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Photo: Robert Lachlan

Areas of Research

Broadly, I am interested in how natural and sexual selection interact to shape signaling and mate choice in animals.

 

As a member of the Derryberry Lab at Tulane University and the University of Tennessee, I led a project involving song, cognitive skills, and female preference in zebra finches (for more details, please click the "foraging assays and mate choice" link below). I also worked on a project that examined the behavioral and transcriptomic effects of heat stress in zebra finches.

 

I am currently a PhD student in the Nowicki Lab at Duke University. My present research explores the effects of  recently-acquired infection on sexual signaling in a seasonally breeding bird, the swamp sparrow. I am testing the extent to which males are able to mask behavioral evidence of disease when acquiring a mate. Please see "sickness communication and song", below, for more details. 

Areas of Research

Publications

Publications

Howell, C., Anderson, R., and Derryberry, E. 2019.  “Problem-solving ability and mass affect different

aspects of female choice in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata)”. Animal Cognition (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-019-01299-6).

Howell, C., Anderson, R., and Derryberry, E. 2020.“Female zebra finches prefer the songs of males

who quickly solve a novel foraging task to the songs of males unable to solve the task​.Ecology and Evolution.(http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6690)

Education
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Education

B.A.

Tulane University

2013 - 2017
Summa Cum Laude

I received a Bachelor of Arts in English with an emphasis in creative writing. 

B.S.

Tulane

 University

2013 - 2017 
Summa Cum Laude

I received a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Neuroscience. I worked in Elizabeth Derryberry's lab as an undergraduate, and my Honors Thesis was on the role of cognitive ability in song quality and female mate choice in zebra finches.

M.S. 

University of Tennessee 

Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

2017 - 2019

I joined the Derryberry lab in their move to Knoxville. My master's thesis was on thermoregulatory behavior in zebra finches. 

Ph.D.

Duke University

Department of Biology

2019 - present

I am currently a PhD student in the Biology Department of Duke University. I am the esteemed "senior graduate student" of the Nowicki Lab, so please feel free to contact me with any official Nowicki Lab graduate student business. 

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Outreach

I am currently involved with Darwin Day Roadshow and the University Scholars program at Duke, and have been involved in the past with UTK's Darwin Day, KidsU, Girls in STEM, Upward Bound, and the Knoxville Boys and Girls club. I have developed several evolution-themed games and lesson plans for middle and high-schoolers, which are available for anyone to use at the link below.  

Outreach II

Contact

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Clara_Howell

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I am not on Science Twitter because I have no self-control and checked it obsessively, but I admire those of you who can handle it. 

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