​Members of the Muñoz Lab contributed to a new study published in Science Advances! The authors used a genome-scale dataset covering nearly 400 species of wrasses and parrotfishes (family Labridae) to reconstruct their evolutionary history. They found that these vibrant coral reef fishes rapidly diversified around 20-15 million years ago during the Miocene, a period of global climate stability. Rather than a single cause, the study shows that this burst of diversification resulted from multiple, independent events across the wrasse and parrotfish tree of life. These findings highlight the power of genomic data in revealing how Earth's biodiversity has developed, insights that are key to predicting how reef ecosystems respond to modern environmental change. The study was led by Yale EEB graduate student Chase Brownstein and includes contributions from Laura Alencar (Muñoz Lab), Edward Burress (former Muñoz Lab postdoc, now at the University of Alabama), and Prof. Martha Muñoz, among others. The study was supervised by Prof. Tom Near (Yale EEB).  Check it out! ​https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu6149

What an incredible weekend it was for us! We were thrilled to take part in SICB 2025, sharing our research through both presentations and posters. The conference gave us a fantastic chance to connect with fellow researchers, gather valuable feedback and build new collaborations for the future. It was a great moment to reflect on how far we have come and get excited about the new challenges and discoveries ahead. A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by and supported our work!

Laura Alencar shares this exciting news with us -her latest research has been featured on the cover of Evolution Letters! The cover shows a male of Sceloporus minor, and endemic species of Mexico, captured by co-author Saúl Domínguez-Guerrero, and also featuring Brooke Bodensteiner as a co-author. We are very proud of the talent that is part of our team. Check out our work: 

Sharing this happy news about our PI, Martha Muñoz! 

​Multiculturalism is a distinctive feature of our lab, as much of our team comes from Latinoamérica, and a significant part of our research focuses on that region. For this reason, we participated in the Peabody Museum’s Fiesta Latina, where we shared with everyone what we know about the abiotic and biotic factors that guide the rate and pattern of evolution in reptiles and amphibians. We spent the day sharing our passion for science, using much of the material we utilize in the field, along with photographs of the places and animals we have studied. 

Last week, we had the opportunity to attend the 10th World Congress of Herpetology #WCH10 in Borneo! Brooke Bodensteiner, Saúl Dominguez, and Henry Camarillo presented their respective research on their work with lizards and salamanders. The World Congress is a huge international conference and an awesome opportunity to meet the world's best in the field of herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. More to come soon!

Thank you to Kalisa Vasquez-Minas who was an intern this summer as part of the Yale Peabody Museum Internship Program. As a part of this internship, Kalisa helped CT scan and segment skeletal elements in woodland salamanders (Genus:Plethodon) ​.