Current Research
A major theme of my research include macroevolutionary drivers of morphological diversity in fishes. I recently explored patterns of body size evolution in response to paleoclimate change in tetraodontiform fishes (pufferfishes, triggerfishes, and allies). This is an exceptionally morphologically diverse order with a robust fossil record, making it a model clade to test Cope's and Bergmann's rules in fishes. Under a total-evidence approach which combined phylogenomic data (1,103 exon loci from 185 extant species) with 210 anatomical characters coded from both fossil and extant species, I aggregated data layers on paleoclimate and body size from the species examined, then inferred a set of time-calibrated phylogenies using tip-dating approaches for use in downstream comparative analyses of body size evolution using models that incorporate paleoclimatic information. I found paleotemperature to be strongly correlated with body size. On average, extant tetraodontiforms are 2-3 times larger than their fossil counterparts, which otherwise evolved during periods of warmer ocean temperatures. These results provide strong support for both Bergmann's and Cope's rules, trends that are less studied in marine fishes compared to terrestrial vertebrates and marine invertebrates. These results are published in PNAS Past Research
My Master's thesis focused on the ecology and diversity of small, cryptic marine fishes. These cryptobenthic fishes will often be very small (< 5 cm full grown) and hard to find on a reef, hiding in small holes and crevices. Despite their size, they are very numerous around coral reefs and greatly contribute to the overall biodiversity. I examined the microhabitat association of cryptobenthic fishes in three common reef habitats (hard corals, coral rubble, and sand). I collected over 300 fishes off nearby reefs and sorted and identified them using both morphological and genetic tools (DNA barcoding). Fish assemblages differed significantly across all three habitats, with rubble habitats having the highest levels of fish abundance, species richness, and diversity, followed by hard coral, and then sand. My research shows that even at small scales of a few meters, benthic composition can influence cryptobenthic communities. |
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