Tyler Muller

My main interests involve systematics, taxonomy and the evolutionary history of fishes. My current research focuses on how glacial expansions and contractions during historic warming/cooling cycles dating as far back to the pliocene contributed to speciation and distributions of fishes with U-shaped distributions in the Eastern United States. The subject of my thesis is the Pirate Perch, Aphredoderus sayanus.

This research will be informative on how fishes respond to changing climates, determining historic refugia and origins of the species we see today, while also providing guidance to several state agencies which currently list the Pirate Perch as a species of conservation need or greater.