Assistant Professor;
Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin, 2007

Research and Professional Interests:

One of the most exciting questions in biology is “How do new species arise?” This question has intrigued and fascinated biologists from Darwin to the present. The goal of my research program is to gain insight into the process of speciation in order to understand the origin of biodiversity. I employ an integrative approach to studying speciation, which involves several fields of biology, including behavioral ecology, phylogenetics, phylogeography, population genetics, genomics, and ecology. I use amphibians as model systems for studying this process, focusing primarily on North American and South American taxa.

Current projects include (1) studying speciation-in-action driven by reinforcement in contact zones of chorus frogs, (2) developing improved methods for phylogeography, (3) investigating the evolution of acoustic signals across frog clades, (4) employing genomic approaches to developing markers for amphibian genetics, and (5) implementing genomic tools for targeted phylogenomics in amphibians.

Brown, J. M., A. R. Lemmon, S. M. Hedke, and E. Moriarty Lemmon. In press. When trees grow too long: investigating the causes of highly inaccurate Bayesian branch length estimates. Systematic Biology.

Moriarty Lemmon, E. 2009. Diversification of conspecific signals in sympatry: geographic overlap drives multi-dimensional reproductive character displacement in frogs. Evolution 63:1155-1170. PDF

Lemmon, A. R., J. M. Brown, K. Stanger-Hall, and E. Moriarty Lemmon. 2009. The effect of missing data in likelihood-based phylogenetics. Systematic Biology 58:130-145. PDF

Lemmon, A. R. and E. Moriarty Lemmon. 2008. A likelihood framework for estimating phylogeographic history using geographically continuous genetic data. Systematic Biology 57:544-561. PDF

Moriarty Lemmon, E., A. R. Lemmon, J. T. Collins, and D. C. Cannatella. 2008. A new North American chorus frog species (Amphibia: Hylidae: Pseudacris) from the south-central United States. Zootaxa 1675:1-30. PDF

Moriarty Lemmon, E., A. R. Lemmon, and D. C. Cannatella. 2007. Geological and climatic forces driving speciation in the continentally distributed trilling chorus frogs (Pseudacris). Evolution 61:2086–2103. PDF

Moriarty Lemmon, E., A. R. Lemmon, J. A. Lee-Yaw, J. T. Collins, and D. C. Cannatella. 2007. Phylogeny-based delimitation of species boundaries and contact zones in the trilling chorus frogs (Pseudacris). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 44:1068–1082. PDF

Moriarty, E. C. 2005. Pseudacris triseriata species complex. Pages 485-488 in Lannoo, M. (Ed.). Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University of California Press, Berkley, California.

Moriarty, E. C., and D. C. Cannatella. 2004. Phylogenetic relationships of North American chorus frogs (Pseudacris). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 30:409–420. PDF

Lemmon, A. R., and E. C. Moriarty. 2004. The importance of proper model assumption in Bayesian phylogenetics. Systematic Biology 53:265–277. PDF

Sever, D. M., T. R. Halliday, E. C. Moriarty, and B. Arano. 2001. Sperm storage in the smooth newt (Triturus v. vulgaris) II. Ultrastructure of the spermathecae after the breeding season. Acta Zoologica 82:49–56. PDF

Sever, D. M., E. C. Moriarty, L.C. Rania, and W.C. Hamlett. 2001. Sperm storage in the oviduct of an internally fertilizing frog, Ascaphus truei. Journal of Morphology 248:1–21. PDF

Sever, D. M., T. R. Halliday, V. Waights, J. Brown, H. Davies, and E. C. Moriarty. 1999. Sperm storage in females of the smooth newt (Triturus v. vulgaris) I. Ultrastructure of the spermathecae during the breeding season. Journal of Experimental Zoology 283:51–70. PDF

Graduate Students:

Barrow, Lisa
Michelsohn, Moses
Warwick, Alexa

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