Our programmes interlock: a robust phylogeny underpins everything, from drawing species boundaries to tracing biogeographic history, testing what drives diversification, safeguarding genetic diversity, and reading genomes for the signatures of adaptation.
Watch the films & talks →We apply phylogenetic methods to clarify the taxonomic position of challenging groups, and to delimit species using a combination of molecular, morphological, behavioural and ecological data.
The aim is to identify both cryptic species (lineages hidden within what looks like a single species) and the evolutionarily significant units that are essential targets for conservation. Getting the taxonomy right is the foundation everything else is built on.
We investigate how past climatic and geological events have shaped species distributions across the Indian subcontinent.
By combining phylogenetic analyses with distribution data, we reconstruct evolutionary histories and identify the biogeographic barriers (mountain ranges, river systems, aridification) that drive genetic divergence and speciation across a wide range of taxa.
We explore the ecological and evolutionary drivers of diversification, and how key traits promote adaptive radiations.
Using comparative phylogenetic methods, we assess how morphological, behavioural and physiological traits evolve across clades, and how evolutionary innovations influence lineage success and the expansion of ecological niches.
We study how habitat fragmentation and anthropogenic pressures impact genetic diversity and evolutionary processes in natural populations.
By combining population genomics with molecular-evolutionary analyses, we assess gene flow, selection and demographic change, translating evolutionary insight into conservation that protects not just species, but the genetic diversity within them.
We investigate the genomic basis of potentially adaptive traits by integrating comparative genomics, phylogenetic analyses, and tests of natural selection.
By comparing genomes across diverse species, we identify genes and evolutionary pathways associated with ecological adaptation, behavior, physiology, and life-history traits. Our work aims to uncover how genetic changes contribute to phenotypic diversity and evolutionary innovation across lineages.
Sampling expeditions from the Western Ghats to the Northeast, documenting and collecting across challenging terrain.
Sanger sequencing through to reduced-representation and whole-genome data, generated and curated in-house.
Bayesian and maximum-likelihood inference, divergence dating and comparative analysis on high-performance computing.
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