Windsor Aguirre

Windsor Aguirre's lab is broadly interested in studying the early stages of evolutionary diversification and how different factors facilitate or constrain evolution. Most of the research in the lab involves fishes, with projects taking place in a variety of geographic locations from tropical (e.g., Ecuador) to temperate (e.g., Alaska, Chicago)  ecosystems. Many different tools are used to tease apart the complexity of biological systems, including geometric morphometrics to study morphological variation and molecular markers to study genetic variation.

Research projects in the lab are quite diverse and include studies of the evolution of body form of closely related fishes adapting to different habitats, the impact of human-mediated habitat transformation on fishes, and the evolutionary history and population genetic structure of Neotropical fish species. A major focus of the lab involves studying how the axial skeleton responds to the evolution of body form as populations adapt to different habitats, the functional significance of these changes, and the underlying developmental mechanisms. The lab is also conducting basic research on the ecology and evolution of freshwater fish species in western Ecuador.