Research

Research Overview

Research in our lab focuses on understanding the evolutionary processes that generate, constrain, and reshape marine biodiversity across deep and shallow timescales. Using fishes as a primary model system, we integrate genome‑scale phylogenomics, comparative genomics, phylogenetic comparative methods, paleontological data, comparative phylogeography and seascape analyses to address fundamental questions in marine biology: How do ecological opportunity, historical contingency, and environmental change interact to drive diversification? Why do some marine lineages radiate spectacularly while others remain constrained? What genomic and developmental mechanisms underlie rare but consequential evolutionary innovations?

This work is unified by five long-standing research axes: (1) reconstruction of the fish Tree of Life and hypothesis testing using genome-scale data; (2) macroevolutionary drivers of morphological and lineage diversification; (3) marine biogeography, phylogeography, and the role of seascape features in shaping marine connectivity; (4) the molecular and genomic basis of adaptive traits, especially in the context of repeated transitions across aquatic habitats; and (5) documenting biodiversity through fieldwork and taxonomic research, including the discovery and description of new species from expeditions surveying freshwater and marine fishes.