Peter Robert Marler ForMemRS (February 24, 1928 – July 5, 2014)[1] was a British-born American ethologist and zoosemiotician known for his research on animal sign communication and the science of bird song.
[citation needed] From 1954 to 1956, he worked as a research assistant to William Homan Thorpe and Robert Hinde at Jesus College, Cambridge.
He also studied the development of communication skills in several primate species: chimpanzees and gorillas, along with Jane Goodall and Hugo van Lawick, and the southern green monkey, in collaboration with Tom Struhsaker, Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth.
He and his many graduate students, post doctoral workers and colleagues have played a central role in elucidating mechanisms of development of behaviour and the brain.
In particular, Marler is known for his work on the development of bird song, showing the subtle interactions between environmental influences and an individual's predispositions.