Annalisa Berta

Last updated
Annalisa Berta
Citizenship United States
EducationPh.D.
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Known forcontributions to the fossil history of pinnipeds and cetaceans
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Vertebrate Paleontology, Evolution, Systematics
InstitutionsSan Diego State University (1989-Present)
Thesis  (1979)
Doctoral advisor William A. Clemens, Jr.
Website www.bio.sdsu.edu/faculty/berta.html

Annalisa Berta (born 23 July 1952 [1] ) is an American paleontologist and professor emerita in the Department of Biology at San Diego State University. [2] [3]

The focus of her research is the evolution and fossil history of whales and other marine mammals, and among her contributions is the description of the early pinniped Enaliarctos . [4] [5]

Berta received her Ph.D. from the Department of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1979, after which she was a postdoctoral researcher at University of Florida before starting as a faculty member at San Diego State University in 1989. [6] Berta served as president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in 2004-2006 [7] and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2015. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earless seal</span> Family of mammals

The earless seals, phocids, or true seals are one of the three main groups of mammals within the seal lineage, Pinnipedia. All true seals are members of the family Phocidae. They are sometimes called crawling seals to distinguish them from the fur seals and sea lions of the family Otariidae. Seals live in the oceans of both hemispheres and, with the exception of the more tropical monk seals, are mostly confined to polar, subpolar, and temperate climates. The Baikal seal is the only species of exclusively freshwater seal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinniped</span> Infraorder of mammals

Pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse infraorder of carnivorous, fin-footed, semi-aquatic, and mostly marine mammals. They comprise the extant families Odobenidae, Otariidae, and Phocidae, with 34 extant species and more than 50 extinct species described from fossils. While seals were historically thought to have descended from two ancestral lines, molecular evidence supports them as a monophyletic lineage. Pinnipeds belong to the clade Caniformia of the order Carnivora; their closest living relatives are musteloids, having diverged about 50 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambulocetidae</span> Family of mammals

Ambulocetidae is a family of early cetaceans from Pakistan. The genus Ambulocetus, after which the family is named, is by far the most complete and well-known ambulocetid genus due to the excavation of an 80% complete specimen of Ambulocetus natans. The other two genera in the family, Gandakasia and Himalayacetus, are known only from teeth and mandibular fragments. Retaining large hindlimbs, it was once thought that they could walk on land—indeed, their name means "walking whales"—, but recent research suggests they may have been fully aquatic like modern cetaceans. Though the research has some limits that cast doubt on this conclusion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flipper (anatomy)</span> Flattened limb adapted for propulsion and maneuvering in water

A flipper is a broad, flattened limb adapted for aquatic locomotion. It refers to the fully webbed, swimming appendages of aquatic vertebrates that are not fish.

William McGinnis, Ph.D. is a molecular biologist and professor of biology at the University of California San Diego. At UC San Diego he has also served as the Chairman of the Department of Biology from July 1998 - June 1999, as Associate Dean of the Division of Natural Sciences from July 1, 1999 - June 2000, and as Interim Dean of the newly established Division of Biological Sciences from July 1, 2000 - February 1, 2001. Dr. McGinnis was appointed Dean of the Divisional Biological Sciences on July 1, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science</span> Award and fellowship

Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected annually by the AAAS Council for "efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications [which] are scientifically or socially distinguished".

<i>Enaliarctos</i> Genus of pinniped

Enaliarctos is an extinct genus of pinnipedimorph, and may represent the ancestor to all pinnipeds. Prior to the discovery of Puijila, the five species in the genus Enaliarctos represented the oldest known pinnipedimorph fossils, having been recovered from late Oligocene and early Miocene strata of California and Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ursoidea</span> Superfamily of mammals

Ursoidea is a superfamily of arctoid carnivoran mammals that includes the families Subparictidae, Amphicynodontidae, and Ursidae which the last family includes the extant lineages of bears as well the extinct Hemicyoninae and Ursavinae. The interrelationships of ursoids has had slight arrangements. In the past it was thought the extinct Amphicyonidae were stem-bears based on morphological analysis of the ear region, though the most recent publications on early amphicyonids suggests they were basal caniforms. The amphicynodontids are sometimes classified as either a subfamily of bears, a paraphyletic assemblage of early bears, or even stem-pinnipeds. The subparictids were previously classified as amphicynodontine/ids. The hemicyonines have been occasionally reclassified as a separate family.

