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Melissa Hawkins
Curator of MammalsDepartment / 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
- 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
- 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
