MARK S. HAFNER Curator of Mammalogy  Ph.D., 1979, University of California, Berkeley Address: Museum of Natural Science 119 Foster Hall                  Louisiana State University                  Baton Rouge, LA 70803-3216 Email: namark@lsu.edu Phone: 225-578-3083 Fax: 225-578-3075

Specific Research Interests

My research focuses on coevolution and cospeciation in host-parasite assemblages based on comparative studies of molecular differentiation in hosts and their parasites. My postdocs, graduate students, and I sequence DNA to investigate animal relationships. We begin by determining the evolutionary relationships among a group of hosts (currently, pocket gophers) and compare these to the evolutionary relationships among their parasites (chewing lice). In cases where we find statistically significant evidence of cospeciation (i.e., where the evolutionary trees of the hosts and parasites are similar beyond chance expectations), we are able to compare rates of molecular evolution in the two groups without resort to an external (fossil or geologic) time calibration.

I encourage all prospective graduate students with potential interest in this kind of research to go to the library and glance at some of my publications (a few titles are listed below). If the subject matter intrigues you, then we should correspond further. Students working in my lab are not required to study gophers and lice, but they are required to develop their own research projects within the broad framework of molecular evolution, mammal systematics, or host-parasite coevolution. Feel free to contact any of my current (Jessica Light) or past graduate students or visit the website of David Reed, one of my recent Ph.D. students.

Selected Publications

Hafner, M. S., T. A. Spradling, J. E. Light, D. J. Hafner, and J. R. Demboski. In press. Systematic revision of pocket gophers of the Cratogeomys gymnurus species group. Journal of Mammalogy, in press.

Spradling, T. A., S. V. Brant, M. S. Hafner, and C. J. Dickerson. In press. DNA data support a rapid radiation of pocket gopher genera (Rodentia: Geomyidae). Journal of Mammalian Evolution, in press.

Demastes, J. W., A. L. Butt, M. S. Hafner, and J. E. Light. 2003. Systematics of a rare species of pocket gopher, Pappogeomys alcorni. Journal of Mammalogy, 84:753-761.

Hafner, M. S., Demastes, J. W., T. A. Spradling, and D. L. Reed. 2002. Cophylogeny between pocket gophers and chewing lice. Pp. 195-220, In: "Tangled trees: phylogeny, cospeciation, and coevolution" (R. D. M. Page, ed.), University of Chicago Press. 350 pp.

Demastes, J. W., T. A. Spradling, and M. S. Hafner. 2002. The effects of spatial and temporal scale on analyses of cophylogeny. Pp. 221-239, In: "Tangled trees: phylogeny, cospeciation, and coevolution" (R. D. M. Page, ed.), University of Chicago Press. 350 pp.

Reed, D. L. and M. S. Hafner. 2002. Phylogenetic analysis of bacterial communities associated with ectoparasitic chewing lice of pocket gophers: A culture-independent approach. Microbial Ecology, 44:78-93.  

Hafner, M. S., J. W. Demastes, and T. A. Spradling. 2000. Coevolution and subterranean rodents. Pp. 370-388, In: Life Underground: The Biology of Subterranean Rodents (E. A. Lacey, J. L. Patton, and G. N. Cameron, eds.), University of Chicago Press. 449 pp. 265:1087-1090.

Hafner, M. S., J. W. Demastes, D. J. Hafner, T. A. Spradling, P. D. Sudman, and S. A. Nadler. 1998. Age and movement of a hybrid zone: implications for dispersal distance in pocket gophers and their chewing lice. Evolution, 52:278-282. 265:1087-1090.

Xia, X., M. S. Hafner, and P. D. Sudman. 1996. On transition bias in mitochondrial genes of pocket gophers. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 43:32-40.

Hafner, M. S., P. D. Sudman, F. X. Villablanca, T. S. Spradling, J. W. Demastes, and S. A. Nadler. 1994. Disparate rates of molecular evolution in cospeciating hosts and parasites. Science, 265:1087-1090.