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Leveraging nature's experiments: David Crews' legacy in behavioral neuroendocrinology
Jon T Sakata1, Sarah C Woolley1, Ross Gillette2
1Department of Biology, McGill University, Canada; Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Canada.
None:
Evolution provides a magnificent set of natural experiments, offering a window into factors shaping morphology, physiology, behavior, and reproductive strategies. David Crews (18 April 1947-16 September 2025) embraced the power of natural experiments to gain insight into biological mechanisms and championed the study of reptiles to uncover general principles of behavioral biology. Here we synthesize his decades of research into comparative and behavioral neuroendocrinology, underscoring how his studies on temperature-dependent sex determination, neural and hormonal mechanisms of sexual differentiation, the evolution of brain mechanisms for social behavior, and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance revealed some of the most fascinating and unimaginable mechanisms of reproduction. While he focused on biological mechanisms in lizards, snakes, and turtles, his research has implications beyond reptiles, challenging dogma and forcing reconsideration of classic paradigms and frameworks.
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