​Principal Investigator -- Paúl M. Velazco, Ph.D.

My research interests revolve around reconstructing relationships among mammals, from the population to suprafamilial level, and using the resulting phylogenetic hypotheses to test and revise evolutionary and biogeographic patterns. Most of my current work focuses on the bat superfamily Noctilionoidea, one of the most ecologically diverse groups of mammals.
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My approach combines morphological and molecular data and a wide array of techniques and analyses to answer questions relevant to the evolution of mammals, including but not restricted to scanning electronic microscopy, micro computed tomography, linear and geometric morphometrics, as well as divergence-time, historical biogeography, phylogenetic, population genetics, and ecological niche analyses.
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© Marco Tschapka

Current Lab Members

  • Andrea Vira ('24): Population genetics of bats of the genus Platyrrhinus (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae).
  • Connor Scholl ('24): Geometric morphometrics of the Neotropical bats of the genus Vampyrodes (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae).
  • Kyra Peroni ('24): Bat activity and diversity in ​the Arcadia campus.
  • Lucy Klumpp ('24): Systematics of the family Thyropteridae (Chiroptera). 
  • Madi Lush ('25): Bat activity and diversity in ​the Arcadia campus.
  • Olivia Beling ('25): Systematics of the subfamily Lonchophyllinae (Chiroptera). 
  • Riley Johnson ('26 - Delaware Valley University): Geometric morphometrics of the Neotropical bats of the genus Vampyrodes (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae).

Past Lab Members

  • Olivia Honert ('22): Bat activity and diversity in an urban area in the coastal desert of western Peru.
  • Grace Ly ('22): Geometric morphometrics of the Neotropical bat Platyrrhinus umbratus (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae).
  • Anthony Muscella ('22): Influences of ecology and biogeography on shaping the distributions of the bats of the Glossophaga commissarisi species complex.
  • Matthew Field ('22): Ecological niche modeling of the fulvous owl (Strix fulvescens) suggests future range contractions.
  • Julia McAllister ('22): Geometric morphometrics of the Broad-nosed bat Platyrrhinus dorsalis (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae).
  • Faith Hoos ('21): Geometric morphometrics of the Neotropical bats of the genus Vampyrodes (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae).

Past members at AMNH, UdeA (Colombia), and UDLA (Colombia)

  • ​Leison Palacios Mosquera (Master thesis advisor. Universidad de la Amazonia, Colombia. 2015-2018). Master thesis: Posición filogenética y análisis de la variación morfológica de Platyrrhinus chocoensis (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Defended January 2018.
  • Katherine Turchin (AMNH. NSF SRMP, Hunter College High School. Fall 2015-Spring 2016). Project: Assembling Data for the Mammal Tree of Life – Pantolestes natans (Mammalia: Pantolestidae).
  • Shivam Khatri (AMNH. NSF SRMP, Packer Collegiate Institute. Fall 2015-Spring 2016). Project: Assembling Data for the Mammal Tree of Life – Taeniolabis taoensis (Mammalia: Multituberculata).
  • Devin Hoffman (AMNH. NSF REU, Appalachian State University. Summer 2015). Project: Assembling Data for the Mammal Tree of Life.
  • Alexandra Buczek (AMNH. NSF REU, Brown University. Summer 2014). Project: Assembling data for the tree of life.
  • Beth Gerstner (AMNH, Undergraduate intern, City University of New York. 2012-2014). Project: Bat skull and dental morphology.
  • Lucy Gill (AMNH. NSF REU, Columbia University. Summer 2013). Project: Phylogenetic relationships of extant and extinct New World leaf-nosed bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae).
  • Hannah O’Neill (AMNH. NSF REU, Brown University. Summer 2012). Project: A new chiropteran fossil fauna from the Dominican Republic.
  • James Proffitt (AMNH. NSF REU, University of California, Santa Barbara. Summer 2011). Project: Evolutionary relationships of living and fossil vampire bats.
  • Susan Tsang (AMNH, Graduate intern, City University of New York. 2010-2011). Project: Bat dental morphology.
  • Dani Saks (AMNH. Undergraduate intern, Columbia University. 2010). Project: Noctilionoid dentition.
  • Noa Krawczyk (AMNH. NSF REU, Hunter College, City University of New York. Summer 2010). Project: Placing teeth into bat phylogeny.
  • Danny Zurc (Undergraduate thesis advisor. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia. 2006-2007). Thesis: Información adicional sobre algunas especies del género Carollia Gray, 1838 (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) recientemente descritas de Colombia. Defended January 2007.
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Katya & Shivam -- AMNH-SRMP 2015-2016
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Devin -- AMNH-REU 2015
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Alexandra -- AMNH REU 2014