 Dan Rabosky
Research Overview
I study evolutionary diversification in the broad sense. My interests range
from the role of ecological interactions in the speciation process to factors that
determine the fates of clades over epochal timescales. I'm especially interested
in understanding why evolutionary radiations so often show radically different
outcomes. Why do some groups of organisms have so many species, and why do so many
other groups have so few species? Likewise, why do some groups show so much more
ecological and phenotypic diversity relative to other groups? These patterns are
ubiquitous across the spectrum of biological diversity, yet their causal basis
remains poorly understood.
My work in this area involves both comparative analyses of diversification as
well as the development of analytical tools for hypothesis testing. A sampling of
questions I'm working on at the moment: what factors influence rates of speciation
and extinction during radiations, and how can we study them with molecular
phylogenies? Do speciation rates during evolutionary radiations show diversity
dependence? How can we combine inferences from molecular phylogenies and the
fossil record to understand the dynamics of speciation and extinction through
time? Do rates of phenotypic evolution vary during evolutionary radiations, and
how can we infer these rates?
I also study ecological and lineage diversification in the Australian skink (=
lizard) genus Ctenotus. With approximately 100 described species, Ctenotus is one
of the most diverse genera of terrestrial vertebrates. We have shown that Ctenotus
is characterized by exceptionally high rates of diversification relative to other
lineages of Australian skinks. Many fascinating questions remain. Why have these
groups experienced such explosive diversification? What are the relative roles of
geographic isolation and ecological interactions in Ctenotus speciation? What are
the links between the aridification of Australia and diversification in Ctenotus
and other groups of Australian vertebrates?
Selected Publications
Rabosky, D. L. 2009. Ecological limits and diversification rate: alternative
paradigms to explain the variation in species richness among clades and regions.
Ecology Letters 12: 735-743.
Rabosky, D. L. 2009. Heritability of extinction rates links diversification
patterns in molecular phylogenies and the fossil record. Systematic Biology, in
press.
Rabosky, D. L., and A. R. McCune. 2009. Reinventing species selection with
molecular phylogenies. Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
Doi:10.1016/j.tree.2009.07.002.
Rabosky, D. L., and U. Sorhannus. 2009. Diversity dynamics of marine planktonic
diatoms across the Cenozoic. Nature 457:183-186.
Rabosky, D. L. 2009. Ecological limits on clade diversification in higher taxa.
American Naturalist 173:662-674.
Rabosky, D. L., A. L. Talaba, S. C. Donnellan, and I. J. Lovette. 2009.
Molecular evidence for hybridization between two Australian desert skinks,
Ctenotus leonhardii and Ctenotus quattuordecimlineatus (Scincidae : Squamata).
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 53:368-377.
Rabosky, D. L. and I. J. Lovette. 2009. Problems detecting density-dependent
diversification on phylogenies: reply to Bokma. Proceedings of the Royal Society
of London, Series B 276:995-997.
Rabosky, D. L., and I. J. Lovette. 2008. Density dependent diversification in
North American wood-warblers. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B
275: 2363-2371.
Rabosky, D. L., and I. J. Lovette. 2008. Explosive evolutionary radiations:
decreasing speciation or increasing extinction through time? Evolution
62:1866-1875.
Rabosky, D. L., S. C. Donnellan, A. L. Talaba, and I. J. Lovette. 2007.
Exceptional among-lineage variation in diversification rates during the radiation
of Australia's largest vertebrate clade. Proceedings of the Royal Society of
London, Series B 274:2915-2923.
Rabosky, D. L, J. Reid, M. A. Cowan, and J. Foulkes. 2007. Community-wide
overdispersion of body size in Australian desert lizard communities. Oecologia
154:561-570.
Rabosky, D. L. 2006. LASER: a maximum likelihood toolkit for detecting temporal
shifts in diversification rates from molecular phylogenies. Evolutionary
Bioinformatics Online 2:257-260.
Rabosky, D. L. 2006. Likelihood methods for inferring temporal shifts in
diversification rates. Evolution 60:1152-1164.
Rabosky, D. L, K. P. Aplin, S. C. Donnellan, and S. B. Hedges. 2004.
Molecular phylogeny of blindsnakes (Ramphotyphlops) from Western Australia and
resurrection of Ramphotyphlops bicolor (Peters, 1857). Australian Journal of
Zoology 52:531-548.
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