Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology Research Group

We aim to discover, inventory and classify biodiversity and to understand the evolutionary processes underlying animal diversification. We develop strategies and best practices for the inventory, discovery and description of biodiversity, using state-of-the-art phenotypic, genetic data and bioinformatics approaches. We apply homology-based classification techniques based on morphological, molecular and behavioral data, and develop theoretical foundations for taxonomic inference. To investigate the evolutionary process of diversification we use molecular phylogenetics, phylogeography and population genetics, as well as NGS-based genomic data, to address questions pertaining to evolutionary biology, ecology and systematics. We are interested in the relative roles of historical and ecological factors in promoting population structuring, speciation, adaptation, and the evolution of life-history traits in a broad range of vertebrate and invertebrate animals at a global scale.