Drivers of Rapid Phenotypic and Species Diversification

AOS Research Grant Seminar

Presenter: Jenna McCullough, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Natural History Museum of Los Angles County and University of California, Los Angeles; AOS 2025 Kessel Fellowship winner

As an evolutionary biologist and ornithologist, I study the tempo and mode of avian evolution—why some bird lineages diversify rapidly while others do not. Natural history museums provide a powerful foundation for addressing these questions by preserving the phenotypic, genomic, and ecological record of life through time, allowing us to connect microevolutionary processes with macroevolutionary patterns. My work spans broad phylogenetic, geographic, and phenotypic scales, linking mechanisms underlying trait evolution—such as color production—to their diversification across species and clades. In this talk, I will discuss how I use geographic radiations across the Indo-Pacific to revisit historical theories of island evolution and speciation through the lens of modern genomic and phenotypic technologies.

More about the Research Grant Seminar Series