Dr. Tracy A Heath
Meet Professor Dr. Tracy A Heath, a passionate researcher dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of biodiversity and evolution. Their expertise lies in developing and applying advanced computational methods, particularly in Bayesian inference, to explore evolutionary processes within a phylogenetic context. As a key developer of RevBayes, a powerful software for Bayesian inference, they pave the way for groundbreaking discoveries in the realm of evolutionary biology.
Education
- B.A., Biology, Boston University, 2000
- Ph.D., Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Texas at Austin, 2008
Email – phylo@iastate.edu
Publications
- Justison, Solis-Lemus, Heath. 2023. SiPhyNetwork: An R package for simulating phylogenetic networks. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, in press.
- Ksepka, Field, Heath, Pett, Thomas, Giovanardi, Tennyson. 2023. Largest-known fossil penguin provides insight into the early evolution of sphenisciform body size and flipper anatomy. Journal of Paleontology, 97:434-453. [See feature in The New York Times: The Biggest Penguin That Ever Existed Was a ‘Monster Bird’]
- Satler, Herre, Heath, Machado, Gómez Zúñiga, Jandér, Eaton, Nason. 2023. Pollinator and host sharing lead to hybridization and introgression in Panamanian free-standing figs, but not in their pollinator wasps. Ecology & Evolution, 13:e9673.
- Dismukes, Braga, Hembry, Heath, Landis. 2022. Cophylogenetic methods to untangle the evolutionary history of ecological interactions. Annual Reviews in Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 53:275-298.
- Barido-Sottani, Żyła, Heath. 2022. Estimating the age of poorly dated fossil specimens and deposits using a total-evidence approach and the fossilized birth-death process. Systematic Biology, in press.
- Justison, Heath. 2022. Exploring the distribution of phylogenetic networks generated under a birth-death-hybridization process. bioRxiv preprint, doi: 10.1101/2022.10.26.513953.
- Cole, Zhou, Fang, Pan, Ksepka, Fiddaman, Emerling, Thomas, Bi, Fang, Ellegaard, Feng, Smith, Heath, Tennyson, García Borboroglu, Wood, Hadden, Grosser, Bost, Cherel, Mattern, Hart, Sinding, Shepherd, Phillips, Quillfeldt, Masello, Bouzat, Ryan, Thompson, Ellenberg, Dann, Miller, Boersma, Zhao, Gilbert, Yang, Zhang, Zhang. 2022. Genomic insights into the secondary aquatic transition of penguins. Nature Communications 13:3912.
- Barido-Sottani, Justison, Borges, Brown, Dismukes, do Rosario Petrucci, Guimarães Fabreti, Höhna, Landis, Lewis, May, Mendes, Pett, Redelings, Tribble, Wright, Zenil-Ferguson, Heath. 2022. Lessons learned from organizing and teaching virtual phylogenetics workshops. Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists 1(2):8425.
- Satler, Herre, Heath, Machado, Gómez Zúñiga, Nason. 2022. Genome-wide sequence data show no evidence of hybridization and introgression among pollinator wasps associated with a community of Panamanian strangler figs. Molecular Ecology 31:2106-2123.
- Dismukes, Heath. 2021. treeducken: an R package for simulating cophylogenetic systems. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 12:1358-1364.
- Żyła, Bogri, Heath, Solodovnikov. 2021. Total-evidence analysis resolves the phylogenetic position of an enigmatic group of Paederinae rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 157:107059.
- Thomas, Tennyson, Scofield, Heath, Pett, Ksepka. 2020. Ancient crested penguin constrains timing of recruitment into seabird hotspot. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287:20201497.
- Pett, Heath. 2020. Inferring the timescale of phylogenetic trees from fossil data. Eds: C. Scornavacca, F. Delsuc, N. Galtier. Phylogenetics in the Genomic Era. No commercial publisher | Authors open access book, pp: 5.1:1-5.1:18.
- Barido-Sottani, Justison, Wright, Warnock, Pett, Heath. 2020. Estimating a time-calibrated phylogeny of fossil and extant taxa using RevBayes. Eds: C. Scornavacca, F. Delsuc, N. Galtier. Phylogenetics in the Genomic Era. No commercial publisher | Authors open access book, pp: 5.2:1-5.2:23.
- Warnock, Heath, Stadler. 2020. Assessing the impact of incomplete species sampling on estimates of speciation and extinction rates. Paleobiology, 46:137-157.
