OEB Thesis Seminar

Title:Terrestrial Life in the Paleozoic: An Integrated Analysis of Body Fossils, Trace Fossils, and Biomarkers Abstract: The Carboniferous Period (359-299 million years ago) represents a critical interval in Earth's history, marked by the diversification...

Title: The ‘Sprawling-to-Parasagittal’ Transition: Evolution, Function, and Development of the Mammalian Hip Joint Abstract: Extant mammals navigate diverse habitats around the planet with a wide array of locomotor ecologies, yet nearly every species has...

Title: Mate choice in Phlox wildflowers Abstract: Mate choice determines when, where, and how reproduction occurs. The summed effect of these decisions across generations drives evolutionary trajectories and patterns diversity across biological scales...

Title: From the lab to the field: studying fish locomotor dynamics using animal-borne dataloggers Abstract: Understanding how animals move is essential to understanding where and why animals move. However, most current studies of animal biomechanics are...

Title: The molecular origins and implications of genomic structural variation in deer mice Abstract: Understanding the origins and evolution of genome architecture is a central goal in biology. Nonetheless, genomic structural variation within species...

Title: Macroevolution of Gene Expression in Passerine Birds Abstract: A key objective of evolutionary biology is to decipher the molecular mechanisms driving phenotypic diversity. While genomes provide the informational foundation of life, gene expression...

Title: Inferring species phylogeny and gene flow from genomic data Abstract: Species do sometimes exchange genetic material. This process of gene flow between species, also known as introgression, can bring benefits to the recipient species, potentially...

Title: Spatiotemporal dynamics, neural circuitry, and environmental context of decision-making in Drosophila melanogaster Abstract: My thesis examines the intricate dynamics of decision-making in Drosophila melanogaster across three different contexts. In...

Title: Morphology, function and taphonomy of Lower Paleozoic trilobites and their close relatives: insights from North American konservät-lagerstätten Abstract: Eurthropods are extremely abundant and diverse in the word today, living in a broad range of...

Title: Evolution of genomic diversity in natural microbial populations Abstract: Life on Earth is immensely diverse. The largest fraction of genomic diversity is encoded in the uncultivated and understudied microbial populations that inhabit every corner...