Department of Biological Science

Biological Science Faculty Member

Lemmon Lab Page

Professor
Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin, 2007
Graduate Faculty Status

Research and Professional Interests:

One of the most exciting questions in biology is How do new species arise? This question has intrigued and fascinated biologists from Darwin to the present. The goal of my research program is to gain insight into the proximate and ultimate causes of speciation in order to understand the origin of biodiversity. I employ an integrative approach to studying speciation, which involves several fields of biology, including behavioral ecology, evolutionary neuroscience, phylogenetics, population genetics, genomics, and ecology. I use amphibians as model systems for studying this process, focusing primarily on North American and South American taxa.

Current projects in the Lemmon Lab include (1) studying speciation-in-action driven by reinforcement in contact zones, (2) investigating divergence of neural circuits that underlie mating behaviors during speciation, (3) uncovering the evolutionary causes and consequences of biofluorescence in frogs, and (4) developing new genetic approaches for population genomics.

Selected Publications:

Waldron, B. P., E. F. Watts, D. J. Morgan, M. M. Hantak, A. R. Lemmon, E. Moriarty Lemmon, S. R. Kuchta. 2024. The limits of the metapopulation: Lineage fragmentation in a widespread terrestrial salamander (Plethodon cinereus). Systematic Biology syae053.

Dye, M., A. R. Lemmon, E. Moriarty Lemmon. 2024. Female chorus frogs delay mate choice under suboptimal environmental conditions. Animal Behaviour 209:215-226.

Brennan, I.G., A. R. Lemmon, E. Moriarty Lemmon, C. J. HOskin, S. C. Donnellan, J. Scott Keogh. 2024. Populating a continent: phylogenomics reveal the timing of Australian frog diversification. Systematic Biology 73:1-11.

Booker, W. W., E. Moriarty Lemmon, A. R. Lemmon, M. B. Ptacek, A. T. B. Hassinger, J. Schul, H. C. Gerhardt. 2023. Biogeography and the evolution of acoustic communication in the polyploid North American grey treefrog complex. 

Anderson, C. B, O. Ospina, P. Beerli, A. R. Lemmon, and E. Moriarty Lemmon. 2023. The population genetics of speciation by cascade reinforcement. Ecology and Evolution 13:e9773.

Booker W. W., E. Moriarty Lemmon, A. R. Lemmon, M. B. Ptacek, A. T. B. Hassinger, J. Schul, H. C. Gerhardt. 2022. The complex history of genome duplication and hybridization in North American gray treefrogs. Molecular Biology and Evolution 39:msab316.

Ospina, O. Lemmon, A. R. Lemmon, M. Dye, C. Zdyrski, S. Holland, D. Stribling, M. L. Kortyna, E. Moriarty Lemmon. 2021. Neurogenomic divergence during speciation by reinforcement of mating behaviors in chorus frogs (Pseudacris). BMC Genomics 22:1-23.

Warwick, A., L. Barrow, M. Smith, D. Means, A. R. Lemmon, E. Moriarty Lemmon. 2021. Signatures of north-eastern expansion and multiple refugia: genomic phylogeography of the Pine Barrens Treefrog, Hyla andersonii, (Anura: Hylidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 133:120–134.

Cai, L., Z. Xi, E. Moriarty Lemmon, A. R. Lemmon, A. Mast, C. E. Buddenhagen, L. Liu, C. C. Davis. 2021. The perfect storm: gene tree estimation error, incomplete lineage sorting, and ancient gene flow explain the most recalcitrant angiosperm clade, Malpighiales. Systematic Biology 70:491–507.

Brennan, I. G., A. R. Lemmon, E. Moriarty Lemmon, D. M. Portik, V. Weijola, L. Welton, S. C. Donnellan, J. S. Keogh. 2021. Phylogenomics of monitor lizards and the role of competition in dictating body size disparity. Systematic Biology 70:120–132.

Hime, P. et al. 2021. Phylogenomics reveals ancient gene tree discordance in the Amphibian Tree of Life. Systematic Biology 70:49–66.

Banker, S. E., Alan R. Lemmon, A. Bigelow Hassinger, M. Dye, S. D. Holland, M. L. Kortyna, H. Ralicki, E. Moriarty Lemmon. 2020. Hierarchical Hybrid Enrichment: multi-tiered genomic data collection across evolutionary scales, with application to chorus frogs (Pseudacris). Systematic Biology 69:756–773.

Graduate Students: