Research

We seek to understand how biodiveristy has evolved across the tree of life and we are especially interested in leveraging phyloinformatics and phylogenomics to puruse these questions at scale.

Our lab applies a range of approaches including sequence capture of DNA UltraConserved elements, megaphylogeny construction, crowd-sourced high-throughput phenoscaping, comparative phylogenetic analyses, and simlated evolution. We are especially interested in understanding factors that have shaped diversification in ray-finned fishes.

In addition we explore how the tools developed within the field of macroevolution can be applied to understanding cultural and technological diversification.