Fighting for Fitness: Integrating behavioral, hormonal, and neurogenomic perspectives on the evolution of female competition

ABSTRACT

Cultural biases shape our predictions for how and why animals behave the way they do, and female animals have historically been neglected in biological research. At Loyola University Chicago, the Lipshutz Lab studies the evolution of female competition and reproduction across diverse avian species, ranging from territorially aggressive songbirds to socially polyandrous shorebirds. Our work bridges “muddy boots” experimental fieldwork with a variety of molecular and computational approaches in genomics, neuroscience, and endocrinology. Our framework provides a useful co-consideration of the proximate and ultimate drivers of reproductive competition in female animals.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Sara Lipshutz is an Assistant Professor at Loyola University Chicago. Her research focuses on the evolution of behavior by integrating population genomics, transcriptomics, and neuroendocrinology. She was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Biology at Indiana University, and pursued her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee and Tulane University on behavioral mechanisms of reproductive isolation in avian hybrid zones. She majored in Biology at Swarthmore College.