Linking ecology and evolution
Throughout my career, I have conducted extensive fieldwork in Mexico and Australia, as well as in parts of Asia and the USA. You can see some older photos from those trips in the Home tab. Here, I will post updates on the fieldwork that lab members have taken part in since the lab’s founding.
Veracruz, Mexico (November 2025)
We visited the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, one of the best-conserved tropical rainforest in Mexico. Our goal was to collect valuable samples for research into the environmental drivers of divergence in Sumichrast’s Skink and the Brown Basilisk. We failed to find any skinks, but got lucky with the basilisks. Fried plantain was a big highlight of the trip.
Oaxaca, Mexico (June 2025)
This trip targeted blue-tailed skinks in the Sierra Madre del Sur and Sierra de Juárez. We collected valuable samples of an apparently microendemic, parapatric lineage. Our first-hand experience in the field helped us gain some insight into the ecological factors that have promoted speciation. We were also thrilled to have observed the rare frog Sarcohyla cembra and the first live individual of the snake Rhadinella donaji.
Laos (February 2025)
This was an exciting trip with an international team including researchers from Laos, the USA, and Mexico. We surveyed populations of the endangered Laos Warty Newt, and actually recorded a new locality for the species! The data and samples collected during this trip will be used for the conservation of this beautiful species. It was also great to make new friends over some Beer Lao and sticky rice.
Veracruz and Oaxaca, Mexico (July 2024)
Our main target of the trip was the bizarre Mexican Blind Lizard, the only dibamid in the Western Hemisphere. We were lucky to find a female during our first morning in the field. This fresh sample is being used to get an annotated genome for this oddball in collaboration with Rutgers University. I was glad to see this species that had been on my bucket list for a long time, even when food poisoning was the price to pay.
