Florida Museum of Natural History
Nations Lab
Led by Jonathan Nations · Florida Museum of Natural History (Mammals)
What we study
The Nations Lab studies the anatomy and evolution of small mammals, especially shrews and rodents of Southeast Asia. Recent student projects use CT scans and 3D meshes to study shrew jaw shape and an unusual shoulder bone.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Computational
- Wild animals
- Coding required
- Projects
- 2
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Cranial Morphology Informs Eco-Evolutionary Pathways in Malay Archipelago Shrews
The lab investigates how the shape of shrew jaws changes with body size by analyzing 3D CT‑derived meshes from 36 species, testing whether jaw shape follows the same two‑directional patterns seen in the rest of the skeleton, which could reveal constraints on their ecological diversification.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 490
Qualitative Anatomical Analysis of Unknown Bone within Crocidura Shoulder Girdle
The lab scanned the shoulder of Crocidura shrews, discovered an extra bone embedded in a ligament that likely has no function and may be a vestigial or sesamoid structure, highlighting unknown variation in small mammals.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 455
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Systematics and historical biogeography of Crunomys and Maxomys (Muridae: Murinae), with the description of a new species from Sulawesi and new genus-level classification
2025 · Journal of Mammalogy
Reclassifies mouse genera by showing Crunomys is part of Maxomys, using DNA and nuclear data.
- The roles of isolation and interspecific interaction in generating the functional diversity of an insular mammal radiation
2024 · Oikos
Tests how isolation and species interactions shape functional diversity in Sulawesi’s rodents.
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- Three new shrews (Soricidae: Crocidura) from West Sumatra, Indonesia: elevational and morphological divergence in syntopic sister taxa
2024 · Journal of Mammalogy
Describes three new shrew species from West Sumatra, Indonesia, using DNA and physical traits.
- Bayesian Prediction of Multivariate Ecology from Phenotypic Data Yields New Insights into the Diets of Extant and Extinct Taxa
2023 · The American Naturalist
Uses teeth and body size to predict what animals eat, even if they're extinct.
- The roles of phylogeny, body size and substrate use in trabecular bone variation among Philippine ‘earthworm mice’ (Rodentia: Chrotomyini)
2023 · Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Tests how body size, diet, and evolution shape bone structure in mice.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Jonathan Nations hasn't set up this page yet. You can also look them up in the UF directory (search “Jonathan Nations”).