Research in the Pfennig lab currently focuses on the following general questions:

1. (1)What is phenotypic plasticity’s role in evolution?
   

2. (2)How and why do living things diversify?
   

3. (3)What are the causes and consequences of convergent evolution, especially mimicry?
   

4. (4)How and why do organisms identify their kin?
   

To address these questions, we use a variety of approaches, including field and lab experimentation and observation, population genetic surveys of natural populations, and phylogenetic analyses.  Much of our work focuses on organisms (primarily, but not exclusively, amphibians) that display polyphenism, where a single genome produces alternative phenotypes in response to different environmental cues.

For more details about our lab, click on the various links at the top of this page.