Classes taught
- General Biology I for Science Majors (BIO 191)
- General Biology II for Science Majors (BIO 192)
- Biostatistics (BIO 206)
- Developmental Biology (BIO 330/430)
Research Interests
My research focuses on investigating the ecological and evolutionary dynamics that influence phenotypic diversity in vertebrates, with a particular emphasis on understanding how developmental interactions can shape morphological evolution via trait modularity and integration.
I am particularly interested in how changes in the level of integration (the degree of covariation among sets of traits) can influence morphological disparity and the rate of morphological evolution. To this end, I use a variety of approaches to illuminate how and why different vertebrate taxa exhibit differences in taxonomic, trophic, and morphological diversity, such as: geometric morphometrics, gene expression analysis, quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis, and phylogenetic comparative analysis. The goal of my research is to gain a more holistic understanding of how developmental, morphological, and functional parameters contribute to constraining or facilitating vertebrate biodiversity. Analyzing these factors together will provide a means to test how certain trait complexes have arisen, persist, and perform as a unit.
Select Publications
Conith, AJ, Hope, SA, and Albertson, RC. 2023. Covariation of brain and skull shapes as a model to understand the roles for crosstalk in development and evolution. Evolution & Development. 25(1): 85-102.
Conith, AJ, Meagher, MA, and Dumont, ER. 2022. The influence of divergent reproductive strategies in shaping modularity and morphological evolution in mammalian jaws. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 35(1): 164-179.
Conith, AJ, and Albertson, RC, 2021. The cichlid oral and pharyngeal jaws are evolutionarily and genetically coupled. Nature Communications. 12(1): 5477.
Conith, AJ, Hope, SA, Chhouk, BH, and Albertson, RC, 2021. Weak genetic signal for phenotypic integration implicates developmental processes as major regulators of trait covariation. Molecular Ecology. 30(2): 464-480
Conith, AJ, Kidd, MR, Kocher, TC, and Albertson, RC, 2020. Ecomorphological divergence and habitat lability in the context of robust patterns of modularity in the cichlid feeding apparatus. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 20(1): 1-20.
Professional Society Memberships
- Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)