Research in the lab is focused on understanding the origin of biological diversity. To address this long-term goal, we study highly diversified groups of animals ranging from clams to cats and from species to ordinal levels. We reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of these diverse groups to use as the framework for other analyses of diversification. My primary groups of interest are the muroid rodents, by far the most diverse group of mammals with 1,5000 species, and various sub-groups among the muroids, especially the South American sigmodontine mice (>360 species), and the Andean leaf-eared mice, Phyllotis. These phylogenies are then used to study morphological evolution, patterns of diversification, biogeography, and comparative quantitative genetics. Our techniques include phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequence (primarily large data sets with multiple nuclear genes) and morphological data, comparative analyses of covariation among traits, developing the comparative tools to test these multivariate patterns, analysis of geographic variation, and alpha-level systematics of living and fossil material. You can explore the research and people in more detail using the links at left or go to my personal Home Page for more information.

I welcome students working in any of the general fields described above. Because my research is fundamentally question generated and not taxon based, students need not work on the same groups of animals that form the core of my current research.