Dr. Gustavo Bravo

Dr. Gustavo Bravo – The Natural History and Diversification of Neotropical Suboscine Birds

Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

The suboscines passerines represent almost 15% of the world’s avifauna. One in three Neotropical bird species is a suboscine, making this the perfect group to examine the origins of tropical biodiversity. Many species are widely distributed and can occur in various habitats, whereas others are geographically restricted and exhibit varying degrees of ecological specialization. Thus, suboscines are an ideal group to deepen our knowledge of Neotropical avian ecology and evolution. In this talk, I will cover the latest findings regarding the diversification of suboscines based on cutting-edge genomic research, and I will discuss how they impact our understanding of natural history, species distribution, phenotypic evolution, and taxonomy.

Dr. Gustavo Bravo is a Research Associate in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. He got his BSc. at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia, and his PhD at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Dr. Bravo has broad interests in the ecology and evolution of birds. His research goals are to understand the evolutionary mechanisms underlying the diversification, phenotypic evolution, historical biogeography, and distributional patterns of birds. Specifically, he is interested understanding how the interaction between phenotypes and the environment affects patterns of diversification across time and space. He integrates genetic, phenotypic, ecological, behavioral, and distributional data obtained directly in the field, in the lab, and in scientific collections.

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