- Satler, Herre, Eaton, Machado, Heath, Nason. 2019. Inferring processes of coevolutionary diversification in a community of Panamanian strangler figs and associated pollinating wasps.Evolution, 73:2295-2311.
- Stadler, Gavryushkina, Warnock, Drummond, Heath. 2018. The fossilized birth-death model for the analysis of stratigraphic range data under different speciation modes. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 447:41-55.
- Barido-Sottani, Bošková, du Plessis, Kühnert, Magnus, Mitov, Müller, Pečerska, Rasmussen, Zhang, Drummond, Heath, Pybus, Vaughan, Stadler. 2018. Taming the BEAST – A community teaching material resource for BEAST 2. Systematic Biology, 67(1):170–174.
- Höhna, Landis, Heath. 2017. Phylogenetic Inference Using RevBayes. Current Protocols in Bioinformatics, 57:6.16.1-6.16.34.
- Gavryushkina, Heath, Ksepka, Stadler, Welch, Drummond. 2017. Bayesian total evidence dating reveals the recent crown radiation of penguins. Systematic Biology, 66(1):57-73. [pdf]
- Höhna, Landis, Heath, Boussau, Lartillot, Moore, Huelsenbeck, Ronquist. 2016. RevBayes: Bayesian phylogenetic inference using graphical models and an interactive model-specification language. Systematic Biology, 65:726-736.
- Zhang, Stadler, Klopfstein, Heath, Ronquist. 2016. Total-evidence dating under the fossilized birth-death process. Systematic Biology, 65:228-249.
- Cook, Edwards, Lacey, Guralnick, Soltis, Soltis, Welch, Bell, Galbreath, Himes, Allen, Heath, Carnaval, Cooper, Liu, Hanken, Ickert-Bond. 2014. Natural history collections as emerging resources for innovative education. BioScience. 64: 725-734. [pdf]
- Heath, Huelsenbeck, Stadler. 2014. The fossilized birth-death process for coherent calibration of divergence-time estimates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences111(29):E2957–E2966. [arXiv:1310.2968]
- Höhna, Heath, Boussau, Landis, Ronquist, Huelsenbeck. 2014. Probabilistic graphical model representation in phylogenetics. Systematic Biology 63:753–771. [arXiv:1312.2386]
- Heath, Moore. 2014. Bayesian inference of species divergence times. In: Bayesian Phylogenetics: Methods, Algorithms, and Applications. Chen, M.-H., L. Kuo, and P.O. Lewis (editors). Chapman & Hall/CRC. (invited book chapter) [email authors for PDF]
- Stoltzfus, Lapp, Matasci, Deus, Sidlauskas, Zmasek, Vaidya, Pontelli, Cranston, Vos, Webb, Harmon, Pirrung, O’Meara, Pennell, Mirarab, Rosenberg, Balhoff, Bik, Heath, Midford, Brown, McTavish, Sukumaran, Westneat, Alfaro, Steele, and Jordan. 2013. Phylotastic! Making tree-of-life knowledge accessible, reusable and convenient. BMC Bioinformatics 14:158.
- Darriba, Aberer, Flouri, Heath, Izquierdo-Carrasco, Stamatakis. 2013. Boosting the performance of Bayesian divergence time estimation with the Phylogenetic Likelihood Library. Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops PhD Forum (IPDPSW), 2013 IEEE 27th International, Boston, USA, pp. 539-548. (peer-reviewed conference paper) [pdf]
- Heath. 2012. A hierarchical Bayesian model for calibrating estimates of species divergence times. Systematic Biology 61:793-809. [pdf]
- Heath, Holder, Huelsenbeck. 2012. A Dirichlet process prior for estimating lineage-specific substitution rates. Molecular Biology and Evolution 29:939-955. [pdf]
- Heath, Hedtke, Hillis. 2008. Taxon sampling and the accuracy of phylogenetic analyses. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 46:239-257. [pdf]
- Heath, Zwickl, Kim, Hillis. 2008. Taxon sampling affects inferences of macroevolutionary processes from phylogenetic trees. Systematic Biology 57:160-166.
- Hillis, Heath, St. John. 2005. Analysis and visualization of tree space. Systematic Biology 54:471-482. [pdf]
- Wilcox, Zwickl, Heath, Hillis. 2002. Phylogenetic relationships of the dwarf boas and a comparison of Bayesian and bootstrap measures of phylogenetic support. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 25:361-371. [pdf]
