Jamie R. Oaks headshot
Jamie R. Oaks
Department of Biological Sciences
Associate Professor


Office: 316 Rouse Life Sciences

Address: 331 Funchess Hall
Auburn, AL 36849

Email: jro0014@auburn.edu

Website


Education
Ph.D. - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology – University of Kansas
2013
M.S. - Biological Sciences – Louisiana State University
2007
B.Sc. - Biology – University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
2004


Research and Teaching Interests

Work in my lab is motivated to better understand how and why there are so many species on our planet. More specifically, we use patterns of variation within and among species to infer evolutionary history and test models of diversification. Our work entails theoretical, computational, and applied phylogenetics, biogeography, phylogeography, and population genetics. Empirically, we tend to focus on natural populations of reptiles and amphibians, but also work with systems ranging from viruses to plants.


Selected Publications

  1. Lira-Noriega, A., O. Toro-Nunez, J.R. Oaks, and M. E. Mort. 2015. The roles of history and ecology in chloroplast phylogeographic patterns of the bird-dispersed plant parasite Phoradendron californicum Nutt. (Viscaceae) in the Sonoran Desert. American Journal of Botany 102:149-164.

  2. Grismer, J. L., A. M. Bauer, L. L. Grismer, K. Thirakhupt, A. Aowphol, J.R. Oaks, P. L. Wood Jr., C. K. Onn, N. Thy, M. Cota, and T. Jackman. 2014. Multiple origins of parthenogenesis, and a species phylogeny for the Southeast Asian butterfly lizards, Leiolepis. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 113:1080-1093.

  3. Oaks, J.R. 2014. An Improved Approximate-Bayesian Model-choice Method for Estimating Shared Evolutionary History. BMC Evolutionary Biology 14:150.

  4. Oaks, J.R., C. W. Linkem, and J. Sukumaran. 2014. Implications of uniformly distributed, empirically informed priors for phylogeographical model selection: A reply to Hickerson et al. Evolution 68:3607-3617.

  5. Siler, C. D., J.R. Oaks, K. Cobb, O. Hidetoshi, and R. M. Brown. 2014. Critically endangered island endemic or peripheral population of a widespread species? Conservation genetics of Kikuchi’s gecko and the global challenge of protecting peripheral oceanic island endemic vertebrates. Diversity and Distributions 20:756-772.

  6. Welton, L. J., P. L. Wood Jr., J.R. Oaks, C. D. Siler, and R. M. Brown. 2014. Fossil-calibrated phylogeny and historical biogeography of Southeast Asian water monitors (Varanus salvator Complex). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 74:29-37.

  7. Oaks, J.R., J. Sukumaran, J. A. Esselstyn, C. W. Linkem, C. D. Siler, M. T. Holder, and R. M. Brown. 2013. Evidence for climate-driven diversification? A caution for interpreting ABC inferences of simultaneous historical events. Evolution 67:991-1010.

  8. Welton, L. J., C. D. Siler, J.R. Oaks, A. C. Diesmos, and R. M. Brown. 2013. Multilocus Phylogeny and Bayesian Estimates of Species Boundaries Reveal Hidden Evolutionary Relationships and Cryptic Diversity in Southeast Asian Monitor Lizards. Molecular Ecology 22:3495-3510.

  9. Siler, C. D., J.R. Oaks, L. J. Welton, C. W. Linkem, J. Swab, A. C. Diesmos, and R. M. Brown. 2012. Did geckos ride the Palawan raft to the Philippines? Journal of Biogeography 39:1217-1234.

Google Scholar Page






Last updated: 01/22/2024