Fernando Melendez Vazquez

Graduate Student

Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma

The main goal of my research is to better understand the evolutionary origins of endothermy in ray-finned fishes using an array of ecological, phylogenetic, and genomic analyses. I am working on a comprehensive tree that incorporates all endothermic ray-finned fishes and through  phylogenetic comparative analyses, understand how and why endothermy is constrained to such a small group of species and what physiological and ecological factors contribute to its development. Additionally, through whole genome sequencing, I am planning to identify the genes responsible for endothermy and see which genes are constrained to certain clades and which genes are shared among all endothermic ray-finned fishes.