Andrew Furness

Welcome! My training is in the field of evolutionary biology and my research seeks to understand the evolution of life cycles, life histories, parental care strategies, and reproductive systems - both in terms of ecological selective pressures and evolution through intermediate stages. I use a variety of approaches including phylogenetic comparative methods, field and laboratory experiments, and molecular methods. Specifically, I have studied: 1) the evolution of an annual life cycle in African and South American killifish adapted to life in aquatic pools that completely dry out each year, 2) the repeated evolution of placentation in the live-bearing fish family Poeciliidae, and 3) the evolution of amphibian parental care and life history diversity.

I am currently a fish biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Maryland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office. Prior to this position, I was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Hull working in the lab of Isabella Capellini. Before that I was a NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. My postdoctoral advisor was John Avise. I completed my Ph.D. at the University of California, Riverside under the guidance of David Reznick.