Marguerite Butler, Ph.D. 

Associate Professor

Functional Morphology, Biomechanics, Phylogenetics, Macroevolution, Modeling, and Statistics

email: mbutler@hawaii.edu

At the simplest level, I am interested in how animals function, and the interaction between morphological design (what variations can animals have), environmental needs (or selective pressures), and evolutionary history (phylogeny).

I am especially interested in sexual dimorphism, especially where males and females differ in ways that are important for function or ecology. Sexual dimorphism is a great phenomenon to study because it not only provides a window into the biology of a species, but also can help us to understand the functional significance of morphological variation.

Why does a feature evolve? Is it a result of natural selection? Testing hypotheses of natural selection and adaptation requires flexible and powerful analytical methods. I work on phylogenetic methods which aim to combine phylogenetic relationships (or species pedigree) with our ideas of biological process to explicitly model the tempo and mode of evolution.