Snark Hunting and Non-Traditional Models for the Biology of Monogamy

Nicholas Grebe

Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
Occidental College

Since the 1950s, the field of organismal biology has warned against a single-minded focus on common, easy-to-study animal models—the lab rat being the canonical example—that comes at the expense of understanding both diversity and commonality in the mechanisms of behavior. Historically, research on the biology of monogamy has been dominated by rodent models, and in primates, by callitrichids (marmosets and tamarins). A large body of often elegant research in these animals has proven foundational to contemporary theories in organismal biology. At the same time, looking beyond these popular models has revealed a diversity of behavior under the umbrella of ‘monogamy’, and in many cases, a corresponding diversity in underlying physiological mechanisms. This talk will cover research on the biology and evolution of monogamy in two non-traditional primate models—lemurs and mountain gorillas—and will discuss what can be gained from studying the social worlds of non-model organisms.