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Matthew Chatfield
Ph.D. student
B.A., Department of Biology, The University of Chicago, 1998
U-M affiliation(s)
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Museum of Zoology
Contact information
University of Michigan
3091 Museums Building
1109 Geddes Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079
Phone: (734) 647-2207
Email: mattchat@umich.edu
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Fields of study
Speciation and herpetology
Research interests
The broader questions of my research involve the maintenance of species boundaries and hybrid zone dynamics. Hybrid zones have long been seen as “windows on the evolutionary process,” and are excellent systems in which to address the genetics of species boundaries. Salamanders of the family Plethodontidae are the most diverse and speciose of any salamander group in the world, comprising about two-thirds of all described species. The Southern Appalachians is one of two centers of diversity for this remarkable clade and contains numerous instances of incipiently diverging lineages. This makes the region well suited for studies of evolution, and especially of species boundaries. My study system is a series of hybrid zones among three species of plethodontids – Plethodon jordani, P. metcalfi and P. teyahalee – in the Great Smoky and Balsam Mountain Ranges of North Carolina. My immediate research questions incorporate both molecular and morphological markers, and are focused on the introgression of presumably positively selected traits.
Academic background
B.A., Department of Biology, The University of Chicago, 1998.
Advisors
Priscilla Tucker, Ronald Nussbaum
Lab Website
Tucker Lab
News
Chatfield named Honors Fellow
Matt Chatfield, EEB Ph.D. student, has been named an Honors Fellow by the LSA Honors Program. He will host a seminar on amphibian declines for undergraduate honors students in January featuring Dr. Elizabeth Jokusch of the University of Connecticut. He also plans an informal discussion about selected readings on the topic and a field trip to a local amphibian breeding site.
“What I hope most to accomplish is to instill an understanding of the problem and the magnitude of the amphibian extinction crisis,” said Chatfield.
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