current post-doc and PhD positions within the group are advertised on our research website,

and on Twitter @BuryingBeetle

Our research investigates how social evolution generates biodiversity. We're specifically interested in how parental behaviour contributes to the evolutionary process through its effects on genetic and phenotypic diversity; through the way in which parents act as agents of natural selection; and through the diverse ways in which parents might even promote speciation.

This is important because evolutionary biology can play a key role in addressing conservation problems. It can potentially predict which species will flexibly adapt in a changing world, for example, as well as how rapidly evolutionary change can arise and whether the loss of a single species can precipitate a collapse in local biodiversity.

Our current research focuses mainly on burying beetles, though we continue to study bird species as well.

Our main collaborators are Dr Naomi Langmore (Australian National University), Dr Sheena Cotter (University of Lincoln), Dr Cassie Stoddard (Harvard), and Dr Martin Welch (Dept of Biochemistry, Cambridge).