Aaron O'Dea

I am a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and a SENACYT Distinguished Researcher. My principal interests lie in using the marine fossil record to examine how environmental change drives evolutionary and ecological change over time. In particular, my lab group and I are investigating what the tropical seas were like before humans. We combine the fossil record of coral skeletons, mollusk shells, fish otoliths, shark dermal denticles, and sponge spicules with archeological and modern collections to reconstruct ancient coral reefs and other tropical ecosystems. This allows us to explore if the interactions between these diverse community members have changed since human perturbation and whether evolution through selection has occurred.

After receiving my PhD from the University of Bristol in 2000, I joined the STRI community as a fellow and have been involved ever since.

August 2016