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Dr. Marcela Benítez

@mebenitez.bsky.social
402 followers 402 following 10 posts

Assistant Professor @AnthroEmory| Hormones and social cognition in 🐒 |SoCaP Lab| Capuchins de Taboga 🇨🇷 | she/her |#queerinstem 🏳️‍🌈|#latininSTEM | #vamosARG 🇦🇷⚽️🔟

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Dr. Marcela Benítez @mebenitez.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Obsessed with this thread! Thank you @marspidermonkey.bsky.social for putting this together. If you find this topic of interest, check out the documentary Second Nature directed by Drew Denny and narrated by Elliot Page www.secondnaturedoc.com
secondnaturedoc.com
Second Nature — A documentary about everything you didn’t learn in high school biology.
Debunking myths that females are “inferior” and being queer is “unnatural,” Second Nature follows trailblazing trans Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Joan Roughgarden as she meets other groundbreaking scien...
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Dr. Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Happy #PrideMonth! To celebrate, I'm starting a thread of readings on queerness in animals/evolution, and keep adding throughout the month. I'll include a mix of writing for popular audiences as well as some scientific articles and book recommendations! 🧪 🏳️‍🌈 (1/n) Nature has ALWAYS been queer! 🌈
Graphical abstract with a drawing of two bonobos copulating on branches with greenery in the background, and a researcher wearing a pride mask sitting with a clipboard observing. 


In the upper right text box above the researchers's head, the text has "Are bonobos just gal pals? (in bold), with bullet points:--same-sex "sociosexual" behavior is often treated as social rathan than sexual, --we overn overlook social functions in mixed-sex sexual behavior, --we should study social and sexual functions across all sex pairings!"

In the bottom left, under the bonobos, is another text box, with the bolded text: "LGBTQ+ scientists provide a situated perspective that expands our understanding of social and sexual behavior within queer frameworks."

