Dr. Diarmaid Ó Foighil

It’s an exciting time to be a biologist.  Ongoing theoretical and technical advances across broad areas of biological research are greatly expanding the scope of investigation for evolutionary studies and numerous classic questions concerning the origin and maintenance of biotic diversity are now being meaningfully tested for the first time.  The Mollusca are enormously diverse, have an excellent fossil record, and play central roles in almost all of the earth’s ecosystems.  As a result, outstanding exemplar molluscan taxa can be targeted for most primary questions in the overlapping disciplines of evolution, systematics and biogeography.

If you are interested in graduate school and in working on molluscs, drop me a line at diarmaid@umich.edu

Although my background has been in marine systems, since moving to Ann Arbor 10 years ago I have also become very interested in freshwater and terrestrial taxa.  See below links to recent grants and publications.

Jack Burch, Taehwan Lee and I are presently engaged in collaborative project with the Zoological Society of London on the conservation biology and systematics of this highly endangered malacofauna.  Thanks to Jack’s historical samples, we aim to reconstructive the evolutionary history of this fauna and provide a phylogenetic perspective to guide ongoing conservation efforts. See the popular Whyfiles article on this research.

NSF DBI-0447142. Computerization of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Mollusk Collection

Liath Appleton, Erin Norris,  Kristen Matta  and I have just initiated an ambitious 4 year project to produce an online searchable database for the UMMZ Mollusk Collection: http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/mollusks/databases/

NSF OCE-0099084.  Caribbean Scorched Mussel Speciation

Taehwan Lee and I have placed the scorched mussel Gulf/Atlantic genetic disjunction into a regional phylogenetic perspective by incorporating genotypes of nominal conspecifics sampled throughout the Caribbean Basin as well as those of eastern Pacific potential geminate species.  Our results show it to be one of multiple latent regional genetic disjunctions, involving five cryptic Caribbean species, that appear to be the product of a long history of regional cladogenesis. Surprisingly, the Atlantic clade was also found to be widespread in the southern Caribbean and ancestral demography calculations through time for Atlantic coast-specific genotypes are consistent with a northward range extension after the last glacial maximum.  Our new data seriously undermine the hypothesis of a Floridian vicariant genesis and imply that the scorched mussel Gulf/Atlantic disjunction represents a case of geographic and temporal pseudocongruence.  All five Caribbean Basin cryptic species exhibited an intriguing pattern of predominantly allopatric distribution and our data favor the hypothesis that this is maintained, over evolutionary timescales, primarily by post-recruitment ecological filters rather than by oceanographic barriers to larval-mediated gene flow.

Walther, A.C., T. Lee, J.B. Burch and D. Ó Foighil. 2006. E Pluribus Unum: A Phylogenetic and Phylogeographic Reassessment of Laevapex (Pulmonata: Ancylidae), a North American Genus of Freshwater Limpets. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 40:501-516.

 Walther, A.C., T. Lee, J.B. Burch and D. Ó Foighil. 2006. Confirmation that the North American ancylid limpet Ferrissia fragilis (Tryon, 1863) is a cryptic invader of European, and East Asian, freshwater ecosystems. Journal of Molluscan Studies 72:318-321.

 Lee, T. and D. Ó Foighil.  2005. Placing the Floridian marine genetic disjunction into a regional evolutionary context using the “scorched mussel” Brachidontes exustus species complex. Evolution 59:2139-2358.

Lee, T., S. Siripattrawan, C. Ituarte and D. Ó Foighil. 2005.  Invasion of the clonal Clams: Corbicula lineages in the New World. American Malacological Bulletin. 20:113-122.

Lee, T. and D. Ó Foighil.2004.  Hidden Floridian biodiversity: mitochondrial and nuclear gene trees reveal four cryptic species within the scorched mussel, Brachidontes exustus, species complex. Molecular Ecology 13:3527-3542.

Kirkendale, L., T. Lee, P. Baker and D. Ó Foighil. 2004. Oysters of the Conch Republic (Florida Keys); a Molecular Phylogenetic Study of Parahyotissa mcgintyi, Teskeyostrea weberi and Ostreola equestris. Malacologia. 46: 309-326.

Tongkerd, P., T. Lee, S. Panha, J.B. Burch and D. Ó Foighil. 2004.  Molecular Phylogeny of Thai Micro Land Snails (Stylommatophora; Pupillidae; Gastrocoptinae) Inferred from Mitochondrial and Nuclear Ribosomal Gene Trees. Journal of Molluscan Studies 70: 139-147.

Bieler, R., P. Mikkelsen, T. Lee and D. Ó Foighil. 2004. Discovery of the Indo-Pacific oyster Hyotissa hyotis in the Florida Keys (Gryphaeidae; Bivalvia). Molluscan Research.  24:149-159.

S. A. Webb, J. A. Graves, C. Macias-Garcia, A. E. Magurrana, D. Ó Foighil and M. G. Ritchie. 2004. Molecular phylogeny of the live bearing Goodeidae (Cyprinodontiformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 30:527-544.

Lee, T. and D. Ó Foighil.  2003. Phylogenetic Structure of the Sphaeriinae, a Global Clade of Freshwater Bivalve Molluscs, Inferred from Nuclear (ITS-1) and Mitochondrial (16S) Ribosomal Gene Sequences. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 137: 245-260.

Lee, T. and D. Ó Foighil.  2002. 6-Phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (PGD) allele phylogeny is incongruent with a recent origin of polyploidization in some North American Sphaeriidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 25:112-124.