Langkilde Lab
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The Langkilde Lab is housed in the Department of Biology at the Pennsylvania State University. We work at the interface of ecology and evolution to understand how an organism's behavior and physiology is matched to its environment, and responds to novel selective pressures imposed by global environmental change. Our research takes an integrative approach incorporating field and lab observations and manipulations, with a focus on reptiles and amphibians. 

Dr. Tracy Langkilde
Professor 
​Department of Biology
Verne M. Willaman Dean
​Eberly College of Science

The Pennsylvania State University
tll30@psu.edu
Recent publications

121) MacLeod K.J., Langkilde T., Venable C.P., Ensminger D.C. and Sheriff M.J. 2021. The influence of maternal glucocorticoids on offspring phenotype in high- and low-risk environments, Behavioral Ecology arab099 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab099

120) Swierk, L., Langkilde, T. 2021. Size-assortative mating in explosive breeders: a case study of adaptive male mate choice in anurans, Behaviour 158: 849-868.

119) Assis B.A., Avery J.D., Tylan C., Engler H.I., Earley R.L., Langkilde T. 2021. Honest signals and sexual conflict: Female lizards carry undesirable indicators of quality. Ecology and Evolution 11: 7647-7659.


118) Ensminger D., Siegel S. R., Owen D.A.S., Sheriff M.J., Langkilde T. 2021. Elevated glucocorticoids during gestation suggest sex-specific effects on offspring telomere lengths in a wild lizard. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology 257: 110971.

117)  Robbins, T.R., Langkilde T. 2021. One and done: a single encounter with an invasive predator determines subsequent antipredator behavior of naive juvenile lizards. Climate Change Ecology 1: 100002.


116) Tylan C., Camacho K., French S., Graham S.P., Herr M.W., Jones J., McCormick G.L., O'Brien M.A., Tennessen J.B., Thawley C.J., Webb A., Langkilde T. 2020. Obtaining plasma to measure baseline corticosterone concentrations in reptiles: How quick is quick enough? General and Comparative Endocrinology 287:113324. 

115) Tylan C., Horvat‐Gordon M., Bartell, P.A., Langkilde T. 2020. Ecoimmune reallocation in a native lizard in response to the presence of invasive, venomous fire ants in their shared environment. Journal of Experimental Zoology A 333: 792-804


114) Racic A., Tylan C., Langkilde T. Effects of temperature on plasma corticosterone in a native lizard. Scientific Reports 10: 16315

113) Ensminger D., Pritchard C., Langkilde T., Tess G., Banfield J., Walter W.D. 2020. The influence of hunting pressure and ecological factors on fecal glucocorticoid metabolites in wild elk. Wildlife Biology DOI: 10.2981/wlb.00683

112) Assis B.A., Jarrett B.J.M., Koscky G., Langkilde T., Avery J.D. 2020. Plastic sexual ornaments: Assessing temperature effects on color metrics in a color-changing reptile. PLoS ONE 15(5): e0233221.

111) Herr, M.W., Avery, J.D., Langkilde T., Howey C.A.F. 2020. Trade-off between thermal quality and predation risk at timber rattlesnake gestation sites. Journal of Herpetology 54: 196-205


110) Pritchard C.E., Palme R., Langkilde T. 2020. Glucocorticoid and triiodothyronine concentrations do not correlate with behavior in vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna). General and Comparative Endocrinology 286:113299

109) Trevelline B.K., MacLeod K.J., Langkilde T., Kohl K.D. 2019.Gestation alters the gut microbiota of an oviparous lizard. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 95: fiz086


108) Sprayberry K., Tylan C., Owen D.A.S., Macleod K.J., Sheriff M.J., Langkilde T. 2019. History of predator exposure affects cell-mediated immunity in female eastern fence lizards, Sceloporus undulatus (Squamata: Phrynosomatidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society blz154,

107) Telemeco R.S., Simpson D.Y., Tylan C., Langkilde T, and Schwartz T.S.  2019. Contrasting responses of lizards to divergent ecological stressors across biological levels of organization. Integrative and Comparative Biology 159: 292-305

106) MacLeod K.J, McCormick G.L., and Langkilde T. 2019. Glucocorticoids do not influence a secondary sexual trait or its behavioral expression in eastern fence lizards. Scientific Reports 9:5229

105) McCormick G.L., Robbins T.R., Cavigelli S.A. and Langkilde T. 2019. Population history with invasive predators predicts innate immune function response to early life glucocorticoid exposure. Journal of Experimental Biology 222: 188359


104) Owen D.A.S., Sheriff M.J., Heppner J., Gerke H., Ensminger DC., MacLeod K.J. and Langkilde, T. 2019. Maternal corticosterone increases thermal sensitivity of heart rate in lizard embryos. Biology Letters 15: 20180718

103) Venable C.P., Adams T.S. and Langkilde T. 2019. Aversion learning in response to an invasive venomous prey depends on stimulus strength. Biological Invasions 21: 1973-1980

102) Swierk L. and Langkilde T. 2019. Fitness costs of mating with preferred females in a scramble mating system. Behavioral Ecology 30: 658-665



A complete list of publications can be found here.


Lab news

2020
Tracy Langkilde became Dean of the Eberly College of Science at Penn State 

Cameron Venable started a postdoc in the Tinghitella Lab at the University of Denver

Sean Giery joined the lab as an Eberly Postdoctoral Research Fellow!

Braulio Assis successfully defended his thesis and is now a postdoc in the lab


Chris Thawley is now an Assistant Professor at Neumann University

November 2019
David Ensminger starts an NSF postdoc at UC Berkeley

October 2019
Cameron Venable started a postdoc in the Dantzer Lab at the University of Michigan!

