evolutionary chase: how mimicry remains imperfect despite rapid evolution of mimics. Springer Nature.

Dixit, T., Walton, J., Lund, J. 2019. Malachite sunbird promiscuity. Promerops 315: 23.