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Field Museum scientists build on Darwin’s foundation
Right here under our own roof, researchers across disciplines are filling in the branches on Darwin's Tree of Life. Using DNA analysis and other tools Darwin couldn't have imagined, zoologists, biological anthropologists, botanists, and paleontologists are learning more every day about the big picture of evolution in our planet's history.
Shannon Hackett
Shannon uses DNA analysis to further understanding of bird evolution. Her Early Bird project, a collaborative effort involving scientists around the world, charts genetic links among major groups of birds. Early Bird is part of the National Science Foundation's Assembling the Tree of Life initiative, which seeks to create a comprehensive picture of evolutionary relationships among all 1.7 million known species of life on Earth, living and extinct.
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Robert Martin
Robert pieces together the story of primate evolution to better understand our own evolution. Martin has recognized that while the earliest known primate fossils are 55 million years old, statistical analysis allowing for gaps in the fossil record indicates that primates have actually been around for close to 90 million years. This likely means that our own human lineage has also been around for much longer than we thought: at least eight million years.
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Richard Ree
Richard gets an up-close look at plant evolution in one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. With high levels of plant diversity on par with tropical forests, the temperate eastern Himalayas are a living laboratory for how plant species diversify in a mountain environment. Ree seeks to understand how the area's geography, insect pollinators, and other unique features are intimately linked with how its plant life has evolved over time.
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Olivier Rieppel
Olivier is revisiting what we thought we knew about reptile evolution. His research on fossil marine reptiles has led to some unexpected news with respect to another reptile group: turtles. The many features turtles share with Sauropterygians, one group of extinct marine reptiles, has shed new light on the family relationship between these two reptile groups, and among reptiles throughout their evolutionary history.
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