Work in our lab is focused on two fundamental questions in the study of biological diversification: (1) What processes contribute to the formation of new species (i.e., speciation)? and (2) What factors underlie macroevolutionary patterns of species diversity? Our efforts to address these questions rely heavily on the adaptive radiation of Caribbean Anolis lizards (anoles) as a model system. Nearly 400 species occur across the neotropics, making Anolis is the world’s most species-rich amniote genus. As many as 60 species may occur on a single Caribbean island, and specific communities may include as many as twelve sympatric congeners. If this weren't enough to make them a fascinated group for evolutionary and ecological studies, the green anole (Anolis carolinensis) has recently become the first reptile with a completely sequenced genome.
A brief summary of our main research is below. Elsewhere on this web-site, you can find more information on specific projects and our methods.
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