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Guillermo Paz-y-Mino-C

Biology


Guillermo Paz-y-Miño-C

Assistant Professor

University of Missouri, St. Louis 
Evolution, animal cognition, conservation biology


Email: gpazymino@umassd.edu
Phone: 508-999-8226 
Office: Science and Engineering, Room 331A

Dr. Paz-y-Miño-C. has broad interests in evolution, animal behavior, and conservation biology. His research focuses in four areas:

 

  1. evolutionary social cognition, an area of the biological sciences which purpose is to understand the origin and evolution of complex forms of reasoning by comparing cognitive abilities across animals, particularly birds;

 

  1. the association between socio-sexual behaviors and the communication of signals for the recognition of kin (role of memory in kin recognition); taxa recognition and cryptic species in protists;

 

  1. the interaction between scientific rationalism and the belief in supernatural causation, including the interaction among evolution literacy versus science literacy versus level of religiosity as characterizers of acceptance of evolution;

 

  1. the application of behavioral paradigms in conservation biology, particularly conservation behavior.

 

Dr. Paz-y-Miño-C. is also interested in science education and the communication of evolutionary theory to the public. He participates in public lectures on evolution, the controversy science versus pseudo-science, and contributes with science editorials to various newspapers. His website Evolution Literacy outreaches the public internationally.
 Recent Publications | Graduate Students |  Courses

 

Publications

 

Paz-y-Miño-C, G. & Espinosa A. (2013). Attitudes toward evolution at New England colleges and universities, United States. New England Science Public: Series Evolution 1: 1-32.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. & Espinosa A. (2013). The Everlasting Conflict Evolution-and-Science versus Religiosity. pp. 73-97. In G. Simpson & S. Payne (eds) Religion and Ethics NOVA Publishers, New York.

Espinosa, A.& Paz-y-Miño-C., G. (2012). Discrimination, Crypticity and Incipient Taxa in Entamoeba, Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 59: 105-110.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. & Espinosa A. (2012). Educators of prospective teachers hesitate to embrace evolution due to deficient understanding of science/evolution and high religiosity, Evolution: Education and Outreach 5: 139-162.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. & Espinosa, A. (2012). Introduction: Why People Do Not Accept Evolution: Using Protistan Diversity to Promote Evolution Literacy, Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 59: 101-104.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G., Espinosa A. & Bai, C. (2011). The Jackprot Simulation couples mutation rate with natural selection to illustrate how protein evolution is not random, Evolution: Education and Outreach 4: 502-514.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. & Espinosa A. (2011). On the theory of evolution versus the concept of evolution: three observations, Evolution: Education and Outreach 4: 308–312.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. & Espinosa A. (2011). New England faculty and college students differ in their views about evolution, creationism, intelligent design, and religiosity, Evolution: Education and Outreach 4: 323–342.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. & Espinosa, A. (2010). Integrating horizontal gene transfer and common descent to depict evolution and contrast it with “common design,” Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 57: 11-18.

Paz-y-Miño-C.,G. & Espinosa, A. (2009). Acceptance of evolution increases with student academic level: a comparison between a secular and a religious college, Evolution: Education & Outreach 2: 655–675.

Espinosa, A., Pedrizet, G., Paz-y-Miño-C.,G., Lanfranchi, R. & Phay, M. (2009). Effects of iron depletion on Entamoeba histolytica alcohol dehydrogenase 2 (EhADH2) and trophozoite growth: implications for antiamoebic therapy, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 63: 675-678.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. & A. Espinosa. (2009). Assessment of biology majors’ versus non-majors’ views on evolution, creationism and intelligent design, Evolution Education and Outreach 2: 75-83.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. (2007) Conservation behavior in the Galapagos, The Conservation Behaviorist 5 (1): 4-5.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. (2006) Transitive Reasoning in Animals, Mente y Cerebro (Mind and Brain) / Investigación y Ciencia - Scientific American) ISSN 1695-0887, 19: 40-45.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. (2005) Animal Cognition and its role in Conservation Behavior, The Conservation Behaviorist 3 (1): 4-5,9.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G., Bond, A. B., Kamil, A. C. & Balda, R. P. (2004) Pinyon Jays use transitive inference to predict social dominance, Nature 430, 778-781.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. (2003) Behavioral unknowns: an emerging challenge for conservation, The Conservation Behaviorist 1 (2): 2.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G., Leonard, S. T. & Trimble, J. F. (2002) Self-grooming and sibling recognition in meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) and prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), Animal Behaviour 63: 331-338.

Salkoff L., Butler A., Fawcett G., Kunkel M., McArdle C., Paz-y-Miño-C. G., Nonet M., Walton N., Wang Z.-w., Yuan A., Wei A. (2001) Evolution tunes the excitability of individual neurons, Neuroscience 103: 853-859.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. & Tang-Martinez, Z. (1999) Social interactions, cross-fostering, and sibling recognition in prairie voles, Microtus ochrogaster, Canadian Journal of Zoology 77: 1631-1636.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. & Tang-Martinez, Z. (1999) Effects of exposures to siblings or sibling odors on sibling recognition in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), Canadian Journal of Zoology 77: 118-123.

Paz-y-Miño-C., G. & Tang-Martinez, Z. (1999) Effects of isolation on sibling recognition in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), Animal Behavior 57: 1091-1098.


Recent Graduate Students

MS Elsa Yeung (2009-2012), Visual Perspective Taking in The Zebra Finch: A Study of Social Cognition in A Model Organism.

Elizabeth Spinney (2011-present), Learning Reversal Task in Zebra Finches.

 

Undergraduate Thesis BioHonors Students

 

Rachael Bonoan (2010-2013), Social Interactions and Dominance Hierarchy Formation in Zebra Finches.

Felecia Clodius (2010-2013), Food Competition Trials and Dominance Hierarchy Formation in Zebra Finches.

 


Courses

Courses Professor Paz-y-miño has taught include:

  • Biology of Organisms (BIO 121, 122)
  • Biology of Organisms Honors Laboratory (BIO 131H, 132H)
  • Evolutionary Biology (BIO 437/537)
  • Evolution on Islands: A Case Study the Galapagos Archipelago
  • Expedition to Galapagos: Natural History and Evolution

 

Visit Guillermo Paz-y-Miño-C.’s websites:

http://guillermopazyminoclaboratory.blogs.umassd.edu/

http://pazymino1evolutionliteracy.blogs.umassd.edu/

 

 

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