University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Evolution of behavior, life histories, and morphology involves the study of the evolution of organismal attributes that underlies understanding of the mechanisms and processes associated with the origins and function of adaptations within species and of biodiversity more generally. Approaches include direct study and comparison of behaviors, life histories and morphologies of sets of related taxa and phylogenetic mapping procedures to trace the evolution of these characters within lineages.

• Thore Bergman:
  • Thore Bergman's research interests are in social behavior, vocal communication and sexual selection
• Liliana Cortés-Ortiz:
  • Liliana Cortés-Ortiz integrates genetic, cytogenetic, morphological, and behavioral approaches to understand the evolution and diversification of primates and to establish primate conservation strategies. Her current research includes systematic and phylogeographic investigations of Neotropical primates and the study of hybridization in two well-defined sister species of howler monkeys.
• Robert Denver:
  • Robert Denver studies the proximate and ultimate mechanisms by which animal hormones control development through epigenetic modulation, and thereby mediate environmental effects on phenotypic expression (developmental plasticity). His interests include hormones as mediators of environmental effects on development, physiology and behavior and their function in linking variation in the environment, genotype and phenotype to selection and evolution by regulating gene expression.
• Thomas Duda:
  • Thomas Duda investigates the processes associated with ecological diversification. This work includes field and laboratory studies that involve analyses of feeding ecology, phylogenetics and phylogeography, and molecular investigations of the evolution of venoms of members of the predatory, marine gastropod genus Conus.
• Timothy James:
  • Timothy James' research addresses mating and recombination in fungi using molecular techniques. He particularly focuses on the evolution of fungal mating incompatibility systems, as well as the evolution of alternatives to traditional sexual reproduction such as heterokaryosis and mitotic recombination. He studies organisms including mushrooms, water molds and pathogens such as the agent of amphibian chytridiomycosis.
• L. Lacey Knowles:
  • Lacey Knowles' research interests are in speciation, phylogeography and evolutionary radiations.
• Diarmaid Ó Foighil:
  • Diarmaid Ó Foighil's research interests are in invertebrate evolution and systematics, and malacology.
• Daniel L. Rabosky:
  • Daniel Rabosky studies macroevolution, speciation, and evolutionary community ecology. He is especially interested in how ecological factors influence the processes of speciation, extinction, and trait evolution through time and space. His research includes field-based studies of ecological diversification in Australian reptiles, molecular phylogenetics, and mathematical and computer modeling of evolutionary dynamics in a broad range of taxonomic groups. (Joins U-M EEB Sept. 2012)
• Elizabeth Tibbetts:
  • Elizabeth Tibbetts explores the proximate and ultimate factors that influence animal behavior. Her current areas of research include communication, sexual selection, hormone-mediated life history tradeoffs, the evolution of sociality and insect learing.
• Paul Webb:
  • Paul Webb uses comparative approaches to study biomechanics and physiological-ecology, exploring ideas in ecology, especially among fishes and in marshes. His current research focuses on how turbulence affects habitat choice among organisms, marsh development and shoreline structure.
• Earl Werner:
  • Earl Werner's interest focuses on the nature of species interactions and the consequences of these interactions within the structure of ecological communities. His research utilizes larval amphibian communities as a model system for experimental work. He also studies the cross-scale interactions influencing dynamics of amphibian and macroinvertebrate meta-communities based on a long-term data series collected from 37 ponds on the university's E. S. George Reserve.

Italics = secondary appointment in EEB, can serve as graduate co-chair only