Papers
1
Total Citations
39
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About
V. Price is a behavioral ecologist whose research centers on the evolution of animal communication, particularly the visual displays of lizards. Her most-cited work, "Assessing display variability in wild brown anoles *Anolis sagrei* using a mechanical lizard model" (2011, 39 citations), challenges a long-standing assumption in behavioral biology. Price demonstrated that the species-typical headbob displays of brown anoles—long considered a rigid, stereotyped "signature" for species recognition—are surprisingly variable in the wild. By deploying a robotic lizard model, she showed that this variability is not merely noise but may serve a functional role in social signaling, forcing a reevaluation of how sexual and natural selection shape communication. This innovative use of biomechanical models to test behavioral hypotheses has made her a key figure in her field. Her work bridges ethology and evolutionary biology, offering a nuanced view of how animals navigate complex social environments through flexible, rather than fixed, signals.
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