Aubrey Manning obituary

Ethologist, broadcaster and expert on the evolutionary genetics of animal behaviour who was a natural communicator on televisionAubrey Manning's hugely popular 1998 BBC series Earth Story, about the evolution and shaping of the planet Earth, inspired a generation and led to a noticeable increase in students applying to read earth sciences. Yet, Aubrey, who has died aged 88, was not a geologist, but an ethologist, whose work made an important contribution to the understanding of how animal behaviour plays a role in the evolution of new species.In a series of experiments at Oxford and Edinburgh universities - he was professor of natural history (1973-97) at the latter - Aubrey showed how mutations in genes that affect the behaviour of fruit flies could lead to reproductive isolation, a key mechanism in the creation of new species. This work laid the foundation for the modern study of the evolutionary genetics of behaviour. Continue reading...