Amanda Spriggs

Amanda N. Spriggs

https://www.albany.edu/anthropology

Assistant Clinical Professor of Biological Anthropology| SUNY, University at Albany, Department of Anthropology

Primary Field

Biological Anthropology

https://www.albany.edu/anthropology

Assistant Clinical Professor of Biological Anthropology, SUNY, University at Albany, Department of Anthropology

E-mail	aspriggs@albany.edu
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Interest/Specialty Areas

Primate pelage visual signals, color quantification methods, primate visual systems, functional morphology, natural history collections

Dr. Amanda Spriggs is a biological anthropologist with interests in visual signals that primates use and the selection pressures that act on the presence or absence of those signals. Her research program explores if and how lemurs use visual signals in pelage to communicate quality to conspecifics, identity to congenerics, and to camouflage from predators. Dr. Spriggs uses digital photography and developed a method of color analysis called Eigencoats to quantify and analyze coloration of museum preserved lemur skins. She is also interested in understanding the selection pressures that drive and maintain visual system variation within lemurs.

Two recent publications by Dr. Spriggs include:

Spriggs AN, Muchlinski MN, Gordon AD. 2016. Does the primate pattern hold up? Testing the functional significance of infraorbital foramen size variation among marsupials. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 160 (1): 30-40.

Jacobs RL, MacFie TS, Spriggs AN, Baden AL, Morelli, TL, Irwin MT, Lawler RR, Pastorini J, Mayor M, Lei R, Culligan R, Hawkins MTR, Kappeler PM, Wright PC, Louis EE, Mundy NI, and Bradley BJ. 2017. Novel opsin gene variation in large-bodied, diurnal lemurs. Biology Letters. 13: 20170050.

Phone	(518) 442-4700
Email	anthro@albany.edu