Carlos A. Botero's selected publications

Selected publications

EVOLUTION / EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY

Botero CA (2026) The evolutionary consequences of behavioural flexibility. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70632-8

Baldwin J, Garcia-Porta J and Botero CA (2023) Complementarity in Allen's and Bergmann's rules among birds. Nature Ecology and Evolution 14: 4240. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39954-9

Garcia-Porta, J., Sol, D., Pennell, M., Sayol, F., Kalionzopoulou, A. & CA Botero. 2022 Niche expansion and adaptive divergence in the global radiation of crows and ravens. Nature Communications 13, 2086. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29707-5.

Fristoe T, Vilela B, Brown JH. & Botero CA. (2023) Abundant-core thinking clarifies exceptions to the abundant-center distribution pattern. Ecography: e06365. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06365

Botero CA, FJ Weissing, J Wright, and DR Rubenstein. 2015. Evolutionary tipping points in the capacity to adapt to environmental change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 112(1): 184-189. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1408589111

Botero CA, R Dor, C McCain, and RJ Safran. 2014. Environmental harshness is positively correlated with intraspecific divergence in mammals and birds. Molecular Ecology 23: 259-268. doi: 10.1111/mec.12572

Antonson ND, Rubenstein DR, Hauber ME, CA Botero. 2020. Ecological uncertainty favours the diversification of host use in avian brood parasites. Nature Communications. 11(1): 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18038-y.

Botero, CA, I. Pen, J. Komdeur, and F.J. Weissing. 2010. The evolution of individual variation in communication strategies. Evolution. 64: 3123-3133.

Seddon, N*, CA Botero*, JA Tobias, PO Dunn, HEA MacGregor, DR Rubenstein, JAC Uy, JT Weir, LA Whittingham, and RJ Safran. 2013. Sexual selection accelerates signal evolution during speciation in birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 280(1766): 20131085. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.1065 [* Joint first authors / equal contribution].

Haaland, T & CA Botero. 2019. Alternative responses to rare selection events are differentially vulnerable to changes in the frequency, scope and intensity of environmental extremes. Ecology and Evolution 00: 1-10. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.5675.

Cornwallis, CK, CA Botero, DR Rubenstein, PA Downing, SA West & AS Griffin. 2017. Cooperation facilitates the colonisation of harsh environments. Nature Ecology & Evolution. doi: 10.1038/s41559-016-0057.

Griesser M, SM Drobniak, S Nakagawa & CA Botero. 2017. Family living sets the stage for cooperative breeding and ecological resilience in birds. PLoS Biology. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2000483.

Comment by Walter Koenig

Cooney CR, JA Tobias, JT Weir, CA Botero & N Seddon. 2017. Sexual selection, speciation and constraints on geographical range overlap in birds. Ecology Letters. doi:10.1111/ele.12780.

BRAINS AND COGNITION

Chenard KC, Bice AR, Bice SH, Culver JP, Gerliz P, Helluy X, Güntürkün O, Trobaugh JW, Behroozi M, and Botero CA (2026) Mapping functional connectivity in the pigeon brain with wide-field optical imaging. Neurophotonics 13(1): 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.NPh.13.1.015010

Rodrigues JFM and Botero CA (2025) The global determinants of climate niche breadth in birds. Nature Communications 16, 3685 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58815-1

Fristoe T, Iwaniuk A, & CA Botero. 2017. Big brains stabilize population dynamics and facilitate colonization of variable habitats in birds. Nature Ecology & Evolution doi: 10.1038/s41559-017-0316-2.

Fristoe T & CA Botero. 2019. Alternative ecological strategies lead to avian brain size bimodality in variable habitats. Nature Communications. 10:3818 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11757-x

Baldwin J, Garcia-Porta J, Botero CA. 2022. Phenotypic responses to climate change are significantly dampened in big-brained birds. Ecology Letters. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13971.

Botero, CA, Boogert, N, Lovette, IJ, and Vehrencamp, SL. 2009. Climatic patterns predict the elaboration of song displays in mockingbirds. Current Biology. 19:1-5.

CULTURAL EVOLUTION

Dunn RR, Kirby KR, Bowern C, Ember CR, Gray RD, McCarter J, Kavanagh PH, Trautwein M, Nichols LM, Gavin MC, and Botero CA (2024) Climate, climate change and the global diversity of human houses. Evolutionary Human Sciences 6: e24. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2024.5

Chira A, Gray RD and Botero CA (2024) Geography is not destiny: A quantitative test of Diamond's axis of orientation hypothesis. Evolutionary Human Sciences 6: e5. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.34

Haynie HJ, Kushnick G, Kavanagh PH, Ember CR, Bowern C, Low BS, Tuff T, Vilela B, Kirby KR, Botero CA, and Gavin MC (2023) The Biogeography and Evolution of Land Ownership. Journal of Biogeography. 50: 1129–1138. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14603.

