Post-doctoral Fellow in Wayne Maddison's lab at UBC
Department of Zoology
6270 University Boulevard
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
1-604-827-5249 (lab)
E-mail: jxzhang1976@gmail.com
Research Interests
Spider Phylogeny
Spider Systematics and biodiversity
Historical Biogeography
Genitalia Evolution
Comparative Morphology of Spiders
Spider Phylogeny
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A robust phylogeny represents the evolutionary history of a lineage, and is the foundation of many studies of evolutionary processes, such as character evolution and processes controlling geographic distributions. One of the main areas of my research is to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships of target spider groups, using both molecular and morphological data. For instance, with a worldwide sampling I resolved the phylogeny of a diverse jumping spider group (containing about 100 genera and over 1000 species), the subfamily Euophryinae, in my PhD project. I also applied phylogenetic methods in the studies of Chinese nursery-web spiders (Family Pisauridae) and Chinese long-jawed orb weavers (Family Tetragnathidae). |
Spider Systematics and biodiversity
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Being the foundation for all studies of organisms, systematics aims to properly document organisms and group them in a real natural classification. The other major area of my research is to study systematics of various spider groups, e.g. Pisauridae, Tetragnathidae, Oxyopidae. In my PhD project, I presented a classification for the jumping spider subfamily Euophryinae that reflects monophyly. Although spiders have long drawn the attention of biologists, their diversity is still poorly understood, with much of the fauna especially in tropical rainforests remaining unknown. I have been endeavored in building our knowledge of spider biodiversity, and have discovered and properly described over 150 new spider taxa worldwide. |
Historical Biogeography
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Historical biogeography is the study of organism distributions over evolutionary time scales, using both phylogenetic and distributional information. I am particularly interested in the historical biogeography of the jumping spider subfamily Euophryinae. Studies have shown that most major jumping spider groups are primarily restricted to one continental region. However, euophryines are a notable exception, and are well represented in both the Old and New World. In my PhD project, I explored the temporal divergence of euophryines to understand its historical biogeography. Future work on this subject will concentrate on revealing continental origin and the events (dispersals and/or vicariance) resulting in the current distributional pattern of euophryine jumping spiders. |
Genitalia Evolution
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The genitalia in closely related spider species usually show more inter-specific variation than somatic traits. Always being fascinated by the diverse forms of spider genitalia, I am also interested in the questions "what is the mechanism driving the divergent evolution of genitalia in a spider group? Sexual selection or species recognition or else?" In my PhD project, I took the first step to explore these questions by studying the intersexual coevolution of genital organs and investigating inter-specific and intra-specific variation pattern of genital traits in euophryine jumping spiders. Future studies on this area may involve revealing the relationship between paternity and specific genital traits, or accumulating data on copulatory mechanisms of spiders. |
Comparative Morphology of Spiders
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A broad documentation of spider morphology can not only serve to gather data for phylogenetics and systematics, but also help to answer questions on the evolution and function of these morphological traits. I always enjoy taking digital images and making hand-illustrations of spiders or spider genitalia. I also used scanning electron microscopy to study the morphology of spiders in greater detail. My work on morphology of jumping spiders contributed to the Spiders AToL project. |
A copy of my PhD dissertation is available to download HERE .