Mercedes Burns, "Reproductive diversity in harvestmen: molecules, morphology, macroevolutionary dynamics"

Abstract: Reproduction is among the most critical of life’s processes, and its attendant behaviors and traits present a compelling level of diversity to biologists. My research takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of reproductive diversity, focusing at the population and macroevolutionary scales to understand the mechanisms that guide the evolution of reproductive traits and behaviors. Using harvestmen (“daddy-longlegs”) as a model system, I will discuss efforts to identify evolutionary transitions in mating system using modern comparative methods, the use of biomechanics to characterize genitalic functional morphology, and ongoing work on the ecological drivers of sexual conflict.