DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Phenotypic and niche evolution in the antbirds (Aves, Thamnophilidae)

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA

Investigators

Abstract

The fundamental research goal of this project is to understand the relative roles of evolutionary history, geography, and ecology in producing the morphological and behavioral diversity of the antbirds (Thamnophilidae), a species-rich group of birds that inhabit lowland tropical forests of South and Central America. The integration of genetic data with morphological, behavioral, ecological, geographic, and environmental data for every species in the group will allow increased understanding of differences in vocalizations, shapes, sizes, and species numbers within the antbirds. Understanding why some groups of organisms are more diverse than others, and why some groups exhibit more behavioral and morphological variation, is a central goal of evolutionary biology. It is well known that diversity does not evolve uniformly over time, and that differences in morphological and behavioral diversity are often correlated with the number of species in the group. It remains unclear, however, to what extent the evolution of behavioral and morphological diversity promotes the creation of new species. The integration of genetic, geographic, ecological, behavioral and morphological information, along with cutting-edge analytical approaches, in this project will allow insights into the mechanisms that generate and maintain biological diversity in the Neotropics.