Research
(individual project pages coming soon)
You can learn more about my research online by accessing publications through the following websites, or read short synopses of my research below:
Vervet Phenome/Genome Project
This is the larger project with which I am conducting my postdoctoral research. As a part of this project, we have collected biological samples from over 2,000 vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus spp.) across Africa and the Caribbean. Subsequent research will involve genome-wide association studies linking genetic traits to disease expression (SIV, TB), morphology, behavior, and several other variables.
Yellow-Tailed Woolly Monkey Conservation Genetics
This project is a collaboration with community conservation-based NGOs Yunkawasi, Neotropical Primate Conservation, and as Consulting Research Scientist with Rainforest Partnership. My student Mel Zarate and I will be conducting the first population genetic assessment of this Critically Endangered monkey throughout its known range in Peru.
Atelin Juvenile Project
My dissertation project – Comparative behavior, development, and life history of wild juvenile atelin primates – assessed the impact of social structure on juvenile behavior and life history in sympatric spider (Ateles belzebuth) and woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha poeppigii) in Amazonian Ecuador. Established hypotheses for the evolution of delayed maturation in primates emphasize juvenile foraging incompetence and competition with adults. I found that foraging competence is reached early with minimal competition in atelins. These results challenge the focus on juvenile incompetence in life history evolution. My work on broader patterns in the juvenile development of woolly monkeys were recently published in The Woolly Monkey: Behavior, Ecology, Systematics and Conservation Research, available from Springer, and my work on the effects of predation risk on group substructuring in woolly monkeys has been published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.