What do broad evolutionary patterns of organismal traits tell us about the mechanisms of change? This question outlines a theme that our lab addresses through study of repeated patterns in organismal lineages. This approach extends the concept of "model organism" such as Xenopus laevis along a new axis, the "model clade." Put another way, studies using phylogeny are essential to a full understanding of evolution.

Projects in the lab are wide-ranging but linked by this model clade perspective. Past research by lab members has encompassed phylogenetic estimation from diverse datasets, strategies for taxon sampling, ontogeny and morphological diversification, evolution of communication systems, and functional constraints on feeding in snakes and gliding in lizards.

Practically, these projects involve DNA sequencing, fieldwork in wild and exciting places, recording calls of frogs, morphological studies of bones and muscles, and photographing amphibians.

Current projects include:

• Biodiversity in the Neotropics, with emphasis on the Andes, Brazilian Cerrado, Venezuelan Tepuis, and Amazonian lowlands
• Evolution of Acoustic Communication in Frogs
• Speciation in Contact Zones
• Mimicry, Diet Specialization and Origin of Defense in Poison Frogs
• Molecular Phylogeny of Amphibians
• Secondary Structure of rRNA
• Morphological Evolution
• Biogeography of Southeast Asia