Shaena Montanari joined The Transmitter as an enterprise reporter in January 2023. She was previously an investigative health reporter at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting in Phoenix. Prior to becoming a journalist, Shaena worked as a paleontologist.
![Headshot of Shaena Montanari.](https://www.thetransmitter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/shaena-bw-final.webp)
Shaena Montanari
Reporter
The Transmitter
From this contributor
![Picture of bees in flight.](https://www.thetransmitter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Navigation-bee.1200-1024x692.webp)
Postdoc’s grad-school sleuthing raises questions about bee waggle-dance data
![Close-up image of a dead fly with visible growths protruding from its abdomen due to Entomophthora fungus infection.](https://www.thetransmitter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1200-zombie-fly-qa-1024x683.webp)
Mind control in zombie flies: Q&A with Carolyn Elya
![Research image of neurons in a small section of the hippocampus.](https://www.thetransmitter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Soltesz-FigCD-1200-1024x692.webp)
Tail of hippocampus may be hub for seizures in mice and people
![Research image of a lamprey.](https://www.thetransmitter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1200-inside-TH-Lamprey-1024x683.webp)
New look at lampreys rewrites textbooks on origins of sympathetic nervous system
![A stack of papers with red bookmarks](https://www.thetransmitter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sudhof-corrections-1200-1024x692.webp)
Nobel Prize winner acknowledges errors in three more papers
Education
- M.A. in investigative journalism, Arizona State University
- Ph.D. in comparative biology, Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History
- B.S. in geological sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fellowships
- AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship
- AAAS Mass Media Fellowship
- Royal Society Newton International Fellowship
Articles
- “Cracking the egg: the use of modern and fossil eggs for ecological, environmental and biological interpretation” | Royal Society Open Science
- “Pliocene paleoenvironments of southeastern Queensland, Australia inferred from stable isotopes of marsupial tooth enamel” | PLOS ONE
- “Dinosaur eggshell and tooth enamel geochemistry as an indicator of Mongolian Late Cretaceous paleoenvironments” | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
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Researchers are mapping the neurons in Drosophila’s ventral nerve cord, where the central nervous system meets the rest of the body.
![Research image of neurons in the fly’s ventral nerve cord.](https://www.thetransmitter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/lede-motormodules-1200-1024x692.webp)
New connectomes fly beyond the brain
Researchers are mapping the neurons in Drosophila’s ventral nerve cord, where the central nervous system meets the rest of the body.
Building an autism research registry: Q&A with Tony Charman
A purpose-built database of participants who have shared genomic and behavioral data could give clinical trials a boost, Charman says.
![Illustration of researchers talking to laypeople amidst strands of DNA.](https://www.thetransmitter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1200_Charman-1024x687.webp)
Building an autism research registry: Q&A with Tony Charman
A purpose-built database of participants who have shared genomic and behavioral data could give clinical trials a boost, Charman says.
Cerebellar circuit may convert expected pain relief into real thing
The newly identified circuit taps into the brain’s opioid system to provide a top-down form of pain relief.
![](https://www.thetransmitter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/paincircuit-1200-1024x692.webp)
Cerebellar circuit may convert expected pain relief into real thing
The newly identified circuit taps into the brain’s opioid system to provide a top-down form of pain relief.