Shana M Caro
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Publications
  • Animals doing cute things
  • Contact

Research interests

I am an evolutionary biology interested in social behavior – particularly in how signaling systems evolve when there are evolutionary conflicts of interest between signalers and receivers. Using parent-offspring signaling in birds (begging) as a framework, I investigate how ecology and life history traits affect communication both across and within species. I am also interested in the proximate neural mechanisms governing social behavior, maternal investment in eggs, and maternal/paternal effects on offspring behavior.

As of fall 2022, I am an assistant professor of biology at Adelphi University. 
 ​In my past scientific lives, I was a Stengl-Wyer Scholar at UT Austin, with Hans Hofmann and Mark Kirkpatrick, doing comparative and theoretical work on sex differences in parental care. Prior to that, I was a Junior Fellow with the Simons Foundation, with Dustin Rubenstein at Columbia University doing experimental fieldwork with superb starlings. I did my DPhil with Ashleigh Griffin and Stu West, in the social evolution group in the Department of Zoology at Oxford (2013-17). I also studied chimpanzee social behaviour at Harvard University with Zarin Machanda, and capuchin monkeys at Susan Perry’s field site (Lomas Barbudal, Costa Rica).


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Publications
  • Animals doing cute things
  • Contact