Dr. Sarah Zylinski

Contact Information:

Room 307, Biological Sciences Building
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
919-684-7188
s.zylinski@duke.edu

Education:

University of Sussex: PhD in Neuroscience (2009)
Imperial College/The Natural History Museum, London: MSc Advanced Methods in Taxonomy and Biodiversity (2005)
University of Wales, Aberystwyth: BSc (Hons) Marine and Freshwater Biology (2003)

Research Interests:

My primary interest is what camouflage can tell us about non-human visual perception. Cephalopods offer a unique insight into this, because in very simple terms they tell us what they perceive in their visual environment by the body patterns they produce for camouflage. More generally, I'm excited about visual communication (signalling) and camouflage (non-signalling), particularly in the marine environment. My research here in the Johnsen Lab gives me access to awesome facilities such as the Sub-Sea Holodeck, built by collaborators from the Jaffe Lab at Scripps, and the opportunity to extend my interests into the deep-sea by taking part in research cruises. My research integrates the fields of psychology, animal behavior and visual ecology.

Publications:

Zylinski, S., Darmaillacq, A-S & Shashar, N. (2012). Visual interpolation for contour completion by the European cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) and its use in dynamic camouflage. Proc. Roc. Soc. B. (Published online before print)

Zylinski, S. & Johnsen, S. (2011). Mesopelagic cephalopods switch rapidly between transparency and pigmentation to optimise camouflage in the deep, Current Biology 21: 1937-1941.

Zylinski, S. & Osorio, D. (2011). What can camouflage tell us about non-human visual perception? A case study of multiple cue use in the cuttlefish. In: Animal Camouflage: Mechanisms and Function, Eds. Stevens & Merilaita. Cambridge University Press.

Zylinski, S. How, Osorio, Hanlon, R. T., & Marshall, N. J. (2011). To Be Seen or to Hide: Visual Characteristics of Body Patterns for Camouflage and Communication in the Australian Giant Cuttlefish Sepia apama. The American Naturalist; 177(5): 681-90.

Zylinski, S., Osorio, D., & Shohet (2009). Feature and texture perception in the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis. Journal of Vision; 9(13): 1-10.

Zylinski, S., Osorio, D. & Shohet (2009). Cuttlefish Camouflage: context-dependent body pattern use during motion. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 276 (1675): 3963-3969

Zylinski, S., Osorio, D., & Shohet (2009). Perception of edges and visual texture in the camouflage of the common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364 (1516): 439-448.

Jaffe, J., Simonet, Laxton, B., Roberts, Zylinski, S., Johnsen, S., & Sweeney, A. M. (In review, Marine Technology Society Journal). Omni-Cam and the Sub Sea Holodeck: Systems for recording in-situ radiance and simulating underwater optical environments in the lab.