Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill

Biography

I am an EON Research Fellow at University of Cambridge and the Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo. I use computational techniques to look for macroevolutionary patterns, particularly those related to animal morphology (form) and evolutionary convergence (the repeated evolution of similar characteristics, as inferred on phylogenetic trees). I am interested in whether we can see consistent evolutionary patterns that hold across species and lineages, despite their idiosyncratic life habits and histories.

Research Interest

My research interests have included mathematical properties of homoplasy, the role of coevolution in butterfly mimicry, and patterns of viral host switching. My most recent research has focussed on principles of growth and morphological organisation among the earliest macroorganisms of the Ediacaran biota (from 580 Ma).