Dr. Jessica H. Arbour

Assistant Professor

Dr. Jessica H. Arbour
(615) 494-7621
Room 1067, Science Building (SCI)
MTSU Box 60, Murfreesboro, TN 37132
Office Hours

M/Th 10 to 11:30am, W 4 to 6pm or by appointment

Degree Information

  • PHD, University of Toronto (2015)
  • BS, Dalhousie University (2009)

Areas of Expertise

Ichthyology, Morphometrics, Biomechanics, Macroevolution, Phylogenetic Comparative Methods and R Programming

Biography

I received my doctoral degree from the University of Toronto in 2015, working with Dr. Hernan Lopez-Fernandez on the evolution and functional morphology of Neotropical cichlids. I was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Sharlene Santana's lab at the University of Washington from 2016 to 2019, studying skull shape and feeding biomechanics in bats. In my research I am interested in better understanding the uneven distribution of diversity across the tree of life, especially the diversity of for...

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I received my doctoral degree from the University of Toronto in 2015, working with Dr. Hernan Lopez-Fernandez on the evolution and functional morphology of Neotropical cichlids. I was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Sharlene Santana's lab at the University of Washington from 2016 to 2019, studying skull shape and feeding biomechanics in bats. In my research I am interested in better understanding the uneven distribution of diversity across the tree of life, especially the diversity of form and function. My work takes an integrative approach, applying comparative methods to data on biological shape, biomechanics, feeding ecology and behaviour to understand the relationship between adaptive divergence and the diversity of vertebrate radiations.

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Publications

18. S.E. Santana, Arbour J.H., Curtis, A., K.E. Stanchak. In Press. 3D Digitization in Functional Morphology: Where is the Point of Diminishing Returns? Integrative and Comparative Biology  

17. K.E. Stanchak, Arbour, J.H., and Santana, S.E. In Press. Anatomical diversification of a skeletal novelty in bat feet. Evolution  

16. Arbour, J.H., Curtis, A.A., Santana S.E. 2019. Signatures of echolocation and dietary ecology in the adap...

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18. S.E. Santana, Arbour J.H., Curtis, A., K.E. Stanchak. In Press. 3D Digitization in Functional Morphology: Where is the Point of Diminishing Returns? Integrative and Comparative Biology  

17. K.E. Stanchak, Arbour, J.H., and Santana, S.E. In Press. Anatomical diversification of a skeletal novelty in bat feet. Evolution  

16. Arbour, J.H., Curtis, A.A., Santana S.E. 2019. Signatures of echolocation and dietary ecology in the adaptive evolution of skull shape in bats. Nature Communications 10: 2036. 

15. Arbour, J.H. and López-Fernández, H. 2018. Intrinsic constraints on the diversification of Neotropical cichlid adductor mandibulae size. The Anatomical Record 301 (2):216-226   

14. Lee, W., Falk B., Chiu, C., Krishnan, A., Arbour, J.H., and Moss, C.F. 2017. Tongue-driven sonar beam steering by a lingual-echolocating fruit bat. PLoS Biology 15(12): e2003148  

13. Arbour, J.H. and Santana, S.E. 2017. A major shift in diversification rate helps explain macroevolutionary patterns in primate species diversity. Evolution 71(6):1600-1613.  

12. Arbour, J.H., and López-Fernández, H. 2016. Continental cichlid radiations: functional diversity reveals the role of changing ecological opportunity in the Neotropics. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 238: 20160556.  

11. Astudillo-Clavijo, V., Arbour, J.H. and López-Fernández, H. 2015. Selection towards different adaptive optima drove the early diversification of locomotor phenotypes in the radiation of Neotropical geophagine cichlids. BMC Evolutionary Biology 15:77

10. Arbour, J.H., & López-Fernández, H. 2014. Adaptive landscape and functional diversity of Neotropical cichlids: implications for the ecology and evolution of Cichlinae (Cichlidae; Cichliformes). Journal of Evolutionary Biology 27(11):2431-42.  

9. López-Fernández*, H., Arbour*, J.H., Willis, S., Watkins, C., Honeycutt, R., and Winemiller, K. 2014. Morphology and efficiency of a specialized foraging behavior, substrate sifting, in Neotropical cichlid fishes. PLoS ONE 9(3): e89832 [*joint first authors]  

8. Arbour, J.H., Barriga Salazar, R.E., López-Fernández, H. 2014. A new species of Bujurquina (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from the Río Danta, Ecuador, with a key to all species in genus. Copeia 2014(1):79-86.  

7. Arbour, J.H., and Brown, C.M.. 2014. Incomplete specimens in geometric morphometric analyses. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 5(1):16-26.  

6. Arbour, J.H., & López-Fernández, H. 2013. Ecological variation in South American geophagine cichlids arose during an early burst of adaptive morphological and functional evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280: 20130849.  

5. López-Fernández, H., Arbour, J.H., Winemiller, K. O. & Honeycutt, R. L. 2013. Testing for ancient adaptive radiations in Neotropical cichlid fishes. Evolution 67:1321-37.

4. Brown, C. M., Arbour, J.H. & Jackson, D. 2012. Testing of the effect of missing data estimation and distribution in morphometric multivariate data analyses. Systematic Biology 61: 941-954.  

3. Arbour, J.H., Hardie, D.C. & Hutchings, J.A. 2011 Morphometric and genetic analyses of two sympatric morphs of Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) in the Canadian High Arctic. Canadian Journal of Zoology 89: 19–30.  

2. Arbour, J.H. & López-Fernández, H. 2011. Guianacara dacrya, a new species from the rio Branco and Essequibo River drainages of the Guiana Shield (Perciformes: Cichlidae). Neotropical Ichthyology 9: 87–96.  

1. Arbour, J.H., Avendaño, P. & Hutchings, J.A. 2010. Aspects of the ecology and life history of Alligatorfish Aspidophoroides monopterygius. Environmental Biology of Fishes 87: 353–362.

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In the Media

https://www.washington.edu/news/2019/05/02/bats-evolved-diverse-skull-shapes-due-to-echolocation-diet/

https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/02/07/fruit-bats-echolocation-may-work-like-sophisticated-surveillance-sonar/

 

 

Courses

BIOL 4350/4351 - Biometry