"A general theory of evolution would be rooted in a hierarchical view of nature, and will possess a common body of causes and constraints, but will recognize that they work in characteristically different ways in the material of different levels. . . The new theory will restore to biology a concept of organism." - Stephen Jay Gould (1980).

Research

My fundamental interests are in understanding the mechanisms which produce evolution within vertebrates. This takes on the role of investigating phenotypic, biogeographic, and most recently proteomic variation

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Projects in Phenotypic Evolution and Variation:

Vitek, N. S., Saks, E., Dong, A., Burroughs, R. W., Ward, D. L., Pomeroy, E., Martin-Gronert, M., and Ozanne, S. E. 2025. Developmentally cascading structures do not lose evolutionary potential, but compound developmental instability in rat molars. bioRxiv: [LINK]

Burroughs, R. W. 2019. Phylogenetic and Developmental Constraints Dictate the Number of Cusps on Molars in Rodents. Scientific Reports 9: 10902 doi:10.1038/s41598-019-47469-x
 
Bell, C.J., C.N. Jass, and R. W. Burroughs. 2019. Dental variation in a collection of Lemmiscus curtatus from the northern plains of southern Saskatchewan: implications for morphological evolution. Western North American Naturalist 79: 219–232.

Burroughs, R. W., Bell, C. J., LaDuc, T. J., and Hendrickson, D. A. 2013. Morphological Variation in the Carapace and Plastron of Terrapene coahuila Schmidt and Owens, 1944. D. B. Brinkman, P. A. Holroyd, and J. D. Gardner (editors), “Morphology and Evolution of Turtles: Origin and Early Diversification.” Springer, Dordrecht: 535-566.

Projects in Biogeography: 

Burroughs, R. W., Parham, J., Stuart, B. A., Smits, P. D., and Angielczyk, K. D. 2024. Morphological Species Delimitation in the Northern and Southern Pacific Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata, Actinemys pallida): Can Machine Learning Methods Aid in Cryptic Species Identification? Integrative and Organismal Biology 6: obae010.
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Angielczyk, K. D., Burroughs, R. W., Feldman, C. F. 2015. Do Turtles Follow Rules? Latitudinal Gradients in Species Richness, Body Size, and Geographic Range Area of the World’s Turtles. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B 324(3): 270-294.

Burroughs, R. W., Morris, Z. S., Marsh, A. D. 2014. Trachemys scripta, Red-Eared Slider, Pseudemys texana, Texas River Cooter, Chelydra serpentina, Common Snapping Turtle, Feeding Behavior and Scavenging. Herpetological Review 45(2): 321-322.