EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Variation in life history strategies shapes evolution across the tree of fishes

Seminar Summary - My research explores how ecology and life history strategies drive evolutionary processes and patterns in fishes. Life history strategies have direct links to fitness and vary dramatically among lineages, and this variation can drive rates and patterns of trait evolution. In this talk I will highlight recent work demonstrating how a migratory life history strategy can influence trait evolution among populations and across clades spanning the fish tree of life. I will also present new research on macroevolution and diversification of lampreys, an ancient lineage of jawless fishes with remarkably different life history strategies long thought to be linked to a novel speciation process.