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email:  michaelalfaro@ucla.edu
phone:  
office:   5217 LSB
lab:  

research interests:  vertebrate diversification and macroevolution (especially coral reef fishes), functional and evolutionary morphology, comparative methods, phylogenetics

Education

B.A., Dramatic Arts, University of Calilfornia, Davis 1989
M.A., Biology, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 1995
PhD, Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago 2000

Research Interests

The central goal of my research program is to understand the factors that govern the evolutionary dynamics of organismal diversification. Why are some groups morphologically diverse? Are there general laws or themes that can be used to explain the uneven distribution of diversity in physiological traits across lineages? Does morphological diversity always signal mechanical, functional, or ecological diversity? To address these questions, I work largely on marine fishes. My research approach is interdisciplinary and quantitative and crosses traditional boundaries among evolutionary morphology, molecular phylogenetics, and theoretical evolution. I identify and quantify organismal diversity using morphological and functional morphological techniques; construct evolutionary trees and test evolutionary hypotheses using phylogenetic statisticatl methods; and use models of trait evolution to explore form-function dynamics.

Selected Publications

Waltzek, T.B., Kelley, G.O., Alfaro, M.E., Kurobe, T., Davison, A.J. and Hedrick, R.P.. 2009. Phylogenetic relationships in the family Alloherpesviride Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 84: 179-194 .

Vincent, S.E., Brandley, M.C., Herrel, A. and Alfaro, M.E.. 2009. Convergence in trophic morphology and feeding performance among piscivorous natricine snakes J Evolution Biol 22: 1203-1211 .

Santini, F.S., Harmon, L.J., Carnevale, G.,and Alfaro, M.E.. 2009. Did genome duplication drive the origin of teleosts? A comparative study of diversification in ray-finned fishes BMC Evolutionary Biology 9: [link].

Alfaro, M.E., Santini, F., Brock, C.D.,Alamillo, H., Dornburg, A., Carnevale, G., Rabosky, D. and Harmon, L.J.. 2009. Nine exceptional radiations plus high turnover explain species diversity in jawed vertebrates PNAS 106: 13410-13414 .

Alfaro, M.E., Karns, D.R., Voris, H.K. and Stuart, B.L.. 2008. Phylogeny, evolutionary history, and biogeography of Oriental-Australian rear-fanged water snakes (Colubridae: Homalopsidae) inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 46: 579-593 .

Smith, L.L., Fessler, J.L. Alfaro, M.E., Streelman, J.T. and Westneat, M.W.. 2008. Phylogenetic relationships and the evolution of regulatory gene sequences in the parrotfishes Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 49: 136-152 .

Clark, J. R., R. H. Ree, M. E. Alfaro, M. G. King, W. L. Wagner, and E. H. Roalson. 2008.. 2008. A comparative study in ancestral range reconstruction methods: retracing the uncertain histories of insular lineages Syst Biol 57: 693-670 .

Herrel, A., Vincent,S.E., Alfaro, M.E., Vanwassenbergh, S., Vanhooydonck, B. and Irschick, D.J.. 2008. Morphological convergence as a consequence of extreme functional demands: examples from the feeding system of natricine snakes J Evolution Biol 21: 1438-1448 .

Collar, D.C., Wainwright, P.C. and Alfaro, M.E.. 2008. Integrated diversification of locomotion and feeding in labrid fishes Biol Lett 4: 84-86 .

A. Dornburg, F. Santini, and M. E. Alfaro.. 2008. The influence of model averaging on clade posteriors: An example using the triggerfishes (Family: Balistidae) Systematic Biology 57: 905-919 .