Jonathan B. Losos

Monique and Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America
Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Curator in Herpetology, Museum of Comparative Zoology

Phone: 617-495-9835
E-mail:
Office: 204 MCZ, 26 Oxford Street

Lab Website: http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/losos/

My research concerns the origin and maintenance of biological diversity: where do species come from, what directs the evolutionary course they take, and what ongoing ecological processes affect them today? To study such questions, my laboratory integrates approaches from systematics, ecology, behavior, genetics and functional morphology, taking both observational and experimental approaches in the field and in the laboratory. In many respects, lizards are ideal organisms for such synthetic studies.

Recent Publications


Losos, J.B., T.W. Schoener, R.B. Langerhans, and D.A. Spiller. 2006. Rapid temporal reversal in predator-driven natural selection. Science 314:1111.

Knouft, J.H., J.B. Losos, R.E. Glor, and J.J. Kolbe. 2006. Phylogenetic analysis of the evolution of the niche in lizards of the Anolis sagrei group. Ecology 87:S29-S38.

Butler, M.A., S.A. Sawyer, and J.B. Losos. 2007. Sexual dimorphism and adaptive radiation in Anolis lizards. Nature 447:202-205.

Losos, J.B. 2007. Detective work in the West Indies: Integrating historical and experimental approaches to study island lizard evolution. Bioscience 57:585-597.

Losos, J.B. 2008. Phylogenetic niche conservatism, phylogenetic signal and the relationship between phylogenetic relatedness and ecological similarity among species. Ecology Letters 11: 995-1007.

Pinto, G., D.L. Mahler, L.J. Harmon, and J.B. Losos.  2008. Testing the island effect in adaptive radiation: rates and patterns of morphological diversification in Caribbean and mainland Anolis lizards.  Proceedings of the Royal Society B 275:2749-2757.

Gavrilets, S., and J.B. Losos. 2009. Adaptive radiation: contrasting theory with data. Science 323:732-737.

Losos, J.B., and R.E. Ricklefs. 2009. Adaptation and diversification on islands. Nature 457:830-836.

See complete publications list.

Courses Taught

Freshman Seminar 26g: Evolutionary Diversification and Adaptive Radiation: Anolis Lizards of the Caribbean
OEB 167: Herpetology
OEB 174r: Topics in Behavioral Ecology
OEB 222: The Ecology and Biogeography of Speciation
OEB 277: Adaptive Radiation
Science B-65: Evolution