Office: DHT 510C/SRTC 1097
Email: lilly.parker@ou.edu
Education: Ph.D. George Mason University, 2021
Laboratory: Stephenson Research and Technology 2070
Other Website: http://lmamr.org/
Research Interests
Background
My research focuses on three interconnected areas:
1. Environmental change, mammalian evolution, and biodiversity, including how climatic and geological change, landscape transformation, and human activity shape mammalian diversification, population structure, distribution, and adaptation through time. This work includes research on the evolutionary history and biogeography of cuscuses in Island Southeast Asia and on the responses of Arctic bears and marine ecosystems to Holocene climate change.
2. Human–animal relationships through time, particularly the ways people and other mammals have shaped one another’s histories. My research integrates genomic data with archaeological, ecological, isotopic, historical, and cultural evidence to study human hunting and subsistence, animal translocations, changing species distributions, and long-term relationships between people and wildlife. Current projects focus on ancient polar and brown bears from Unangax̂ cultural sites in the Aleutian Islands and human-mediated cuscus movements and traditional use in Island Southeast Asia.
3. Conservation genomics and the development of genetic tools for rare and difficult-to-study mammals, including methods for recovering genomic information from archaeological, historical, and museum specimens, scat, environmental samples, and other highly degraded sources. I use these approaches to investigate population structure, dispersal, demography, diet, and reintroduction success, with the goal of developing conservation strategies that preserve biodiversity while supporting community priorities, cultural practices, traditional knowledges, and continued relationships between people and wildlife.
Recent/Significant Publications
*student co-author
Parker, L.D., West, C.F., Tatum, K.H.*, Etnier, M., Bethke, B., Reedy, K., Shellikoff, N., & Hofman, C.A. 2025. Polar bears and expanding sea ice in the Mid Holocene Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Scientific Reports 15(1):5767. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88996-0
Parker, L.D., Todd, K.R.*, Nelson, D.L.*, Songsasen, N., Campana, M.G., McShea, W.J., Songer, M., Messerly, T., & Maldonado, J.E. 2025. An Optimised Method to Identify Reintroduced Swift Foxes (Vulpes velox) Through SNP Genotyping of Non-Invasively Collected Scat Samples Using In-Solution Hybridisation Capture. Molecular Ecology Resources e70017. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.70017
Parker, L.D., Campana, M.G., Quinta, J.D.*, Cypher, B., Rivera, I.*, Fleischer, R.C., Ralls, K., Wilbert, T.R., Boarman, R., Boarman, W.I., & Maldonado, J.E. 2022. An efficient method for simultaneous species, individual, and sex identification via in-solution SNP capture from low-quality scat samples. Molecular Ecology Resources 22:1345–1361. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13552
Parker, L.D., Quinta, J.D.*, Rivera, I.*, Cypher, B., Kelly, E.C., Campana, M.G., Fleischer, R.C., Boarman, R., Boarman, W.I., & Maldonado, J.E. 2022. Noninvasive genetic analyses are more sensitive at detecting consumption of threatened Mojave Desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) than morphological inspection. Conservation Science and Practice e12689. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.12689
Parker, L.D., Hawkins, M.T.R., Camacho-Sanchez, M., Campana, M.G., West-Roberts, J.A.*, Wilbert, T.R., Lim, H.C., Rockwood, L.L., Leonard, J.A., & Maldonado, J.E. 2020. Little genetic structure in a Bornean endemic small mammal across a steep ecological gradient. Molecular Ecology 29(21):4074–4090. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15626
McDonough, M.M., Parker, L.D., McInerney, N.R., Campana, M.G., & Maldonado, J.E. 2018. Performance of commonly requested destructive museum samples for mammalian genomic studies. Journal of Mammalogy 99(4):789–802. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyy080
Campana, M.G., Parker, L.D., Hawkins, M.T.R., Woodroffe, R., Maldonado, J.E., Young, H.S., Helgen, K.M., & Fleischer, R.C. 2016. Genome sequence, population history, and pelage genetics of the endangered African wild dog (Lycaon pictus). BMC Genomics 17(1):1013. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-016-3368-9
Classes Taught
