The Johnson Lab

Host parasite systems provide an opportunity to study the interface between microevolutionary processes and macroevolutionary patterns. The goals of my current research center around recovering the coevolutionary history of birds and their ectoparasitic lice. The degree of cospeciation varies across different groups of lice. By understanding how ecological differences between groups might cause differences in coevolutionary history, we can start to predict macroevolutionary patterns from microevolutionary processes.