Dr Sarah Lane

Research interests

I’m fascinated by the many different forms of conflict which result from sexual and natural selection. I spent my PhD investigating sexual conflict and sperm competition in the broad-horned flour beetle Gnatocerus cornutus. During this time I watched a lot of interactions both male-male and male-female, in which males would often court other males while aggressively wrestling with females. These observations of unexpected and seemingly maladaptive behaviour sparked my interest in social interactions, in particular agonistic encounters.

My current research focuses on the the idea that a good fighter may not always be the one who fights with the most vigour, but that skill may play a role in determining fighting success too. While we know that skill plays an important role in human conflict, both in warfare and sports, this phenomenon has yet to be explored in animal contests. Professor Mark Briffa and I have recently secured a BBSRC grant to explore the role of skill in hermit crab fights using the common European hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus. Unlike many crustaceans, hermit crabs have soft abdomens making them vulnerable to predation unless they can secure the safety of an empty gastropod shell. However, not just any shell will do, hermit crabs need a perfect fit which will allow them to retract their whole body inside when threatened but that is still easy to move around in. Thus hermit crabs grapple with one another over the ownership of the ‘perfect’ shell. During these fights, hermit crabs take on either the role of the attacker or the role of the defender (whose shell has caught the attention of the attacker). In an effort to make the defender give up the goods, the attacker raps its shell against the defender’s shell, all the while trying to pull the defender out. We know from previous research that the likelihood of the attacker succeeding is influenced by the vigour with which he raps but we want to know whether where he raps matters too. For instance is an attacker who raps on the same spot continually more likely to secure a victory? Or is it better to cover a greater area of the defender’s shell in raps? These are just some of the questions we hope to answer with this project over the next three years.

Outside of hermit crabs, I am eager to learn more about the use of weapons during conflicts and the injuries that they inflict. What differentiates weapons from other kinds of traits? How do individuals cope with the costs of using weapons (specifically self-inflicted damage)? How do the costs of injury affect fighting decisions?

Creative practice & artistic projects