Paul W. Sherman

Paul W. Sherman (born July 6, 1949) is a professor Emeritus at Cornell University in animal behaviour best known for his work on the social behavior of rodents (ground squirrels and naked mole rats), eusociality, and evolutionary medicine.

In 2005 he was awarded the Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellowship for “effective, inspiring, and distinguished teaching of undergraduate students.” In 1977 he published evidence that alarm calls by female Belding's ground squirrels function to warn descendant and collateral kin of approaching terrestrial predators (coyotes, badgers, and weasels).

In 1996 he published work demonstrating how kin selection in the eusocial naked mole rats affects food allocation.

In 2000 he published support for the hypothesis that morning sickness is an adaptation that protects pregnant mothers and their developing fetuses from foodborne illnesses, some of which can cause miscarriage or birth defects, such as listeriosis and toxoplasmosis.

In 2010 he published evidence that bdelloid rotfiers, which present a major evolutionary puzzle because they alone have reproduced asexually for millions of years, can escape parasites and pathogens not via genetic recombination (like other organisms) but rather by completely drying up (anhydrobiosis) and dispersing on the wind.