Randall Reiserer, Ph.D.

 

Dr. Randall S. Reiserer received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (2001) under the guidance of Dr. Harry W. Greene. Reiserer is an integrative biologist whose research focuses on behavior, cognition, neuroscience, mimicry, and life-history evolution. His primary research centers on reptiles and amphibians, yet his academic interests span all major vertebrate groups. His studies of behavior are varied and range from caudal luring and thermal behavior in rattlesnakes to learning and memory in transgenic mice.

​

In his studies of caudal luring in snakes, Reiserer pioneered methods for studying visual perception and stimulus control. He commonly employs phylogenetic comparative methods and statistics to investigate and test evolutionary patterns and adaptive hypotheses.

​

Reiserer’s current research interests includes a theoretical and empirical study of feeding mimicry  (aggressive mimicry) that encompasses numerous animal and plant clades where he is concentrating on understanding the interrelationships between ecology, morphology, and behavior. Also, he is studying the broad influence of niche dynamics on patterns of evolutionary change. In other projects, he is collaborating on an analysis on the evolutionary origin of the rattlesnake rattle and virgin birth in snakes. Reiserer is an editor on the up-coming peer-reviewed book, The Rattlesnakes of Arizona.