Deciphering Speciation Processes while Disentangling the Diversity, Endemism, and Geography of Southeast Asian Small Mammals

Small mammal faunas in the island archipelagos of Southeast Asia are remarkably rich, but remain poorly documented. My research contributes to our basic understanding of diversity by inventorying mammals in a variety of habitats, inferring phylogenetic relationships, and completing taxonomic revisions. The degree of isolation engendered in the history of islands has spurred small adaptive radiations in some cases, but speciation has also occurred on even the most connected islands. Within islands, elevational gradients produce stark habitat transitions on a small spacial scale. This habitat turnover facilitates the occurrence of species-rich faunas on individual mountains and offers a plausible substrate for generating speciation at a small spatial scale.