Maria Heikkilä

Personlig profil

Information om forskning och undervisning

My research focuses on the diversity and evolutionary history of Lepidoptera, in particular Ditrysia, but recently I have also expanded my work to projects on sawflies (Symphyta: Hymenoptera).

I have done collection-based research in integrative taxonomy and systematics of Lepidoptera, first for my PhD work at LUOMUS, and then as a postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. and currently again at LUOMUS in Helsinki.

I am the coordinator of an international effort to re-examine all known fossil moths and butterflies. This project involves over twenty collaborators from all over the World who are experts in different groups Lepidoptera. The aim of our work is to find reliably identified fossils to be used in divergence time studies and shed light on the evolutionary history of this enormous group of insects.

Courses I have taught at the University of Helsinki include the Biological Collections Course and Introduction to Cladistic Methods. I am the co-supervisor of a PhD student working on a project developing novel approaches to define species boundaries for taxonomically challenging groups of species.

Utbildning / akademisk kvalifikation

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Ph.D., Helsingfors universitet

Externa befattningar

Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., U.S.A

1 feb 2015 → 31 jan 2017

Vetenskapsgrenar

1181 Ekologi, evolutionsbiologi

Internationellt och inhemskt samarbete Publikationer och projekt inom de senaste fem åren.

Publikationer 2003 2019

18 Artikel
1 Kapitel
1 Ledare
1 Översiktsartikel
1 Mer
- 1 Doktorsavhandling

A molecular phylogeny of Cochylina, with confirmation of its relationship to Euliina (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)

Brown, J. W., Aarvik, L., Heikkilä, M., Brown, R. & Mutanen, M., 26 aug 2019, I : Systematic Entomology. 15 s.

Forskningsoutput: Tidskriftsbidrag › Artikel › Vetenskaplig › Peer review

Priors and Posteriors in Bayesian Timing of Divergence Analyses: The Age of Butterflies Revisited

Chazot, N., Wahlberg, N., Freitas, A. V. L., Mitter, C., Labandeira, C., Sohn, J-C., Sahoo, R. K., Seraphim, N., de Jong, R. & Heikkilä, A. A. M., 25 feb 2019, I : Systematic Biology. 68, 5, s. 797-813

Forskningsoutput: Tidskriftsbidrag › Artikel › Vetenskaplig › Peer review