Welcome to the Rubenstein Lab

Our research is integrative in nature and combines studies in ecology, evolution, behavior, and physiology. We study the causes and consequences of living in family groups. We work with African starlings to examine the evolution of family-living by melding long-term studies of social behavior and breeding life history with more mechanistic analyses of stress physiology, sex allocation, immune function, and extrapair paternity. We also study the evolution of sociality in sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp in the lab and in their native Caribbean habitats. Previously, we examined the reproductive physiology and mating behavior of Galapagos marine iguanas, and used stable isotopes to study animal movement patterns. We have also worked with insects and mammals and always continue to explore and work with new systems.

Read about the Rubenstein Lab in the Columbia Magazine.

Read about a recent Kenyan field expedition in The New York Times’ Scientists at Work Blog.

Read about our long-term studies in African starling in Natural History Magazine.

Selected Publications (complete publication list)

Rubenstein, D.R. 2011. Spatiotemporal environmental variation, risk aversion and the evolution of cooperative breeding as a bet-hedging strategy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 108:10816-10822.

Jetz, W.* and D.R. Rubenstein*. 2011. Environmental uncertainty and the global biogeography of cooperative breeding in birds. Current Biology 21:72-78.  *co-first authors

Rubenstein, D.R. and I.J. Lovette. 2009. Reproductive skew and selection on female ornamentation in social species. Nature 462:786-789.

Rubenstein, D.R. and S.-F. Shen. 2009. Reproductive conflict and the costs of social status in cooperatively breeding vertebrates. The American Naturalist 173:650-661.

Rubenstein, D.R. and I.J. Lovette. 2007. Temporal environmental variability drives the evolution of cooperative breeding in birds. Current Biology 17:1414-1419.

Rubenstein, D.R. 2007. Female extrapair mate choice in a cooperative breeder: trading sex for help and increasing offspring heterozygosity. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 274:1895-1903.

Rubenstein, D.R. 2007. Stress hormones and sociality: integrating social and environmental stressors. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 274:967-975.

Rubenstein, D.R. and M. Wikelski. 2005. Steroid hormones and aggression in female Galápagos marine iguanas. Hormones and Behavior 48:329-341.

Rubenstein, D.R. and K.A. Hobson. 2004. From birds to butterflies: animal movement patterns and stable isotopes. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 19:256-263.

Rubenstein, D.R. and M. Wikelski. 2003. Seasonal changes in food quality: a proximate cue for reproductive timing in marine iguanas. Ecology 84:3013-3023.

Rubenstein, D.R., et al. 2002. Linking breeding and wintering ranges of a migratory songbird using stable isotopes. Science 295:1062-1065.

Last updated 20 December 2011
© 2002-2011 Dustin Rubenstein