Armin Moczek - Novelty in development and evolution

Armin Moczek - Conservation, innovation, and the origins of novelty in development and evolution: case studies on horned beetles

The Moczek lab addresses a fundamental question in biology: how do novel phenotypic traits originate and diversify in nature? His group uses a wide range of approaches to address this question from different perspectives, and on different levels of biological organization. They use behavioral and ecological approaches in the lab and field on experimental and natural populations to understand when and how ecological processes can drive phenotypic evolution.

The Moczek lab study organisms have been primarily beetles in the genus Onthophagus. They have also begun to address related questions in other organisms, in particular the beetle family Lampyridae (fireflies, lightening bugs) and Drosophila, and are open to add additional organisms to our repertoire.