I am a postdoctoral fellow in Dan Rubinoff’s lab with interests in the fossil record, morphological evolution of Lepidoptera, and parthenogenesis in the context of sexual antagonism. I am particularly interested in the early fossil record of Pterygota and the early evolution of Lepidoptera. My research into both fossils and moths revolves largely around wings. During geologic intervals that predate major amber deposits, the fossil record of insects consists primarily of wings. When studying extant Lepidoptera my main focus has been on wing morphology: veins and color patterns. My university degrees are in Art History, Entomology, and Geology, and I enjoy conducting research that spans these disciplines. During the past few years I have been particularly interested in the question of whether we can pinpoint true evidence of absence in the fossil record, and more generally, what the fossil record can and cannot tell us.

Evaluating putative fossil gaps for Lepidoptera and Pterygota: A comparative approach

The fossil record of winged insects (Pterygota) is famously incomplete; the fossil record of Lepidoptera, all the more so. The ages of both Pterygota and Lepidoptera remain contentious because both undoubtedly originated before their first known appearances in the fossil record. Time-calibrated molecular phylogenetic studies present an available but imperfect alternative to a direct reading of the fossil record for estimating clade ages. Certain age estimates suggest that both Pterygota and Lepidoptera evaded fossilization for tens of millions of years during their early histories. However, whereas Pterygota appear to have diversified rapidly following the origin of wings, Lepidoptera appear to have diversified more slowly. Pterygota are unknown from the fossil record until ~325 Ma, shortly after which the major groups such as Holometabola appear and quickly outnumber all other terrestrial arthropods. In contrast, the few dozen fossil Lepidoptera known from the first ~100 Myr of the group's history have all been assigned to Monotrysia.

Keywords: Fossil, phylogeny, Mesozoic, diversification