Richard Glor

Glor's research investigates the origins of species diversity, primarily through studies of West Indian anole lizards. His early work in this area was primarily phylogeographic, and revealed that many widespread anole species are comprised of genetically, and sometimes ecologically and phenotypically, distinct populations, some of which may be represent previously unrecognized species. These observations led to an interest in understanding the contributions of historical, geographic, and ecological processes to divergence in nature, which ultimately involved combining data on geographic variation with molecular genetic data and environmental niche modeling (Wang, Algar, Glor and Werren). Recently, Glor's studies of speciation in anoles have been focused primarily on a fascinating group of trunk anoles found on Hispaniola. By combining studies in nature with classical genetic experiments in the laboratory, he is conducting integrative studies of speciation and reproductive isolation. In addition to this work on speciation, he also is interested in understanding macroevolutionary patterns of species diversity through reconstruction of phylogenetic trees. This work has resulted in the first multilocus phylogenetic hypothesis for anoles (Alfoldi). Using phylogenetic trees, his work also has revealed the consequences of adaptive radiation for species diversification and ecological and morphological divergence (Mahler, Rabosky).