Academics

Faculty & Staff

Liam Revell, PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Biology -- Phylogenetics; Evolutionary Biology; Herpetology
  • Telephone: (617) 287-7259
  • Website: Click to view website
  • Office Location: W-03-015

Areas of Expertise

Phylogenetics; Evolutionary Biology; Herpetology. Research in my lab is concentrated in two main areas: computational method development for phylogenetics (primarily phylogenetic comparative biology); and evolutionary ecology of reptiles. I am presently conducting most of my computational method development in the R language and statistical computing environment and I developed, support, and maintain an extensive, multifunctional R phylogenetics library, 'phytools.' Students and postdocs in my lab are presently conducting research on tropical reptiles. For instance, we are studying adaptation to urban environments in Puerto Rican Anolis lizards; and we are investigating the evolutionary diversification and conservation genetics of an imperiled clade of Caribbean boas.

Degrees

PhD, Harvard Univeristy, 2009 (Organismic and Evolutionary Biology)
MA, Washington University, 2006 (Evolution, Ecology, and Population Biology)
BA, summa cum laude, Boston University, 2003 (Biology)

Professional Publications & Contributions

  • Revell, L. J. and R. G. Reynolds. In press. A new Bayesian method for fitting evolutionary models to comparative data with intraspecific variation. Evolution. Revell, L. J. 2012. phytools: An R package for phylogenetic comparative biology (and other things). Methods in Ecology and Evolution 3: 217-223.
  • Slater, G. J., L. J. Harmon, D. Wegmann, P. Joyce, L. J. Revell, and M. E. Alfaro. 2012. Fitting models of continuous trait evolution to incompletely sampled comparative data using Approximate Bayesian Computation. Evolution 66: 752-762.
  • Sanger, T. J., L. J. Revell, J. J. Gibson-Brown, and J. B. Losos. 2012. Repeated modification of early limb morphogenesis programs underlies the evolution of relative long bone length variation among Anolis lizards. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B 279: 739-748.
  • Revell, L. J., D. L. Mahler, P. R. Peres-Neto, and B. D. Redelings. 2012. A new phylogenetic method for identifying exceptional phenotypic diversification. Evolution 66: 135-146.
  • Kolbe, J. J., L. J. Revell, B. Szekely, E. D. Brodie III, and J. B. Losos. 2011. Convergent evolution of phenotypic integration and its alignment with morphological diversification in Caribbean Anolis ecomorphs. Evolution 65: 3608-3624.
  • Revell, L. J. 2010. Phylogenetic signal and linear regression on species data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 1: 319-329.
  • Mahler, D. L., L. J. Revell, R. E. Glor, and J. B. Losos. 2010. Ecological opportunity and the rate of morphological evolution in the diversification of Greater Antillean anoles. Evolution 64: 2731-2745.
  • Lindenfors, P., L. J. Revell, and C. L. Nunn. 2010. Sexual dimorphism in primate aerobic capacity: A phylogenetic test. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 23: 1183-1194.
  • Johnson, M. A., L. J. Revell, and J. B. Losos. 2010. Behavioral convergence and adaptive radiation: Effects of habitat use on territorial behavior. Evolution 64: 1151-1159.
  • Lovely, K. R., D. L. Mahler, and L. J. Revell. 2010. The rate and pattern of tail autotomy in five species of Puerto Rican anoles. Evolutionary Ecology Research 12: 67-88.
  • Revell, L. J., D. L. Mahler, J. R. Sweeney, M. Sobotka, V. E. Fancher, and J. B. Losos. 2010. Nonlinear selection and the evolution of variances and covariances for continuous characters in an anole. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 23: 407-421.
  • All publications can be found at: http://faculty.umb.edu/liam.revell/research/

Additional Information

Professional Experience
Postdoctoral Fellow
National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), Durham, North Carolina