My main research interest is evolution of major groups of animals and their genomes.  My favorite animals are marine non-bilaterian taxa, including Porifera (sponges), Cnidaria (corals, jellyfishes), and Ctenophora (comb jellies). It is rarely appreciated that from the phylogenetic perspective each group of these animals forms at least an equal-status taxon to all bilaterian animal (from flatworms to humans) and thus should harbor a large portion of animal genomic diversity that we only now are beginning to explore.