Christy Anna Hipsley
I am a guest researcher and PhD student from the University of California , Santa Cruz . Because of my interests in both paleontology and the evolution of modern reptiles, Johannes Müller and I are collaborating in an effort to combine these fields using techniques from comparative anatomy, phylogenetics, and evolutionary ecology. Specifically, I am interested in the relationship between climate change and diversification (i.e. speciation and extinction), and how an organism's ecology influences developmental and morphological change. I choose to use squamates as a model system, because they are diverse (lizards, snakes, amphisbaenians), widespread (every continent except Antarctica ), and have a long evolutionary history dating back to the Mesozoic (~230 Mya).
For my doctoral thesis, I investigate the role of Cenozoic climate change on the evolution of a large family of lizards in Africa , the Lacertidae. African lacertids have a unique species richness pattern in which their highest diversity is found in deserts north and south of the equator, despite being spread throughout the continent. This is particularly surprising given that desert lacertids are thought to be evolutionarily younger than their temperate and tropical relatives, suggesting increased speciation rates in arid habitats. To identify the environmental and evolutionary factors underlying this pattern, I use a combination of phylogenetic, morphological, and ecological approaches to estimate timing and rates of diversification for the main lineages, and to test if historical shifts in ecology, morphology, and rates of diversification coincide with paleoclimatic events.
I recently received funding from the National Science Foundation to study lacertid lizards in the field. Check out our NEWS link for photos!
Contact
Museum fuer Naturkunde
Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung
an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Invalidenstr. 43
10115 Berlin
Germany
+49 30 20938766
christy.hipsley[at]mfn-berlin.de