Our Research

I am an integrative tropical biologist interested in the evolution, ecology, and distribution of fishes. While most of my work centers around the systematics, taxonomy, and historical biogeography of fishes, I collaborate with scientists active in areas of study such as paleontology, physiology, genomics, environmental science, and behavior. I view interdisciplinary approaches as offering the most for enhancing our understanding of biodiversity. I work primarily with Neotropical freshwater fishes in Mexico, Central America, and the Greater Antilles.

Over several decades of collecting throughout the Neotropics, as well as continuous development of new analyses, we are now able to incorporate many types of data and approaches to better understand the diversity and distributions of fishes. Nearly every aspect of my research is collections-based and relies heavily on specimens housed in museums, as well as my own recent collections. In addition to work on fishes, I am also deeply interested in systematic theory and the use of morphological characters in phylogenetic reconstruction, as well as in-depth studies of incongruence between morphological and molecular hypotheses of phylogeny.

Ongoing research projects

• Diversification and biogeography of freshwater fishes in the Northern Neotropics of Middle America

• Systematics and morphology of Neotropical cichlids

• Comparative population genomics of widespread freshwater species across Neotropical river basins

• Role of salinity tolerance in the diversification of freshwater fishes

• Impact of climate change and sea level in shaping biogeographic patterns in aquatic ecosystems

• Using historical museum collections to study change over time in fishes and aquatic environments