Tyler Muller
Research Q & A
What’s your hometown?
My hometown is Buffalo, NY.
How did you get started/what drew you to your area of study?
My interest in phylogeography came from a mutual interest in fish evolution and geographic influences that drive early speciation. This discipline integrates historic geology and fish genetics to understand when and where species and lineages come from.
Why are you focusing your work in that area?
I am focusing my work in this area because many fish don’t conform to current models predicting fish speciation and dispersal between major river systems leading to complicated or impossible identification of many fish, some of which may contain cryptic undiscovered species.
Where are you working on research/field work?
I spent my last two summers collecting fish in 15 states mainly east of the Mississippi River, with a heavy focus in the Southeast. I also work out of natural history collections to take various measurements of these fish to help determine where I need to focus my sampling.
What is your favorite aspect of your research/work?
My favorite aspect of this project is traveling and witnessing new places and incredible biodiversity.
Tyler Muller in the Bell Museum fish collections.