Jessica Thomas
DPhil candidate (John Maynard Smith Scholarship)

5B9, JMS Building
+44 (0)1273 872958

Supervisors

Dr Lindell Bromham

Prof Adam Eyre-Walker

‘The tempo and mode of molecular evolution’. I am interested in variation in the rate of molecular evolution and how it correlates with biological factors such as life history traits. I have recently been investigating the effect of body size and metabolic rate on substitution rates in invertebrates. Observations of a body size effect in vertebrates have raised hopes that rate variation might be predictable, potentially allowing a ‘corrected’ clock. However there is no evidence of such an effect in 5 invertebrate phyla (Arthopoda, Mollusca, Echinodermata, Platyhelminthes and Annelida).

Publications

Thomas, J.A., Welch, J.J., Woolfit, M. and Bromham, L. (2006) ‘No universal molecular clock in invertebrates but rate variation does not scale with body size” PNAS. PDF

E. Fontanillas, E., Thomas, J.A. and Bromham, L. (2006) ‘Could fast diversification rates or small body sizes increase molecular substitution rates during the Cambrian "explosion"?’ (publication in prep.).