WELCOME!

My name is Dr. Amanda Beckman and I received my PhD from Texas A&M's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program. I am co-advised by Dr. Gil Rosenthal and Dr. Sarah Hamer, and for my dissertation I am studying Wild Turkeys. My research includes studying the genetic structure of Wild Turkeys across North America and the extent of subspecies hybridization using feathers samples collected from researchers and hunters. I also am investigating the genomic impacts of turkey's close association with humans in different contexts. 

If you are interested in assisting my project by donating feathers please see this page for an interactive map of where I have received feathers, and my contact information to join the project.

Updates!

August 2023

I SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED MY DISSERTATION! I'm excited to have all the analyses completed, and I am working on submitting my results for publication in a scientific journal as well as personalized reports to the hunters about the samples they submitted before graduating this December.

August 2022

All of the hunter-collected feather samples have been submitted for genomic sequencing! It will be a few months before I receive data back, and then I will be able to start working on analyses! 

December 2020

I have updated the map on the Wild Turkey Feathers page to include all the feathers collected in 2020. I am going to be spending a lot of time in the lab over the next semester extracting DNA from all the feathers sent to me! I am still interested in collecting feathers from states that are sparsely sampled in 2021, so please get in contact with me if you see any gaps near your upcoming hunting locations

July 2020

I am starting lab work extracting DNA from feathers! I am working on figuring out how many feathers per individual are needed for genomic sequencing.