Animal Adolescence

This project is ongoing.

What is adolescence and what animals have it?

People have been studying primates in the wild for a good portion of the last century. Now there is a lot of information out there, giving scientists an opportunity to detect patterns to infer evolutionary patterns. However, a major challenge is compiling high quality data from different studies into a single database. 

Dr. Sandel is working with several collaborators to compile a database with information on primate traits. This involves searching for published articles, making sure the study is high quality, and entering this information into a database (e.g. Excel).

Students will learn the importance of primary sources, and get an introduction to primate behavior. More advanced students will also have a chance to develop their own question that they can address using the data the team compiles.

Duties
  • Search the literature for scientific, peer reviewed articles 
  • Save and organize PDFs
  • Transfer data into Excel files 
    • age at sexual maturity, age full body size, age at first reproduction
Tags
primate
primates
wildlife biology
evolution
phylogenetics
database
animal behavior
adolescence
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Project Lead
Who to Contact
Dr. Sandel
Contact Email
aaron.sandel@austin.utexas.edu

I'M INTERESTED IN THIS PROJECT. WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT?

The Office of Undergraduate Research recommends that you attend an info session or advising before contacting faculty members or project contacts about research opportunities. We'll cover the steps to get involved, tips for contacting faculty, funding possibilities, and options for course credit. Once you have attended an Office of Undergraduate Research info session or spoken to an advisor, you can use the "Who to contact" details for this project to get in touch with the project leader and express your interest in getting involved.

Have you tried contacting professors and need more help? Schedule an appointment for additional support.