The graphical abstract is from Graham and Rodrigues (2026), "Just Gal Pals! The Differential Treatment of Sexual Behavior Among Nonhuman Great Apes,'" in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology.
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Dr. Marcela Benítez @mebenitez.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Excited to share our methods preprint on CapuchinAI! 🐒💻 We built a field touchscreen + real-time facial recognition system (YOLOv7) that lets wild capuchins “log in” and complete individualized cognitive tasks. @emoryuniversity.bsky.social @gatechengineers.bsky.social #PrimateCognition #AI
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Dr. Marcela Benítez @mebenitez.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Check out @apesemory.bsky.social grad student @ecunningham96.bsky.social discuss his work on same-sex behavior in primates!
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Animal Behaviour Collective @abcmicrogrants.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Listen to @ecunningham96.bsky.social explain how this research project idea began - "From pathology to pleasure Reframing mechanistic studies on same-sex sexual behavior in primates"
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Anthropology Primatology at Emory @apesemory.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Recently, graduate students @nicolefurgala.bsky.social, Federico Sánchez Vargas, and Amber Shaw were awarded Lewis and Clark Expedition grants. Evan Cunningham was also awarded a Leakey Foundation Research Grant. We are so excited to see their research advance!
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Anthropology Primatology at Emory @apesemory.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Graduate student Evan Cunningham (Advisor: @mebenitez.bsky.social) is also working on field research at the Taboga forest reserve, studying social learning in capuchins.🐵🧠
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Anthropology Primatology at Emory @apesemory.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Undergraduate Jackie Zhou (Advisor: @mebenitez.bsky.social) was awarded the Outstanding Junior Award in Anthropology and participated in capuchin research at the Taboga forest reserve in Costa Rica.
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Anthropology Primatology at Emory @apesemory.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
On April 18th, @sarahkovo.bsky.social (Advisor: @mebenitez.bsky.social) defended her doctoral dissertation “From Conflict to Cohesion: The effect of intergroup competition on affiliation, oxytocin, and group cohesion in wild capuchin monkeys.” We are so proud of all her amazing work!
Photo with Dr. Sarah Kovalaskas and her advisor, Dr Marcela Benítez, at her doctoral defense.Dr. Sarah Kovalaskas with a celebratory cake after presenting her dissertation.
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Dr. Marcela Benítez @mebenitez.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Congrats Dr. Kovalaskas!
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Anthropology Primatology at Emory @apesemory.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Happy New Year from the APE Lab! Wishing everyone a wonderful 2025 🐵 🥳
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Dr. Marcela Benítez @mebenitez.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
Interrupting your regularly scheduled program to wish you a Mora Christmas and a Feliz Navidog
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Anthropology Primatology at Emory @apesemory.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Hi there! We are the Anthropology Primatology Lab at Emory. As a joint lab between Dr. Elizabeth Lonsdorf and @mebenitez.bsky.social, we study primate social behavior, cognition, health, & development. Check out our website at apes.emory.edu and follow along here to see our work and recent news! 🐵🧠📚
apes.emory.edu
APE Lab Home - Anthro Primatology @ Emory
Anthro primatology at emory Welcome to the APE lab! The APE lab is the home of Anthropological Primatology at Emory. Our two PIs, Dr. Marcela Benítez and Dr. Elizabeth Lonsdorf lead us in studies of p...
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Reposted by Dr. Marcela Benítez
Jacinta Beehner @jbeehner.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Proud of our grad student, Jordan Lucore, for her study out in Sci Advances: The immune performance of wild capuchin monkeys declines when they experience higher temperatures, with youngest monkeys the most vulnerable to heat. news.umich.edu/warming-temp...
news.umich.edu
Warming temperatures impact immune performance of wild monkeys, U-M study shows
A capuchin monkey called Tiny groups fellow monkey Tevez in the Taboga forest reserve of Costa Rica. The monkeys are part of the Capuchinos de Taboga Research Project. Image credit: Capuchinos de Tabo...
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Dr. Marcela Benítez @mebenitez.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
🌡️🔥Check out our new Science Advances paper on how #ClimateChange impacts the immune performance of wild capuchins 🐒! Lead by Jordan Lucore check out the full paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Watch the explainer video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7yl...
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Michael Haslam @twigtechnology.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
New paper with the Serra da Capivara capuchins found they could learn an artificial task by watching closely, which in turn means being tolerated by other monkeys. The authors, led by Camila Coelho, suggest that the same process supports tool use in these primates 🧪🐒 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
A brown monkey with darker hair on its head has its back to us while it interacts with a large white box tied to a tree. Three other monkeys watch on. The landscape is dry scrub and conglomerate stones
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 19/11/2024
Social learning is triggered by environmental cues in immigrant birds | doi.org/10.1371/jour... | PLOS Biology | #ornithology 🪶
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Dr. Marcela Benítez @mebenitez.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
A Snapshot of Scientific Thought on Emotions in Animals. Check out our recent survey of #animalbehavior researchers' perception of #animalemotions and consciousness. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... news.emory.edu/features/202...
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Dr. Marcela Benítez @mebenitez.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Hi! I’m Marcela Benítez (she/her) #anthropologist 🧑‍🔬| #primatologst 🐒| #queerinstem🌈 •Co-director of Capuchinos de Taboga in Costa Rica 🇨🇷 •Director of SoCaP lab @Emory •Broadly interested in social behavior 🤝, cognition 🧠, hormones & behavior 🧬, field experiments 🌴, queer animals 🌈🦍, soccer ⚽
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Alan McElligott @amcell.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Removing institutional barriers to long-term fieldwork is critical for advancing ecology: Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 2024 www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
cell.com
Removing institutional barriers to long-term fieldwork is critical for advancing ecology
Long-term fieldwork is essential for ecology and conservation, but is hindered by institutional barriers, such as the publish-or-perish culture of academia, and funding limitations. Here, we discuss t...
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