My research is cross-disciplinary. I use information from different fields to answer evolutionary questions in biogeography and molecular evolution. Phylogenetic information is used to evaluate patterns of evolution and to develop working hypotheses for the processes of evolution. My genomic research has two foci, molecular evolution of the mitochondrial genome and the construction of BAC (Bacterial Artificial Chromosome) libraries. The biogeographic work uses information from geology, with an emphasis on plate tectonics, to evaluate phyletic patterns of diversity, and integrates with the molecular evolutionary work by providing a time-frame to the occurrence of molecular change.