Biogeography and Paleobiology

Paleobiology is the study of the history of life, particularly the diversification and extinction of lineages, the evolution of morphology, and ecological interactions on a changing planet. Biogeography seeks understanding of patterns and causes of the geographic distribution of populations, species and communities in terms of ecological and evolutionary processes interacting with earth history.

Italics = secondary appointment in EEB, can serve as graduate co-chair only

Catherine Badgley

Catherine Badgley's research involves the ecological and evolutionary processes, including speciation, extinction and geographic-range shifts, that determine the species diversity and ecological structure of mammalian assemblages over deep time. She also works on the environmental and social implications of different agricultural practices.

Liliana Cortés-Ortiz 

Liliana Cortés-Ortiz integrates genetic, cytogenetic, morphological, and behavioral approaches to understand the evolution and diversification of primates and to establish primate conservation strategies. Her current research includes systematic and phylogeographic investigations of Neotropical primates and the study of hybridization in two well-defined sister species of howler monkeys.

Christopher Dick

Christopher Dick is interested in the ecology and evolutionary history of species-rich tropical forests. His research has focused primarily on phylogeny, phylogeography and population genetics of Neotropical trees. He is also eager to collaborate on projects involving temperate forest trees.

Thomas Duda

Thomas Duda investigates the processes associated with ecological diversification. This work includes field and laboratory studies that involve analyses of feeding ecology, phylogenetics and phylogeography, and molecular investigations of the evolution of venoms of members of the predatory, marine gastropod genus Conus.

L. Lacey Knowles

Lacey Knowles' research interests are in speciation, phylogeography and evolutionary radiations.

Hernán López-Fernández

Hernán López-Fernández studies the evolution of freshwater fishes with emphasis on South and Central America, which house the most diverse freshwater fish fauna on earth. The lab often uses the family Cichlidae as a model because it is an iconic subject of study in vertebrate adaptive evolution and the third most diverse family of Neotropical fishes. Research in the lab combines fieldwork, molecular phylogenetics/phylogenomics and comparative methods to integrate ecology, functional morphology, life histories and geography into macroevolutionary analyses of freshwater fish diversification.

Daniel L. Rabosky

Daniel Rabosky studies macroevolution, speciation, and evolutionary community ecology. He is especially interested in how ecological factors influence the processes of speciation, extinction, and trait evolution through time and space. His research includes field-based studies of ecological diversification in Australian reptiles, molecular phylogenetics, and mathematical and computer modeling of evolutionary dynamics in a broad range of taxonomic groups.

Stephen A. Smith

Stephen Smith is interested in phylogenetics, computational molecular evolution, biogeography, and macroevolution. His research includes developing and implementing methods for the construction and analysis of phylogenetic trees. In addition to constructing trees, he also works on methods for examining geographic evolution and large scale evolutionary patterns. He primarily focuses on plant species, though he is interested in addressing these questions across the tree of life.

Anshuman Swain

Anshuman Swain's lab aims to understand how abiotic and biotic interactions structure species, communities, and ecosystems across different spatiotemporal scales, and to explore these questions through a combination of ecological and paleontological fieldwork, the use of natural history collections, theoretical models, and data-driven methods. His lab is especially interested in the ecology and evolution of plant-insect interactions, and marine microplaeoecology.

Thais Vasconcelos

Thais Vasconcelos' current research consists in seeking generalities, or “rules”, in flowering plant evolution, by analyzing recurrent trait-environment correlations and the historical factors leading to major biogeographical patterns observed in modern species. To that end, her research group combines studies on (i) systematics (what are the relationships among the species of flowering plants?), (ii) biogeography (where do these species occur and how is their physical environment characterized?), and (iii) trait-evolution (how lineage-specific traits have contributed to plants’ survival and reproductive success throughout their evolution?).

Marjorie Weber

The Weber Lab takes an integrative and multi-faceted approach to understanding the role that ecological interactions have played in shaping the striking diversity of life on our planet. We use plant-animal interactions as model systems for connecting ecological processes and macroevolutionary patterns. Specific systems include plant-bodyguard defense mutualisms, herbivore- and pathogen-host interactions, and plant-pollinator interactions. We integrate a diverse set of approaches, including comparative phylogenetic modeling, community & chemical ecology, microbiome sequencing,  genomics, and manipulative field experiments.

Benjamin Winger

Ben Winger studies speciation, biogeography, community assembly, and movement ecology (migration and dispersal) in birds. He uses a variety of approaches and data types in his research, including population genetics, genomics, phylogenetics, museum collections and fieldwork.