Genomic diversity is shaped by the interplay between mutation, genetic drift, recombination, and natural selection. A major goal of evolutionary biology is to understand the relative contribution of these different microevolutionary forces to patterns of genetic variation both w…
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Phylogeography combines geographic information with phylogenetic analysis to gain insight into the origin, dispersal, and speciation dynamics of populations. Advances in the utility of Next Generation Sequencing technology has led to a shift toward whole genome sequencing for an…
Hybridization has traditionally been viewed as a happenstance that negatively impacts populations, but is now recognized as an important evolutionary mechanism that can substantially impact the evolutionary trajectories of gene pools, influence adaptive capacity, and contravene …
Amazonia is the most biologically diverse region of the planet and the source of this diversity has long intrigued evolutionary biologists and naturalists. Although Amazonia was seen for a long time as a stable region, more evidence has been gathered showing that the landscape a…
My dissertation aims to understand the history of divergence and speciation in terrestrial gastropods from the Pacific Northwest of North America (PNW). Speciation is the driving force behind the diversity on earth, but most of what we know about speciation has been learned from…
Biogeography of the Himalayan region [to include the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP)] evolved over a ~30M year span, catalyzed by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates. The resulting uplift produced major ecological and climatic effects, that in turn drove the diversific…
Cercopithecus mitis is a polytypic, pan-African guenon species with a complex evolutionary history. The Lomami River Blue Monkey, C. m. heymansi, occurs within the Tshuapa-Lomami-Lualaba (TL2) Conservation Landscape and exhibits high pelage variation. Previous studies have shown…
The amphibian fauna of Mesoamerica is one the most diverse, yet the most endangered in the area, perfectly exemplifying why the region is one of the world biodiversity hotspots. I carried out analyses from three interrelated perspectives: Conservation Genetics, species delimitat…
Patterns of phylogeographic evolution seen in Berylmys correlate well with what is known of climate and landscape conditions in south Asia over the past 5 million years and are consistent with an in-situ divergence of a widespread ancestral population. While B. bowersi adapted t…
The aims of my dissertation are to understand diversification in the genus Penstemon at three taxonomic scales: across the entire genus, where I use phylogenetic comparative methods to assess diversification rate variation and trait (phenotype and niche) lability; across species…
Tulostoma is speciose group of stalked puffballs with a high diversity in grasslands and arid environments. This cosmopolitan genus exhibits a high degree of spore morphological variation. Recent molecular analysis suggests the center of diversity of this genus occurs in Europea…
Located in Eastern Africa, Ethiopia is a country of unique geological features, among them the largest continuous Afro-alpine zone in Africa and the Great Rift Valley (GRV). The GRV formation began ~20 mya; it is a fault system that splits the central Ethiopian dome in two separ…
While the behavior and ecology of the Kloss's gibbon (Hylobates klossii), a species endemic to the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia, have been studied in some detail, its relationship to other gibbon species has remained poorly understood, as have any patterns of intraspecific vari…
Global patterns of biodiversity intrigue biologists to investigate their origins and common mechanisms and causes underlying the patterns through studies of evolutionary histories, processes, drivers that might have shaped the patterns of species diversification. The eastern Asi…
The purpose of this study is to elucidate the historical processes that have impacted the fishes of the Fouta Djallon highlands and surrounding areas. This mountainous region in Guinea, West Africa, lies on the northern edge of the Guinean Range. This geologic formation, of Jura…
Southeast Asia is well-known for its high biodiversity which is largely due to its complex geological history and present day oceanographic conditions. Fluctuating sea level during the Pleistocene resulted in exposure of land masses in relatively shallow water and isolation of m…
The phylogeny, biogeography, population genetics and taxonomy of Labeobarbus (Cyprinidae), a genus of large hexaploid minnows, was estimated by a variety of phylogenetic and population genetics methods. In Chapter 2 relationships among species of large barbine minnows was examin…
The main aim of this study was to estimate phylogeographic patterns from mitochondrial DNA diversity and relate them with evolutionary structure in two species complexes of genets, Genetta genetta and Genetta "rubiginosa", which have fluid morphological variation. Both are widel…