Trevor Price, University of Chicago

Professor Chicago, Illinois pricet@uchicago.edu Office: (773) 702-5176

Expert In

Bird speciation Conservation of Himalayan birds Phylogenetics and community ecology Quantitative genetics Sexual selection and speciation

Bio/Research

We study the causes and consequences of speciation in birds. We combine field research, mostly in India, with molecular lab work (e.g., phylogeny reconstruction) and some theoretical studies. Major questions include: What is the role of songs and plumage patterns in speciation? Why are there twice as many species breeding in the eastern Himalayas as the western Himalayas? What sets range limits of species? How do closely related parapatric species interact at their mutual range limit? Much of our ongoing research is on the genus Phylloscopus, or Old World Leaf Warblers, chosen because multiple coexisting species are extremely similar to each other. By studying the differences in ecology, song, plumages and displays, both within single communities and across regions, we can begin to understand the contribution of these traits to speciation. A second active area of research in our lab concerns avian color vision, about which we know very little, except that birds can see into the UV. We have been studying opsin expression and evolution across the passerine birds, to ask if tuning can be related to habitat and/or the species colors.

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