Biography
I am a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge, focussing on coevolutionary interactions, especially brood parasitism in birds. I conduct fieldwork on a brood parasite (the African cuckoo finch) and its hosts in Zambia. Please see https://www.africancuckoos.com/the-team/tanmay-dixit/ for more information.
Research
My research focuses on the cuckoo finch Anomalospiza imberbis, which parasitizes several warblers in the family Cisticolidae. I conduct fieldwork in Choma, Zambia, where many aspects of brood parasite-host interactions have been studied. I focus on egg rejection behaviour in hosts and egg mimicry in parasites, aiming to understand the details and evolution of these complex behaviours and adaptations. Please see my profile on https://www.africancuckoos.com/the-team/tanmay-dixit/ for more information.
Publications
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
Dixit, T. 2024. A synthesis of coevolution across levels of biological organisation. Evolution 78(2), 211-220. 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.
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.
Dixit, T., Choi, G.P.T., al-Mosleh, S.A., 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(2): 20220538.
Dixit, T., Apostol, A.L., 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 289: 20220710. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0710
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 doi:10.1111/evo.14290 Read on journal website [Open Access]
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.
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 B 288: 20210326. Read on journal website [Open Access]
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
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. R. Soc. Open Sci. 10: 221023. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221023
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. 1-15. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pan3.10369
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. e12886. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/conl.12886
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. Read on journal website [Open Access]
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: 1367-1372. Read on journal website [Open Access]
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: 8294-8304. Read on journal website [Open Access]
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: 1035-1047. Read on journal website [Open Access]
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. Read on journal website [Open Access]
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. 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.
