How the zebra got its stripes is a mystery. I’m working to solve this mystery by identifying the genes responsible for striping and discovering what they can tell us about advantages that striping may have for zebras
The sediments at Virginia’s Carmel Church Quarry have yielded over 50 fossil species, including whales, sharks, turtles, crocodiles, sea cows, and land animals. We are trying to save these remains before they’re lost to erosion.
Evolution by natural selection has given rise to societies, altruism, empathy and kindness. Why and how did this happen? We are discovering new insights from a surprising source: the cooperative and intelligent vampire bat.
When the environment changes, why do some species survive and others vanish? We seek answers to this question in the past and present traces left by the four closely related members of the charismatic Callipepla quail.
Sharks are one of the most feared, yet imperiled creatures on our planet. We plan to tag and track sharks with satellite tags to identify their ‘hot spots’ for mating, feeding, and pupping, and to protect them at these sites.
Do restored and created wetlands recover their ability to store carbon in their soils? And if so, how long will it take? What can we do to increase carbon accumulation in soils of restored wetlands?
How do species interactions react to environmental changes? Microbes living within carnivorous pitcher plants can help us find the answer, if we develop good enough molecular tools to understand their biodiversity.
We will use DNA extracted from museum specimens of four bird species that went extinct in North America in the Twentieth Century to determine the sizes and distributions of their populations leading up to their final days.
Heritage language learners (HLLs) are students with a family language different from the majority language. I will investigate a school that has successfully integrated HLLs to uncover what methods are leading to their success.
Bonobos are our closest living relatives, but we know almost nothing about how they communicate. The research here aims to decode their vocalizations in order begin to unravel the mystery of the evolution of human language.
Much of our current understanding of how large mountain belts evolve is informed from study of the Himalaya. New ideas based on the Himalaya indicate that our traditional views of mountain building may be completely incorrect.
Fires are vital to savannas and we want to research the biodiversity impacts of different burning routines to develop optimal management of protected areas within the Serengeti Ecosystem.
Ants are the glue that hold forests together. But Madagascar’s hotspots of biodiversity are vanishing, and along with them unknown species. An estimated 40% of the island’s species have already perished through human encroachment.
For seven weeks each winter, we live on Isle Royale National Park, a remote island wilderness in Lake Superior, North America. Here we follow the lives of a population of wolves and moose that inhabit the island.
Jaguars are among the most charismatic and important large carnivores in Latin America. However, they have lost much of their range to human activities like logging, ranching, and hunting.
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