In the marine environment, there are few obvious geographic boundaries, yet populations become differentiated and species evolve.  Understanding these processes in cetaceans is especially challenging because species have vast geographic distributions and individuals are highly mobile.  Yet, this basic understanding is essential for management purposes.  Our research uses variation in mitochondrial and nuclear loci to investigate genetic differentiation in these animals on an evolutionary scale, among populations, within social groups, and between the sexes.

However, we are not dedicated exclusively to the study of marine mammals.  We also work with other creatures, big and small, marine or terrestrial...