The University of Arizona
Insect Science: the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program
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Chris A. Schmidt

Chris A. Schmidt

Bio Sketch

Research Interests:

My research interests broadly span the study of biodiversity and the study of ants. In particular, I am interested in the use of statistical molecular phylogenetics to understand the evolution of ants and other organisms. My dissertation focuses on the phylogenetic relationships among ponerine ants, a mainly tropical group of ants which displays fascinating morphological, ecological, and social diversity. As a first step in studying the origin of this diversity, I am using genetic data to reconstruct the historical relationships among the different ponerine groups and am using information from fossils and paleogeography to understand the biogeographic history of the group. With this information in hand I plan to revise the higher taxonomy of the subfamily and study the evolution of ponerine morphology, ecology, and behavior. I am also interested in phylogenetic theory, and plan to work on new techniques for the Bayesian estimation of phylogeny which will allow for more flexible model selection, model averaging, and data partitioning.