Evans1 CL, Greenhill SJ, Watts J, List J-M, Botero CA, Gray RD & KR Kirby. 2021. The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B. 376: 20200056. doi: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0056

Kavanagh PH, Vilela B, Haynie HJ, Tuff T, Lima-Ribeiro M, Gray RD, Botero CA and MC Gavin. 2018. Hindcasting global population densities reveals forces enabling the origin of agriculture. Nature Human Behavior. doi: 10.1038/s41562-018-0358-8.

Comment by Dolores Piperno

KR Kirby, DE Blasi, CA Botero, C Bowern, K Cranston, C Ember, W Divale, R Gray, SJ Greenhill, F Jordan, D Leehr, B S Low, J McCarter, S Gomes-Ng, and M Gavin. 2016. D-PLACE: A Global Database of Peoples, Languages, Cultures, and Environment. PLoS ONE. 11(7), e0158391. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158391

Greenhill SJ, Haynie HJ, Ross RM, Chira A, Campbell L, Botero CA, Gray RD. (Online ahead of print). A recent northern origin for the Uto-Aztecan language family. Language

Botero CA, Gardner B, Kirby KR, Bulbulia J, Gavin MC and R Gray. 2014. The ecology of religious beliefs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 111(47) 16784-16789. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1408701111

Haynie HJ, Kavanagh PH, Jordan F, Ember CR, Gray RD, Grenhil SJ, Kirby KR, Kushnick G, Low BS, Tuff T, Vilela B, Botero CA, Gavin MC. 2021. Pathways to social inequality. Evolutionary Human Sciences 3 (E35). doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2021.32

Vilela B, Fristoe T, Tuff T, Kavanagh PH, Haynie HJ, Gray RD, Gavin M, & CA Botero. 2020. Cultural transmission and early ecological opportunity jointly shaped the global distribution of human agriculture. Evolutionary Human Sciences 2, e53, doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.55.

EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION

Fasanello VJ , Liu P, Fay JC, and Botero CA (2024) Fluctuating selection facilitates the discovery of broadly effective but difficult to reach adaptive outcomes in yeast. Evolution Letters 8 (2), 243-252. https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrad055

Miller JH, Fasanello VJ, Liu P, Longan ER, Botero CA and Fay JC. (2022) Using colony size to measure fitness in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. PLoS ONE 17 (10), e0271709

Fasanello, V, P Liu, CA Botero, and J Fay. 2020. High-throughput experimental evolution using barcoded strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. PeerJ. doi https://doi.org/10.1101/731349.

CONSERVATION & APPLIED SCIENCES

Thompson L, Thurman LL, Cook CN, Beever EA, Sgrò CM, Battles A, Botero CA, Gross JE, Hall KR, Hendry AP, Hoffmann AA, Hoving C, LeDee OE, Mengelt C, Nicotra AB, RA Niver, Pérez-Jvostov F, Quiñones RM, Schuurman GW, Schwartz MK, Szymanski J, & Whiteley A (2023) Connecting research and practice to enhance the evolutionary potential of species under climate change. Conservation Science and Practice 5(2), e12855. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.12855

Cook CN, Beever EA, Thurman LL, Thompson LM, Gross JE, Whiteley AR, Nicotra A, Szymanski J, Botero CA, Hall K, Hoffmann AA, Schuurman G, Sgrò CM. 2021. Supporting the adaptive capacity of species through more effective knowledge exchange with conservation practitioners. Evolutionary Applications 00: 1-11.

OTHER

Rubenstein DR, CA Botero, and EA Lacey. 2016. Discrete but variable structure in animal societies leads to the false perception of a social continuum. Royal Society Open Science 3: 160147. dog: 10.1098/rsos.160147

Sheehan MJ, CA Botero, TA Hendry, BE Sedio, JM Jandt, S Weiner, AL Toth and EA Tibbetts. 2015. Different axes of environmental variation explain the presence vs. extent of cooperative nest founding associations in Polistespaper wasps. Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/ele.12488.

Botero, CA & de Kort, SR. 2013. Learned signals and consistency of delivery: a case against receiver manipulation in animal communication. In: Stegmann, U. (ed) Animal Communication Theory: Information and Influence. Cambridge University Press. p. 281-296.