Parque Nacional Soberania, Panama

Our lab carries out studies in the areas of evolutionary biology, genetics and molecular systematics. Our principal research interest is biogeography and history-based analysis of community assembly, diversification and maintenance. We have focused our attention on two regional community assemblages:1) the birds of the Lesser Antilles 2) the neotropical freshwater fishes of lower Central America. The lab uses the tools of molecular biology to infer the phylogenetic and demographic histories of the taxa comprising these avian and freshwater fish communities. Because we are interested in the tempo as well as the mode of evolutionary change in these communities, we also study the behavior of molecular clocks. Our molecular clock studies have tended to focus on the molecular divergence between marine species pairs found on either side of the isthmus of Panama.

Our lab is part of the Naos Laboratories located near the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal in the Republic of Panama. The lab is part of STRI's Molecular Systematics and Evolution Group along with the labs of Haris Lessios, Nancy Knowlton and a visiting scientists laboratory.

The last five publications from Bermingham

The last five publications from Bermingham's lab