Welcome to the Rubenstein Lab!   We take an integrative approach to understand how the environment—both social and ecological—influences social behavior through empirical studies that combine ecology and evolution with those of underlying molecular, neural and neuroendocrine mechanisms. Our work is grounded in mathematical theory, and we use modeling and comparative approaches to generate and test novel hypotheses. We study a variety of terrestrial vertebrate and invertebrate systems (including birds, reptiles, mammals and insects) on every continent except Antarctica, as well as a number of aquatic organisms (including crustaceans, amphibians and fishes) in marine and freshwater ecosystems.