Welcome to the Near Lab at Yale University and Peabody Museum! Our work is aimed at discovering the mechanisms that generate biodiversity. We use phylogenies, or evolutionary trees, inferred from DNA sequence data to investigate speciation, historical biogeography, and the timing of lineage diversification. An important component of our work is the discovery of biodiversity that results in the description of new species.

Research PROGRAM

The Tree of Life is abundantly rich with a varied and multifaceted complex of organisms that we collectively refer to as “biodiversity.”  Mechanisms to explain the origin and evolution of Earth’s rich biota are ultimately tied to the genealogical relationships that unite all living things. We reconstruct these phylogenetic relationships using genomic information from living vertebrates, primarily ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii).

We use these phylogenies to investigate patterns and mechanisms of diversification, reconstruct historical biogeography, and estimate timescales of evolution.​

THE ORIGINS OF BIODIVERSITY

Identifying the patterns and processes behind the generation of biodiversity in deep time

Systematics and speciation mechanisms

Discovering new species and the processes that drive their origination

Phylogenetics

Reconstructing organismal relationships and timescale of evolution

Our Research Spans across VERtebRate Diversity

Ray-finned fishes comprise nearly one half of all living  vertebrates
Species​
Genera
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Million Years To Common Ancestry
Photographs kindly provided by Julia Wood and Zach Alley. Anglerfish illustrations by Julie Johnson.
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