We are pretty smitten with the natural world, both the patterns of plant and animal diversity, and the processes that underlie their form, function, and distribution. Of course, it is evolution that has shaped all these aspects and we focus on answering our specific questions using an evolutionary framework.
As Darwin recognized, one of the best ways to understand evolution is to study domestication. The process of turning wild wolves, aurochs and boar into chihuahuas, cattle, and miniature pigs is evolution writ small, and the relatively short time frame over which this has occurred allows us to study the process at multiple levels of biological organization, from genes to whole organisms
Studying domestication also allows us to investigate the human condition and the history of civilization since the modern world is predicated on the close relationship between us, and a variety of familiar plants and animals. Looking into the origins of these relationships and by using domestic animals as a proxy for humans, we can glean a great deal about the times and places domestication began, and the routes people first took when they first set off traveling with their newly acquired best friends.
Investigating these issues often takes us into fascinating new territory and we are currently involved in projects spanning disciplines as diverse as ecology, island biogeography, molecular clocks, taxonomy, functional genomics, phylogenetics, and one day we are going to solve the Cambrian Explosion by studying skateboard shapes. One day.
Research