<i>Waipatia</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Waipatia is an extinct genus of dolphin from the late Oligocene (Chattian) of New Zealand.

The Astoria Formation is a geologic formation in Washington state & Oregon. It preserves fossils dating back to the early to middle Miocene.

The Yaquina Formation is a geologic formation in Oregon. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene period.

<i>Pontolis</i> Extinct genus of carnivores

Pontolis is an extinct genus of large walrus. It contained three species, P. magnus, P. barroni, and P. kohnoi. Like all pinnipeds, Pontolis was a heavily built amphibious carnivore. Pontolis lived along the Pacific coast of North America along what is now the western coasts of California and Oregon between 11.608 and 5.332 million years ago, during the Miocene and Pliocene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amphicynodontidae</span> Extinct clade of mammals

Amphicynodontidae is a probable clade of extinct arctoids. While some researchers consider this group to be an extinct subfamily of bears, a variety of morphological evidence links amphicynodontines with pinnipeds, as the group were semi-aquatic otter-like mammals. In addition to the support of the pinniped–amphicynodontine clade, other morphological and some molecular analyses support bears being the closest living relatives to pinnipeds. According to McKenna and Bell (1997) Amphicynodontinae are classified as stem-pinnipeds in the superfamily Phocoidea. Fossils of these mammals have been found in Europe, North America and Asia. Amphicynodontines should not be confused with Amphicyonids (bear-dogs), a separate family of Carnivora which is a sister clade to arctoids within the caniforms, but which may be listed as a clade of extinct arctoids in older publications.

Paul David Polly is an American paleontologist and the Robert R. Shrock Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Indiana University as well as the sitting chair of the department.

<i>Alopias palatasi</i> Extinct species of shark

Alopias palatasi, commonly referred to as the serrated giant thresher, is an extinct species of giant thresher shark that lived approximately 20.44 to 13.7 million years ago during the Miocene epoch, and is known for its uniquely serrated teeth. It is only known from such isolated teeth, which are large and can measure up to an excess of 4 centimetres (2 in), equating to a size rivaling the great white shark, but are rare and found in deposits in the East Coast of the United States and Malta. Teeth of A. palatasi are strikingly similar to those of the giant thresher Alopias grandis, and the former has been considered as a variant of the latter in the past. Scientists hypothesized that A. palatasi may have had attained lengths comparable with the great white shark and a body outline similar to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinnipedimorpha</span> Stem-clade of arctoid carnivorans

Pinnipedimorpha is a clade of arctoid carnivorans that is defined to include the last common ancestor of Phoca and Enaliarctos, and all descendants of that ancestor. Scientists still debate on which lineage of arctoid carnivorans are the closest relatives to the pinnipedimorphs, being more closely related to musteloids.

<i>Callorhinus gilmorei</i> Extinct species of pinniped

Callorhinus gilmorei is an extinct species of fur seal that lived in Japan and western North America during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene.

Kawas is an extinct genus of phocid from the Miocene of Argentina. It contains a single species known as Kawas benegasorum.

Nicholas Pyenson is a paleontologist and the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. He is the author of numerous popular science works including the book Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures.

References

  1. Historical Perspectives: Annalisa Berta (Born 23 July 1952), Aquatic Mammals43(5):570–582,2017 | DOI:10.1578/AM.43.5.2017.570.
  2. "Berta, Annalisa". San Diego State University. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  3. "Annalisa Berta, Fellow of AAAS". American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Retrieved 23 July 2018.[ permanent dead link ]
  4. Berta, Annalisa; Sumich, James; Kovacs, Kit (2015). Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology. Academic Press. pp. 1–738. ISBN   9780123970022.
  5. Berta, Annalisa (1989). "Skeleton of the oldest known pinniped, Enaliarctos mealsi". Science. 244 (4900): 60–62. Bibcode:1989Sci...244...60B. doi:10.1126/science.244.4900.60. PMID   17818847. S2CID   29596040.
  6. Berta, Annalisa (1988). "Quaternary Evolution and Biogeography of the Large South American Canidae (Mammalia, Carnivora)". University of California Publications in Geosciences. 132: 1–151. ISBN   9780520099609.
  7. "Past Presidents of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology". Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Archived from the original on 7 June 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  8. "AAAS Members Elected as Fellows". Science. 350 (6264): 1047–1049. 27 Nov 2015. doi: 10.1126/science.350.6264.1047 .