My research program is currently focused on the evolutionary and biogeographic history of various mammalian taxa, particularly those restricted to desert regions of western North America. My research combines molecular genetic, and genomics approaches with fieldwork and museum studies to understand questions related to biological diversity.

The biogeographic questions I address deal with dynamic evolutionary forces and the resulting spatial and temporal patterns. I examine taxa at various evolutionary depths that are distributed at different spatial scales, from locally restricted populations to continentally distributed species & genera.

Over time, as populations are geographically separated from each other, they begin to diverge genetically, ultimately occupying separate evolutionary lineages. As these differences progress and are reinforced by biotic and abiotic process, the taxa become more and divergent, ultimately forming separate species (or genera, families, etc.).

We can assess these genetic difference to try to understand the evolutionary forces that have driven both the divergences as well as the current distributions of the taxa. In order to address these questions, I use a combination of various molecular techniques, including DNA sequencing (surveying both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA) and other analyses of molecular evolution, coupled with models of habitat change over time. I can use the sequence data to reconstruct the evolutionary histories of the taxa, exploring the effects of gene flow, population structure, hybridization, introgression to explore the phylogeography, systematics, and phylogenetics of the various taxa.

Insight into these questions allows us to better understand the origin and evolution of biological diversity as well as the complex interaction among organisms and between organisms and the environment. This knowledge allows us to better conserve and maintain this biodiversity, which is ultimately important for the preservation of healthy ecosystems.