Robert Burroughs

University of Chicago | UC · Committee on Evolutionary Biology

We provide the first documentation of morphological variation in the lower first molar (m1) of Lemmiscus curtatus from southern Canada. A total of 370 specimens were obtained from owl pellets taken from four localities in southern Saskatchewan. The four most common morphotypes are, in order of descending relative abundance, molars with five closed...

Mammal tooth morphology and function correlate strongly with dietary ecology, and convergence is a major feature of mammalian tooth evolution. Yet, function and ecology are insufficient to explain morphological diversification and convergence within mammalian molar evolution; suggesting that development and phylogeny also limit possible structural...

Understanding how and why biodiversity is structured across the globe has been central to ecology, evolution, and biogeography even before those disciplines took their modern forms. Three global-scale patterns in particular have been the focus of research and debate for decades: latitudinal gradients in species richness (richness decreases with inc...

Terrapene coahuila is one of four extant species of North American box turtles. It is restricted in distribution to the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin in Coahuila, México. Results of previous examinations of extant T. carolina and T. ornata revealed relatively high levels of morphological variation, but morphological studies of T. coahuila are rare, and dat...