Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
M.S., Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
B.A., English, University of California, Davis
Dr. Jessica Lynch Alfaro is the Associate Director for ISG and co-editor for the journal “Neotropical Primates”, a publication of Conservation International. She is a biological anthropologist whose research centers on the evolution of diversity in socially learned behaviors, mating strategies and social structuring in Neotropical primates. Her research focuses most strongly on the genus Cebus, the capuchin monkeys. Like humans, capuchins are a recent and successful radiation of weedy generalists, able to survive even in marginal habitats through extractive foraging and tool use. Populations of capuchin monkeys in the wild differ markedly from one another in social and sexual behaviors and in grouping patterns, and thus provide an excellent system for comparative study of both cultural and genetic variation.
Her research is funded in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0833375.
Selected Publications:
Chiou, K. L., Pozzi, L., Lynch Alfaro, J. W., and Di Fiore, A. (2011) Pleistocene diversification of living squirrel monkeys (Saimiri spp.) inferred from complete mitochondrial genome sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 59, 736-745.
Rangel-Negrin, A, Alfaro, J. L., Valdez, R. A., Romano, M. C., and Serio-Silva, J. C. (2009) Stress in Yucatan spider monkeys: effects of environmental conditions on fecal cortisol levels in wild and captive populations. Animal Conservation 12 (5): 496-502.
Lynch Alfaro, J. W. (2008) Scream-Embrace displays in wild black-horned capuchin monkeys. American Journal of Primatology 70(6): 551-559.
Lynch Alfaro, J. W. (2007) Subgrouping patterns in a group of wild Cebus apella nigritus. International Journal of Primatology 28(2): 271-289.
Serio-Silva, J. C., Lynch Alfaro, J. W., Hernandez Salazar, L.T. (2007), ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF TROPICAL PRIMATES, inInternational Commission on Tropical Biology and Natural Resources, [Eds. Kleber Del Claro et al.], in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the Auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford ,UK, [http://www.eolss.net].
Lynch Alfaro, J. W. (2005) Male mating strategies and reproductive constraints in a group of wild tufted capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella nigritus. American Journal of Primatology 67(3): 313-328.
Altmann, J., Lynch, J.W., Nguyen, N., Alberts, S.C. and Gesquiere, L.R. (2004) Life-history correlates of steroid concentrations in wild peripartum baboons. American Journal of Primatology 64: 95-106.
Lynch, J.W., Altmann, J., Njahira, M.N., Rubenstein, N. (2003) Concentrations of four fecal steroids in wild baboons: short-term storage conditions and consequences for data interpretation. General and Comparative Endocrinology 132: 264-271.
Strier, K.B., Lynch, J.W., and Ziegler, T.E. (2003) Hormonal changes during the mating and conception seasons of wild northern muriquis (Brachyteles arachnoides hypoxanthus). American Journal of Primatology 61: 85-99.
Lynch, J.W., Ziegler, T.E., and Strier, K.B. (2002) Individual and seasonal variation in fecal testosterone and cortisol in wild male tufted capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella nigritus. Hormones and Behavior 41: 275.
Links
Pleistocene diversification of living squirrel monkeys
Research Projects
Biological And Cultural Evolution In Neotropical Primates