Dr. Cooke’s laboratory- and field-based research program focuses on the evolution of mammals in the Neotropics with a specific focus on the platyrrhine primates. She is particularly interested in understanding how modern mammalian communities developed in the diverse environments of the new world from the Miocene to the present.

Due to the vagaries of the fossil record, teeth are often the only evidence of a mammalian species recovered in the field, but these fossils can provide a valuable window into the paleobiology and phylogenetic relationships of the extinct animal. To analyze how a dentition is uniquely adapted to an animal’s dietary profile, methodologically, Dr. Cooke uses three-dimensional geometric morphometric (3DGM) methods in combination with 2D and 3D measures of craniodental function. This approach allows her to analyze how teeth fit together to process food, to study how wear patterns differ across animals of different dietary guilds, and to explore the relationship between an animal’s phylogenetic history and functional morphology. As changes in diet and foraging behaviors often mark the evolution of new species and lineages, understanding dietary adaptation in the fossil record and today is essential for theorizing mechanisms of mammalian evolution broadly.

In addition to her lab-based work on craniodental function, she also has two on-going field-based research projects. Since 2009, Dr. Cooke has worked in the Caribbean on Hispaniola (in collaboration with the Museo del Hombre Dominicano and the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural) at several paleontologically rich cave sites. She examines patterns of mammalian faunal distribution and extinction in relation to human settlement patterns, the introduction of invasive species, and biogeographic barriers on Hispaniola. Second, she is a co-director of the La Venta Paleontological Project in Colombia. At this Miocene site, she and her colleagues study how mammalian niche partitioning and community composition have changed through time in response to environmental and geological change.

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Urrea-Barreto, F.J., Link, A. Carrillo, J.D., Vanegas, A., Perdomo, C.A., Tallman, M., Cooke, S.B., Pérez, M.E. 2023. Systematic revision Neoreomys huilensis Fields (Rodentia, Hystricognathi) from the Middle Miocene of La Venta (Villavieja, Huila, Colombia). Geodiversitas 2023; 45(25): 721-737. https://doi.org/10.5252/geodiversitas2023v45a25 

Cooke, S.B., Klukkert, Z. Diet, dentition, and jaw shape in Aotus. In: Fernandez-Duque, E. (Ed.) 2023. Owl Monkeys: Evolution, Behavioral Ecology and Conservation. Springer, New York, pp. 173-201. Https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13555-2_6 

Carrillo, J.D., Suarez, C., Benites, A., Vanegas, A., Link, A., Rincón, A.F., Luque, J., Cooke, S.B., Tallman, M., Billet, G. 2023. New remains of Neotropical bunodont litopterns and the systematics of Megadolodinae (Mammalia: Litopterna). Geodiversitas 45(15): 409-447. https://doi.org/10.5252/geodiversitas2023v45a15

Cooke, S.B., Crowley, B.E. 2022. New radiocarbon dates reveal pan-Holocene deposition of rodents at Trouing Jérémie #5, a sinkhole in the western Tiburon Peninsula, Haiti. The Holocene 39(9): 991-997. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836221101279

Mohammad, R.S., Turner, G., Fowler, K., Petman, M., Nieves-Colón, M.A., Franovich, L., Cooke, S.B., Dávalos, L.M., Fitzpatrick, S.M., Giovas, C., Stokowski, Wrean, A.A., Kemp, M., LeFebvre, Mychajliw, A.M. 2022. Colonial legacies influence biodiversity lessons: how past trade routes and power dynamics shape present day scientific research and professional opportunities for Caribbean scientists. American Naturalist 200(1): 140-155. https://doi.org/10.1086/720154

Terhune, C.E., Mitchell, D.R., Cooke, S.B., Kirchhoff, C.A., Massey, J.S. 2022. Temporomandibular joint shape in anthropoid primates varies widely and is patterned by size and phylogeny. The Anatomical Record 2002: http://doi.org/10.1002/ar.24886.

McAfee, R.L., Beery*, S.M., Rímoli, R., Almonte, J., Lehman, P., Cooke, S.B. 2021. New species of the ground sloth Parocnus from the late Pleistocene-early Holocene of Hispaniola. Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology 9(1): 52-82. https://doi.org/10.18435/vamp29369

Cooke, S.B., Crowley B.E. 2018. Deciphering the isotopic niches of now-extinct Hispaniolan rodents. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: e1510414. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2018.1510414

Cooke, S.B., Dávalos, L.M., Mychajliw, A.M., Turvey, S.T., Upham, N.S. 2017. Anthropogenic extinction dominates Holocene declines of West Indian Mammals. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 48: 301-327. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110316-022754

Cooke, S.B., Mychajliw, A., Southon, J., MacPhee, R.D.E. 2017. Jamaica’s Last Monkey: The Extinction of Xenothrix mcgregori. Journal of Mammalogy 98(4): 937-949. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyw165

Tallman, M., Cooke, S.B. New endemic platyrrhine humerus from Haiti and the evolution of the platyrrhine distal humerus. Journal of Human Evolution 91: 144-166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.10.010

Allen, K.L., Cooke, S.B., Gonzales, L.A., Kay, R.F. 2015. Dietary Inference from Upper and Lower Molar Morphology in Platyrrhine Primates. PLoS ONE 10 (3): e0118732. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118732

Cooke, S.B., Tallman, M. 2012. New endemic platyrrhine femur from Haiti: description and locomotor analysis. Journal of Human Evolution 63(3): 560-567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.05.008

Cooke, S.B. 2011. Paleodiet of extinct platyrrhines with emphasis on the Caribbean forms: three-dimensional geometric morphometrics of mandibular second molars. The Anatomical Record 294: 2073-2091. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.21502

Cooke, S.B., Rosenberger, A.L., Turvey, S. 2011. An extinct monkey from Haiti and the origins of the Greater Antillean primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108: 2699-2704. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1009161108

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