Servedio Lab
left to right: Alicia Frame, Joel Adamson, Maria Servedio, Jonathan Rowell, Machteld Verzijden, Sumit Dhole, Amanda Chunco
One of the fundamental mysteries in biology from the time of Darwin to the present day is how to explain the vast scope of extant biodiversity, estimated today at around 10 million species. Biologists are still determining how species originate, how they coexist, and even how a “species” should best be defined. Linked into this research is one of the greatest challenges in environmental biology: how do we maintain current biodiversity? In addition to directly extirpating species, anthropogenic changes can also shift species ranges, causing contact between closely related species and potentially leading to extinction or to fusion of species pairs through extensive hybridization.
My research centers on determining the evolutionary mechanisms that produce and maintain biodiversity. One of the most powerful and fundamental mechanisms maintaining species integrity for co-occurring and closely related animal species is species-specific mate choice. I concentrate on this particular mechanism in my work. As background for this research, another major portion of my studies centers on addressing fundamental questions in mate choice evolution. In addition to these two major foci, several side projects address other questions of interest in evolution and behavior, including work on the evolution and effects of learning.
I conduct my research by developing mathematical models both to test hypotheses and to generate new ones. Because of the historical nature of evolutionary biology, theoretical models have long been an essential component of research in this field. Such models usually concentrate on addressing general questions rather than modeling evolution in a specific species.
To learn more about work in a particular area, see Research:
Overview
