Kate Detwiler

Education

• Ph.D. ,  New York University  

Research Interests

• Anthropology
• Conservation of African Monkeys
• Molecular Primatology
• Primate Hybridization
• Primate Speciation
• Primate Behavioral Ecology
• African Monkeys 

Research Description

Kate Detwiler is an associate professor of anthropology at Florida Atlantic University, where her research focus is on the evolution and conservation of African forest monkeys. Her primatology lab is based in the Biological Sciences Department and represents an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Anthropology Department in the College of Arts and Letters and the Biological Sciences Department and Environmental Sciences Program in the College of Science. Her lab specializes in studying rare and endangered primate species in the Congo Basin rainforests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, hybrid monkeys in Gombe National Park in Western Tanzania, and a local population of introduced African monkeys living in the mangrove swamps near Fort Lauderdale airport. Detwiler completed her bachelor’s degree in biology at Bates College (1995), where she received the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship upon graduation, later earning her doctoral degree in anthropology at New York University (2010). Prior to arriving at FAU, she was a postdoctoral science fellow at Columbia University in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology. She teaches biological anthropology courses to undergraduate and graduate students at FAU, and her work on the discovery of the new monkey species Cercopithecus lomamiensis received wide scale media coverage, including National Geographic, Science Magazine and Nature. 

Recent Publications

• JD Amboko, D Alempijevic, KM Detwiler (2026). Polyspecific Associations Among Guenons in the Lomami National Park, Dr. Congo: Camera Traps as a Tool to Reveal Patterns. American Journal of Primatology. 

• K Coates, KM Detwiler (2026). The Impacts of Hybridization on Guenon Male Loud Calls in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. American Journal of Primatology. 

• KM Detwiler, A Jensen, E Horton, K Guschanski (2026). Ancient and Contemporary Hybridization in Guenons: New Insights From the Y Chromosome of Cercopithecus Monkeys. American Journal of Primatology. 

• A Jensen, ER Horton, MB Koko, KM Detwiler, K Guschanski (2025). Holotype genome of the lesula provides insights into demography and evolution of a threatened primate lineage. Genome Biology. 

• A Jensen, ER Horton, J Amboko, SA Parke, JA Hart, AJ Tosi, ... (2024). Y chromosome introgression between deeply divergent primate species. Nature Communications. 

• A Jensen, F Swift, D de Vries, R Beck, LFK Kuderna, S Knauf, IS Chuma, ... (2024). Complex Evolutionary History With Extensive Ancestral Gene Flow in an African Primate Radiation. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 

• JM Linder, DT Cronin, N Ting, EE Abwe, F Aghomo, TRB Davenport, ... (2024). To conserve African tropical forests, invest in the protection of its most endangered group of monkeys, red colobus. Conservation Letters. 

• A Jensen, ER Horton, J Amboko, SA Parke, JA Hart, A Tosi, K Guschanski, ... (2024). Breaking the rule: An exceptional Y chromosome introgression between deeply divergent primate species. bioRxiv. 

• A Jensen, ER Horton, KM Detwiler, K Guschanski (2024). Sequencing the Cercopithecus lomamiensis holotype provides insights into demography and evolution of a threatened primate lineage. 
• JM Linder, DT Cronin, N Ting, EE Abwe, TRB Davenport, K Detwiler, ... (2024). Red colobus (Piliocolobus) conservation action plan: 2021-2026. IUCN. 

 

 

Scholarly Acitivites

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