This Is Auburn
  1. AUETD Home
  2. Browsing Auburn University Graduate School by Author

Browsing Auburn University Graduate School by Author "Oaks, Jamie"

Now showing items 1-12 of 12

Adaptation and Plasticity in Damselfishes (genus Abudefduf) separated by the Central American Isthmus 

Tracy, Claire Beckmann (2025-12-11)  ETD File Embargoed
Marine ecosystems are characterized by having substantial differences in abiotic conditions at small spatial scales. The organisms that are exposed to these variable environments must have the capacity to respond to the ...

Body shape evolution of African/Asian minnows of the genus Labeo Cuvier 1817 (Cyprinidae, Labeonini) and variations in Labeo parvus 

Liyandja, Tobit (2018-07-30)
Morphological variation or similarities among organisms are not only a result of common evolutionary history but can also emerge because of convergent adaptations to similar habitats. Therefore, an organism’s morphology ...

Characterizing the Chemical and Structural Basis of Animal Coloration from an Evolutionary Perspective 

Justyn, Nicholas (2023-04-20)
Many questions regarding how animals produce their striking range of colors remain unanswered, particularly when pigments and structures are combined. In this dissertation, I completed four studies centered around ...

The comparative evolution of developmental plasticity across Anolis lizards 

Muell, Morgan Renee (2025-11-25)
Developmental plasticity describes the sensitivity of phenotypes to early-life environmental conditions, and occurs widely across organisms and traits. Depending on the spatial and temporal environmental context, developmental ...

Developing omics and cell culture resources in non-model organism for their application in elucidating complex trait evolution in natural populations. 

Clark, Amanda (2022-08-15)
In the past, researchers chose models organisms to answer research questions based on their simplicity in morphology, domestication, and/or life history traits. Now, with high throughput sequencing (HTS) rapidly becoming ...

Evolution and Speciation in North American Toads 

Cobb, Kerry (2023-12-04)
Understanding speciation, the evolutionary process by which new species evolve, is a central goal of evolutionary biology. Yet many important questions regarding this process remain unanswered. In this dissertation, I ...

Evolution of deuterostome immune systems 

Tassia, Michael (2021-09-10)
Contemporary theory on the evolution of metazoan immune systems is primarily derived of work on a few historically established model species (including Drosophila, human, and mouse). Though these species have provided ...

The Evolution of Live Birth and the Insulin and Insulin-like Signaling Network in Sceloporus Lizards 

Westfall, Aundrea (2018-07-18)
Transitions to live birth have occurred in approximately 150 different vertebrate lineages, with 115 of these alone within the clade encompassing snakes and lizards. Many questions remain about how this transition occurs ...

Evolutionary Ecology of Loricariid Catfishes 

Black, Corinthia (2022-07-25)
How extrinsic (like functional constrains and ecological interactions) and intrinsic (like modularity and integration) interactions drive diversification is a formative area of evolutionary biology. In this dissertation, ...

Evolutionary ecology of stripe-necked musk turtles (Sternotherus peltifer) in the Cahaba River drainage 

Welc, Matthew (2021-04-27)
Stripe-necked musk turtles (Sternotherus peltifer) are one of the least-studied species of the southeastern United States’ diverse turtle fauna. Despite this, the environmental variation that exists within their geographic ...

Genomic Analyses of Hybridization and Speciation in Macaques 

Bailey, Nick (2023-05-01)  ETD File Embargoed
Speciation, the origin of species, is a process fundamental to producing the current diversity of life, and has been a central subject of evolutionary biology for the past century. Hybridization, the mating of individuals ...

Venom allergen-like protein diversification in flatworms 

Sipley, Breanna (2019-07-16)
Flatworm Venom Allergen-like Proteins (VAPs) modulate mammalian and avian host immune responses, but their evolutionary origins and functions within symbioses (especially parasitism) remain poorly studied. Previous studies ...