Macroevolutionary transitions at scales of ecological and phylogenetic change

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The proposed research program seeks to examine macroevolutionary changes of palaeoecological and anatomical evolution. While macroevolution is broadly considered as evolution above the species level, the proposed research program will focus on multiples scales within ecological and anatomical evolution to work toward bridging the units of change underlying each scale. Research at the palaeoecological level will examine how external factors, such as area, climate and latitude, correlate with changing terrestrial community composition, provinciality, and fragmentation throughout different temporal scales throughout the Mesozoic Era (250 - 65 million years ago) and spatial scales within Canada and throughout the Americas. Research of anatomical evolution will estimate the tempo and mode of morphological transitions of the radical skeletal transformations of the appendiculum (arm and leg) across the fish fin to tetrapod limb and dinosaur arm to bird wing transitions and what developmental mechanisms may have been responsible for those morphological changes. By combining research at the community and lineage level, these approaches to macroevolutionary change strive to discover what forces shape macroevolutionary events, derive new methods to integrate macroevolutionary changes at their many temporal and spatial scales, and provide an interdisciplinary environment for graduate student training.