Professor, Curator
About
Academic background
Tom Duda received his BS from Texas A&M University at Galveston in 1988 and his MA from San Francisco State University in 1992. He began his PhD studies at the University of Hawaii in 1993 and ultimately received his PhD from Harvard University in 1999. From 1999-2002 he was a Tupper Fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in the Republic of Panamá and from 2002-2003 was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Washington. He currently is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a Curator of Molluscs in the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
Research interests
Tom is interested in deciphering the evolutionary history and origins of adaptations in molluscs. This work encompasses the integration of information from ecology, morphology, molecular evolutionary genetics, paleontology, phylogenetics, and population genetics. His research primarily focuses on members of the gastropod family Conidae (i.e., cone snails), one of the most diverse families of marine animals that show a number of feeding specializations. Molecular phylogenies permit examination of the evolution of a diversity of traits including life history, morphology and feeding mode. These phylogenies also show what influenced the diversification and biogeography of this group. He also investigates the molecular evolution of conotoxin genes, genes that encode peptide neurotoxins that are used by cone snails to stun their prey. These genes are members of large gene families, evolve quite rapidly, and are presumably related to feeding specializations. Furthermore, he studies patterns of variation of diets within and among cone snail species to determine how changes in venom composition are related to the evolution of diets.
Teaching
BIO 288. Animal Diversity
Research Areas
- Molecular evolution, phylogenetics, population genetics, field & collections-based studies, feeding ecology
Affiliation(s)
Field(s) of Study
- Evolutionary biology of molluscs
Graduate students
- Diana Vergara, Yu Kai Tan
