Research interests:

Phelsuma ornata, a coastal species from Mauritius. Community ecology of day geckos (Phelsuma) in the Indian Ocean.
My thesis work involves studying the community ecology of day geckos. As the name implies, day geckos are a unique group of (mostly) diurnal geckos. They live in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Indian Ocean. So far, my field work has concentrated on Phelsuma in Mauritius and surrounding islands, but I plan to expand my study to include species in Madagascar and other island groups.


More information
Pictures of day geckos


This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DEB-0309361. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Comparative study of adaptive radiations
Adaptive radiations have played an important role in generating the diversity of species found on Earth. However, due to the idiosyncratic nature of particular adaptive radiations, it has been difficult to make general conclusions about adaptive radiations. My collaborators and I have been developing methods applicable across diverse taxa which can be used to study the history of species diversification and accumulation of morphological disparity in such radiations.

More information - coming soon
Furcifer pardalis. This individual is from an introduced population in Ile de la Reunion.