Fossil crocodiles, birth-death models, and the K-Pg mass extinction
By: Andrew Magee (Minin Lab)

Dental ecomorphology and macroevolutionary patterns of Late Cretaceous North American metatherians
By: Alexandria Brannick (Wilson Lab)

An adaptation of the Luria- Delbrück fluctuation analysis reveals plasmid-host co-evolution increases plasmid transfer rate
By: Olivia Kosterlitz (Kerr Lab)

The bone histology of multituberculates could change our understanding of mammalian life history evolution
By: Lucas Weaver (Wilson Lab)

Using auxinic herbicides to probe the evolution of flowering plants
By: Romi Ramos (Nemhauser Lab)

Fractal Skeletons: Measuring sea star body complexity using micro-CT scans
By: Mo Turner (Ruesink Lab)

What exactly is your machine learning? How to evaluate tree growth models
By: Stuart Graham (Hille Ris Lambers Lab)

Maize yield under a changing climate: impacts, mechanisms, and adaptation
By: Jennifer Hsiao (Swann Lab)

My research program addresses two fundamental questions in evolutionary biology: how do the observable characteristics of organisms (e.g., morphology, behavior) evolve and adapt in response to ecological pressures? And, how does this evolutionary process facilitate or constrain the diversification of lineages? I largely focus on bats to answer these questions because, with over 1,400 ecologically and morphologically diverse species, they provide a natural experiment to investigate the sources of diversification.

The integration of developmental genetics and evolution is providing a powerful synthesis towards understanding the mechanisms underlying the generation of biodiversity. Functional studies across the phylogenetic landscape are facilitating a comparative, integrative view highlighting that genes are mostly repurposed into new roles. I will present micro- and macro-evolutionary approaches on the evolutionary consequences of the emergence of novel traits in three distinct plant systems: an angiosperm, a gymnosperm and a fern.