Hawkins, Melissa | Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Department / Division

Education

B.Sc., Western Illinois University
M.S., Western Illinois University
Ph.D., George Mason University

Research Interests

My research interest most frequently incorporates museum specimens to study of phylogeny, taxonomy, evolution and biogeography. I am most interested in diverse lineages of mammals, particularly adaptive radiations and have done biological surveys in Southeast Asia, Madagascar and the United States. I use cutting edge molecular techniques to generate large datasets from degraded DNA sources (over 100 year old museum specimens). I am also proficient in bioinformatics, and a novice with GIS.

Publications

Article

Cove, Michael V., Kays, Roland, Bontrager, Helen, Bresnan, Claire, Lasky, Monica, Frerichs, Taylor, Klann, Renee, Lee, Thomas E., Crockett, Seth C., Crupi, Anthony P., Weiss, Katherine C. B., Rowe, Helen, Sprague, Tiffany, Schipper, Jan, Tellez, Chelsey, Lepczyk, Christopher A., Fantle‐Lepczyk, Jean E., LaPoint, Scott, Williamson, Jacque, Fisher‐Reid, M. Caitlin, King, Sean M., Bebko, Alexandra J., Chrysafis, Petros, Jensen, Alex J., Jachowski, David S. et al. 2021. "SNAPSHOT USA 2019: a coordinated national camera trap survey of the United States." Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3353
Hinckley, Arlo, Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Achmadi, Anang S., Maldonado, Jesús E., and Leonard, Jennifer A. 2020. "Ancient Divergence Driven by Geographic Isolation and Ecological Adaptation in Forest Dependent Sundaland Tree Squirrels." Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 8: 208. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00208
Jara-Espejo, Manuel, Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Fogalli, Giovani Bressan, and Line, Sergio Roberto Peres. 2020. "Folding Stability of Pax9 Intronic G-quadruplex Correlates with Relative Molar Size in Eutherians." Molecular biology and evolution https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa331
Parker, Lillian D., Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Camacho-Sanchez, Miguel, Campana, Michael G., West-Roberts, Jacob, Wilbert, Tammy R., Lim, Haw Chuan, Rockwood, Larry L., Leonard, Jennifer A., and Maldonado, Jesús E. 2020. "Little genetic structure in a Bornean endemic small mammal across a steep ecological gradient." Molecular ecology https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15626
Camacho-Sanchez, Miguel, Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Tuh, Yit Yu, Maldonado, Jesús E., and Leonard, Jennifer A. 2019. "Endemism and diversity of small mammals along two neighboring Bornean mountains." PeerJ 7: 31608182. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7858
Camacho-Sanchez, Miguel, Quintanilla, Irene, Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Tuh, Fred Y. Y., Wells, Konstans, Maldonado, Jesús E., and Leonard, Jennifer A. 2018. "Interglacial refugia on tropical mountains: Novel insights from the summit rat (Rattus baluensis), a Borneo mountain endemic." Diversity and Distributions 24 (9): 1252– 1266. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12761
Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Culligan, Ryan R., Frasier, Cynthia L., Dikow, Rebecca B., Hagenson, Ryan, Lei, Runhua, and Louis, Edward E., Jr. 2018. "Genome sequence and population declines in the critically endangered greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus) and implications for conservation." Bmc Genomics 19: 445– 445. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-018-4841-4
Gutierrez, Eliecer E., Helgen, Kristofer M., McDonough, Molly M., Bauer, Franziska, Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Escobedo-Morales, Luis A., Patterson, Bruce D., and Maldonado, Jesús E. 2017. "A gene-tree test of the traditional taxonomy of American deer: the importance of voucher specimens, geographic data, and dense sampling." Zookeys (697): 87– 131. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.697.15124
Campana, Michael G., Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Henson, Lauren H., Stewardson, Kristin, Young, Hillary S., Card, Leah R., Lock, Justin, Agwanda, Bernard, Brinkerhoff, Jory, Gaff, Holly D., Helgen, Kristofer M., Maldonado, Jesús E., McShea, William J., and Fleischer, Robert C. 2016. "Simultaneous identification of host, ectoparasite and pathogen DNA via in-solution capture." Molecular Ecology Resources 16 (5): 1224– 1239. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12524
Campana, Michael G., Parker, Lillian D., Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Young, Hillary S., Helgen, Kristofer M., Szykman Gunther, Micaela, Woodroffe, Rosie, Maldonado, Jesús E., and Fleischer, Robert C. 2016. "Genome sequence, population history, and pelage genetics of the endangered African wild dog (Lycaon pictus)." BMC Genomics 17 (1): 1013. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-016-3368-9

Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Helgen, Kristofer M., Maldonado, Jesús E., Rockwood, Larry L., Tsuchiya, Mirian T. N., and Leonard, Jennifer A. 2016. "Phylogeny, biogeography and systematic revision of plain long-nosed squirrels (genus Dremomys, Nannosciurinae)." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 94 (Part B): 752– 764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2015.10.023
Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Hofman, Courtney A., Callicrate, Taylor, McDonough, Molly M., Tsuchiya, Mirian T. N., Gutiérrez, Eliécer E., Helgen, Kristofer M., and Maldonado, Jesús E. 2016. "In-Solution Hybridization for Mammalian Mitogenome enrichment: Pros, Cons, and Challenges Associated with Multiplexing Degraded DNA." Molecular Ecology Resources 16 (5): 1173– 1188. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12448
Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Leonard, Jennifer A., Helgen, Kristofer M., McDonough, Molly M., Rockwood, Larry L., and Maldonado, Jesús E. 2016. "Evolutionary history of endemic Sulawesi squirrels constructed from UCEs and mitogenomes sequenced from museum specimens." BMC Evolutionary Biology 16 (1): 1– 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-016-0650-z
Gutiérrez, Eliécer E., Maldonado, Jesús E., Radosavljevic, Aleksandar, Molinari, Jesús, Patterson, Bruce D., Martínez-C, Juan M., Rutter, Amy R., Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Garcia, Franger J., and Helgen, Kristofer M. 2015. "The Taxonomic Status of Mazama bricenii and the Significance of the Táchira Depression for Mammalian Endemism in the Cordillera de Mérida, Venezuela." PloS One 10 (6): 1– 24. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129113
Hofman, Courtney A., Rick, Torben C., Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Funk, W. C., Ralls, Katherine, Boser, Christina L., Collins, Paul W., Coonan, Tim, King, Julie L., Morrison, Scott A., Newsome, Seth D., Sillett, T. Scott, Fleischer, Robert C., and Maldonado, Jesús E. 2015. "Mitochondrial Genomes Suggest Rapid Evolution of Dwarf California Channel Islands Foxes (Urocyon littoralis)." PloS One 10 (2): 1– 15. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118240
Kimura, Yuri, Hawkins, Melissa T. R., McDonough, Molly M., Jacobs, Louis L., and Flynn, Lawrence J. 2015. "Corrected placement of Mus-Rattus fossil calibration forces precision in the molecular tree of rodents." Scientific Reports 5:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep14444
Leonard, Jennifer A., den Tex, Robert-Jan, Hawkins, Melissa T. R., Muñoz-Fuentes, Violeta, Thorington, Richard W., Jr., and Maldonado, Jesús E. 2015. "Phylogeography of vertebrates on the Sunda Shelf: a multi-species comparison." Journal of Biogeography 42 (5): 871– 879. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12465

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