Contact
jmccormack (at) lsu.edu
Current Position
Postdoctoral Researcher - Louisiana State University, Museum of Natural Science
PI: Robb Brumfield
Previous Positions
Research Fellow - University of Michigan, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
PI: Lacey Knowles
Education
B.S. University of Arizona, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ph.D. UCLA, Biology, 2007
Advisor: Thomas B. Smith
Dissertation: Evolutionary patterns and processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales in a New World corvid (PDF)
Research Summary
I study the ecological and evolutionary processes responsible for divergence among populations and species. I am interested in integrative research that combines data from phylogeography, ecology, morphology, and behavior and aims for a holistic description of divergence processes. I have mainly worked with birds, but am broadly interested in natural populations, specifically in the highlands of the western U.S. and Latin America. More
Publications
15. McCormack JE, AJ Zellmer & LL Knowles. Does niche divergence accompany allopatric divergence in Aphelocoma jays as predicted under ecological speciation?: Insights from tests with niche models. Evolution (In press.)
14. McCormack JE and EC Berg. Small-scale divergence in egg color along an elevation gradient in the Mexican Jay: a condition-dependent response? Auk (In press.)
13. McCormack JE, H Huang & LL Knowles. 2009. Maximum-likelihood estimates of species trees: how accuracy of phylogenetic inference depends upon the divergence history and sampling design. Systematic Biology (In press.)
12. Pease KM, A Freedman, JP Pollinger, WP Buermann, JE McCormack, J Rodzen, J Banks, E Meredith, V Bleich, K Jones & RK Wayne. 2009. Landscape genetics of California mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus): the roles of ecological and historical factors in generating differentiation. Molecular Ecology 18:1848-1862. (PDF)
11. Berg EC, JE McCormack & TB Smith. 2009. Test of an adaptive hypothesis for egg speckling along an elevational gradient in a population of Mexican jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina). Journal of Avian Biology 40:448-452. (PDF)
10. McCormack JE, H Huang & LL Knowles. 2009. Sky islands. Pages 839-843 in Encyclopedia of Islands (Gillespie, RG and D Clague, eds.). University of California Press: Berkeley, CA. (PDF)
9. McCormack JE & TB Smith. 2008. Niche expansion leads to small-scale adaptive divergence along an elevation gradient in a medium-sized passerine bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 275:2155-2164. (PDF)
8. McCormack JE, BS Bowen & TB Smith. 2008. Integrating paleoecology and genetics of bird populations in two sky island archipelagos. BMC Biology 6:28. (PDF)
Focus of review: Baker, AJ. 2008. Islands in the sky: the impact of Pleistocene climate cycles on biodiversity. Journal of Biology 7:32. Link (registration required)
7. McCormack JE, AT Peterson, E Bonaccorso & TB Smith. 2008. Speciation in the highlands of Mexico: genetic and phenotypic divergence in the Mexican jay (Aphelocoma ultramarina). Molecular Ecology 17:2505-2521. (PDF)
6. McCormack JE & JL Brown. 2008. Mexican jay (Aphelocoma ultramarina). In The Birds of North America Online (ed. A Poole). Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology: Ithaca, NY. Available at: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/118/articles/introduction
5. Milá B, JE McCormack, G Castañeda, TB Smith & RK Wayne. 2007. Recent postglacial range expansion drives the rapid diversification of a songbird lineage in the genus Junco. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274:2653-2660. (PDF)
4. McCormack JE, P Jablonski & JL Brown. 2007. Producer-scrounger roles and the effect of dominance on preferential joining in a free-living group of Mexican jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina). Behaviour 144:967-982. (PDF)
3. McCormack JE, G Castañeda-Guayasamin & G Levandoski. 2007. Sierra Santa Rosa: an oasis of bird diversity in arid northern Mexico. Ornitología Neotropical 18:369-377. (PDF)
2. McCormack JE, G Castañeda Guayasamin, B Milá & F Heredia-Pineda. 2005. Slate-throated redstarts (Myioborus miniatus) breeding in Maderas del Carmen, Coahuila, Mexico. Southwestern Naturalist 50:501-503. (PDF)
1. Avilés L, J McCormack, A Cutter & T Bukowski. 2000. Precise, highly female-biased sex ratios in a social spider. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 267:1445-1449. (PDF)
