His research focuses on conceptual issues in biology. His work has concentrated on the concepts of innovation and novelty in evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-devo). He is also interested in issues that arise in developmental biology and functional morphology. He uses a combination of approaches to investigate a variety of philosophical questions: conceptual change, explanatory pluralism, the structure of evolutionary theory, reductionism, the nature of historical science, and interdisciplinary epistemology. He has published nearly fifty scholarly articles and edited Conceptual Change in Biology: Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives on Evolution and Development. Boston Studies in Philosophy of Science, 2015.