Beth Okamura

Life Sciences, Natural History Museum London

My interests are in the ecology and evolution of animals whose life cycles contrast with those of traditionally studied and familiar animal systems. I am particularly fascinated by drivers of dispersal, diversification and local adaptation, the opportunities and constraints of coloniality, the evolution of endoparasitism, and how parasites exploit colonial hosts. To gain insights into these issues my research focuses on highly clonal freshwater bryozoans at the population and species levels, the spectacular radiation of endoparasitic cnidarians known as the Myxozoa, and the role of waterbirds in the dispersal of free-living freshwater invertebrates and their parasites.