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Education
Postdoctoral Researcher - University of Connecticut, 2017-2018
PhD in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology - Ohio State University, 2011-2017
MS in Biological Sciences - Eastern Kentucky University, 2009-2011
BS in Biology (Zoology) - Ball State University, 2005-2009

Teaching Interests
In the classroom, I'm interested in giving students real opportunities to think like scientists and apply their knowledge to real world problems. Helping students become self-driven learners requires content expertise, understanding student motivations, using effective assessments, and keeping approaches flexible. In my courses, this can look like mapping the genetic basis for a condition of interest or analyzing real genetic data from research studies. I apply these principles to a broad diversity of courses, including genetics, bioinformatics, herpetology, and evolution.

Research Interests
My laboratory group primarily uses genetic data to explore the evolution and conservation of amphibians (frogs and salamanders). This includes both basic research that seeks to understand how amphibians manage their gigantic genomes (11x larger than humans!) and applied research that uses genomics to help conservation organizations protect threatened species. Our research is often highly collaborative and driven by student researchers, combining elements of genomics, phylogenetics, and physiology.

More information can be found at the lab website (dentonlab.org)

Selected Recent Publications

Burger, Isabella J., Michael Itgen, Lynn Tan, Parker Woodward, Linet Rivas-Moreno, Tamyra Hunt, Hailey R. Ready, Xochitl G. Martin Geronimo, Robert D. Denton, and Eric A. Riddell. 2025. “Genome Composition Predicts Physiological Responses to Temperature in Polyploid Salamanders.” The American Naturalist 206 (3): 231–46.

Beimfohr, Caleb, Linet Rivas Moreno, Regan Anderson, Raina Cardwell, Zach Seeman, Ryan Spry, Matthew L. Holding, Audrey Owens, and Robert D. Denton. 2025. “Characterizing Population Structure and Documenting Rapid Loss of Genetic Diversity in Chiricahua Leopard Frogs (Lithobates chiricahuensis) with High Throughput Microsatellite Genotyping.” Conservation Genetics 26 (2): 293–306.

Kosch, Tiffany A., María Torres-Sánchez, H. Christoph Liedtke, Kyle Summers, Maximina H. Yun, Andrew J. Crawford, Simon T. Maddock, et al. 2024. “The Amphibian Genomics Consortium: Advancing Genomic and Genetic Resources for Amphibian Research and Conservation.” BMC Genomics 25 (1): 1025.

Adams, Alexander Nichols, Robert Daniel Denton, and Rachel Lockridge Mueller. 2022. “Gigantic Genomes of Salamanders Indicate That Body Temperature, Not Genome Size, Is the Driver of Global Methylation and 5-Methylcytosine Deamination in Vertebrates.” Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution 76 (5): 1052–61.

Denton, Robert D., Ariadna E. Morales, and H. Lisle Gibbs. 2018. “Genome-Specific Histories of Divergence and Introgression between an Allopolyploid Unisexual Salamander Lineage and Two Ancestral Sexual Species.” Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution 72 (8): 1689–1700.

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