Marine Sciences

My research focuses on using an integrative approach to explore how both evolutionary and ecological processes affect biodiversity of marine fishes, and how human influence on the environment impacts this diversity.  Through field and laboratory based methods, I compile ecological, distributional, morphological and molecular data to better understand the dynamics of marine populations and the links between present day patterns and past evolutionary processes. This information is then used to couple evolutionary biology and ecology in the pursuit of enhancing conservation and management.  My primary study group is an economically and ecologically important family of fishes commonly known as groupers. My experience working with this group led to my participation in, and eventual appointment as co-chair of, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission Specialist Group on Groupers and Wrasses.  My work involves species from tropical and temperate systems and, taken together, has broad applicability to the disciplines of ichthyology, systematics, biogeography, and conservation biology.

CMOB 8686 - Ichthyology I

CBMO 8687 - Ichthyology II

1. Craig, M.T. 2010. Pattern versus process: broadening the view of marine invasive species. Marine Biology, Invited Review, 157:2127-2128.

2. Craig, M. T., and B. E. Erisman. 2010. A competitive following association between two reef fishes and the Jewelled Moray in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Coral Reefs, 29(3):813.

3. Craig, M. T., J. E. Eble, and B. W. Bowen. 2010. Origins, ages, and population histories: Comparative phylogeography of endemic Hawaiian butterflyfishes (genus Chaetodon). Journal of Biogeography. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2010.02358.x, Available Early View.

4. Craig, M.T. 2010. The ghost of crises past: A reply to Mooi and Gill. Zootaxa, In Review.

5. J. DiBattista, C. Wilcox, M. T. Craig, L. A. Rocha and B. W. Bowen. 2010. Phylogeography of the Bluelined Surgeonfish, Acanthurus nigroris, reveals high connectivity and a cryptic endemic species in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Journal of Marine Biology, Invited Paper, Accepted pending Revision.

6. Eble, J.E., L.A. Rocha, M. T. Craig, and B. W. Bowen. 2010. Not all larvae stay close to home: Insights into marine population connectivity with a focus on the Brown Surgeonfish. Journal of Marine Biology, Invited Paper, In Press.

7. Erisman, B. E., M. T. Craig, P. A. Hastings. 2010. Reproductive biology of the Panama Graysby, Cephalopholis panamensis (Teleostei; Epinephelidae) from the Gulf of California, Mexico. Journal of Fish Biology. 76:1312-1328.

8. Hoffmann, M. et al. 2010. The impact and shortfall of conservation on the status of the world’s vertebrates.

Science, Accepted pending revision.

9. Craig, M. T. and J. E. Randall. 2009. Briggsia hastingsi, a new genus and species of clingfish from Oman. Zootaxa, 2271:64-68.

10. Craig, M. T., R. T. Graham, , R. A. Torres, J. R. Hyde, M. O. Freitas, B. P. Ferreira, M. Hostim, L. C. Gerhardinger, A. B. Andrade, and D. R. Robertson. 2009. How many species of goliath grouper are there? Cryptic genetic divergence in a threatened marine fish and the resurrection of a geopolitical species. Endangered Species Research. 7:167-174.