Welcome to my lab website. I am a fish biologist and functional morphologist interested in processes and mechanisms of diversification at many levels. I have a particular fondness for coral reef fish, function and diversity of the fish skull, and I like to take a strongly phylogenetic approach to studying the history of morphological and functional diversification, especially when this can be linked to ecological consequences. My lab group includes a diverse array of talented biologists with specific interests in evolutionary ecology, phylogenetics, biomechanics, and anatomy. Most of our work involves comparisons of species, but we also work at the level of populations.

The major topics that we are currently studying include the diversification of fish feeding mechanisms, mechanisms of diversification of functional morphology, the evolution of fish body shapes, diversification of fish swimming behavior, and general principles in morphological evolution.

 

Wainwright Lab (November 2023)