What factors promote the generation of biodiversity? Our lab combines data on the genomes and phenotypes of diverse vertebrate lineages with robust phylogenetic inference to answer this question. Among other findings, we have demonstrated that an inverse global latitudinal gradient is etched into the speciation rates of living marine fishes, shown that the most recent mass extinction, the Cretaceous-Paleogene event, left a major imprint on the diversification of living actinopterygian diversity, and charted how climate change and ecological turnover have promoted phenotypic innovation and habitat change in species-rich lineages of ray-finned fishes.
