Selected recorded talks

Conference talk (Macroevolution V) presenting a computer vision workflow for large-scale digitization of avian skeletal morphology. Describes use of convolutional neural networks (including U-Net and Mask R-CNN approaches) to extract linear measurements from museum specimens with low error (reported RMSE ~0.89 mm). Introduces the Skelevision pipeline and outlines integration with multivariate phylogenetic models to detect shifts in high-dimensional phenotypic evolution across passerine radiations.

Invited seminar applying a ‘Phylogenetic Natural History’ framework to integrate genomic and paleontological data in macroevolutionary inference. Focuses on molecular heterogeneity around the K–Pg boundary, shifts in substitution dynamics and base composition, and their implications for life-history evolution, metabolic scaling, and interpretation of diversification tempo.

Invited seminar discussing the ‘rocks versus clocks’ problem in avian evolutionary history and evidence for pronounced heterogeneity in molecular evolution near the K–Pg boundary. Frames a ‘molecular early burst’ hypothesis linking genomic shifts across coding and noncoding regions to life-history evolution, body mass, and metabolic scaling following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

Department seminar presenting genomic evidence for heterogeneity in avian molecular evolution across exons, introns, untranslated regions, and mitochondrial genomes near the K–Pg boundary. Highlights correlations between genomic shifts and macroevolutionary changes in developmental mode, body mass, and metabolic allometry.

Conference talk discussing evidence for heterogeneous molecular evolution in birds across genomic compartments near the K–Pg boundary. Explores implications for divergence-time estimation, developmental transitions, and macroevolutionary rate shifts.

Guest lecture for University of Michigan Paleobiology course covering avian systematics and phylogenomics. Reviews historical morphology-based classification, the transition to genome-scale data, and evidence for rapid early-Cenozoic radiation of crown birds.

Seminar examining how statistical diversification models can yield spurious correlations under model misspecification. Uses simulations to demonstrate that weak correlations between traits and molecular evolutionary rates can generate artifactual associations with speciation rates, potentially explaining some reported large-scale diversification gradients.

Invited seminar integrating genomic, anatomical, and life-history data to bridge microevolutionary processes and macroevolutionary patterns in birds. Emphasizes uncertainty-aware inference across data types.

Conference talk presenting genomic phylogeographic analysis of Pseudopipra pipra using ddRAD and mitochondrial DNA data. Demonstrates population structure aligned with Neotropical landscape barriers, evidence for Andean origins with subsequent Amazonian diversification, and support for a species complex with multiple independently evolving lineages.

PhD defense seminar recording (Part 1 of a playlist).

Ernst Mayr Award finalist presentation delivered at Evolution 2018.