PI: Kara Layton

Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Marine Biology

School of Biological Sciences

University of Aberdeen

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Honorary Curatorial Fellow

Museums & Special Collections

University of Aberdeen

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Research Associate

Collections & Research

Western Australian Museum

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My research interests are broad but converge on a central theme: how and why is there so much diversity in our oceans? My research spans the fields of invertebrate biology (particularly, molluscs), systematics & phylogenomics, molecular ecology, and evolutionary & ecological genomics.

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I received my B.Sc. in Marine and Freshwater Biology and M.Sc. in Integrative Biology from the University of Guelph (Canada) and my PhD in Marine Biology from the University of Western Australia and the Western Australian Museum. I then completed a postdoctoral fellowship through the Ocean Frontier Institute at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. 

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Outside of work I enjoy hiking, diving and yoga, and more recently navigating the world of motherhood.

Ethan Ross
PhD Student
(Co-supervised by Julia Sigwart)

Investigating marine invertebrate biodiversity in Scottish seagrass ecosystems with eDNA metabarcoding

Victoria Gillman
PhD Student
(Co-supervised by Victoria Pritchard)

Using low-coverage whole genome sequencing to characterise population structure in the endangered freshwater pearl mussel

Michelle Taylor
PhD Student
(Co-supervised by Maria Beger)

Using genetic tools to investigate cryptic diversity in Caribbean coral rubble beds

Zalina Bashir
PhD Student
(Co-supervised by Justin Travis)

Species distribution modelling of Malaysian elasmobranchs

Silvia Prieto, MSci:  How do prey preference and chemical acquisition shape dorid nudibranch phylogeny?

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Brodie Thomas, MSc: An integrative approach to understanding colour variation in the European sea lemon

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Corinne McElhinney, MSc: Predicting the distribution of a solar-powered sea slug

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Charlotte Walker, Hons: Comparative transcriptomics for studying aposematic colour evolution in shell-less gastropods