Tracy Langkilde's podcast interview
How Do Animals Handle Environmental Change? Can They Adapt? - Hey! I Got A Question About That


July 2019
Tracy Langkilde received the Distinguished Herpetologist Award from the Herpetologists League

May 2019

David Ensminger is awarded an NSF Broadening Participation postdoctoral fellowship!

April 2019
Check out all the new press coverage of our research

March 2019

David Ensminger started a postdoc at Western Kentucky University

Cameron Venable and David Ensminger successfully defended their PhD theses!

August 2018
What a productive summer for the lab. 8 papers accepted since the end of spring semester!

​July 2018
Dustin Owen takes second place SSAR student prize at #JMIH18 for his fantastic talk on effects of maternal stress on heart rate.

​Langkilde lab heads to JMIH 2018!

September 2017
Lab undergrad researchers Kristen Sprayberry and Jennifer Heppner received the best talk and best undergraduate poster awards at the Three Rivers Evolution Event (TREE)

November 2016
Lab alum, Jenny Tennessen, is now a Postdoctoral Researcher with NOAA ​

October 2016
Blog post by Amy Strauss about our work on invasive frogs competing with natives for acoustic space

The Langkilde Lab is getting a new member! Tom Adams will be joining the lab as a Research Assistant in November. 

August 2016
The ENTIRE Langkilde Lab will be presenting at the SICB meetings in Jan. 

Undergrad alum, Mark Goldy Brown, featured in PSU news for his work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru.

January 2016
It's been an exciting start to the year!

Gail McCormick won the Alumni Association Dissertation Award - among the most prestigious available to Penn State graduate students and recognizes outstanding achievement in scholarship and professional accomplishment.   

Chris Thawley won the Intercollege Graduate Student Outreach Award, a university-level award to recognize outstanding achievements that relate to bringing scholarship to the community in order to benefit society. 

Kirsty MacLeod has accepted a postdoc in the Langkilde and Sheriff labs to study maternal stress.

Tracy Langkilde has accepted the position of Head of Department of Biology at Penn State.

December 2015
Chris Thawley will be starting a postdoc in the Kolbe Lab in May. He will be examining effects of urban lighting on anoles.

Dr. Gail McCormick has successfully defended her PhD thesis!

PSU Science Journal expose of our research Exploring the Nature of Stress is featured in the PSU Science Journal; a lizard adorns the cover; and there's a great Person-to-Person interview with Gail McCormick.


October 2015
Our newest lab member - Cameron Venable has joined the lab to pursue a PhD.

We just hit 75 publications! 

August 2015

A very entertaining feature of our research by PSU News - complete with disco references.
Check out our Media page for more stories.

June 2015
Chris Howey, Chris Thawley and Gail McCormick are going to the Ecological Society of America's meeting in Baltimore in August - celebrating the society's centennial. 

Mark Herr received a Grant-In-Herpetology from SSAR for his undergrad research on rattlesnake gestation sites. 

Mark Herr, Chris Howey,  
Chris Thawley, and Tracy Langkilde will be presenting at the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles meetings in Kansas in August. Can't wait!

May 2015
Dr. Jenny Tennessen graduated!

April 2015
Lindsey Swierk has accepted a Donnelley Postdoc Fellowship at Yale. Congrats Lindsey!

Caty Tylan is joining the lab to pursue her PhD. It's going to be an exciting year.

Chris Howey got married.


March 2015
Dustin Owen and Braulio Assis are joining the lab to pursue their PhD. 

Chris Thawley was selected as a Hamilton Award finalist to attend the Evolution Meetings in Brazil. 

NSF has just recommended funding for Michael Sheriff and Tracy Langkilde's research on adaptive
consequences of maternal stress! 

February 2015
Jenny Tennessen successfully defended her PhD dissertation "The Ecological And Evolutionary Consequences of Noise-Induced Acoustic Habitat Loss". Congratulations Dr. Tennessen!

Gail and Chris both won the "Science is my Valentine" competition for their herpy pics and witty quotes. 

We are currently interviewing graduate students for fall 2015. We hope to be introducing our newest lab members soon. Watch this space!

August 2014
Chris Thawley and Mark Herr took out first place and honorable mention for their talks at the JMIH meetings. 

December, 2014
Gail McCormick and Chris Thawley successfully passed their comprehensive exams!

Spring, 2014
Two lab post-docs have moved on to faculty positions: Sean Graham at Sul Ross State University and Travis Robbins at Northern New Mexico College!

 January, 2014
Brad Carlson accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Biology at Wabash College. He will be starting in July. Congrats, Brad! 





The Lizard Log lab blog

See the Langkilde Lab in Action. Follow our lab blog to keep track of research and other happenings in the lab.  

Recent posts:
Veterinary School: Is it worth it?
By Caty Tylan

Cam joins the lab!
By Cam Venable

Starting the year with a bang!
By Gail McCormick

Portland: Talks and Trolls
By Gail McCormick

Gearing up for SICB!
By Gail McCormick

Classing Up Scientific Outreach

By Chris Thawley

Rattlesnake Research Round-up

By Michaelia Mead and Tommy Cerri

​Here Be Dragons
By Mark Herr


Science Communication and Art!
By Gail McCormick


Winter is Coming; Herp While You Can
By Chris Thawley

What Makes Stress Stressful?
By Gail McCormick


Bears Are Jerks (and Other Things I Learned Along the Way)
By Chris Howey

New Kid on the Block
By Dustin Owen


Wrapping Up a Great Field Season
By Chris Howey

From Brazil to Happy Valley
By Braulio Assis


Return to Research Land!
By Caty Harlan

Closing the Never-ending Loop
by Jill Newman

#ESA100

By Gail McCormick

We’re Not In Kansas Anymore…
By Chris Thawley

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