Jaden McCaffrey

Jaden McCaffrey is a master’s student at San Francisco State University. Jaden’s research contributes to the Baseline’s Project, with the overall goal to determine the historical species assemblages of islands in the Galapagos. Human impacts, such as introduction of invasive species and harvesting of endemic species, have led to declines in native biodiversity. Our goal is to determine the vertebrate species assemblage prior to human arrival, to aid in the restoration of islands in the Galapagos.

I am a master’s student at San Francisco State University, my research reconstructs the vertebrate species assemblages of the Galápagos Islands to understand native ecologies prior to anthropogenic disruption. We do this work by collecting subfossils (bones) from lava tunnels (caves) in the Galapagos. Caves act as natural repositories over time and gather evidence of species occurrence. My work focuses on identifying the different species of Darwin’s Finches using comparative anatomy. Darwin’s Finches are a relatively young radiation that has resulted in 14 species rapidly diversifying over the last 1.5 million years. Using measurements taken from museum specimens as reference data, we can predict species identification of subfossils. Statistical analysis has confirmed significant morphological divergence between species, allowing the model to distinguish between robust, seed-crushing specialists and elongated, probing foragers. This biocultural archive provides a critical baseline for restoration ecology, helping to determine which species truly belong in these island ecosystems.