Welcome to the Revell Lab
This website contains information about research in the laboratory of Dr. Liam Revell, Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Research in the Revell lab takes place in two main areas: the ecology, evolution, and conservation biology of tropical reptiles; and computational method development for evolutionary biology.
For more information about Dr. Revell's research on methods for comparative biology please check out his development blog.
Contact information
Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Boston.
Office: Integrated Sciences Complex, 4th floor, ISC-4150.
Lab: Integrated Sciences Complex, 5th floor, ISC-5360.
Phone: 617-287-7259 (office); 617-287-6049 (lab); 314-580-3045 (cell).
Email: liam.revell@umb.edu. Official faculty page: link.
Recent Publications, 2020-present (all publications)
Revell, L. J. In press. Ancestral reconstruction: Theory and practice. Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Biology, 2nd edition. link
Revell, L. J., K. P. Schliep, D. L. Mahler, and T. Ingram. 2024. Testing for heterogeneous rates of discrete character evolution on phylogenies. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 37: 1591-1602. PDF
Revell, L. J. 2024. phytools 2.0: An updated R ecosystem for phylogenetic comparative methods (and other things). PeerJ 12: e16505. PDF
Michaud, R., T. J. Hagey, L. F. De León, L. J. Revell, and K. J. Avilés-Rodríguez. 2023. Geometric morphometric assessment of toe shape in forest and urban lizards following hurricane disturbances. Integrative Organismal Biology 5: obad025. PDF
Thurman, T. J., T. M. Palmer, J. J. Kolbe, A. M. Askary, K. M. Gotanda, O. Lapiedra, T. R. Kartzinel, N. Man in't Veld, L. J. Revell, J. E. Wegener, T. W. Schoener, D. A. Spiller, J. B. Losos, R. M. Pringle, and R. D. H. Barrett. 2023. The difficulty of predicting evolutionary change in response to novel ecological interactions: A field experiment with Anolis lizards. American Naturalist 201: 537-556. PDF
Avilés-Rodríguez, K. J., L. F. De León, and L. J. Revell. 2023. Population density of the tropical lizard Anolis cristatellus in urban and forested habitats after a major hurricane. Tropical Ecology 64: 122-132. PDF
Winchell, K. M., S. C. Campbell-Staton, J. B. Losos, L. J. Revell, B. C. Verelli, and A. J. Geneva. 2023. Genome-wide parallelism underlies contemporary adaptation in urban lizards. PNAS 120: e2216789120. PDF
Gunderson, A. R. and L. J. Revell. 2022. Testing for genetic assimilation with phylogenetic comparative analysis: Conceptual, methodological, and statistical considerations. Evolution 76: 1942-1952. PDF
Revell, L. J., K. S. Toyama, and D. L. Mahler. 2022. A simple hierarchical model for heterogeneity in the evolutionary correlation a phylogenetic tree. PeerJ 10: e13910. PDF
Revell, L. J. and L. J. Harmon. 2022. Phylogenetic Comparative Methods in R. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ. 440 pp. link
López-Córdova, D. A., J. Avaria-Llautureo, P. M. Ulloa, H. E. Braid, L. J. Revell, D. Fuchs, and C. M. Ibáñez. 2022. Mesozoic origin of coleoid cephalopods and their abrupt shifts of diversification patterns. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 166: 107331. PDF
Sander, P. M., E. M. Griebeler, N. Klein, J. Velez Juarbe, T. Wintrich, L. J. Revell, and L. Schmitz. 2021. Early giant reveals faster evolution of large body size in ichthyosaurs than in cetaceans. Science 374: eabf5787. PDF
Revell, L. J. 2021. covid19.Explorer : A web application and R package to explore United States COVID-19 data. PeerJ 9: e11489. PDF
Revell, L. J. 2021. A variable-rate quantitative trait evolution model using penalized-likelihood. PeerJ 9: e11997. PDF
Avilés-Rodríguez, K. J., K. M. Winchell, L. F. De León, and L. J. Revell. 2021. Phenotypic response to a major hurricane in Anolis lizards in urban and forest habitats. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 133: 880-895. PDF
Zhu, Z.-X., F. J. Escobedo, L. J. Revell, T. Brandeis, J. Xie, and H.-F. Wang. 2021. Using phylogenetic diversity to explore the socioeconomic and ecological drivers of a tropical, coastal urban forest. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. PDF
Winchell, K. M., K. P. Schliep, D. L. Mahler, and L. J. Revell. 2020. Phylogenetic signal and evolutionary correlates of urban tolerance in a widespread neotropical lizard clade. Evolution 74: 1274-1288. PDF
Reynolds, R. G., J. J. Kolbe, R. E. Glor, M. López-Darias, C. V., Gómez Pourroy, A. S. Harrison, K. de Queiroz, L. J. Revell, and J. B. Losos. 2020. Phylogeographic and phenotypic outcomes of brown anole colonization across the Caribbean provide insight into the beginning stages of an adaptive radiation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 33: 468-494. PDF
Quach, Q. N., R. G. Reynolds, and L. J. Revell. 2020. Historical allopatry and secondary contact or primary intergradation in the Puerto Rican Crested Anole, Anolis cristatellus, on Vieques Island in the Caribbean. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 129: 114-127. PDF