Eliot T. Miller


Cascada San Rafael

Academic Affiliations:

Biology at UMSL
Yanayacu Biological Station Macquarie University Whitney Harris World Ecology



25 August 2011: I have put up some R code to help with miscellaneous phylogenetic tasks. Feel free to use, comment, revise, etc. I also overhauled the incubation rhythm figure section.

About myself:

    I am a natural historian at heart.

    Natural history provides us with the background information to pose sound and interesting ecological and evolutionary questions. This relationship was what drew me to this field, and it is from this intersection that my interests arise.

    Many questions appeal to me. I am fascinated by seed dispersal and other movement patterns in intact and in fragmented landscapes. Speciation, competition exclusion, habitat filtering, and community ecology are what interest me most.

    In fall 2008 I entered the PhD program at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. My sage advisor is Bob Ricklefs. I also work with the Zanne Lab at UMSL. In addition to these wonderful people I receive wisdom from my committee: Bette Loiselle, John Bates and Iván Jiménez.

    In June 2011 I entered the cotutelle program at Macquarie University in Sydney. This means that I am co-advised by Mark Westoby and the awesome Comparative Ecology Group.

    I am currently in the midst of my last field season in Australia. My dissertation focuses on elucidating the patterns of phylogenetic community structure along environmental gradients, exploring potential factors that shape these patterns, and quantifying the concordance of morphological and ecological traits. To address these questions I am working with the Australian Proteaceae (plants) and Meliphagidae (birds).

eliotmiller "AT" umsl.edu

If you are interested in guided natural history tours to the tropics see:

Biophoria Tours