Abstract: Rates of trait evolution vary markedly across the tree of life, from the accelerated evolution apparent in adaptive radiations to the remarkable evolutionary stasis exhibited by so-called "living fossils". Identifying and understanding the causes and consequences of such "rate heterogeneity" has critical implications for robustly testing evolutionary hypotheses and, more generally, elucidating how and why levels of phenotypic diversity vary across space, time, and taxa. For my dissertation, I am developing novel phylogenetic comparative methods for inferring variation in rates of continuous trait evolution. These methods will fill key gaps in the comparative biologist's toolkit and provide researchers with more power and flexibility in exploring and dissecting rate heterogeneity across the tree of life.

Our weekly lunch seminar series featuring internal speakers in the field of ecology and evolutionary biology. This seminar will be in-person and livestreaming on Zoom (link this page).