Research

My research is focused on two main broad areas:

  • Evolutionary biology (particularly phenotypic evolution)
  • Geometric morphometric methods

I tend to have a combined methodological and biological perspective in my research because I believe that understanding – and improving, when possible – the tools we use is important to use them to the fullest, and to understand their limits.

Below, some of the themes I’ve been touching on in my research.

Sympatric speciation

Using Midas cichlid fish as a model system

Methods to study modularity

How can we test whether levels of modularity changes between groups of organisms?

Clinal phenotypic variation in the presence of gene flow

Using a widespread marine fish species as a model

Measurement error in geometric morphometrics

How much non-biological, artefactual, variation is introduced in geometric morphometric analyses, and what are its consequences?

Evolutionary consequences of phenotypic integration

How do the non-independence of different parts of an organism affect the evolutionary process?