Anya Auerbach • Understanding Evolution Through Madagascar’s Radiations of Birds • Jan 2026

Madagascar is one of the most significant global biodiversity hotspots, with a fantastically unique array of organisms found nowhere else on earth. Many of these organisms form adaptive radiations- groups of closely related species that, like the more famous Darwin’s finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers, have evolved exceptional ecological diversity. My research seeks to better understand this diversification process, focusing on the three major radiations of birds in Madagascar: the vangas, tetrakas, and couas. I combine a variety of approaches, including phylogenetics, biogeography, and morphometrics, and ultimately aim to use this system of multiple independent, co-occurring radiations to explore general patterns and processes of diversification and their repeatability.

Anya Auerbach is currently in the final year of her PhD at the University of Minnesota and the Bell Museum of Natural History, in the lab of Dr. Sushma Reddy. Anya grew up in New York City, where as a nature-loving kid she first got hooked on birding in Central Park.

She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2019, where she wrote her undergraduate thesis with Dr. Trevor Price on the biogeography of birds in the Northwest Himalayas, and has been in Minnesota since 2020. Natural History Museums have played a key part in her academic journey, particularly AMNH, from two summers with Great Gull Island in high school, her first research experience in the Ornithology department in college, volunteering as an explainer in the biodiversity halls, and now as a visiting researcher using the collections as part of her PhD. In addition to research, Anya is a committed teacher and an organizer with her graduate labor union. She still identifies as a New Yorker, and misses its glorious diversity of people, food, and birds (especially seabirds!).