Dr. Brian T. Smith • Insights into Avian Evolution from Natural History Collections • December 2023

Описание: Dr. Brian T. Smith • Insights into Avian Evolution from Natural History Collections • 7 pm • 12/12/23

Recent advances in genomic sequencing technology have provided an unprecedented window into the evolution of living birds. In this presentation Dr. Brian T. Smith, a curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History, will explore these advances by presenting an overview of his research program through a series of vignettes on the evolutionary history of parrots, the demography of extinction in North American birds, adaptation in woodpeckers, and efforts to complete the avian tree of life. These studies show that missing branches on the avian tree of life can now be confidently and rapidly resolved, museum specimens can be used in novel ways to address outstanding questions, and genomes contain clear signatures that help explain how birds have evolved across landscapes. He will conclude by advocating for the importance of natural history collections for the continued documentation of biodiversity for current and future generations.

Brian T. Smith is the curator-in-charge of the Department of Ornithology and associate professor at the Richard Gilder Graduate School of the American Museum of Natural History, and holds adjunct appointments at Columbia University and City University of New York. He received his B.S. degree and Ph.D. from the University of Nevada Las Vegas at the Marjorie Barrick Museum and was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science. He leads an active research group that conducts expeditionary fieldwork to study the evolution of birds using genomics and specimen-based techniques. By studying birds from around the globe he aims to discover the patterns, and ultimately the processes, that underlie the origins of birds. He is a proponent of using the global museum to play a fundamental role in the study of biodiversity in the past and present in order to build awareness about the natural world and the threats it faces.