Tricia C. Goulding

Diversity and biogeography of marine invertebrates

Tricia Goulding

Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow

Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History

I am interested in using genomic tools to understand the diversification of marine molluscs from shallow reefs to the deep sea. My current work uses anchored-hybrid enrichment to enrich hundreds or thousands of loci from diverse gastropods for high-throughput sequencing. I have developed a custom probe set for caenogastropods targeting ultra-conserved elements and exons, which I am using with researchers at the Smithsonian to investigate the diversification of wentletraps (Epitoniidae). This speciose group of marine gastropods lives on reefs worldwide, but convergence in shell morphology has historically confounded an understanding of evolutionary relationships within the family. Genomic data can help resolve backbone phylogenetic relationships in the family, and reveal how the habitats of wentletraps have influenced their diversification.

My previous research focused on the systematics of onchidiid slugs from mangrove forests and rocky shores. Twenty-five new onchidiid species and six new genera were discovered and described based on this work, representing half of the known diversity of marine onchidiids in the tropical Indo-West Pacific. All of these genera are included in the first molecular phylogeny of the family, which explores the evolutionary history of microhabitat transitions and associated morphological traits. 

Interests



Featured

September 2023

Excited to share a new paper on mangrove biodiversity! After publishing taxonomic revisions and a global phylogeny of intertidal onchidiid slugs, we look at patterns of species diversity. Intriguingly, we found two peaks of species diversity in the Indo-West Pacific. Read more about it in our paper in Scientific Reports. 

July 2023

Our paper on the systematics of the Hawaiian Pacificelline is now online! The number of taxa defined by species delimitation analyses varied widely, and were evaluated in light of shell morphology, geography, and a multilocus phylogeny. We recognize four Lamellidea species and two Pacificella species from the Hawaiian Islands, including two widespread species introduced to Hawaiʻi from the South Pacific.


In March, our publication describing a new probe set for target-capture of ultra-conserved elements from caenogastropods was also published, in Molecular Ecology Resources. 

January 2022

Our paper on the evolutionary history of the Onchidiidae has been published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Genetic data is included for 62 species from all 13 genera in the first broad molecular phylogeny of the family, with insight into the timing of diversification and transitions between habitats.

8 March 2021

Our taxonomic revision of the genus Platevindex was published today in the European Journal of Taxonomy. Nine species are recognized, including one new species Platevindex aptei Goulding & Dayrat, 2021.

1 October 2020

A new paper revising the systematics of the genus Peronia is now published in ZooKeys.  Until now, most Peronia were identified as either Peronia verruculata (Cuvier, 1830) or Peronia peronii (Cuvier, 1804). We recognize nine species, of which five are new species: Peronia griffithsi Dayrat & Goulding, 2020, Peronia okinawensis Dayrat & Goulding, 2020, Peronia setoensis Dayrat & Goulding, 2020, Peronia sydneyensis Dayrat & Goulding, 2020, and Peronia willani Dayrat & Goulding, 2020.