Elaina Marie Tuttle | |
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| Born | November 9, 1963 Nashua, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Died | June 15, 2016 (aged 52) Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
| Alma mater | State University of New York at Albany |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1993–2016 |
| Employer | Indiana State University |
| Known for | Discovering the four sex "supergene" in the white-throated sparrow |
| Spouse | Rusty Gonser |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards |
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Elaina Marie Tuttle (November 9, 1963 – June 15, 2016) was an American behavioral geneticist and biology professor whose academic research focused on ornithology and study of the white-throated sparrow. During her graduate and post-doctoral work, she investigated how bird sexual selection has evolved and the trade-offs in reproduction that have occurred alongside sperm competition mechanisms in sparrows and in the fairy wren.
Her last major publication in 2016 discussed the evolution of a sexual "supergene" in the white-throated sparrow that has created a complementary pair of genetic sexes in addition to the W and Z sex chromosomes found in birds. The decades of work researching the sparrow at the Cranberry Lake Biological Station (CLBS) for Indiana State University resulted in her being given multiple awards and the President's Medal for her accomplishments.