Dr Katie E. Davis

Research

Research

Overview

I am an evolutionary palaeobiologist with a particular interest in the patterns and processes that led to the diversity of life we see on Earth today. My research aims to understand long-term patterns of biodiversity through the integration of macroevolution and macroecology over broad temporal and spatial scales. I use data from phylogeny, fossils and the geological record to investigate how biota have responded to environmental change through deep time and how this information can inform knowledge of extinction risk and potential biotic responses to climate change. I have a particular interest in vertebrates and coral reefs but work on a wide range of organisms and environments.

Beyond my immediate research area I am interested more broadly in many aspects of palaeobiology, ecology, evolution and conservation. Recent and current collaborations include projects on parrot conservation, dinosaur evolution, disparity methods in palaeobiology, and insect life histories.

Biodiversity change in the fossil record

Much of my research focuses on past biodiversity change, exploring the drivers of speciation and extinction over macroevolutionary timescales. In particular, I am interested in past climate change, ecological transitions, and biotic interactions as drivers of diversification.

Fig. 1: A phylogeny of mosquitoes showing that their speciation rate rapidly increased at about 30-24 million years ago, coincident with the radiation of mammals (red bar), which are their primary hosts (Tang et al., 2018).

The importance of fossils and the geological record

The geological record acts as a natural laboratory, providing information on the relationship between climate and biodiversity change. Only by looking at these past interactions can we better understand how human-induced climate change might be expected to further shape life on Earth. And if we want a full understanding of these past interactions we need to include fossils in phylogenies, as this is the only mechanism by which we see a clearer picture of past speciation and extinction in the absence of human activity.

Fig. 2: Left panel - Speciation rates for marine invertebrates (hermit crabs and their relatives) showing that global cooling drove increased diversification over macroevolutionary timescales in marine species (Davis et al., 2016). This has implications for future biodiversity in today’s rapidly warming world. Right panel – hermit crab in Antigua (photo credit: Katie Davis).

Numerical methods in evolution and palaeobiology

I am also interested in methods and numerical techniques in palaeobiology and phylogenetics. Previous work has included methods in constructing supertrees (large synthetic phylogenies) and methods of time-scaling phylogenies.

Fig. 3: Left panel - A supertree of parrots time-scaled using molecular dates (Burgio et al., 2019). Right panel – wild budgerigars in Carnarvon, Western Australia (photo credit: Jon Hill).

References

Burgio KR, Davis KE, Dreiss LM, Cisneros LM, Klingbeil BT, Presley SJ, Willig MR. 2019. Phylogenetic supertree and functional trait database for all extant parrots. Data in Brief 24: 103882.

Davis KE, Hill J, Astrop TI & Wills MA. 2016. Global cooling as a driver of speciation in a major marine    clade. Nature Communications 7: 13003.

Tang C, Davis KE, Delmer C, Yang D & Wills MA. 2018. Elevated atmospheric CO2 correlates     with increased rates of diversification in mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae). Communications Biology 1:182.