The Robbins Lab - 2024

One area of research involves relationships between life history traits and metabolism along latitudinal thermal gradients. Prairie lizards exhibit countergradient variation in body size, with larger adults in cooler environments. How and why do these ectotherms get bigger when it's colder? We aim to find out!  

We suggest that the cognitive environment is its own selective environment where evolution of cognitive traits effects fitness of individuals. Because the ability to create and maneuver in this non-physical environment results in niche construction, evolution is reinforced and accelerated as it would be in the social environment according to the process of gene-culture coevolution. We propose that the “cognitive selective environment” was integral to the rapid evolution of the human brain and human society.